John
Calvin (1509-1564) is best known as a distinguished theologian and leading
Protestant Reformer. However, it must be remembered that he functioned
first and foremost as a pastor to the congregation of believers
at Geneva for 25 years, and at Strasbourg for a brief interlude of 3
years. The esteemed Calvin scholar Jean-Daniel Benoit had the following
to say about Calvin's pastoral ministry,
The work of Calvin
is immense and varied. Theologian, churchman, organizer of Protestantism
in France, founder of the Academy of Geneva, public lecturer, Bible
commentator, preacher at Saint Peter's; Calvin was all of these.
But to forget or to neglect the fact that Calvin was essentially and
above all a pastor would be to misunderstand precisely that aspect of
his personality which discloses the essential unity of his work, and
to overlook the deep source of those waters which fecundate the entire
field of his activity. In fact, theologian though he was, Calvin was
even more a pastor of souls. More exactly, theology was for him the
servant of piety and never a science sufficient unto itself. His thought
is always directed towards life; always he descends from principles
to the practical application; always his pastoral concern occurs. [Jean-Daniel
Benoit, "Pastoral Care of the Prophet", from John Calvin Contemporary
Prophet. 450th Anniversary Volume celebrating the birth
of John Calvin. Edited by Jacob T. Hoogstra (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
book House, 1959), 51.]
This consolatory letter, written
by Calvin to Monsieur de Richebourg, shows the caring heart of the young
minister of the gospel. Calvin was only thirty-one years old at the
time he penned this letter, and he was away on an important mission
to Ratisbon, Germany where he represented the city of Strasbourg at
an ecclesiastical gathering. Two deceased men are mentioned in Calvin's
benevolent letter; (1) Louis, the young son of Monsieur de Richebourg,
and (2) Claude Ferey, the distinguished Professor at the Academy
of Strasbourg and Louis's personal tutor. Sadly, both men were carried
away by the Plague that swept through Strasbourg with deadly consequences
in April, 1541. Calvin writes,
The son whom the
Lord had lent you for a season, he has taken away. There is no
ground, therefore, for those silly and wicked complaints of foolish
men: O blind death! O horrid fate! O implacable daughters of destiny!
O cruel fortune! The Lord who had lodged him here for a season, at this
stage of his career has called him away. What the Lord has done, we
must, at the same time, consider has not been done rashly, nor by chance,
neither from having been impelled from without; but by that determinate
counsel, whereby he not only foresees, decrees, and executes nothing
but what is just and upright in itself, but also nothing but what is
good and wholesome for us . . .
In what regards
your son, if you bethink how difficult it is, in this most deplorable
of ages, to maintain an upright course through life, you will judge
him to be blessed, who, before encountering so many coming dangers which
were already hovering over him, and to be encountered in his day and
generation, was so early delivered from them all. He is like one who
has set sail upon a stormy and tempestuous sea, and before he has been
carried out into the deeps, gets in safety to the secure haven . . .
But what advantage,
you will say, is it to me to have had a son of so much promise, since
he has been torn away from me in the first flower of his youth? As if,
forsooth, Christ had not merited, by his death, the supreme dominion
over the living and the dead . . . However brief, therefore, either in
your opinion or in mine, the life of your son may have been, it ought
to satisfy us that he has finished the course which the Lord had marked
out for him. Moreover, we may not reckon him to have perished in the
flower of his age, who had grown ripe in the sight of the Lord . . . Nor
can you consider to have lost him, whom you will recover in the blessed
resurrection in the kingdom of God.
Neither do I insist
upon your laying aside all grief. Nor, in the school of Christ, do we
learn any such philosophy as requires us to put off that common humanity
with which God has endowed us . . . set bonds, temper even your most reasonable
sadness; that having shed those tears which were due to nature and to
fatherly affection, you by no means give way to senseless wailing . . . May
Christ the Lord keep you and your family, and direct you all with his
own Spirit, until you may arrive where Louis and Claude have gone before . . .
Here we have an open window
into the heart of John Calvin. And surprisingly, for some skeptical
readers, it reveals a heart that is warm and tender towards those who
suffer through the trials of life rather than one which is cold and
hard. It is the heart of a true shepherd and pastor to his people. May
we learn from Calvin's compassionate example.
__________
The full text of Calvin's
letter can be found in: Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and
Letters (vol. 4). Edited by Jules Bonnet, translated by David Constable
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, reprint 1983), 246-253.
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