Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John 76
76.1 Chapter XIV. 22–24 PL 35, 1831
1. While the disciples thus question, and Jesus their Master replies to them, we also, as it were, are learning along with them, when we either read or listen to the holy Gospel. Accordingly, because the Lord had said, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye shall see me,” Judas—not indeed His betrayer, who was surnamed Iscariot, but he whose epistle is read among the canonical Scriptures—asked Him of this very matter: “Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” Let us, too, be as it were questioning disciples with them, and listen to our common Master. For Judas the holy, not the impure, the follower, but not the persecutor of the Lord, has inquired the reason why Jesus was to manifest Himself to His own, and not to the world; why it was that yet a little while, and the world should not see Him, but they should see Him.
Interrogantibus discipulis et eis magistro respondente Jesu, etiam nos tanquam cum illis discimus, quando sanctum Evangelium vel legimus vel audimus. Quia ergo dixerat Dominus, Adhuc modicum, et mundus me jam non videt, vos autem videbitis me; interrogavit eum de hoc ipso Judas, non ille traditor ejus qui Iscariotes cognominatus est, sed cujus Epistola inter Scripturas canonicas legitur: Domine, quid factum est, quia nobis manifestaturus es teipsum, et non mundo? Simus cum ipsis tanquam interrogantes discipuli, communemque magistrum audiamus et nos. Judas enim sanctus, non immundus, nec insectator Domini, sed sectator, causam quaesivit quare se non mundo, sed suis manifestaturus esset Jesus; quare adhuc modicum et mundus non videret eum, ipsi autem viderent eum.
76.2 PL 35, 1831
2. “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.” Here we have set forth the reason why He is to manifest Himself to His own, and not to that other class whom He distinguishes by the name of the world; and such is the reason also why the one loveth Him, and the other loveth Him not. It is the very reason, whereof it is declared in the sacred psalm, “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an unholy nation.” For such as love are chosen, because they love: but those who have not love, though they speak with the tongues of men and angels, are become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; and though they had the gift of prophecy, and knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and had all faith so that they could remove mountains, they are nothing; and though they distributed all their substance, and gave their body to be burnt, it profiteth them nothing. The saints are distinguished from the world by that love which maketh the one-minded to dwell [together] in a house. In this house Father and Son make their abode, and impart that very love to those whom They shall also honor at last with this promised self manifestation; of which the disciple questioned his Master, that not only those who then listened might learn it from His own lips, but we also from his Gospel. For he had made inquiry about the manifestation of Christ, and heard [in reply] about His loving and abiding. There is therefore a kind of inward manifestation of God, which is entirely unknown to the ungodly, who receive no manifestation of God the Father and the Holy Spirit: of the Son, indeed, there might have been such, but only in the flesh; and that, too, neither of the same kind as the other, nor able under any form to remain with them, save only for a little while; and even that, for judgment, not for rejoicing; for punishment, not for reward.
Respondit Jesus, et dixit ei: Si quis diligit me, sermonem meum servabit: et Pater meus diliget eum, et ad eum veniemus, et mansionem apud eum faciemus. Qui non diligit me, sermones meos non servat. Ecce exposita est causa quare se suis manifestaturus est, non alienis, quos mundi nomine appellat; et ipsa est causa quod hi diligant, illi non diligant. Ipsa causa est de qua sacer insonat Psalmus, Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta . Qui enim diligunt, quia diligunt, eliguntur: qui vero non diligunt, si linguis hominum loquantur et Angelorum, fiunt aeramentum sonans et cymbalum tinniens; et si habuerint prophetiam, et scierint omnia sacramenta, et omnem scientiam, et habuerint omnem fidem ut montes transferant, nihil sunt; et si distribuerint omnem substantiam suam, et tradiderint corpus suum ut ardeant, nihil eis prodest . Dilectio sanctos discernit a mundo, quae facit unanimes habitare in domo . In qua domo facit Pater et Filius mansionem; qui donant et ipsam dilectionem, quibus donent in fine etiam ipsam suam manifestationem: de qua discipulus magistrum interrogavit, ut non solum illi qui tunc audiebant per os ejus, sed etiam nos per Evangelium ejus hoc nosse possemus. Quaesierat enim de Christi manifestatione, et audivit de dilectione atque mansione. Est ergo quaedam Dei manifestatio interior, quam prorsus impii non noverunt, quibus Dei Patris et Spiritus sancti manifestatio nulla est: Filii vero potuit esse, sed in carne; quae nec talis est qualis illa, nec semper illis adesse potest qualiscumque sit, sed ad modicum tempus; et hoc ad judicium, non ad gaudium; ad supplicium, non ad praemium.
76.3 PL 35, 1831
3. We have now, therefore, to understand, so far as He is pleased to unfold it, the meaning of the words, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye shall see me.” It is true, indeed, that after a little while He was to withdraw even His body, in which the ungodly also were able to see Him, from their sight; for none of them saw Him after His resurrection. But since it was declared on the testimony of angels, “He shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven;” and our faith stands to this, that He will come in the same body to judge the living and the dead; there can be no doubt that He will then be seen by the world, meaning by the name, those who are aliens from His kingdom. And, on this account, it is far better to understand Him as having intended to refer at once to that epoch, when He said, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more,” when in the end of the world He shall be taken away from the sight of the damned, that for the future He may be seen only of those with whom, as those that love Him, the Father and Himself are making their abode. But He said, “a little while,” because that which appears tedious to men is very brief in the sight of God: for of this same “little while” our evangelist, John, himself says, “Little children, it is the last time.”
Nunc est ergo ut intelligamus, quantum aperire ipse dignatur, quomodo dictum sit, Adhuc modicum, et mundus me jam non videt, vos autem videbitis me. Verum est quidem quod post paululum etiam corpus suum in quo poterant eum et impii videre, oculis eorum fuerat subtracturus; quandoquidem post resurrectionem nemo illorum vidit eum. Sed quoniam dictum est testantibus Angelis, Sic veniet quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in coelum ; nec aliud credimus quam eum in eodem corpore ad judicium vivorum et mortuorum esse venturum: procul dubio tunc eum videbit mundus, quo nomine significati sunt a regno ejus alieni. Ac per hoc longe melius intelligitur jam illud tempus significare voluisse, in eo quod ait, Adhuc modicum, et mundus me jam non videt, quando in fine saeculi auferetur ab oculis damnatorum, ut illi eum de caetero videant, apud quos diligentes eum facit Pater atque ipse mansionem. Modicum autem dixit, quia et id quod prolixum videtur hominibus, brevissimum est ante oculos Dei: de hoc quippe modico iste ipse Joannes evangelista, Filioli, inquit, novissima hora est .
76.4 PL 35, 1832
4. But further, lest any should imagine that the Father and Son only, without the Holy Spirit, make their abode with those that love Them, let him recall what was said above of the Holy Spirit, “Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye shall know Him; for He shall dwell with you, and shall be in you” (ver. 17). Here you see that, along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit also taketh up His abode in the saints; that is to say, within them, as God in His temple. The triune God, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, come to us while we are coming to Them: They come with help, we come with obedience; They come to enlighten, we to behold; They come to fill, we to contain: that our vision of Them may not be external, but inward; and Their abiding in us may not be transitory, but eternal. The Son doth not manifest Himself in such a way as this to the world: for the world is spoken of in the passage before us as those, of whom He immediately adds, “He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.” These are such as never see the Father and the Holy Spirit: and see the Son for a little while, not to their attainment of bliss, but to their condemnation; and even Him, not in the form of God, wherein He is equally invisible with the Father and the Holy Spirit, but in human form, in which it was His will to be an object of contempt in suffering, but of terror in judging the world.
Ne quis porro existimet Patrem tantummodo et Filium sine Spiritu sancto apud dilectores suos facere mansionem, recolat quod superius de Spiritu sancto dictum est, Quem mundus non potest accipere, quia non videt eum, nec scit eum: vos autem cognoscetis eum, quia apud vos manebit, et in vobis erit . Ecce facit in sanctis cum Patre et Filio sanctus etiam Spiritus mansionem; intus utique, tanquam Deus in templo suo. Deus Trinitas, Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, veniunt ad nos, dum venimus ad eos: veniunt subveniendo, venimus obediendo; veniunt illuminando, venimus intuendo; veniunt implendo, venimus capiendo: ut sit nobis eorum non extraria visio, sed interna; et in nobis eorum non transitoria mansio, sed aeterna. Sic mundo non se Filius manifestat: mundus enim dictus est hoc loco, de quibus continuo subjunxit, Qui non diligit me, sermones meos non servat. Hi sunt qui Patrem et Spiritum sanctum nunquam vident: Filium autem non ut beatificentur, sed ut judicentur, ad modicum vident; nec ipsum in forma Dei, ubi est cum Patre et Spiritu sancto pariter invisibilis; sed in forma hominis, ubi esse voluit mundo patiendo contemptibilis, judicando terribilis.
76.5 PL 35, 1832
5. But when He added, “And the saying which ye have heard is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me,” let us not be filled with wonder or fear: He is not inferior to the Father, and yet He is not, save of the Father: He is not unequal in Himself, but He is not of Himself. For it was no false word He uttered when He said, “He that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings.” He called them, you see, His own sayings; does He, then, contradict Himself when He said again, “And the saying which ye have heard is not mine”? And, perhaps, it was on account of some intended distinction that, when He said His own, He used “sayings” in the plural; but when He said that “the saying,” that is, the Word, was not His own, but the Father’s, He wished it to be understood of Himself. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. For as the Word, He is certainly not His own, but the Father’s: just as He is not His own image, but the Father’s; and is not Himself His own Son, but the Father’s. Rightly, therefore, does He attribute whatever He does, as equal, to the Author of all, of whom He has this very prerogative, that He is in all respects His equal.
Quod vero adjunxit, Et sermo quem audistis non est meus, sed ejus qui misit me, Patris; non miremur, non paveamus: non est minor Patre, sed non est nisi a Patre; non est impar ipso, sed non est a seipso. Neque enim mentitus est dicendo, Qui non diligit me, sermones meos non servat. Ecce suos dixit esse sermones; numquid sibi ipse est contrarius, ubi rursus dixit, Et sermo quem audistis non est meus? Et fortasse propter aliquam distinctionem, ubi suos dixit, dixit pluraliter, hoc est sermones; ubi autem sermonem, hoc est Verbum, non suum dixit esse, sed Patris, seipsum intelligi voluit. In principio enim erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum . Non utique suum, sed Patris est Verbum: quomodo nec sua imago, sed Patris; nec suus Filius idem ipse, sed Patris. Recte igitur tribuit auctori quidquid facit aequalis, a quo habet hoc ipsum quod illi est indifferenter aequalis.