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1. OF the holy Gospel according to John, which you see in our
hand, your Charity has already heard much, whereon by God's grace
we have discoursed according to our ability, pressing on your notice
that this evangelist, specially, has chosen to speak of the Lord's
divinity, wherein He is equal with the Father and the only Son of
God; and on that account he has been compared to the eagle, because
no other bird is understood to take a loftier flight. Accordingly, to
what follows in order, as the Lord enables us to treat of it, listen
with all your attention.
2. We have spoken to you on the preceding passage, suggesting how
the Father may be understood as True, and the Son as the Truth.
But when the Lord Jesus said, "He that sent me is true," the
Jews understood not that He spoke to them of the Father. And He
said to them, as you have just heard in the reading, "When ye have
lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am, and [that]
I do nothing of myself; but as the Father hath taught me, I speak
these things." What means this? For it looks as if all He said
was, that they would know who He was after His passion. Without
doubt, therefore, He saw that some there, whom He Himself knew,
whom with the rest of His saints He Himself in His foreknowledge had
chosen before the foundation of the world, would believe after His
passion. These are the very persons whom we are constantly
commending, and with much entreaty setting forth for your imitation.
For on the sending down of the Holy Spirit after the Lord's
passion, and resurrection, and ascension, when miracles were being
done in the name of Him whom, as if dead, the persecuting Jews had
despised, they were pricked in their hearts; and they who in their
rage slew Him were changed and believed; and they who in their rage
shed His blood, now in the spirit of faith drank it; to wit, those
three thousand, and those five thousand Jews whom now He saw there,
when He said, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall
ye know that I am ." It was as if He had said, I let your
recognition lie over till I have completed my passion: in your own
order ye shall know who I am. Not that all who heard Him were only
then to believe, that is, after the Lord's passion; for a little
after it is said, "As He spoke these words, many believed, on
Him;" and the Son of man was not yet lifted up. But the lifting up
He is speaking of is that of His passion, not of His glorification;
of the cross, not of heaven; for He was exalted there also when He
hung on the tree. But that exaltation was His humiliation; for then
He became obedient even to the death of the cross. This required to
be accomplished by the hands of those who should afterwards believe,
and to whom He says, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then
shall ye know that I am ." And why so, but that no one might
despair, however guilty his conscience, when he saw those forgiven
their homicide who had slain the Christ?
3. The Lord then, recognizing such in that crowd, said, "When
ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am ."
You know already what "I am" signifies; and we must not be
continually repeating, lest so great a subject beget distaste. Recall
that, "I am who am," and "He who is hath sent me," and you will
recognize the meaning of the words, "Then shall ye know that I
am." But both the Father is, and the Holy Spirit is. To the
same is belongs the whole Trinity. But because the Lord spoke as the
Son, in order that, when He says, "Then shall ye know that I
am," there might be no chance of entrance for the error of the
Sabellians, that is, of the Patripassians, an error which I have
charged you not to hold, but to beware of, the error, I mean, of
those who have said, The Father and Son are one and the same; two
names, but one reality; to guard them against that error, when the
Lord said, "Then shall ye know that I am," that He might not be
understood as Himself the Father, He immediately added, "And I
do nothing of myself; but as my Father taught me, I speak these
things." Already was the Sabellian beginning to rejoice over the
discovery of a ground for his error; but immediately on showing himself
as it were in the shade, he was confounded by the light of the
following sentence. Thou thoughtest that He was the Father, because
He said, "I am." Hear now that He is the Son: "And I do
nothing of myself." What means this, "I do nothing of myself"?
Of myself I am not. For the Son is God, of the Father; but the
Father is God, yet not of the Son. The Son is God of God, and
the Father is God, but not of God. The Son is light of light;
and the Father is light, but not of light. The Son is, but there
is [One] of whom He is; and the Father is, but there is none of
whom He is.
4. Let not then, my brethren, His further words, "As my Father
hath taught me, I speak these things," be the occasion of any carnal
thought stealing into your minds. For human weakness cannot think,
but as it is accustomed to act and to hear. Do not then set before
your eyes as it were two men, one the father, the other the son, and
the father speaking to the son; as any one of you may do, when you say
something to your son, admonishing and instructing him how to speak,
to charge his memory with what you have told him, and, having done
so, to express it in words, to enunciate distinctly, and convey to
the ears of others what he has apprehended with his own. Think not
thus, lest you be fabricating idols in your heart. The human shape,
the outlines of human limbs, the form of human flesh, the outward
senses, stature and motions of the body, the functions of the tongue,
the distinctions of sounds, think not of such as existing in that
Trinity, save as they pertain to the servant-form, which the
only-begotten Son assumed, when the Word was made flesh to dwell
among us. Thereof I forbid thee not, human weakness, to think
according to thy knowledge: nay, rather I require thee. If the
faith that is in thee be true, think of Christ as such; but as such
of the Virgin Mary, not of God the Father. He was an infant, He
grew as a man, He walked as a man, He hungered, He thirsted as a
man, He slept as a man; at last He suffered as a man, hung on the
tree, was slain and buried as a man. In the same form He rose
again; in the same, before the eyes of His disciples, He ascended
into heaven; in the same will He yet come to judgment. For angel
lips have declared in the Gospel, "He shall so come in like manner
as ye have seen Him go into heaven." When then you think of the
servant-form in Christ, think of a human likeness, if you have
faith; but when you think, "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God," away with all human
fashioning from your heart. Banish from your thoughts everything
bounded by corporeal limits, included in local measurement, or spread
out in a mass, how great soever its size. Perish utterly such a
figment from your heart. Think, if you can, on the beauty of
wisdom, picture to yourself the beauty of righteousness. Has that a
shape? a size? a color? It has none of these, and yet it is; for
if it were not, it would neither be loved nor worthy of praise, nor be
cherished in our heart and life as an object of honor and affection.
But men here become wise; and whence would they so, had wisdom no
existence? And further, O man, if thou canst not see thine own
wisdom with the eyes of the flesh, nor think of it by the same mental
imagery as thou canst of bodily things, wilt thou dare to thrust the
shape of a human body on the wisdom of God?
5. What shall we say then, brethren? How spoke the Father to the
Son, seeing that the Son says, "As the Father taught me, I
speak these things"? Did He speak to Him? When the Father taught
the Son, did He use words, as you do when you teach your son? How
could He use words to the Word! What words, many in number, could
be used to the one Word? Did the Word of the Father approach His
ears to the Father's mouth? Such things are carnal: banish them
from your hearts. For this I say, if only you have understood my
words, I certainly have spoken and my words have sounded, and by
their sound have reached your ears, and through your sense of hearing
have carried their meaning to your mind, if so be you have understood.
Suppose that some person of Latin speech has heard, but has only
heard without understanding, what I have said. As regards the noise
issuing from my mouth, he who has understood not has been a sharer
therein just like yourselves. He has heard that sound; the same
syllables have smote on his ears, but they have produced no effect on
his mind. Why? Because he understood not. But if you have
understood, whence comes your understanding? My words have sounded in
the ear: have I kindled any light in the heart? Without doubt, if
what I have said is true, and this truth you have not only heard, but
also understood, two things have there been wrought (distinguish
between them), hearing and intelligence. Hearing has been wrought by
me, but by whom has understanding? I have spoken to the ear, that
you might hear; who has spoken to your heart for understanding?
Doubtless some one has also said something to your heart, that not
only the noise of words might strike your ear, but something also of
the truth might descend into your heart. Some one has spoken also to
your heart, but you do not see him. If, brethren, you have
understood, your heart also has been spoken to. Intelligence is the
gift of God. And who, if you have understood, has spoken so in your
heart, but He to whom the Psalm says, "Give me understanding,
that I may learn Thy commandments?" For example, the bishop has
spoken. What has he said? some one asks. You repeat what he has
spoken, and add, He has said the truth. Then another, who has not
understood, says, What has he said, or what is it you are praising?
Both have heard me; I have spoken to both; but to one of them God
has spoken. If we may compare small things with great (for what are
we to Him?), something, I know not what, of an incorporeal and
spiritual kind God works in us, which is neither sound to strike the
ear, nor color to be discerned by the eyes, nor smell to enter the
nostrils, nor taste to be judged of by the mouth, nor anything hard or
soft to be sensible to the touch; yet something there is which it is
easy to feel, impossible to explain. If then God, as I was
saying, speaks in our hearts without sound, how speaks He to His
Son? Thus then, brethren, think thus as much as you can, if, as
I have said, we may in some measure compare small things with great:
think thus. In an incorporeal way the Father spoke to the Son,
because in an incorporeal way the Father begot the Son. Nor did He
so teach Him as if He had begotten Him untaught; but to have taught
Him is the same as to have begotten Him full of knowledge; and this,
"The Father hath taught me," is the same as, The Father hath
begotten me already knowing. For if, as few understand, the nature
of the Truth is simple, to be is to the Son the same as to know.
From Him therefore He has knowledge, from whom He has being. Not
that from Him He had first being, and afterwards knowledge; but as
in begetting He gave Him to be, so in begetting He gave Him to
know; for, as was said, to the simple nature of the Truth, being is
not one thing and knowing another, but one and the same.
6. Thus then He spoke to the Jews, and added, "And He that
sent me is with me." He had already said this also before, but of
this important point He is constantly reminding them, "He sent
me," and "He is with me." If then, O Lord, He is with
Thee, not so much hath the One been sent by the other, but ye Both
have come. And yet, while Both are together, One was sent, the
Other was the sender; for incarnation is a sending, and the
incarnation itself belongs only to the Son and not to the Father.
The Father therefore sent the Son, but did not withdraw from the
Son. For it was not that the Father was absent from the place to
which He sent the Son. For where is not the Maker of all things?
Where is He not, who said, "I fill heaven and earth"? But
perhaps the Father is everywhere, and the Son not so? Listen to the
evangelist: "He was in this world, and the world was made by
Him." Therefore said He, "He that sent me," by whose power as
Father I am incarnate, "is with me, hath not left me." Why hath
He not left me? "He hath not left me," He says, "alone; for I
do always those things that please Him." That equality exists
always; not from a certain beginning, and then onwards; but without
beginning, without end. For Divine generation has no beginning in
time, since time itself was created by the Only-begotten.
7. "As He spoke these words, many believed on Him." Would
that, while I speak also, many, who before this were otherwise
disposed, understood and believed on Him! For perhaps there are some
Arians in this large assembly. I dare not suspect that there are any
Sabellians, who say that the Father Himself is one with the Son,
seeing that heresy is too old, and has been gradually eviscerated.
But that of the Arians seems still to have some movement about it,
like that of a putrefying carcase, or certainly, at the most, like a
man at the last gasp; and from this some still require deliverance,
just as from that other many were delivered. This province, indeed,
did not use to have such; but ever since the arrival of many
foreigners, some of these have also found their way to our
neighborhood. See then, while the Lord spoke these words, many
Jews believed on Him. May I see also that, while I am speaking,
Arians are believing, not on me, but with me!
8. "Then said the Lord to those Jews who believed on Him, If ye
continue in my word." "Continue," I say, for you are now
initiated and have begun to be there. "If ye continue," that is,
in the faith which is now begun in you who believe, to what will you
attain? See the nature of the beginning, and whither it leads. You
have loved the foundation, give heed to the summit, and out of this
low condition seek that other elevation. For faith has humility, but
knowledge and immortality and eternity possess not lowliness, but
loftiness; that is, upraising, all-sufficiency, eternal stability,
full freedom from hostile assault, from fear of failure. That which
has its beginning in faith is great, but is despised. In a building
also the foundation is usually of little account with the unskilled. A
large trench is made, and stones are thrown in every way and
everywhere. No embellishment, no beauty are apparent there; just as
also in the root of a tree there is no appearance of beauty. And yet
all that delights you in the tree has sprung from the root. You look
at the root and feel no delight: you look at the tree and admire it.
Foolish man! what you admire has grown out of that which gave you no
delight. The faith of believers seems a thing of little value, you
have no scales to weigh it. Hear then to what it attains, and see its
greatness: as the Lord Himself says in another place, "If ye have
faith as a grain of mustard seed." What is there of less account than
that, yet what is there pervaded with greater energy? What more
minute, yet what more fervidly expansive? And so "ye" also, He
says, "if ye continue in my word," wherein ye have believed, to
what will ye be brought? "ye shall be my disciples indeed." And
what does that benefit us? "and ye shall know the truth."
9. What, brethren, does He promise believers? "And ye shall
know the truth." Why so? Had they not come to such knowledge when
the Lord was speaking? If they had not, how did they believe? They
believed, not because they knew, but that they might come to know.
For we believe in order that we may know, we do not know in order that
we may believe. For what we shall yet know, neither eye hath seen,
nor ear heard, nor hath it entered the heart of man. For what is
faith, but believing what you see not? Faith then is to believe what
you see not; truth, to see what you have believed, as He Himself
saith in a certain place. The Lord then walked on earth, first of
all, for the creation of faith. He was man, He was made in a low
condition. He was seen by all, but not by all was He known. By
many was He rejected, by the multitude was He slain, by few was He
mourned; and yet even by those who mourned Him, His true being was
still unrecognized. All this is the beginning as it were of faith's
lineaments and future up-building. As the Lord, referring thereto,
saith in a certain place, "He that loveth me keepeth my
commandments; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and
I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." They certainly
already saw the person to whom they were listening; and yet to them,
if they loved Him, does He give it as a promise that they should see
Him. So also here, "Ye shall know the truth." How so? Is that
not the truth which Thou hast been speaking? The truth it is, but as
yet it is only believed, not beheld. If you abide in that which is
believed, you shall attain to that which is seen. Hence John
himself, the holy evangelist, says in his epistle, "Dearly
beloved, we are the sons of God; but it is not yet apparent what we
shall be." We are so already, and something we shall be. What more
shall we be than we are? Listen: "It is not yet apparent what we
shall be: [but] we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be
like Him." How? "For we shall see Him as He is." A great
promise, but the reward of faith. You seek the reward; then let the
work precede. If you believe, ask for the reward of faith; but if
you believe not, with what face can you seek the reward of faith?
"If" then "ye continue in my word, ye shall be my disciples
indeed," that ye may behold the very truth as it is, not through
sounding words, but in dazzling light, wherewith He shall satisfy
us: as we read in the psalm, "The light of Thy countenance is
impressed upon us." We are God's money: we have wandered away as
coin from the treasury. The impression that was stamped upon us has
been rubbed out by our wandering. He has come to refashion, for He
it was that fashioned us at first; and He is Himself asking for His
money, as Caesar for his. Therefore He says, "Render unto
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that
are God's:" to Caesar his money, to God yourselves. And then
shall the truth be reproduced in us.
10. What shall I say to your Charity? Oh that our hearts were in
some measure aspiring after that ineffable glory! Oh that we were
passing our pilgrimage in sighs, and loving not the world, and
continually pushing onwards with pious minds to Him who hath called
us! Longing is the very bosom of the heart. We shall attain, if
with all our power we give way to our longing. Such in our behalf is
the object of the divine Scriptures, of the assembling of the people,
of the celebration of the sacraments, of holy baptism, of singing
God's praise, and of this our own exposition, that this longing may
not only be implanted and germinate, but also expand to such a measure
of capacity as to be fit to take in what eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man. But love with me. He
who loves God is not much in love with money, And I have but touched
on this infirmity, not venturing to say, He loves not money at all,
but, He loves not money much; as if money were to be loved, but not
in a great degree. Oh, were we loving God worthily, we should have
no love at all for money! Money then will be thy means of pilgrimage,
not the stimulant of lust; something to use for necessity, not to joy
over as a means of delight. Love God, if He has wrought in thee
somewhat of that which thou hearest and praisest. Use the world: let
not the world hold thee captive. Thou art passing on the journey thou
hast begun; thou hast come, again to depart, not to abide.
Thou art passing on thy journey, and this life is but a wayside inn.
Use money as the traveller at an inn uses table, cup, pitcher, and
couch, with the purpose not of remaining, but of leaving them behind.
If such you would be, you, who can stir up your hearts and hear me;
if such you would be, you will attain to His promises. It is not too
much for your strength, for mighty is the hand of Him who hath called
you. He hath called you. Call upon Him, say to Him, Thou hast
called us, we call upon Thee; see, we have heard Thee calling us,
hear us calling upon Thee: lead us whither Thou hast promised;
perfect what Thou hast begun; forsake not Thine own gifts; leave not
Thine own field; let Thy tender shoots yet be gathered into Thy
barn. Temptations abound in the world, but greater is He who made
the world. Temptations abound, but he fails not whose hope reposes in
Him in whom there is no deficiency.
11. I have been exhorting you, brethren, to this in such words,
because the freedom of which our Lord Jesus Christ speaks belongs not
to this present time. Look at what He added: "Ye shall be my
disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set
you free." What means that "shall set you free"? It shall make
you freemen. In a word, the carnal, and fleshly-minded Jews not
those who had believed, but those in the crowd who believed not thought
that an injury was done them, because He said to them, "The truth
shall make you free." They were indignant at being designated as
slaves. And slaves truly they were; and He explains to them what
slavery it is, and what is that future freedom which is promised by
Himself. But of this liberty and of that slavery it were too long to
speak today.
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