Tractates on the Gospel of John 104.1–105.8

Before the words we are now about to treat, with the Lord's help, Jesus had said, "These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace." We should take these words as referring not only to what he had said a little earlier, but to everything: either all he said to them from the time he began to have them as disciples, or certainly from the time, after supper, when he began this wonderful and long discourse. For he mentioned this as the reason why he had spoken to them, so that to this end may most rightly be referred either all that he spoke to them, or above all what he said as one now about to die for them, as his last words, after the one who was to betray him had gone out from the holy banquet. For he commended this as the reason for his discourse: that they might have peace in him, for whose sake everything is done that makes us Christians. For this peace will have no end in time, but will itself be the end of all our devout intention and action. For its sake we are imbued with his sacraments; for its sake we are instructed by his wonderful works and words; for its sake we have received the pledge of his Spirit; for its sake we believe and hope in him and are kindled with love of him as far as he grants. By this peace we are consoled in all tribulations; by it we are freed from all tribulations; for its sake we bravely endure every tribulation, so that in it we may reign happily without any tribulation. Rightly did he close with it the words which were proverbs to the disciples, who understood little, but who would understand them when he had given them the promised Holy Spirit, of whom he said above: "These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." This, surely, was to be that hour in which he had promised that he would no longer speak in proverbs but would tell them plainly about the Father. For these same words of his, when the Holy Spirit revealed them, would no longer be proverbs to those who now understood. Nor, when the Holy Spirit spoke in their hearts, would the only-begotten Son be silent, who said that in that hour he would tell them plainly about the Father, which certainly would not be a proverb to those who now understood. But this too, how the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, or rather the Trinity itself which works inseparably, speak together in the hearts of their spiritual ones, is a plain word to those who understand, but a proverb to those who do not.

When, then, he had said why he had spoken all these things, namely so that they might have peace in him while having tribulation in the world, and had exhorted them to take courage because he had overcome the world, he finished the discourse addressed to them, then turned his words to the Father and began to pray. For the evangelist continues: "These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up his eyes to heaven he said: Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son." The Lord, the Only-begotten, coeternal with the Father, could, in the form of a servant and from the form of a servant, have prayed in silence if there had been need; but he wished to show himself to the Father as one who prays in such a way as to remember that he is our teacher. Therefore he made the prayer which he made for us known to us as well; since, coming from so great a master, not only his discourse to the disciples but also his prayer to the Father for them is the disciples' edification. And if it is for the edification of those who were present to hear these words spoken, surely it is also for ours who were to read them written. Therefore his saying, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son," shows that all time, and what he would do or allow to be done and when, was arranged by him who is not subject to time; since things that were to come at their particular times have their efficient causes in the wisdom of God, in which there are no times. So let it not be believed that this hour came under the pressure of fate, but rather by God's ordering. Nor did any necessity of the stars bind Christ to his passion: far be it that the stars should compel the maker of the stars to die. So it was not time that drove Christ to die, but Christ who chose the time to die; he who also, together with the Father, of whom he was born apart from time, fixed the time when he was born of the Virgin. In accordance with this true and sound doctrine, the apostle Paul too says, "But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son"; and God says through the prophet, "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you"; and again the Apostle, "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Let him, then, who with the Father arranged all hours say, "Father, the hour has come"; as if saying: Father, the hour which we together fixed, for men's sake and among men, for my glorification, has come; "glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you."

Some take the Son's being glorified by the Father to consist in this, that he did not spare him but handed him over for us all. But if he is said to be glorified by his passion, how much more by his resurrection! For in the passion his humility rather than his glory is commended, as the Apostle testifies, who says, "He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"; then he continues and now speaks of his glorification: "Therefore God also exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." This is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, which took its beginning from his resurrection. So his humility begins, in the Apostle's words, from the place where he says, "He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant," and reaches as far as "the death of the cross." But his glory begins from the place where he says, "Therefore God also exalted him," and reaches as far as "is in the glory of God the Father." For the very noun too, if one looks at the Greek manuscripts, the language from which the apostolic Epistles were translated into Latin: what is read here as gloria is read there as doxa, from which in Greek the verb was derived so as to say doxason, which the Latin translator renders clarifica, though he could also have said glorifica, which means just as much. And therefore claritas could also be put where gloria is in the Apostle's Epistle, and if this were done, it would mean just as much. But not to depart from the sounds of the words: as clarificatio is derived from claritas, so glorificatio is derived from gloria. In order, then, that the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, might be glorified by the resurrection, he was first humbled by the passion: for he would not have risen from the dead if he had not died. Humility is the merit of glory; glory is the reward of humility. But this was done in the form of a servant; in the form of God there always was and always will be glory; or rather, it was not as if it no longer is, nor will it be as if it is not yet; but without beginning and without end there always is glory. So what he says, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son," is to be understood as if he had said: The hour has come for sowing humility; do not delay the fruit of glory. But what does what follows mean: "that your Son may glorify you"? Did God the Father too endure the humility of the flesh or of suffering, from which he would have to be glorified? How then was the Son to glorify him, whose everlasting glory could neither appear less in the human form nor be greater in the divine? But I do not wish to squeeze this question into this sermon or to make the sermon longer with it.

That the Son was glorified by the Father according to the form of a servant, which the Father raised from the dead and placed at his right hand, the fact itself shows and no Christian doubts. But since he did not only say, "Father, glorify your Son," but also added, "that your Son may glorify you," it is rightly asked how the Son glorified the Father, since the everlasting glory of the Father was neither diminished in the human form nor could be increased in his divine perfection. But in itself the glory of the Father can be neither diminished nor increased; among men, however, it was beyond doubt less when "God was known in Judea" only, when children did not yet "praise the name of the Lord from the rising of the sun to its setting." But because it came about through the gospel of Christ that the Father became known to the nations through the Son, surely the Son too glorified the Father. But if the Son had only died and had not risen, beyond doubt he would neither have been glorified by the Father nor have glorified the Father; but now, glorified by the Father by the resurrection, he glorifies the Father by the preaching of his resurrection. The very order of the words reveals this: "Glorify," he says, "your Son, that your Son may glorify you"; as if he said, Raise me up, that through me you may become known to the whole world.

Then, revealing more and more how the Son glorifies the Father, he says: "As you have given him power over all flesh, that to all that you have given him he may give eternal life." By "all flesh" he meant every man, signifying the whole by a part; just as, conversely, the whole man is signified by the higher part where the Apostle says, "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." For what did he mean by "every soul" but every man? And this, that power over all flesh was given to Christ by the Father, is to be understood according to the man; for according to God "all things were made through him," and "in him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible." "As, then, you have given him power over all flesh," he says, so let your Son glorify you, that is, make you known to all flesh which you have given him. "For you have so given, that to all that you have given him he may give eternal life."

"And this," he says, "is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." The order of the words is: that they may know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent as the only true God. For the Holy Spirit too is understood as following from this, because he is the Spirit of the Father and the Son, as it were the substantial and consubstantial love of both. For the Father and the Son are not two gods, nor are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit three gods; but the Trinity itself is the only true God. Yet the Father is not the same as the Son, nor the Son the same as the Father, nor the Holy Spirit the same as the Father and the Son; since the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three; but the Trinity itself is one God. If, then, the Son glorifies you in the same way as you have given him power over all flesh, and you have so given that to all that you have given him he may give eternal life, and "this is eternal life, that they may know you," then the Son glorifies you by making you known to all whom you have given him. Further, if the knowledge of God is eternal life, the more we advance in this knowledge, the more we tend toward life. But in eternal life we shall not die: then, therefore, the knowledge of God will be perfect, when there will be no death. Then will be God's highest glorification, because then there will be the highest glory, which in Greek is called doxa; hence doxason, which some Latins translated clarifica, others glorifica. By the ancients, the glory by which men are called glorious was defined thus: "Glory is frequent fame about someone with praise." But if a man is praised when report about him is believed, how will God be praised when he himself is seen? Hence it is written, "Blessed are those who dwell in your house; for ever and ever they will praise you." There the praise of God will be without end, where there will be the full knowledge of God; and because it is full knowledge, it is the highest glorification.

But God is first glorified here, as, proclaimed to men, he becomes known and is preached through the faith of believers. Hence he says, "I have glorified you on earth; I have accomplished the work which you gave me to do." He does not say "commanded," but "gave": and in this evident grace is commended. For what does even the human nature in the Only-begotten have that it did not receive? Did it not receive the power to do no evil but to do all things well, when it was taken up into unity of person by the Word, through whom all things were made? But how did he accomplish the work which he received to do, when there still remained the trial of the passion, in which above all he gave his martyrs an example to follow (whence the apostle Peter says, "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps"), except that he says he has accomplished what he most certainly knew he would accomplish? Just as long before, in prophecy, he used words of past time when what he spoke of was to happen many years later: "They dug," he says, "my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones"; he does not say, "They will dig and will number." And in this very Gospel he says, "All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you," to whom he says afterward, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." For he who predestined all future things by certain and unchangeable causes has done whatever he was going to do; for it was said of him through the prophet too, "Who has made the things that are to be."

In accordance with this he also says what follows: "And now glorify me, Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was." For above he had said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you," and by that order of words he had shown that the Son was first to be glorified by the Father, so that the Son might glorify the Father. But now he has said, "I have glorified you on earth; I have accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now glorify me," as if he himself had first glorified the Father, by whom he then asks to be glorified. So we must understand that above he used both verbs according to what was to be, and in the order in which it was to be: "Glorify the Son, that the Son may glorify you"; but that now he used a verb of past time about a future thing, where he says, "I have glorified you on earth; I have accomplished the work which you gave me to do." Then, by saying, "And now glorify me, Father, with yourself," as though he were to be glorified afterward by the Father whom he himself had first glorified, what does he show except that above, where he says, "I have glorified you on earth," he spoke as if he had done what he was going to do; but here he asked the Father to do that through which the Son would do the former, that is, that the Father glorify the Son, the glorification of the Son through which the Son too would glorify the Father? Finally, if for a thing that was future we put a verb of future time too, where he himself put the past for the future, no obscurity of meaning will remain: as if he had said, "I will glorify you on earth, I will accomplish the work which you gave me to do; and now glorify me, Father, with yourself." Surely this is as plain as where he says, "Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you"; and the meaning is altogether the same, except that here the manner of that glorification is stated, while there it is left unsaid; as if the one were explained by the other for those whom it could trouble how the Father would glorify the Son, and especially how the Son too would glorify the Father. For by saying that the Father is glorified by him on earth, but he himself by the Father with the same Father, he surely showed the manner of each glorification. For he glorified the Father on earth by preaching him to the nations; but the Father glorified him with himself by placing him at his right hand. But afterward, concerning the glorifying of the Father, where he says, "I have glorified you," he preferred to use a verb of past time to show that what was most certainly to be was already done in predestination and to be held as already done; that is, that the Son, glorified by the Father with the Father, would glorify the Father on earth.

But he disclosed this predestination more plainly in his own glorification, by which the Father glorified him, in what he added: "with the glory which I had with you before the world was." The order of the words is: which I had with you before the world was. To this applies his saying, "And now glorify me": that is, as then, so now; as then by predestination, so now by accomplishment; do in the world what was already with you before the world; do in its own time what you established before all times. Some have thought this should be understood as though the human nature taken up by the Word were converted into the Word, and the man changed into God; or rather, if we consider more carefully what they have supposed, as though the man perished in God. For no one will say that by such a change of the man the Word of God is either doubled or increased, so that either what was one becomes two, or what was less becomes more. Further, if human nature has been changed and converted into the Word, and the Word of God will be as great as he was and what he was, where is the man, if he has not perished?

But nothing forces us to this opinion, which I see does not agree at all with the truth, if, when the Son says, "And now glorify me, Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was," we understand the predestination of the glory of the human nature which is in him, which was to become immortal from mortal with the Father; and that this had already been done by predestination before the world was, which was to be done in the world also in its own time. For if the Apostle said of us, "As he chose us in him before the foundation of the world," why is it thought to be foreign to the truth that the Father glorified our head then, when he chose us in him to be his members? For we were chosen in the same way as he was glorified; because before the world was, neither did we exist, nor did the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But he who through him, insofar as he is his Word, has made even the things that are to be, and calls the things that are not as though they were, surely glorified him for us before the foundation of the world according to the fact that he is the mediator between God and men, a man, if he then chose us also in him. For what does the Apostle say? "But we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom he predestined he also called."

Unless perhaps we shall be afraid to call him predestined, because the Apostle seems to have said this only of us, that we are made conformed to his image. As if anyone who faithfully considers the rule of faith would deny that the Son of God was predestined, when he cannot deny that he is man. He is rightly said not to have been predestined according to what he is as the Word of God, God with God. For why would he be predestined, since he already was what he was, everlasting, without beginning and without end? But that had to be predestined which did not yet exist, so that it would come to be in its own time, just as it had been predestined before all times to come to be. Whoever, then, denies that the Son of God was predestined denies that this same one is the Son of Man. But because of the contentious, let us hear the Apostle on this point too, at the opening of his letters. For in the first of his Epistles, the one to the Romans, at the very beginning of the Epistle, one reads: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was made for him from the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestined Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead." According to this predestination, then, he was also glorified before the world was, so that his glory, from the resurrection of the dead, might be with the Father, at whose right hand he sits. So when he saw that the time of that predestined glorification of his had now come, so that what had already been done in predestination might now also be done in its fulfillment, he prayed, saying, "And now glorify me, Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was"; as if he said: The glory which I had with you, that is, the glory which I had with you in your predestination, it is time that I should have with you, living also at your right hand. But since the discussion of this question has held us long, what follows must be treated in another sermon.