Tractates on the Gospel of John 12.1–13.1

From the fact that yesterday we roused your Charity's attention, we see that you have gathered more eagerly and in greater numbers. But meanwhile, if you please, let us pay the sermon we owe on the Gospel reading in its order; afterward your Charity will hear about the peace of the Church, both what we have done and what we hope still to do. Now, then, let the whole attention of your heart be turned to the Gospel; let no one think of anything else. For if one who is wholly present barely takes it in, does not one who divides himself among various thoughts pour out even what he had taken in? Now your Charity remembers that last Lord's day, as far as the Lord deigned to help us, we discoursed on spiritual regeneration; and we have had that reading read to you again, so that what was not said then we may now complete in Christ's name, with the help of your prayers.

Spiritual regeneration is one, just as carnal generation is one. And what Nicodemus said to the Lord was true: that a man cannot, when he is old, return again into his mother's womb and be born. He said that a man cannot do this when he is old, as though he could if he were an infant. But he cannot at all, whether fresh from the womb or already advanced in years, return again into his mother's body and be born. But just as for carnal birth a woman's body serves to give birth once, so for spiritual birth the body of the Church serves for each to be baptized once. Therefore, in case anyone should say, “But this man was born in heresy, and that one was born in schism”: all such talk has been cut off, if you remember what was discussed with you about our three fathers, whose God he willed to be called, not because they were the only ones, but because in them alone the figure of the people to come was completely expressed. For we find one born of a slave woman disinherited, one born of a free woman an heir; again, we find one born of a free woman disinherited, those born of slave women heirs. Ishmael, born of a slave woman, disinherited; Isaac, born of a free woman, heir; Esau, born of a free woman, disinherited; the sons of Jacob, born of slave women, heirs. So in those three fathers the figure of the whole people to come is seen; and not without reason God says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: this,” he says, “is my name forever.” Let us rather remember what was promised to Abraham himself: for this was promised to Isaac, and this was promised to Jacob too. What do we find? “In your seed all nations shall be blessed.” Then one man believed what he did not yet see: now men see, and are blinded. What was promised to one man has been fulfilled in the nations; and those who will not see even what has been fulfilled separate themselves from the communion of the nations. But what does it profit them that they will not see? They see, whether they will or not; the open truth strikes even closed eyes.

The answer was given to Nicodemus, who was one of those who had believed in Jesus, and Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. For to some he did not entrust himself, though they had already believed in him. So you have it written: “Many believed in his name, seeing the signs that he was doing. But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. For he had no need that anyone should bear witness about man; for he himself knew what was in man.” See, they already believed in Jesus, and Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. Why? Because they had not yet been born again of water and the Spirit. Hence we have exhorted, and do exhort, our brothers the catechumens. For if you ask them, they have already believed in Jesus; but because they do not yet receive his flesh and blood, Jesus has not yet entrusted himself to them. What are they to do, so that Jesus may entrust himself to them? Let them be born again of water and the Spirit; let the Church bring forth those with whom she is in labor. They have been conceived; let them be brought forth into the light. They have breasts at which to be nourished; let them not fear being smothered once born; let them not go away from their mother's breasts.

No man can return into his mother's body and be born again. But was someone born of a slave woman? Did those who were born of slave women at that time return into the wombs of free women to be born anew? The seed of Abraham was in Ishmael too; and it was the wife who proposed that Abraham might have a son by the slave woman. He was born of the husband's seed, not of the wife's womb, but by the wife's consent alone. Was he disinherited because he was from a slave woman? If he was disinherited because he was born of a slave woman, no sons of slave women would be admitted to the inheritance. The sons of Jacob were admitted to the inheritance; Ishmael, however, was disinherited not because he was born of a slave woman, but because he was proud toward his mother, proud toward his mother's son; for his mother was Sarah more than Hagar. The one lent her womb, the other's will was added; Abraham would not do what Sarah did not want: so he was rather Sarah's son. But because he was proud toward his brother, and proud in playing, because in mocking, what does Sarah say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” So it was not the slave woman's womb that cast him out, but his servile neck. Even a free man, if he is proud, is a slave, and, what is worse, of a bad mistress, pride itself. Therefore, my brothers, answer the man that a man cannot be born again; answer securely that a man cannot be born again. Whatever is done a second time is mockery; whatever is done a second time is play. Ishmael plays; let him be put out. For Sarah noticed them playing, says the Scripture, and she said to Abraham, “Cast out the slave woman and her son.” The boys' play displeased Sarah; she saw something new in the boys' playing. Do not mothers who have sons wish to see their sons playing? She saw it, and disapproved. She saw something or other in the play: she saw mockery in that play, she noticed the slave's pride; it displeased her, and she cast him out. The wicked born of slave women are put out, and Esau, born of a free woman, is put out. So let no one presume because he is born of good parents; let no one presume because he is baptized by holy men. Let him who is baptized by holy men still beware lest he be not Jacob but Esau. This, then, brothers, I would say: it is better to be baptized by men who seek their own interests and love the world, which is what the name “slave woman” signifies, and to seek spiritually the inheritance of Christ, so as to be like a son of Jacob by a slave woman, than to be baptized by holy men and be proud, so as to be put out like Esau, though born of a free woman. Hold to these things, brothers. We are not coaxing you; let none of your hope be in us. We flatter neither ourselves nor you; each one carries his own burden. Ours is to speak, so that we may not be judged badly; yours is to hear, and to hear with the heart, so that what we give may not be demanded back from you; or rather, that when it is demanded, it may be found a gain and not a loss.

The Lord speaks to Nicodemus and explains to him: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a man is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” You, he says, understand a carnal generation when you say, “Can a man return into his mother's body?” He must be born of water and the Spirit for the sake of the kingdom of God. If one is born for the temporal inheritance of a human father, let him be born of the body of a carnal mother; if for the everlasting inheritance of God the Father, let him be born of the body of the Church. A father who will die begets by his wife a son to succeed him; God begets from the Church sons not to succeed him but to remain with him. And it continues: “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.” So we are born spiritually, and we are born in the Spirit by word and sacrament. The Spirit is present so that we may be born; the Spirit from whom you are born is invisibly present, because you too are invisibly born. For he goes on and says, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice, but you do not know where he comes from or where he goes.” No one sees the Spirit: and how do we hear the voice of the Spirit? A psalm sounds: it is the voice of the Spirit. The Gospel sounds: it is the voice of the Spirit. The divine word sounds: it is the voice of the Spirit. “You hear his voice, and you do not know where he comes from or where he goes.” But if you too are born of the Spirit, you will be such that one who is not yet born of the Spirit will not know of you where you come from and where you go. For this is what he goes on to say: “So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

“Nicodemus answered and said to him, ‘How can these things be?’” And indeed, thinking carnally, he did not understand. What the Lord had said was happening in him: he heard the voice of the Spirit and did not know where it came from and where it went. “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you a teacher in Israel, and do not know these things?’” O brothers, what? Do we think the Lord wanted to insult this teacher of the Jews? The Lord knew what he was doing; he wanted him to be born of the Spirit. No one is born of the Spirit unless he is humble; for humility itself makes us be born of the Spirit, because “the Lord is near to the broken in heart.” That man was puffed up with his teaching office and seemed to himself to be of some importance because he was a teacher of the Jews. The Lord takes his pride down so that he may be born of the Spirit; he taunts him as an unlearned man, not because the Lord wants to appear superior. What great thing is that: God compared with a man, truth with falsehood? Should it be said, can it be said, is it to be thought, that Christ is greater than Nicodemus? If it were said that Christ is greater than the angels, it would be laughable; for he is incomparably greater than every creature, he through whom every creature was made. But he rouses the man's pride: “Are you a teacher in Israel, and do not know these things?” As though saying: See, you know nothing, proud ruler; be born of the Spirit; for if you are born of the Spirit, you will keep to the ways of God, so as to follow Christ's humility. For thus is he high above all the angels: that “though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in appearance as a man: he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death” (and lest some kind of death please you) “even death on a cross.” He was hanging, and was insulted. He could have come down from the cross; but he put it off, so as to rise from the tomb. The Lord bore with proud servants, the physician with the sick. If he did this, what of those who must be born of the Spirit? If he did this, the true teacher in heaven, not of men only but of angels too? For if the angels are learned, they are taught by the Word of God. If they are taught by the Word of God, ask from what they are taught, and you will find: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Man's neck is taken away, but the rough and hard neck, so that it may be a gentle neck for bearing the yoke of Christ, of which it is said, “My yoke is gentle, and my burden is light.”

And it continues: “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” What earthly things did he say, brothers? “Unless a man is born anew”: is that earthly? “The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice, and do not know where he comes from or where he goes”: is that earthly? For suppose he were speaking of this wind, as some have understood it when they were asked what earthly thing the Lord had said when he says, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” For when certain men were asked what earthly thing the Lord had said, being in difficulties they said that when he says, “The Spirit breathes where he wills, and you hear his voice, and do not know where he comes from or where he goes,” he was speaking of this wind. For what did he call earthly? He was speaking of spiritual generation; and he went on to say, “So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Then, brothers, which of us does not see, for example, the south wind going from south to north, or another wind coming from east to west? How then do we not know where it comes from and where it goes? What earthly thing, then, did he say, which men did not believe? Was it what he had said about raising the temple? For he had received his body from the earth, and he was preparing to raise that very earth taken in an earthly body. He was not believed when he was going to raise earth. “If I have told you earthly things,” he says, “and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” That is, if you do not believe that I can raise the temple when you have thrown it down, how will you believe that men can be regenerated through the Spirit?

And it continues: “And no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” See, he was here, and he was in heaven: he was here in the flesh, he was in heaven in his divinity; indeed, everywhere in his divinity. Born of a mother, not withdrawing from the Father. Two births of Christ are understood: one divine, the other human; one by which we were to be made, the other by which we were to be remade; both wonderful, the one without a mother, the other without a father. But because he had received his body from Adam, since Mary was from Adam, and he was going to raise that very body, he had said something earthly: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” But he said something heavenly: “Unless a man is born again of water and the Spirit, he will not see the kingdom of God.” Come, brothers: God willed to be a son of man, and willed men to be sons of God. He descended for our sake; let us ascend for his sake. For he alone descended and ascended who says this: “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven.” Are those whom he makes sons of God, then, not going to ascend into heaven? Of course they are going to ascend: this is our promise, “They will be equal to the angels of God.” How then does no one ascend except he who descended? Because one descended, one ascends. What of the rest? What are we to understand, except that they will be his members, so that one ascends? Therefore it continues, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” Do you marvel that he was both here and in heaven? He made his disciples such. Hear the apostle Paul saying, “But our citizenship is in heaven.” If the man Paul, the apostle, walked in the flesh on earth and lived as a citizen in heaven, could not the God of heaven and earth be both in heaven and on earth?

If then no one but he descended and ascended, what hope is there for the rest? This is the hope for the rest: that he descended for this reason, that those who were to ascend through him might be one in him and with him. “He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’” says the apostle, “as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your seed,’ which is Christ.” And to believers he says, “But you are Christ's; and if Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed.” What he called one, he said that we all are. That is why in the Psalms sometimes many sing, to show that one is made of many; sometimes one sings, to show what is made of many. That is why one man was healed in that pool, and whoever else went down was not healed. So this one man commends the unity of the Church. Woe to those who hate unity and make parties for themselves among men! Let them hear him who wanted to make them one, in one, for one; let them hear him saying, “Do not make yourselves many: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; so neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” They were saying, “I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas.” And he said, “Is Christ divided?” Be in one, be one thing, be one person: “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven.” “See, we want to be yours,” they said to Paul. And he said, “I do not want you to be Paul's, but be his whose Paul is, together with you.”

For he descended and died, and by that very death he freed us from death: slain by death, he slew death. And you know, brothers, that this death entered the world through the devil's envy. “God did not make death,” the Scripture says, “nor does he rejoice,” it says, “in the destruction of the living: for he created all things that they might exist.” But what does it say there? “But through the devil's envy death entered the world.” Man would not come by force to the death the devil offered him to drink: for the devil had no power to compel, but only the cunning to persuade. Had you not consented, the devil would have brought in nothing: your consent, O man, led you to death. From a mortal, mortals were born; from immortals we were made mortal. From Adam all men are mortal; but Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God, through whom all things were made, the only Son, equal to the Father, was made mortal, because “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

So he took on death, and he hung death on the cross; and by that very death mortals are freed. The Lord recalls what was done in figure among the ancients: “And as Moses,” he says, “lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” A great mystery, as those who have read it know. Then let those hear it who have not read it, or who perhaps have forgotten what they read or heard. The people of Israel were being laid low in the desert by the bites of serpents; a great slaughter of many deaths was taking place, for it was the stroke of God correcting and scourging them to instruct them. There a great mystery of a thing to come was shown; the Lord himself testifies to it in this reading, so that no one can interpret it otherwise than as the Truth indicates about himself. For Moses was told by the Lord to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on wood in the desert, and to admonish the people of Israel that if anyone was bitten by a serpent, he should look at that serpent lifted up on the wood. It was done: men were bitten, they looked, and they were healed. What are the biting serpents? Sins from the mortality of the flesh. What is the serpent lifted up? The Lord's death on the cross. For since death came from a serpent, it was figured by the image of a serpent. The serpent's bite was lethal; the Lord's death is life-giving. The serpent is looked upon, so that the serpent may have no power. What does this mean? Death is looked upon, so that death may have no power. But whose death? The death of life, if one may say “the death of life”; indeed, because it can be said, it is said wonderfully. But should what had to be done not be said? Shall I hesitate to say what the Lord deigned to do for me? Is not Christ life? And yet Christ was on the cross. Is not Christ life? And yet Christ died. But in Christ's death, death died; for life, having died, slew death; the fullness of life swallowed up death; death was swallowed up in the body of Christ. So we too shall say in the resurrection, when we sing in triumph, “Where, O death, is your contention? Where, O death, is your sting?” Meanwhile, brothers, that we may be healed of sin, let us look upon Christ crucified; for “as Moses,” he says, “lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.” Just as those who looked at that serpent did not perish from the serpents' bites, so those who look in faith upon the death of Christ are healed of the bites of sins. But they were healed from death to temporal life; here, however, he says, “that they may have eternal life.” For this is the difference between the figurative image and the reality itself: the figure gave temporal life; the reality of which it was the figure gives eternal life.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” So, as far as lies with the physician, he came to heal the sick man. He who will not keep the physician's orders destroys himself. The Savior came to the world: why was he called the Savior of the world, except that he came to save the world, not to judge the world? You do not want to be saved by him; you will be judged by your own doing. And why do I say “you will be judged”? See what he says: “He who believes in him is not judged; but he who does not believe”—what do you expect him to say, if not “is judged”?—“has already,” he says, “been judged.” The judgment has not yet appeared, but the judgment has already been made. For “the Lord knows those who are his”: he knows who will persevere to the crown, who will persevere to the flame; he knows the wheat on his threshing floor, he knows the chaff; he knows the crop, he knows the weeds. He who does not believe has already been judged. Why judged? “Because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.”

“And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light; for their works were evil.” My brothers, whose works did the Lord find good? No one's. He found the works of all evil. How then did some do the truth and come to the light? For this also follows: “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they have been done in God.” How did some do a good work so as to come to the light, that is, to Christ? And how did some love darkness? For if he found all sinners, and heals all from sin, and that serpent, in which the Lord's death was figured, heals those who had been bitten, and the serpent was raised up because of the serpent's bite, that is, the Lord's death because of mortal men, whom he found unrighteous, how is this to be understood: “This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light; for their works were evil”? What does it mean? For whose works were good? Did you not come to justify the ungodly? “But they loved,” he says, “darkness rather than light.” There he put the weight: for many loved their sins, many confessed their sins; for he who confesses his sins and accuses his sins already acts with God. God accuses your sins: if you accuse them too, you are joined to God. There are, as it were, two things: man and sinner. That you are called man, God made; that you are called sinner, man himself made. Destroy what you made, so that God may save what he made. You must hate in yourself your own work, and love in yourself the work of God. But when what you have done begins to displease you, from then your good works begin, because you accuse your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth, and you come to the light. What does “you do the truth” mean? You do not coax yourself, you do not flatter yourself, you do not fawn on yourself; you do not say, “I am righteous,” when you are unrighteous; and you begin to do the truth. And you come to the light, that your works may be made manifest, because they have been done in God; for even this, that your sin displeased you, would not have displeased you unless God were shining on you and his truth were showing it to you. But he who loves his sins even after being warned hates the light that warns him and flees from it, so that his evil works, which he loves, may not be exposed. But he who does the truth accuses his evils in himself; he does not spare himself, does not pardon himself, so that God may pardon; for what he wants God to pardon, he himself acknowledges, and he comes to the light, to which he gives thanks for showing him what he should hate in himself. He says to God, “Turn away your face from my sins”: and with what face does he say it, unless he says also, “For I acknowledge my wrongdoing, and my sin is ever before me”? Let that be before you which you do not want to be before God. But if you put your sin behind you, God turns it back before your eyes; and he turns it back at a time when there will be no longer any fruit of repentance.

Run, my brothers, lest the darkness overtake you; wake up to your salvation, wake up while there is time. Let no one be kept back from the temple of God, let no one be kept back from the work of the Lord, let no one be called away from continual prayer, let no one be cheated of his accustomed devotion. Wake up, then, while it is day: the day shines; Christ is the day. He is ready to pardon, but those who acknowledge their sins; and to punish those who defend themselves and boast that they are righteous, and think themselves something when they are nothing. But he who walks in his love and his mercy, even when freed from those deadly and grave sins such as crimes, murders, thefts, adulteries, nevertheless, because of those that seem to be small sins of the tongue, or of thoughts, or of immoderation in permitted things, does the truth of confession and comes to the light in good works; for many small sins, if neglected, kill. Small are the drops that fill rivers; small are the grains of sand, but if much sand is loaded on, it presses and crushes. A neglected bilge does what a rushing wave does: the water enters little by little through the bilge, but by entering a long time and not being pumped out, it sinks the ship. And what is pumping out, if not acting by good works so that sins may not overwhelm us: by groaning, fasting, giving, forgiving? But the journey of this world is troublesome and full of temptations: in prosperity let it not lift you up, in adversity let it not break you. He who gave you the happiness of this world gave it for your consolation, not for your corruption. Again, he who scourges you in this world does it for your amendment, not for your condemnation. Bear with the Father who instructs you, lest you feel the judge who punishes. These things we tell you daily, and they must be said often, because they are good and wholesome.

The order of the Gospel reading according to John, as those of you who care about your progress can remember, follows in such a way that the passage just read is set before us to be expounded today. You remember that what comes before, from the very beginning up to today's reading, has already been expounded. And if perhaps you have forgotten much of it, at least our service remains in your memory. Of what you heard on this matter about the baptism of John, even if you do not retain it all, I believe you heard something to retain; and also what was said about why the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove; and how that most knotty question was solved, that John learned something about the Lord through the dove which he had not known, though he already knew him when he said to him as he came to be baptized, “I ought to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” when the Lord answered him, “Let it be so now, that all righteousness may be fulfilled.”