Tractates on the Gospel of John 25.9–26.3

“And when the crowds had found him.” See, he presents himself to the crowds by whom he had feared being seized, and from whom he had fled to the mountain. He altogether confirms and makes known to us that all those things were said in mystery and done in a great sacrament, to signify something. See, here is he who had fled the crowds to the mountain: is he not speaking with those very crowds? Let them hold him now; let them make him king now. “And when they had found him across the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?”

After the sacrament of the miracle he also brings in a discourse, so that, if possible, those who were fed may be fed, and he may fill with words the minds of those whose bellies he filled with loaves—but only if they take it in. And if they do not take it in, let what they do not take in be gathered up, so that the fragments may not be lost. Let him speak, then, and let us listen. “Jesus answered and said, Amen, amen, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of my loaves.” You seek me for the flesh, not for the spirit. How many seek Jesus only so that he may do them good in the present time! One has a business matter and seeks the intercession of the clergy; another is oppressed by someone more powerful and flees to the church; another wants someone to intervene for him with a person with whom he has little influence: one this way, another that; the church is filled daily with such people. Jesus is scarcely sought for Jesus' sake. “You seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of my loaves. Labor not for the food that perishes, but for that which endures to eternal life.” You seek me for something else; seek me for myself. For he makes himself known as that food, which becomes clear in what follows. “Which the Son of man will give you.” You were expecting, I suppose, to eat loaves again, to recline again, to be stuffed again. But he had said “food not that which perishes, but that which endures to eternal life”: just as it had been said to that Samaritan woman, “If you knew who it is who asks you for a drink, you perhaps would have asked him, and he would give you living water.” When she said, “From where do you have it, since you have no bucket, and the well is deep?” he answered the Samaritan woman: “If you knew who asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would give you water from which whoever drinks will thirst no more; for whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.” And she was glad and wanted to receive it, as one who would not suffer bodily thirst, she who was wearied by the labor of drawing water; and so, amid conversations of this kind, he came to spiritual drink. It is altogether the same way here too.

This, then, is the food, not that which perishes but that which endures to eternal life, “which the Son of man will give you; for him God the Father has sealed.” Do not take this Son of man as you take other sons of men, of whom it is said, “But the sons of men will hope in the protection of your wings.” This Son of man, set apart by a certain grace of the Spirit, and son of man according to the flesh, is taken out of the number of men; he is the Son of man. This Son of man is also the Son of God; this man is also God. In another place, questioning his disciples, he says, “Who do men say that I, the Son of man, am?” And they: “Some John, some Elijah, some Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” And he: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He called himself Son of man, and Peter called him Son of the living God. Most fittingly did he mention what he had shown in mercy; most fittingly did Peter mention what he remained in glory. The Word of God commends his humility; the man acknowledges the glory of his Lord. And truly, brothers, I think that this is right: he humbled himself for us; let us glorify him. For he is not Son of man for his own sake, but for ours. So he was Son of man in that way when “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” For this is why “God the Father sealed him.” What is it to seal, except to set something proper to it? For this is to seal: to impose something that is not to be confused with the rest. To seal is to put a sign on a thing. On whatever thing you put a sign, you put the sign so that it may not be confused with others and you be unable to recognize it. So the Father sealed him. What is “sealed”? He gave him something proper to him, so that he should not be compared with other men. That is why it is said of him, “God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions.” So what is it to seal? To have him set apart: that is, “above your companions.” And so, he says, do not despise me because I am the Son of man; and seek from me the food not that which perishes but that which endures to eternal life. For I am the Son of man in such a way as not to be one of you: I am the Son of man in such a way that God the Father sealed me. What is “sealed”? He gave me something proper to me, by which I am not confused with the human race, but through me the human race is set free.

“So they said to him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” For he had said to them, “Labor for the food not that which perishes, but that which endures to eternal life.” What shall we do, they say? By observing what shall we be able to fulfill this precept? “Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” This, then, is to eat the food not that which perishes but that which endures to eternal life. Why do you get your teeth and stomach ready? Believe, and you have eaten. Faith is indeed distinguished from works, as the apostle says that a man is justified by faith without the works of the Law; and there are works that seem good without faith in Christ, and they are not good, because they are not referred to that end from which they are good: “For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Therefore he did not want to distinguish faith from work, but said that faith itself is work. For it is that very faith which works through love. Nor did he say, “This is your work,” but, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent”: so that he who glories may glory in the Lord. Because he was inviting them to faith, they were still seeking signs by which to believe. See whether the Jews do not ask for signs. “So they said to him, What sign, then, do you do, that we may see and believe you? What do you work?” Was it too little that they were fed from five loaves? They knew this indeed, but they preferred manna from heaven to this food. But the Lord Jesus spoke of himself as such that he set himself above Moses. For Moses did not dare to say of himself that he gave food not that which perishes but that which endures to eternal life. This one promised something more than Moses. Through Moses, indeed, there were promised a kingdom, and a land flowing with milk and honey, temporal peace, abundance of children, bodily health, and all the rest—temporal things, indeed, yet in figure spiritual—because they were promised to the old man in the Old Testament. So they considered the things promised through Moses, and they considered the things promised through Christ. The one promised a full belly on earth, but with food that perishes; the other promised food not that which perishes but that which endures for ever. They noticed him promising more, and as if they did not yet see him doing greater things. So they considered what sort of things Moses had done, and wanted still greater things to be done by him who promised such great things. “What do you do,” they say, “that we may believe you?” And that you may know that they compared those miracles with this miracle, and therefore judged these that Jesus did as lesser: “Our fathers,” they say, “ate manna in the desert.” But what is manna? Perhaps you despise it. “As it is written, He gave them manna to eat.” Through Moses our fathers received bread from heaven, and it was not said to them by Moses, “Labor for the food not that which perishes.” You promise food not that which perishes but that which endures to eternal life, and you do not work such works as Moses did. He did not give barley loaves; he gave manna from heaven.

“So Jesus said to them, Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you bread from heaven. For the true bread is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” The true bread, then, is that which gives life to the world; and it is the food of which I spoke a little before: “Labor for the food not that which perishes, but that which endures to eternal life.” So that manna too signified this, and all those signs were my signs. You loved my signs; do you despise the one who was signified? So it was not Moses who gave bread from heaven: God gives bread. But what bread? Manna, perhaps? No, but the bread that the manna signified, namely the Lord Jesus himself. “My Father gives you the true bread. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always.” Like that Samaritan woman, to whom it was said, “He who drinks of this water will never thirst”; she at once took it according to the body, yet wishing to be free of need said, “Lord, give me this water”: so these too say, “Lord, give us this bread,” which may refresh us and not run out.

“And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life: he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.” “He who comes to me” is the same as what he said, “and he who believes in me”; and what he said, “will not hunger,” is to be understood as “will never thirst.” For by both is signified that eternal fullness where there is no want. You desire bread from heaven; you have it before you, and you do not eat. “But I said to you that you have seen me and have not believed.” But I have not therefore lost the people. For “has your unbelief made void the faithfulness of God?” For see what follows: “All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out.” What kind of inside is that, from which there is no going out? A great inner sanctum, and a sweet secret place. O secret place without weariness, without the bitterness of evil thoughts, without the intrusion of temptations and sorrows! Is not that the secret place into which he will enter to whom the Lord will say, as to a well-deserving servant, “Enter into the joy of your Lord”?

“And him who comes to me I will not cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” Is it, then, for this reason that you will not cast out him who comes to you—because you came down from heaven not to do your own will but the will of him who sent you? A great sacrament! I beg you, let us knock together; let something come out to us that may feed us, as it has delighted us. That great and sweet secret place: “He who comes to me.” Attend, attend, and weigh it: “He who comes to me I will not cast out.” So, “he who comes,” he says, “I will not cast out.” Why? “Because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” Is this, then, the reason why you do not cast out him who comes to you—because you came down from heaven not to do your own will but the will of him who sent you? It is. Why do we ask whether it is? It is; he himself says so. For it is not right for us to suspect anything other than what he says: “He who comes to me I will not cast out.” And as if you were to ask, Why? “Because I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” I fear that the soul went out from God because it was proud; no, I do not doubt it. For it is written, “Pride is the beginning of all sin,” and, “The beginning of man's pride is to fall away from God.” It is written; it is firm; it is true. Then what is said of the proud mortal, girded with the rags of flesh, weighed down by the weight of a corruptible body, and yet exalting himself and forgetting with what skin he is clothed—what does Scripture say to him? “Why is earth and ashes proud?” Why is it proud? Let it say why it is proud: “Because in his life he has cast away his inmost parts.” What is “cast away,” except “thrown far off”? This is to go out. For to go in is to seek the inmost things; to cast away the inmost things is to go out. The proud man casts away the inmost things; the humble man seeks them. If we are cast out by pride, we return by humility.

Pride is the source of all diseases, because pride is the source of all sins. When a physician treats a sickness, if he cures what was produced by some cause but does not cure the cause by which it was produced, he seems to heal for a time, but while the cause remains the disease returns. For example, to say this more expressly: a humor in the body produces a rash or sores; a high fever arises in the body, and no small pain; certain remedies are applied to check the rash and soothe the burning of the sore; they are applied and they help: you see the man who was full of sores and rash healed; but because that humor was not expelled, it goes back to sores again. The physician, knowing this, purges the humor, removes the cause, and there will be no sores. From where does iniquity abound? Through pride. Cure pride, and there will be no iniquity. So, in order that the cause of all diseases, that is, pride, might be cured, the Son of God came down and was made humble. Why are you proud, man? God was made humble for you. You would perhaps be ashamed to imitate a humble man; at least imitate a humble God. The Son of God came in a man and was made humble: you are commanded to be humble; you are not commanded to become a beast from a man. He, God, was made man; you, man, recognize that you are a man: your whole humility is to know yourself. So, because God teaches humility, he said, “I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” For this is a commendation of humility. For pride does its own will; humility does the will of God. Therefore, “he who comes to me I will not cast out.” Why? “Because I came not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” I came humble, I came to teach humility, I came as a teacher of humility: he who comes to me is incorporated into me; he who comes to me becomes humble; he who clings to me will be humble, because he does not do his own will but God's; and therefore he will not be cast out, because when he was proud he was thrown out.

See those inner things commended in the psalm: “But the sons of men will hope in the protection of your wings.” See what it is to go within; see what it is to take refuge in his protection; see what it is even to run under the father's lash: “for he scourges every son whom he receives.” “But the sons of men will hope under the covering of your wings.” And what is within? “They will be drunk with the abundance of your house.” When you have sent them within, entering into the joy of their Lord, “they will be drunk with the abundance of your house, and you will give them drink from the torrent of your delight. For with you is the fountain of life.” Not outside, away from you, but within, with you, there is the fountain of life. “And in your light we shall see light. Stretch out your mercy to those who know you, and your righteousness to those who are upright of heart.” Those who follow the will of their Lord, not seeking their own things but those of the Lord Jesus Christ, are the upright of heart; their feet are not moved. “For God is good to Israel, to the upright of heart. But my feet,” says that man, “were almost moved.” Why? “Because I was envious of sinners, looking at the peace of sinners.” To whom, then, is God good, except to the upright of heart? For God displeased me when my heart was crooked. Why did he displease me? Because he gave happiness to the wicked; and so my feet tottered, as if I had served God for nothing. That is why my feet were almost moved: because I was not upright of heart. What, then, is upright of heart? Following the will of God. That man is prosperous, this one toils; that one lives badly and is prosperous, this one lives justly and toils. Let him who lives justly and toils not be indignant: he has within what that prosperous man does not have; so let him not be sad, not waste away, not fail. That prosperous man has gold in his chest; this one has God in his conscience. Compare now gold and God, chest and conscience. The one has what perishes, and has it in a place from which it perishes; the other has God, who cannot perish, and has him in a place from which he cannot be taken away—but only if he is upright of heart; for then he goes in and does not go out. That is why, what did that man say? “For with you is the fountain of life”—not with us. So we must go in, that we may live; not as if we were sufficient for ourselves, so that we perish; not as if wanting to be filled from our own, so that we dry up; but putting our mouth to the fountain itself, where the water does not fail. Because Adam wanted to live by his own counsel, he fell through him who had fallen before through pride, who gave him to drink the cup of his own pride. So, because “with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light,” let us drink within, let us see within. For why was there a going out from there? Hear why: “Let not the foot of pride come to me.” So he went out to whom the foot of pride came. Show that this is why he went out. “And let not the hands of sinners move me”—because of the foot of pride. Why do you say this? “There all those who work iniquity have fallen.” Where did they fall? In pride itself. “They were driven out, and could not stand.” If, then, pride drove out those who could not stand, humility lets in those who can stand for ever. That is why he who said, “The humbled bones will rejoice,” said before, “To my hearing you will give joy and gladness.” What is “to my hearing”? By hearing you I am happy; from your voice I am happy; by drinking within I am happy. That is why I do not fall; that is why “the humbled bones will rejoice”; that is why “the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him”; he stands because he hears. He drinks from the inner fountain; that is why he stands. Those who would not drink from within, “there they fell; they were driven out, and could not stand.”

So the teacher of humility came not to do his own will, but the will of him who sent him. Let us come to him, let us go in to him, let us be incorporated into him, so that we too may not do our own will, but the will of God; and he will not cast us out, because we are his members, because he willed to be our head by teaching humility. Finally, hear him preaching: “Come to me, you who labor and are burdened; take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart”; and when you have learned this, “you will find rest for your souls,” from which you will not be cast out: “because I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” I teach humility; no one can come to me unless he is humble. Nothing casts out but pride: how does he go out who keeps humility and does not slip away from the truth? As much has been said as could be said about the hidden sense, brothers; for the sense is well hidden here, and I do not know whether it has been drawn out and carved out by me in fitting words: why he does not cast out the one who comes to him, because he came not to do his own will but the will of him who sent him.

“And this,” he says, “is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing.” He who keeps humility has been given to him; this one he receives. He who does not keep humility is far from the teacher of humility. “That of all that he has given me I should lose nothing.” “So it is not the will before your Father that one of these little ones should perish.” Of the swollen some may perish; of the little ones none perishes: because “unless you become like this little one, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” “Of all that the Father has given me I will lose nothing, but I will raise it up on the last day.” See how here too he outlines that twofold resurrection. He who comes to me now rises, made humble in my members; but I will also raise him up on the last day according to the flesh. “For this is the will of my Father who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.” Above he said, “He who hears my word and believes him who sent me”; but now, “He who sees the Son and believes in him.” He did not say, “sees the Son and believes in the Father”; for to believe in the Son is the same as to believe in the Father. Because “as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself.” “That everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life”: by believing and passing to life, as by that first resurrection. And because that is not the only one, “And I will raise him up,” he says, “on the last day.”

When our Lord Jesus Christ, as we heard when the Gospel was read, had said that he is the bread that came down from heaven, the Jews murmured and said, “Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say, I came down from heaven?” These were far from the bread from heaven, and did not know how to hunger for it. They had the jaws of the heart sluggish; with open ears they were deaf; they saw and stood blind. For this bread seeks the hunger of the inner man; hence he says in another place, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” And the apostle Paul says that Christ is righteousness for us. And so let him who hungers for this bread hunger for righteousness—but the righteousness that came down from heaven, the righteousness that God gives, not that which man makes for himself. For if man made no righteousness for himself, the same apostle would not say of the Jews, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to the righteousness of God.” Such were these who did not understand the bread coming down from heaven, because, filled with their own righteousness, they did not hunger for the righteousness of God. What is this, the righteousness of God and the righteousness of man? The righteousness of God here means not that by which God is righteous, but that which God gives to man, so that man may be righteous through God. And what was their righteousness? That by which they presumed on their own strength, and called themselves, as it were, fulfillers of the Law by their own power. But no one fulfills the Law unless grace has helped him, that is, the bread that came down from heaven. For the fullness of the Law, as the apostle says in brief, is love: love not of money but of God; love not of earth, not of heaven, but of him who made heaven and earth. From where does man have this love? Let us hear the apostle himself: “The love of God,” he says, “has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” So the Lord, who was going to give the Holy Spirit, called himself the bread that came down from heaven, urging us to believe in him. For to believe in him—this is to eat the living bread. He who believes eats: he is fed invisibly, because he is reborn invisibly. He is an infant within, he is new within: where he is renewed, there he is filled.

What, then, did Jesus answer to such murmurers? “Do not murmur among yourselves.” As if saying, I know why you do not hunger and do not understand or seek this bread. “Do not murmur among yourselves: no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” A great commendation of grace! No one comes unless he is drawn. Whom he draws and whom he does not draw, why he draws this one and does not draw that one—do not try to judge, if you do not want to err. Take it once for all and understand: are you not yet drawn? Pray that you may be drawn. What do we say here, brothers? If we are drawn to Christ, then we believe unwillingly; then force is applied, the will is not aroused. A person can enter the church unwilling, can approach the altar unwilling, can receive the sacrament unwilling: he cannot believe unless willing. If one believed with the body, it could happen in the unwilling; but one does not believe with the body. Hear the apostle: “With the heart one believes unto righteousness.” And what follows? “But with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” This confession rises from the root of the heart. Sometimes you hear someone confessing and do not know whether he believes. But you ought not even to call him confessing whom you judge not to believe. For to confess is to say what you have in your heart; but if you have one thing in your heart and say another, you are talking, not confessing. Since, then, one believes in Christ with the heart, which surely no one does unwillingly, and one who is drawn seems to be compelled as if unwilling, how do we solve this question: “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”?

“If he is drawn,” someone says, “he comes unwillingly. If he comes unwillingly, he does not believe; if he does not believe, he does not come.” For we do not run to Christ by walking, but by believing; we approach not by motion of the body but by the will of the heart. That is why that woman who touched the fringe touched him more than the crowd that pressed on him. That is why the Lord said, “Who touched me?” And the disciples in astonishment said, “The crowds are pressing on you, and you say, Who touched me?” And he repeated, “Someone touched me.” She touches, the crowd presses. What is “touched,” except “believed”? Hence also after the resurrection he said to that woman who wanted to throw herself at his feet: “Do not touch me; for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” What you see, you think is all that I am; do not touch me. What does this mean? You think that I am only what appears to you: do not believe in that way. That is, “Do not touch me; for I have not yet ascended to the Father”: for you I have not ascended, for I have never withdrawn from there. She did not touch him standing on earth; how would she touch him ascending to the Father? Yet thus, thus he wished to be touched; thus he is touched by those by whom he is rightly touched: ascending to the Father, abiding with the Father, equal to the Father.