Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.21–4.16

My brothers, why do you cry out, why do you exult, why do you love, unless because a spark of this love is there? What do you desire, I ask you? Can it be seen with the eyes? Can it be touched? Is it some beauty that delights the eyes? Have not the martyrs been loved intensely, and when we commemorate them, do we not burn with love? What do we love in them, brothers? Limbs torn by wild beasts? What is more hideous, if you ask the eyes of the flesh? What more beautiful, if you ask the eyes of the heart? What do you think of a very handsome young man who is a thief? How your eyes recoil! Do the eyes of the flesh recoil? If you ask them, nothing is better formed than that body, nothing better proportioned; both the symmetry of the limbs and the pleasing color attract the eyes. And yet when you hear that he is a thief, you shrink from the man in your mind. On the other side you see an old man, bent, leaning on a stick, scarcely moving, furrowed all over with wrinkles: what do you see that delights the eyes? You hear that he is righteous; you love him, you embrace him. Such are the rewards promised us, my brothers: love something like this, sigh for such a kingdom, long for such a homeland, if you wish to arrive at that with which our Lord came, that is, at grace and truth. But if you covet bodily rewards from God, you are still under the law, and therefore you will not fulfill the law itself. For when you see these temporal things abounding in those who offend God, your steps waver, and you say to yourself: "Look, I worship God, I run to church every day, my knees are worn out with prayers, and I am constantly ill; men commit murders, they commit robberies, they exult and abound, all goes well with them." Was it such things, then, that you sought from God? Surely you belonged to grace. If God gave you grace because he gave it gratis, love him gratis. Do not love God for a reward; let him be your reward. Let your soul say, "One thing I have asked of the Lord; this I will seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may contemplate the delight of the Lord." Do not fear that you will give out from weariness: such will be that delight of beauty that it will always be present to you and you will never have your fill; or rather, you will always be filled and never have your fill. For if I say that you will not be filled, there will be hunger; if I say that you will be filled, I fear weariness. Where there will be neither weariness nor hunger, I do not know what to say; but God has what he will show to those who cannot find how to say it and who believe that they will receive it.

Your Holiness has very often heard, and you know very well, that John the Baptist, the more eminent he was among those born of women and the more humble in acknowledging the Lord, the more he deserved to be the friend of the bridegroom: jealous for the bridegroom, not for himself, seeking not his own honor but that of his judge, before whom he went as a herald. And so to the prophets who went before it was granted to foretell things to come concerning Christ; but to him, to point him out with his finger. For just as Christ was unknown before he came to those who did not believe the prophets, so he was unknown to them even when present. For he had come at first humbly and hidden, the more hidden the more humble; and the peoples, despising in their pride the humility of God, crucified their Savior and made him their condemner.

But he who came first hidden, because he came humble, will he not come hereafter manifest, because exalted? You have just heard the Psalm: "God will come manifestly, our God, and he will not keep silence." He kept silence so as to be judged; he will not keep silence when he begins to judge. It would not be said, "He will come manifestly," unless he had first come hidden; nor would it be said, "He will not keep silence," unless he had first kept silence. How did he keep silence? Ask Isaiah: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer he was without voice; so he did not open his mouth." But he will come manifestly and will not keep silence. How manifestly? "A fire will go before him, and round about him a mighty tempest." That tempest is to carry away all the chaff from the threshing floor which is now being threshed; and the fire, to burn what the tempest has carried off. Now, however, he is silent: silent in judgment, but not silent in precept. For if Christ is silent, what do these Gospels mean? What do the apostolic voices mean, the songs of the Psalms, the utterances of the prophets? For in all these Christ is not silent. But he is silent now in not taking vengeance; he is not silent in warning. But he will come in splendor to take vengeance, and will appear to all, even to those who do not believe in him. But now, because even when present he was hidden, it was necessary that he be despised. For had he not been despised, he would not have been crucified; had he not been crucified, he would not have shed his blood, the price with which he redeemed us. In order to pay the price for us he was crucified; in order to be crucified he was despised; in order to be despised he appeared humble.

Yet because he appeared, as it were, in the night, in a mortal body, he lit a lamp for himself by which he might be seen. That lamp was John, of whom you have already heard much; and the present reading of the Gospel contains the words of John, first, which is the chief thing, confessing that he himself was not the Christ. Yet there was such excellence in John that he could have been believed to be the Christ; and in this his humility was proved, that he said he was not, when he could have been believed to be. So: "This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to him to ask him, Who are you?" They would not have sent unless they had been stirred by the excellence of his authority, in that he dared to baptize. "And he confessed and did not deny." What did he confess? "And he confessed, I am not the Christ."

"And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah?" For they knew that Elijah was to precede the Christ. For the name of Christ was unknown to no one among the Jews. They did not think that this man was the Christ; but they did not think that the Christ would not come at all. While they hoped he would come, they stumbled against him when present, stumbled as against a lowly stone. For that stone was still small, already indeed cut from the mountain without hands, as the prophet Daniel says that he saw a stone cut from the mountain without hands. But what follows? "And that stone grew," he says, "and became a great mountain, and filled the whole face of the earth." Let your Charity see, then, what I mean. Christ, before the Jews, had already been cut from the mountain. By the mountain he wants the kingdom of the Jews to be understood. But the kingdom of the Jews had not filled the whole face of the earth. From there that stone was cut, because from there the Lord was born in his bodily presence. And why without hands? Because without the work of a man the Virgin gave birth to Christ. So that stone, cut without hands, was already before the eyes of the Jews; but it was lowly. Not without reason: because that stone had not yet grown and filled the world, which he showed in his kingdom, which is the Church, with which he has filled the whole face of the earth. Because, then, it had not yet grown, they stumbled against him as against a stone; and there was fulfilled in them what is written: "He who falls on this stone will be shattered; and on whomever that stone falls, it will crush them." First they fell on him when he was lowly; exalted, he will come upon them. But so that, coming exalted, he may crush them, first, lowly, he shattered them. They stumbled against him and were shattered; not crushed, but shattered: he will come exalted and crush them. But the Jews are to be pardoned, because they stumbled against a stone that had not yet grown. What sort of people are they who have stumbled against the mountain itself? You already know whom I mean. Those who deny the Church spread throughout the whole world stumble not against the lowly stone but against the mountain itself, which that stone became as it grew. The blind Jews did not see the lowly stone: how great a blindness it is not to see the mountain!

So they saw him lowly and did not know him. He was pointed out to them by the lamp. For first that man, than whom none greater had arisen among those born of women, said, "I am not the Christ." And it was said to him, "Are you Elijah?" He answered, "I am not." For Christ sends Elijah before him; and he said, "I am not," and raised a question for us. For it is to be feared that the less understanding may think that John said the opposite of what Christ said. For in a certain place, when the Lord Jesus Christ was saying certain things about himself in the Gospel, his disciples answered him, "Why then do the scribes," that is, those learned in the law, "say that Elijah must come first?" And the Lord said, "Elijah has already come, and they did to him whatever they wished"; and "if you wish to know, he is John the Baptist." The Lord Jesus Christ said, "Elijah has already come, and he is John the Baptist"; but John, when asked, confessed that he was not Elijah, just as he confessed he was not the Christ. And certainly, just as he confessed truly that he was not the Christ, so he confessed truly that he was not Elijah. How, then, shall we reconcile the words of the herald with the words of the judge? Far be it that the herald should lie: for he speaks what he hears from the judge. Why then does he say, "I am not Elijah," and the Lord, "He is Elijah"? Because in him the Lord Jesus Christ wished to prefigure his own future coming, and to say this: that John was in the spirit of Elijah. And what John was for the first coming, Elijah will be for the second coming. As there are two comings of the judge, so there are two heralds. The judge is one, but the heralds two: not two judges. For it was necessary that the judge should come first to be judged. He sent before him the first herald and called him Elijah, because Elijah will be in the second coming what John was in the first.

For let your Charity note how true is what I say. When John was conceived, or rather when he was born, the Holy Spirit prophesied what was to be fulfilled concerning that man: "And he will be," he says, "the forerunner of the Most High, in the spirit and power of Elijah." So not Elijah, but "in the spirit and power of Elijah." What does "in the spirit and power of Elijah" mean? In the same Holy Spirit, in the place of Elijah. Why in the place of Elijah? Because what Elijah will be for the second coming, John was for the first. Rightly, then, did John now answer in the proper sense. For the Lord said figuratively, "Elijah himself is John"; but John, as I said, in the proper sense, "I am not Elijah." If you consider the figure of forerunning, John is Elijah: for what the one was for the first coming, the other will be for the second. If you inquire into the proper identity of the person, John is John, Elijah is Elijah. So the Lord rightly said, with regard to the prefiguring, "He is Elijah"; and John rightly said, with regard to the proper identity, "I am not Elijah." Neither John spoke falsely nor the Lord; neither the herald nor the judge: but only if you understand. And who will understand? He who imitates the humility of the herald and recognizes the loftiness of the judge. For nothing was humbler than that herald. My brothers, John had no merit so great as this humility: that when he could have deceived men and been thought the Christ and been taken for the Christ (for he was of so great grace and so great excellence), he nevertheless confessed openly and said, "I am not the Christ." "Are you Elijah?" Now if he had said, "I am Elijah," then Christ would already be coming in his second coming to judge, not still in his first to be judged. As if saying, "Elijah too is yet to come," he says, "I am not Elijah." But consider the lowly one, before whom John came, so that you do not experience the exalted one, before whom Elijah is to come. For the Lord also completed it thus: "He is John the Baptist, who is to come." This man came in the prefiguring in which Elijah is to come in his proper person. Then Elijah will be Elijah in his proper person; now John was Elijah by likeness. Now John is John in his proper person, Elijah by likeness. Both heralds gave each other their likenesses and kept their proper identities; but there is one Lord, the judge, whichever herald goes before him.

"And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, No. And they said to him, Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. So they said to him, Who are you? so that we may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say of yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Isaiah said that. In John this prophecy was fulfilled: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Crying what? "Make straight the way of the Lord; make straight the paths of our God." Does it not seem to you the part of a herald to say, "Go out, make way"? Except that the herald says, "Go out," and John says, "Come." The herald drives people away from the judge; John calls them to the judge. Rather, John calls them to the lowly one, so that they may not experience the judge as exalted. "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said." He did not say, "I am John, I am Elijah, I am a prophet." But what did he say? "This is what I am called: 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way for the Lord': I am the prophecy itself."

"And those who had been sent were from the Pharisees," that is, from the leaders of the Jews. "And they asked him and said to him, Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" It seemed to them an act of audacity to baptize, as if to say: in what capacity? "We ask whether you are the Christ; you say you are not. We ask whether perhaps you are his forerunner, because we know that Elijah is to come before the coming of Christ; you deny you are. We ask whether perhaps you are some herald going far ahead, that is, a prophet, and have received this power; nor do you say you are a prophet." And John was not a prophet: he was greater than a prophet. The Lord gave him such a testimony: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?" Understand, of course, "not shaken by the wind"; for John was not that, as one moved by the wind: for he who is moved by the wind is blown about by every seductive spirit. "But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments?" For John was clothed in rough things, that is, a tunic made of camel's hair. "Look, those who wear soft garments are in kings' houses." So you did not go out to see a man clothed in soft garments. "But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, this man is greater than a prophet": because the prophets foretold him long before, while John pointed him out as present.

"Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them and said, I baptize in water; but among you stands one whom you do not know." For being lowly he was not seen, and that is why the lamp was lit. See how he gives place, he who could have been thought something else. "He it is who comes after me, who was made before me" (as we have already said, that is, was placed before me), "the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie." How low he abased himself! And therefore he was greatly exalted, because he who humbles himself will be exalted. From this your Holiness ought to see that, if John so humbled himself as to say, "I am not worthy to untie the strap," how much those ought to be humbled who say, "We baptize; what we give is ours, and what is ours is holy." He says, "Not I, but he"; they say, "We." John is not worthy to untie the strap of his sandal; and if he had said he was worthy, how humble he would still have been! If he had said he was worthy and spoken thus, "He has come after me who was made before me, the strap of whose sandal I am worthy only to untie," he would have humbled himself greatly. But when he says he is not worthy even of this, truly he was full of the Holy Spirit, who as a servant so acknowledged his Lord and deserved to become a friend instead of a servant.

"These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world." Let no one claim this for himself and say that he himself takes away the sin of the world. Now note against what proud men John pointed his finger. The heretics were not yet born, and already they were being pointed out: against them he cried out then from the river, against whom he now cries out from the Gospel. Jesus comes; and what does John say? "Behold the Lamb of God." If a lamb is innocent, John too is a lamb. Or was he not innocent himself? But who is innocent? How far innocent? All come from that inherited strain and from that stock of which David sings, groaning: "I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins my mother nourished me in the womb." He alone, then, is the Lamb, who did not come in this way. For he was not conceived in iniquity, because he was not conceived of mortality; nor did his mother nourish him in sins in the womb, he whom a virgin conceived and a virgin bore, because she conceived by faith and by faith received him. So, "behold the Lamb of God." He does not have the inherited strain from Adam: he took only flesh from Adam; he did not take on sin. He who took no sin from our lump, he it is who takes away our sin. "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world."

You know that certain men sometimes say, "We take away sins from men, because we are holy"; for if he who baptizes is not holy, how does he take away another's sin, when he himself is a man full of sin? Against these arguments let us not speak our own words; let us read this: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world." Let men not put their confidence in men; let not the sparrow migrate to the mountains, but let it trust in the Lord; and if it lifts its eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to it, let it understand that its help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. John, of such great excellence, is asked, "Are you the Christ?" He says, "No." "Are you Elijah?" He says, "No." "Are you the prophet?" He says, "No." "Why then do you baptize?" "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who was made before me, because he was prior to me." "After me comes," because he was born later; "was made before me," because he was set above me; "he was prior to me," because "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

"And I did not know him," he said, "but so that he might be made manifest to Israel, that is why I came baptizing in water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained upon him; and I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." Let your Charity attend a little: when did John learn of Christ? For he was sent to baptize in water. It was asked, why? "So that he might be made manifest to Israel," he said. What did the baptism of John profit? My brothers, if it profited anything, it would still remain, and men would be baptized with the baptism of John and so come to the baptism of Christ. But what does he say? "So that he might be made manifest to Israel": that is, he came to baptize in water so that Christ might be made manifest to Israel itself, to the people of Israel. John received the ministry of baptism, to prepare the way for the Lord in the water of repentance while the Lord was not yet apparent; but once the Lord was known, it was superfluous to prepare a way for him, because to those who know him he himself became the way. And so the baptism of John did not last long. But how was the Lord shown? As lowly; so that John received a baptism precisely in order that the Lord himself might be baptized with it.

Was there need for the Lord to be baptized? I answer the questioner quickly with questions: Was there need for the Lord to be born? Was there need for the Lord to be crucified? Was there need for the Lord to die? Was there need for the Lord to be buried? If, then, he took on such great humility for us, was he not to take on baptism? And what did it profit that he received the baptism of a servant? That you might not disdain to receive the baptism of the Lord. Let your Charity attend. There were to be in the Church some catechumens of more exalted grace. For it sometimes happens that you see a catechumen abstaining from all sexual intercourse, bidding farewell to the world, renouncing everything he possessed, distributing it to the poor; and he is a catechumen, perhaps even better instructed in saving doctrine than many of the faithful. It is to be feared that such a man may say within himself about holy baptism, in which sins are forgiven, "What more am I going to receive? Look, I am better than this believer and that believer" (thinking of believers who are married, or perhaps uneducated, or who have and keep their own property, which he has already distributed to the poor); and, judging himself better than one who has already been baptized, may disdain to come to baptism, saying, "I am going to receive what this one and that one have"; and may set before himself those whom he despises, and as it were think it beneath him to receive what inferiors have received, because he seems to himself better. And yet all his sins are upon him, and unless he comes to saving baptism, where sins are loosed, with all his excellence he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. But in order to invite that excellence to his baptism, so that its sins might be forgiven, the Lord himself came to the baptism of his servant; and though he had nothing to be forgiven, nothing to be washed away in him, he received baptism from a servant. And it is as if he addressed a son who was proud and exalting himself and perhaps disdaining to receive, together with the uneducated, that from which salvation could come to him, and as if he said: "How far do you stretch yourself? How high do you exalt yourself? How great is your excellence? How great your grace? Can it be greater than mine? If I came to a servant, do you disdain to come to the Lord? If I received the baptism of a servant, do you disdain to be baptized by the Lord?"

For so that you may know, my brothers, that the Lord did not come to John himself out of necessity, because of any bond of sin: as the other evangelists say, when the Lord came to him to be baptized, John himself said, "Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you." And what did he answer him? "Let it be so now; let all righteousness be fulfilled." What does "let all righteousness be fulfilled" mean? "I came to die for men; am I not to be baptized for men?" What does "let all righteousness be fulfilled" mean? Let all humility be fulfilled. What then? Was he who accepted his passion from bad servants not to accept baptism from a good servant? Attend, then. When the Lord had been baptized, if John baptized for this reason, that in his baptism the Lord might show humility, was no one else to be baptized with the baptism of John? But many were baptized with the baptism of John; the Lord was baptized with the baptism of John, and the baptism of John ceased. From then on John was put in prison; thereafter no one is found baptized with that baptism. If, then, John too came baptizing for this reason, that the Lord's humility might be shown to us, so that, since he received from a servant, we might not disdain to receive from the Lord, should John have baptized the Lord alone? But if John had baptized the Lord alone, there would not have been lacking those who thought that the baptism of John was holier than that of Christ, as if Christ alone had deserved to be baptized with the baptism of John, while the human race was baptized with the baptism of Christ. Let your Charity attend. We have been baptized with the baptism of Christ, not only we but the whole world, and it will be administered until the end. Which of us can in any respect be compared with Christ, whose sandal strap John said he was unworthy to untie? If, then, that Christ, a man of such excellence, God, had alone been baptized with the baptism of John, what would men have said? "What a baptism John had! He had a great baptism, an ineffable sacrament: see, Christ alone deserved to be baptized with the baptism of John." And so the baptism of the servant would have seemed greater than the baptism of the Lord. Others too were baptized with the baptism of John, so that the baptism of John might not seem better than that of Christ; and the Lord too was baptized, so that, since the Lord received the baptism of a servant, other servants might not disdain to receive the baptism of the Lord. This is why John was sent.

But did he know Christ or did he not? If he did not know him, why did he say when Christ came to the river, "I ought to be baptized by you," that is, "I know who you are"? If, then, he already knew him, surely he came to know him then, when he saw the dove descending? It is clear that the dove did not descend upon the Lord until after he had come up from the water of baptism. The Lord, baptized, came up from the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the dove upon him. If, then, the dove descended after the baptism, and before the Lord was baptized John said to him, "Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you," he knew beforehand the one to whom he said, "Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you." How then did he say, "And I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove and remaining upon him, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit"? It is no small question, my brothers. If you have seen the question, you have seen no small thing: it remains for the Lord to grant its solution. Still, I say this: if you have seen the question, it is no small thing. See, John is set before your eyes, John the Baptist standing at the river; see, the Lord comes, still to be baptized, not yet baptized. Hear the voice of John: "Do you come to me? I ought to be baptized by you." See, he already knows the Lord, by whom he wishes to be baptized. The Lord, baptized, comes up from the water, the heavens are opened, the Spirit descends: now John knows him. If he knows him only now, why did he say before, "I ought to be baptized by you"? But if he does not come to know him only now, because he already knew him, what is it that he said: "I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him like a dove, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit"?

Brothers, if this question were solved today, it would burden you, I do not doubt, since much has already been said. But know that this question is such that it alone destroys the party of Donatus. I have said this to your Charity to make you attentive, as I usually do, and at the same time so that you may pray for us and for yourselves, that the Lord may grant us to speak worthily and you may deserve to grasp worthily. Meanwhile, be good enough to postpone it today. But this I say briefly in the meantime, until it is solved: inquire peaceably, without quarreling, without contention, without disputes, without enmity; both seek among yourselves and ask others, and say, "Our bishop put this question to us today, and some time, if the Lord grants it, he will solve it." But whether it is solved or not, consider that I have put forward what moves me; for I am much moved. John says, "I ought to be baptized by you," as if Christ were known. For if he did not know the one by whom he wished to be baptized, it was rash of him to say, "I ought to be baptized by you." So he knew him. If he knew him, what is it, then, that he says: "I did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him like a dove, he it is who baptizes in the Holy Spirit"? What shall we say? That we do not know when the dove came? Lest perhaps they take refuge there, let the other evangelists be read, who said it more plainly; and we find most clearly that the dove descended at the moment when the Lord came up from the water. For the heavens were opened over him after he was baptized, and he saw the Spirit descending. If he came to know him only after he was baptized, how does he say to him as he comes to baptism, "I ought to be baptized by you"? Meanwhile, chew this over among yourselves, confer about it among yourselves, discuss it among yourselves. May the Lord our God grant that before you hear me, he may reveal it first to one of you. Yet, brothers, know this: that through the solution of this question, the party of Donatus, which spreads mists before the unlearned concerning the grace of baptism and stretches nets for birds in flight, will, if they have any shame, have no voice left at all: their mouths will be utterly shut.