Homilies on John 45.1–45.3

“So they said to him, ‘What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.’ So they said to him, ‘What sign then do you do, so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?’” Nothing is worse than gluttony, nothing more shameful. It makes the mind dull, it makes the soul fleshly, it blinds, and does not let one see clearly. See, at any rate, this happening with the Jews too. For since they were gaping after gluttony, and were wholly given to the things of this life, and thought nothing spiritual, Christ leads them on with countless words that have both a goad and forbearance; and not even so do they rise, but they remain lying below. For consider: he said to them, “You seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled”; [he touched them] by the reproof; he showed them what food they should seek, saying, “Labor not for the food that perishes”; he set the prize before them, saying, “but for the food that endures to eternal life”; then he healed what offended them, saying that he had been sent from the Father. What then do they do? As though they had heard nothing, they say, “What then shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” And they said this not in order to learn and do it (as what follows shows), but drawing him again to the supply of food, and wishing to provoke him to fill them. What then does Christ say? “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” But they said, “What sign do you do, so that we may see and believe? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.” Nothing could be more senseless than these men, nothing more irrational. While the sign was still before their eyes, they spoke as though nothing had happened: “What sign do you do?” And having said this, they do not even leave him master of the choice of the sign, but think to force him to do no other than such a one as happened in their forefathers' time. That is why they say, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness,” thinking by this to provoke him to do such a sign as could feed them in the flesh. For why did they mention none of the other earlier signs, though many happened then, in Egypt, at the sea and in the wilderness, but only the manna? Was it not because they greatly desired it, through the tyranny of the belly? How is it that you, who called him a prophet and tried to make him king when you saw the sign, have now become ungrateful and unfeeling as though nothing had happened, and ask for a sign, uttering the words of parasites and hungry dogs? Is the manna now wonderful to you, when your soul is quite dried up? And see their dissembling. They did not say, “Moses did this sign; [what do] you [do?”—thinking that this would provoke him; but for the time being] they speak to him with great respect, in expectation of food. Nor, on the other hand, do they say, “God did this; what do you do?” so as not to seem to make him equal to God; nor do they bring Moses forward, so as not to seem to lower him; but they put it in between, saying, “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.” And he could have said, “I have now worked greater wonders than Moses, needing no rod, having no need of prayer, but doing everything of myself; and if you remember the manna, see, I too have supplied you with bread.” But this was not the time for such words; there was one thing he was eager for: to lead them to the spiritual food. And see his boundless understanding, how he answers: “It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.” Why then did he not say, “It was not Moses who gave it, but I,” but put God in place of Moses, and himself in place of the manna? Because the weakness of the hearers was great, as is clear from what follows. For even having spoken so, not even so did he hold them; and yet at the beginning he said, “You seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” [Yet still] they seek these things; and he corrected them by what followed, and not even so do they desist. But when he promised to give the water to the Samaritan woman, he did not mention the Father, but said something like this: “If you knew who it is that says to you, ‘Give me to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water”; and again, “the water that I shall give”; and he does not refer her to the Father. Here, however, he mentions the Father, so that you may learn how great was the faith of the Samaritan woman and how great the weakness of the Jews. Was the manna, then, not from heaven? How then is it said to be from heaven? As Scripture says, “birds of heaven”; and again, “And the Lord thundered from heaven.” And he calls that the true bread not because the wonder of the manna was false, but because it was a type, not the truth itself. And having mentioned Moses, he did not set himself against him; for they did not yet prefer him to Moses, but still had a greater opinion of that man. That is why, having said, “It was not Moses who gave,” he did not add, “I give,” but said that the Father gives in his place. And they, hearing this, say again, “Give us this bread to eat.” For they still thought it was something perceptible, they still expected to gratify the belly; that is why they quickly ran to him. What then does Christ do? Leading them up little by little, he adds, “For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world”—not to the Jews only, he says, but to the whole world. That is why he did not say simply “food,” but “life,” another and changed life, to show that all were dead. But they still bend downward and say, “Give us this bread.” Rebuking them because, as long as they suspected the table was perceptible, they ran to him, but when they learned that it was something spiritual, no longer, he says again, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will not hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe me.”

[2] So too John speaks, anticipating from above: “What he knows he speaks, and what he has seen he testifies, and no one receives his testimony.” And again Christ: “We speak what we know, and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our testimony.” He does this anticipating them and showing that the thing does not trouble him, nor does he desire glory, nor is he ignorant of the secrets of their mind, either present or future. “I am the bread of life.” He is now about to enter on the handing on of the mysteries. And first he speaks about his divinity, saying, “I am the bread of life.” For this is not said about the body (about that he says toward the end, “And the bread that I shall give is my flesh”), but for the time being about the divinity. For that is bread because of God the Word, just as this bread too becomes heavenly bread because of the Spirit who comes upon it. Here he does not use witnesses, as in the earlier address; for he had the work of the loaves itself bearing witness, and they for the time being were pretending to believe him; there they contradicted and accused him. That is why here he simply declares. But they, since they expected to enjoy a fleshly feast, remain and are not troubled, until afterwards they gave up hope. Yet not even so was Christ silent, but he says many things to shame them. And those who, when they were eating, called him a prophet, are here offended and call him the carpenter's son; but not when they were eating the loaves—then they said, “This is the prophet,” and wished to make him king. They seemed, then, to be indignant at his saying that he had come down from heaven; but in truth it was not this that caused the indignation, but their not expecting to enjoy a bodily table. For if they were really indignant, they ought to have asked and inquired how he is the bread of life, how he has come down from heaven; but as it is they do not do this, but grumble. And that it was not this that offended them is clear from the following. When he said, “My Father gives you the bread,” they did not say, “Ask him to give it,” but what? “Give us the bread.” And yet he had not said, “I give,” but “My Father gives.” But out of desire for food they thought him too trustworthy for the supply. How then were those who thought him trustworthy for giving going to be offended afterwards, and that when they heard that the Father gives? What then is the cause? Since they heard that it was not to be eaten, they disbelieved again, putting forward, forsooth, as a cloak for their unbelief that the saying was lofty. That is why he says, “You have seen me and do not believe,” hinting partly at the signs, partly at the testimony from the Scriptures: “For they,” he says, “are what testify about me”; and, “I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me”; and, “How can you believe, receiving glory from one another?” “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will not cast out.” See how he does everything for the sake of those being saved. That is why he added this too, so that he might not seem to be meddling and saying these things idly. And what does he say? “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will raise it up on the last day.” And why does he mention as a special gift to those who believe in him the common resurrection, in which even the impious share? Because he mentions not simply resurrection, but such a resurrection. For having first said, “I will not cast him out,” and “I will lose nothing of it,” then he spoke of the [resurrection. For at the resurrection some are cast out], as one can learn from “Take him and cast him into the outer darkness”; and others are destroyed, as is shown from “Fear rather him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” So “I give eternal life” shows this. For “those who have done evil will come out to the resurrection of judgment, and those who have done good to the resurrection of life.” This resurrection, then, the one to good things, he showed here. And what does he wish to show by saying, “All that the Father gives me will come to me”? He touches their unbelief, and shows that one who does not believe him transgresses the will of the Father. And he does not say this nakedly, but in a muted way; and you will see him doing this everywhere, wishing [to show that unbelievers are at variance with the Father,] not with him alone. For if this is his will, and he came for this, to save the whole world, those who do not believe transgress his will. When, then, he says, the Father guides someone, nothing prevents him from coming to me. He says this too as he goes on: “No one can come to me unless the Father draws him.” And Paul said that he himself hands them over to the Father: “When he hands over the kingdom to God the Father.” As, then, the Father in giving does not do it by first depriving himself, so too the Son in handing over does not do it by excluding himself. He is said to hand over because through him we have had access.

[3] And “through whom” is said of the Father too, as when it says, “through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son,” that is, through the will of the Father; and again, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.” What he hints at here is all but this: Faith in me is no ordinary thing, but needs a push from above. And he establishes this through the whole discourse, showing that this faith needs a truly noble soul, one drawn by God. But perhaps someone will say: “If all that the Father gives comes to you, and whomever he draws, and no one can come to you unless it is given him from above, then those to whom the Father does not give are free of all blame and charges.” These are bare words and a pretext. For we also need our own free choice; for to be taught belongs to free choice, and so does believing. Here, by “what the Father gives me,” he shows nothing else than that believing in me is no ordinary thing, nor a matter of human reasonings, but needs revelation from above and a soul that receives the revelation with right-mindedness. And “whoever comes to me will be saved” shows this: he will enjoy great care. For it is for these, he says, that I came, took flesh, and entered into the form of a servant. Then he added, “I have come down not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” What do you say? Is your will one thing and his another? So that no one may suspect this, he heals it by what he adds, saying, “And this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.” Is this, then, not your will? And how then do you say elsewhere, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and what do I wish if it is already kindled?” And if you too wish this, it is clear that the will is one. For elsewhere too he says, “As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills.” What then is the will of the Father? Is it not that not even one of them should perish? This you too wish. So the one is not different from the other. So too elsewhere he is seen establishing his equality with the Father still more firmly, by saying, “I and the Father will come and make our dwelling with him.” What he says, then, is this: I came to do nothing other than what the Father too wishes; having no will of my own apart from the Father's; for all that is the Father's is mine, and what is mine is his. If, then, the things of the Father and the Son are common, he rightly says, “not to do my own will.” But he did not say it so here; he keeps this for the end. For the lofty things, as I said, he hides and veils for the time being; and he wishes to show that if he had said, “This is my will,” they would have despised it. He says, then, that I too cooperate with that will, wishing to strike them the more, as if he said: What do you think? That you are provoking me by disbelieving? It is my Father you are provoking. “For this is the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing.” Here he shows that he does not need their service, nor came for any need of his own, but for their salvation, not for honor from them. Which he says in the earlier address too: “I do not receive glory from men”; and again, “I say these things so that you may be saved.” For he is eager to show again and again that he came for their salvation. And he says that he is also preparing glory for the Father, so as to seem free of suspicion. And that he spoke so for this reason he revealed more clearly by what follows: “For one who seeks his own will,” he says, “seeks his own glory; but one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him.” “And this is the will of the Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Why does he keep turning the resurrection over and over? So that they may not judge God's providence by present affairs alone; so that, even if they do not enjoy anything here, they may not become more careless on that account, but hope for what is to come; and so that they may not despise him because they are not punished for the present, but may expect another life.

[4] But if they gained nothing, let us be eager to gain from the constant discussion of the resurrection. Whether we wish to be greedy, or to rob, or to do something wrong, let us at once take that day into our mind and picture the court; and this reasoning will restrain the wrong impulse more strongly than any bridle. And let us always say both to others and to ourselves: There is a resurrection, and a fearful court awaits us. And if we see someone swaggering and swelling over present goods, let us say the same thing over him, showing that all things remain here; and if we see another grieving and impatient, let us utter the same to him too, showing that painful things will have an end. And if we see someone careless and dissipated, let us again chant the same over him, showing that one must give account for carelessness. This word is able to heal our soul better than any medicine. For there is a resurrection, and a resurrection at the doors, not far nor distant. “For yet a little while,” says Paul, “and the coming one will come and will not delay”; and again, “We must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ”—that is, both the wicked and the good, so that the former may be shamed before all, and the latter again become more illustrious before all. For as those who judge here punish the wicked and honor the good publicly, so it will be there too, so that the shame of the one may be greater and the splendor of the other more conspicuous. Let us then picture these things to ourselves every day. If we always turn these over, none of the present and passing affairs will be able to hold us. “For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are not seen are eternal.” Let us continually say, then, both to ourselves and to one another: There is a resurrection, and judgment, and an account of what has been done. And let all who think there is fate say this, [and they will at once be freed from the rot]tenness [of their disease]. For if there is a resurrection and judgment, there is no fate, even if they argue countless times and choke themselves. But I am ashamed to teach Christians about the resurrection. For one who needs to learn that there is a resurrection, and has not fully persuaded himself that affairs are not carried along by necessity, simply and at random, would not be a Christian. That is why I urge and beg you, let us cleanse ourselves of all evils and do everything so as to obtain pardon and a defense on that day. But perhaps someone will say, “And when will the consummation be? When will the resurrection be? See how much time has passed, and nothing of the kind has happened.” But it will happen; believe it. For those before the flood too said such things and laughed at Noah; but the flood came and swept them all away in their unbelief, and saved only him who believed. And those in Lot's time did not expect that blow sent by God, until those fiery whirlwinds and thunderbolts came down and destroyed all. And neither in their case nor in Noah's was there any prelude of what was to come; while all were feasting, those unbearable things happened. So too the resurrection will be, not with any preludes, but while we are in the midst of prosperity. That is why Paul too says, “When they say, ‘Peace and security,’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.” God arranged it so, so that we might always be on the alert and not feel secure even in security itself. What do you say? Do you not expect that there will be a resurrection and judgment? The demons confess these things, and you do not confess them? “Have you come here,” they say, “to torment us before the time?” Those who say there will be torment know of judgment too, and of reckoning and punishments. Let us not, then, provoke God, both by daring evil deeds and by disbelieving the word of the resurrection. For as in other things Christ began for us, so in this too. For this is why he is called the firstborn from the dead. But if there were no resurrection, how would he be firstborn, with none of the dead following him? If there were no resurrection, where would God's justice be preserved, when so many wicked people prosper, and so many good people are afflicted and end their life in affliction? Where will each of these receive his deserts, if there is no resurrection? None of those who have lived rightly disbelieves the resurrection, but every day they pray, saying that holy sentence: “Your kingdom come.” Who then are those who disbelieve the resurrection? Those who have profane ways and an unclean life, as the prophet says: “His ways are profaned at all times; your judgments are removed from before his face.” For it is not possible, it is not possible, for a man to have a pure life while disbelieving the resurrection; whereas those who are conscious of no evil in themselves both speak of it, wish for it, and believe it, so as to receive the recompense. Let us not, then, provoke him, but listen to him saying, “Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna,” so that through fear we may become better and, freed from this destruction, be counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven; which may we all obtain, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with his adorable, all-holy and life-giving Spirit, now and always and to the endless ages of ages. Amen.