Homilies on John 51.1–51.4

“On the last day, the great day [of the feast], Jesus stood and cried out, [saying, ‘If] anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.’” Those who come to the divine preaching and give heed to the faith must show the eagerness of thirsty people and kindle in themselves a desire as great as theirs; for so they will be able to hold fast what is said with great care. For thirsty people, when they take a cup, drain it with great eagerness, and only then are refreshed. So too those who hear the divine oracles, if they come to them thirsting, [will drink them in. For] we must always thirst and hunger: “Blessed,” he says, “are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” And here Christ says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” What he means is this: “I draw no one by necessity and force; but if anyone has great eagerness, if anyone burns with longing, him I call.” And why did the evangelist note that it was “on the last day, the great day”? For both the first and the last days were great; the days between they spent rather in feasting. Why then does he say “on the last”? Because on it they were all gathered together. On the first day he did not come, and he told his brothers the reason. Nor on the second and third days does he say anything of this kind, so that what he said might not be dissipated, since they were about to turn to feasting. But on the last, when they were going home, he gives them provisions for the journey toward salvation, and he cries out, partly showing his boldness, partly because of the great crowd; and showing that he was speaking of a spiritual drink, he adds, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from his belly.” By “belly” he here means the heart, as elsewhere it says, “And your law in the midst of my belly.” And where has the Scripture said, “Rivers of living water will flow from his belly”? Nowhere. What then is “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said”? Here one must put a stop, so that “rivers will flow from his belly” belongs to his own declaration. For since many said, “This is the Christ,” and, “When the Christ comes, will he do more signs?” he shows that they must have correct knowledge, and that he is to be believed not so much from signs as from the Scriptures. Many, at least, who saw him even working wonders did not receive him as the Christ; and they were going to say, “Does not the Scripture say that the Christ comes from the seed of David?” And he turned this over again and again, wishing to show that he does not shun the proof from the Scriptures, and again he refers them to the Scriptures. For earlier he said, “Search the Scriptures,” and again, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God,’” and, “Moses accuses you”; and here, “As the Scripture has said, rivers will flow from his belly,” hinting at the abundance and plenty of grace. As he says elsewhere, “A spring of water welling up to eternal life,” that is, he will have much grace. Elsewhere, then, he says “eternal life,” but here [“rivers of living water”].

[… “On the] last day, the great day of the feast” … “living water.” By “living” he means that which is always active. For the grace of the Spirit, when it enters the mind and is settled there, gushes up more than any spring, and does not fail, is not emptied, and does not stand still. So, to show at once both the unfailing supply and the inexpressible working, he called it a spring and rivers, not one river but countless ones; and there he represented its overflowing by its “welling up.” One can see clearly what is meant if one considers the wisdom of Stephen, the tongue of Peter, and the force of Paul: how nothing carried them away, nothing withstood them, not the anger of mobs, not the uprisings of tyrants, not the plots of demons, not daily deaths, but like rivers rushing with a great torrent they went on, sweeping everything along. “Now this he said about the Spirit,” it says, “whom those who believed were to receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet.” How then did the prophets prophesy and work countless miracles? The apostles, for their part, did not cast out demons by the Spirit, but by the authority given by him, as he himself says: “If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?” He said this to show that before the cross not all cast out demons by the Spirit, but by the authority from him. At any rate, when he was about to send them out, then he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”; and again, “The Holy Spirit came upon them,” and then they did signs. But when he sent them out [earlier], it does not say, “He gave them the Holy Spirit,” but “He gave them authority,” saying, “Cleanse lepers, cast out demons.” As for the prophets, all agree that it was a gift of the Holy Spirit; but this grace had been drawn in and had withdrawn and left the earth from the day when it was said, “Your house is left to you desolate.” And even before that day this scarcity had begun; for there was no longer a prophet among them, nor did the grace watch over their holy things. Since, then, the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn, but was afterward to be poured out abundantly, and the beginning of this distribution came after the cross, not only of abundance but also of greater gifts (for the gift was more wonderful, as when he says, “You do not know of what spirit you are,” and, “You received a spirit of adoption”; for the people of old had the Spirit themselves but did not impart it to others, whereas the apostles filled tens of thousands); since, then, they were to receive this grace, but it had not yet been given, for this reason it says, “For the Holy Spirit was not yet.” So, speaking of this grace, the evangelist said, “For the Holy Spirit was not yet,” that is, not yet given, “because Jesus was not yet glorified,” calling the cross “glory.” For since we were enemies and sinners, falling short of the gift of God and hateful to God, and grace was the proof of reconciliation, and a gift is given not to enemies or to the hated but to friends and to those who have pleased, it was necessary first that the sacrifice for us be offered, that the enmity be abolished in the flesh, and that we become friends of God, and then receive the gift. For if this happened in the case of the promise to Abraham, much more in the case of grace. And Paul, making this clear, said, “For if those of the law are heirs, faith is made void … for the law brings wrath.” What he means is this: God promised Abraham and his seed to give them the land; but his descendants were unworthy of the promise and could not please him by their own labors. For this reason faith came in, an easy thing, to draw grace to them, so that the promises should not fail. And he says, “That is why it depends on faith, so that it may be by grace, in order that the promise may be guaranteed.” That is why “by grace”: because they could not attain it by their own toil. And why, after saying “as the Scripture has said,” does he not add the testimony? Because their mind was corrupt. For some said, “This is the Prophet”; others said, “He leads the crowd astray”; others said, “The Christ does not come from Galilee, but from Bethlehem, the village”; others said, “When the Christ comes, no one knows where he comes from.” Opinion was divided, as in a confused crowd; for they did not attend closely to what was said, nor did they listen in order to learn. For this reason he gives them no answer, although they said, “Does the Christ come from Galilee?” whereas Nathanael, who spoke more sharply and more cuttingly, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”, he praised as truly an Israelite. For these men, and those who said to Nicodemus, “Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee,” said it not seeking to learn but simply to overthrow the opinion about Christ; but Nathanael said it as a lover of truth who knew all the ancient writings exactly, while they looked to one thing only, to overthrow the belief that he is the Christ. That is why he revealed nothing to them. For people who contradict themselves, saying at one time, “No one knows where he comes from,” and at another, “From Bethlehem,” would clearly have opposed him even if they had learned. Suppose they were ignorant of the place, that he was from Bethlehem, because of his living in Nazareth (though even this had no excuse, for he was not born there); were they ignorant of his descent too, that he was of the house and family of David? How then did they say, “Does not the Christ come from the seed of David?” But they wished to obscure this too by that, saying everything maliciously. Why did they not come and say, “We admire everything else, but you bid us believe you according to the Scriptures: tell us, how is it that the Scriptures say the Christ must come from Bethlehem, while you have come from Galilee?” But they said nothing of the kind; they say everything with malice. That they asked not seeking or wishing to learn, the evangelist showed at once by adding, “Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid his hand on him.” If nothing else, this at least was enough to bring them to compunction; but they were not pricked to the heart, as the prophet says: “They were torn apart, and were not pricked to the heart.” For such is wickedness: it will yield to nothing; it looks to one thing only, to destroy the one it plots against. But what does the Scripture say? “He who digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it himself,” which happened then too. For they wished to kill him, as if to quench the preaching; but the opposite happened. For the preaching flourishes by the grace of Christ, while everything of theirs has been quenched and has perished: they have lost country and freedom and security and worship, have been deprived of all [glory], and have become slaves and captives. Knowing this, then, let us never plot against others, having learned that we are sharpening the sword against ourselves and dealing ourselves the deeper wound. But someone has hurt you, and you wish to take revenge on him? Do not take revenge; for in this way you will be able to be avenged. But if you take revenge, you have not been avenged. And do not think what I say is a riddle; it is a true saying. How, and in what way? Because if you do not take revenge, you make God his enemy; but if you do, no longer. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” For if we have servants, and when they quarrel with one another they do not leave the trial and punishment to us but take it on themselves, then even if they come to us ten thousand times, not only do we not avenge them, [but we are angry, saying that] they ought to have left everything to us; [so too,] since you [have taken the matter on] yourself, God, who commanded you to leave everything to him, will say this. For how is it not absurd that we demand such self-command and obedience from our servants, but do not yield to the Master what we wish our servants to yield to us? I say this because of your eagerness to punish one another; for the one who truly lives the life of wisdom ought not to do even this, but to forgive and remit sins, even if there were not that great prize of receiving forgiveness in return. For tell me, if you condemn the one who has sinned, why do you sin yourself and fall into the same faults? [He struck you? Do not] strike back, since then there is no difference at all. He grieved you? Do not grieve him in return, since there is no gain; you have become equal to him again. In this way you will be able to put him to shame, if you bear it with meekness and gentleness; in this way to make him ashamed, in this way to check his anger. No one heals evil with evil, but evil with good. [It would be shameful,] then, if among the foolish Greeks there is such great self-command, while we appear inferior. Many [of them have borne wrongs patiently]. And there is no small fear that some among them may be found greater than we in their way of life, and make our punishment heavier. For when we who have shared in the Spirit, who await a kingdom, who practise wisdom for the sake of heaven, who [should] not fear hell, who are commanded to become angels, who enjoy the mysteries, do not reach even the same virtue as they, what excuse shall we have? For if we must surpass the Jews (“For unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,” he says, “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”), much more the Greeks; if the Pharisees, much more the unbelievers. For if the kingdom is shut against us unless we surpass their way of life, when we appear even worse than the Greeks, how shall we be able to attain it? Let us then put away all bitterness and anger and wrath. “To say the same things is not tiresome to me, and for you it is safe.” For physicians too often use the same remedy. And we shall not cease sounding the same things in your ears, teaching and exhorting. For great is the press of the affairs of this life, which makes us forget, and we need continual teaching. So, that we may not gather here in vain and to no purpose, let us give the proof of it through our works, so that we may also attain the good things to come, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.