Homilies on John 6.1–7.2

“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” Having spoken to us in his opening of the most pressing things about God the Word, he proceeds in due course and order and now comes to the herald of the Word, John, who bears the same name as himself. When you hear that he was sent from God, think from now on that nothing he says is human. For he utters nothing of his own, but everything of him who sent him. That is why he is also called a messenger; and the excellence of a messenger is to say nothing of his own. And “there was” here signifies not his coming into existence but his very mission. For “There was a man sent from God” stands for “He was sent from God.” How, then, do they say that “being in the form of God” is not said of his exact likeness to the Father, because the article is not attached? For see, here too the article is nowhere attached. Is it then not said of the Father? And what shall we say to the prophet who says, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way”? For “my” and “your” indicate two persons.

“He came for testimony, to bear witness about the light.” What is this? Does the servant bear witness to the master? someone might say. When, then, you see him not only witnessed to by the servant, but also coming to him and being baptized by him together with Jews, will you not be still more astonished and perplexed? But we must not be troubled or disturbed, but amazed at his unspeakable goodness. And if anyone still remains dizzy and disturbed, he will say to him too what he said to John: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” And if he is still more troubled, he will say again what he said to the Jews: “I do not receive testimony from man.” If, then, he does not need this testimony, why was John sent from God? Not as though Christ needed testimony (that is the height of blasphemy); why, then? John himself teaches us, saying, “that all might believe through him.” And Christ himself, having said, “I do not receive testimony from man,” so as not to seem to the foolish to contradict himself (since at one time he says, “There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that his testimony is true,” meaning John, and at another, “I do not receive testimony from man”), added the solution, saying, “that you may be saved”; as if he said: “That I am God, the genuine Son of God, of that pure and blessed essence, I need no one to bear witness. Even if no one were willing to do so, I am not in the least diminished in my nature on that account. But since I care for the salvation of the many, I have come down to such lowliness as even to entrust my testimony to a man.” For because the Jews were earthbound and weak, faith in him would in this way be easier for them to grasp and to come by. As, then, he put on flesh, so as not to destroy all men by encountering them with his naked Godhead, so too he sent out a man as his herald, so that those who heard at that time, hearing a voice of their own kind, might draw near more easily. For to show that he needed nothing of John’s testimony, it would have been enough for him to show himself as he was, in his naked essence, and to strike all with amazement. But he did not do this, for the reason I mentioned; for he would have destroyed all, since no one could bear the onset of that unapproachable light. That is why, as I said, he put on flesh and entrusts the testimony to one of our fellow servants; for he managed everything for the salvation of men, looking not only to his own dignity but also to what would be readily received and beneficial to his hearers. Hinting at this, he himself said, “I say these things for your sake, that you may be saved.” And the evangelist, saying the same as the Master, after saying “to bear witness about the light,” added, “that all might believe through him,” all but saying: “Do not think that John the Baptist came to bear witness in order to add something to the Master’s credibility; not for this, but so that his own countrymen might believe through him.” That he said this in haste to remove this suspicion beforehand is clear also from what follows; for he added, “He was not the light.” If he did not repeat this to oppose this suspicion, what he says would be simply superfluous, and tautology rather than clear teaching. For having said that he was sent “to bear witness about the light,” why does he say again, “He was not the light”? Not idly; but since among us the one who bears witness is for the most part greater than the one witnessed to, and seems more trustworthy, lest anyone should suspect this in John’s case too, he removes this wicked suspicion at once from the outset and tears it up by the roots, showing who it is that bears witness, who it is that is witnessed to, and how great the difference is between them. Having done this and shown his incomparable superiority, he then proceeds without fear to what remains; and having thoroughly cleared away whatever absurdity there was in the minds of the foolish, he goes on with ease to the further course of his teaching.

Let us pray, then, that along with the [understanding] of these thoughts and the correctness of our doctrines we may have a pure life and shining conduct. For what is the use of these without good works? Even if we have all faith and all understanding of the Scriptures, but are destitute and bare of the protection that comes from our life, nothing prevents our being carried off to the fire of Gehenna and burning forever in the unquenchable flame. For as those who have done good will rise to eternal life, so those who have dared the opposite will rise to eternal punishment, which never has an end. So let us show all zeal not to ruin the gain that comes to us from right faith by the wickedness of our works, but, having been approved here too, to see Christ with confidence. For nothing could equal this blessedness. May it be that all of us attain what has been spoken of and do all things to the glory of God, to whom be glory together with the only-begotten Son and the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages.

“That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world.” This is why, dearly beloved children, we feast you part by part on the thoughts drawn from the Scriptures, and do not pour everything out at once: so that it may be easy for you to keep what is laid down for you each time. In building, too, the man who sets other stones on top before the first ones have bonded weaves a wall that is rotten throughout and easily thrown down; but the man who waits for the mortar to set first, and so adds what remains little by little, finishes the whole house securely, making it not short-lived or easily broken up, but firm. Let us imitate these builders and build up your souls in the same way. For I fear that, while the foundation is still fresh, the addition of further teachings may harm the first ones too, since the mind cannot hold everything at once.

What, then, was read to us today? “That was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into the world.” For since above, speaking of John, he had said that he came “to bear witness about the light,” and that he had been sent recently, lest anyone hearing this should, because of the recent [coming] of the witness, form a similar notion about the one witnessed to as well, he lifted up the mind and sent it on beyond every beginning, to an existence that nowhere ends or stops. “And how,” someone says, “is it possible for one who is a Son [to have no beginning]?” You are talking about God, and you ask “how”? Are you not afraid? Do you not shudder? Then, if someone asks you, “How will our souls, and these bodies too, have endless life?”, you laugh at the question, as if it did not belong to the human mind to seek such things, but only to believe and not to pry into what has been said, since the power of the one who said it is sufficient proof of it. But if we say that he who made souls and bodies and surpasses all creation beyond comparison is without beginning, will you demand that we explain the manner? And who of settled soul, who of sound reasoning, would do this? You heard, “That was the true light.” Why do you strive, idly and in vain, to overshoot this infinite life with your reasoning? It is not possible. Why do you seek what cannot be sought? Why do you search out what cannot be searched? Consider the very root of the sun’s rays: you will not be able to, and yet you are not vexed or annoyed at your weakness. How, then, have you become so bold and rash in greater things? John, the son of thunder, who sounds forth from the spiritual trumpet, having heard “was” from the Spirit, sought nothing further; and do you, who have no share in his grace and speak from your own wretched reasonings, strive to go beyond the measure of his knowledge? That is exactly why you will not even attain to the measure of his knowledge.

For such is the devil’s craft: he leads those who obey him outside the bounds that God has given us, as though to much greater things; but when he has enticed them with these hopes and thrown them out of the grace of God, then he not only gives them nothing more (how could he, being the devil?) but does not even let them go back to their former position, where we lived securely and firmly; he leads them about everywhere, wandering, with nowhere to stand. In this way he made the first-formed man too fall from his life in paradise. For having puffed him up with the expectation of greater knowledge and honor, he threw him out even of what he then possessed in security. For not only did he not become equal to God, as the devil promised him, but he fell under the tyranny of death; not only did he gain nothing more from eating the tree, but he lost no small part of the knowledge he had, in the hope of greater knowledge. For it was then that shame and hiding because of his nakedness came upon him, though before the deception he had been above this shame. The very seeing that he was naked, and needing to be covered with clothing, and many other passions besides, sprang up in him from that time. So that we may not suffer this too, let us obey God and remain within what he has commanded us, and not meddle with anything beyond it, lest we too fall from the good things already given us, as these men have done. For in seeking to find a beginning of the life that is without beginning, they lost even what they could have had. They did not find what they sought (for it is not possible), and they fell from the sound faith concerning the Only-begotten. But let us not move the eternal boundaries which our fathers set; let us keep everywhere to the laws of the Spirit, and on hearing, “That was the true light,” let us seek to find nothing more; for it is not possible to go beyond this saying. If he begot as a man begets, there must be some interval between the one who begets and the one begotten; but since the begetting is ineffable and as befits God, leave aside “before” and “after”; for these are names of times, and the Son is the maker of all the ages.

“Then,” someone says, “he is not a father but a brother.” What necessity is there for that, tell me? If we said that both the Father and the Son came from some other root, you would be right to say this. But if we shun this impiety, and say that the Father, besides being without beginning, is also unbegotten, and that the Son is without beginning but begotten from the Father, what necessity is there for that impious idea to come in from this understanding? None. For he is radiance; and radiance is conceived together with the nature whose radiance it is. That is why Paul called him so, so that you may suspect no interval between Father and Son. This, then, shows that; and the next part of the illustration corrects the absurdity lying in wait for the foolish. For do not, he says, because you have heard “radiance,” think that he is deprived of his own hypostasis. That is impious, and belongs to the madness of the Sabellians and the followers of Marcellus. We do not say so; we say that he exists in his own hypostasis too. That is why, having called him radiance, Paul added that he is also “the exact imprint of his hypostasis,” to show both his own hypostasis and that he is of the same essence as the one whose imprint he is. For, as I said before, one word is not enough to present the doctrines about God to men; we must be content if, by gathering many together, we can choose from each what is fitting. For so we shall be able to attain to worthy praise; worthy, I mean, according to our ability. For if anyone thinks he can speak in a manner truly worthy of him, and contends that he knows God as God knows himself, this man above all is ignorant of God.

Knowing these things, then, let us remain holding securely what was handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, and let us pry no further. For two evils will befall those sick with this disease: toiling in vain, seeking what cannot be found; and provoking God, by trying to overturn the bounds he has set. How much anger this rouses you need not learn from us, since you all know it. So let us leave their madness and tremble at his words, so that he may always be a wall around us. “For on whom will I look,” he says, “but on the meek and humble and quiet, and him who trembles at my words?” Leaving aside, then, this ruinous [curiosity], let us mourn our sins, as Christ commanded; let us be pierced with compunction for our transgressions; let us reckon up exactly all that we dared in the time past, and let us be eager to wipe it away by every means. For God has opened many roads to this. “Tell your sins first,” he says, “that you may be justified”; and again, “I said, I will confess my lawlessness against myself, and you forgave the impiety of my heart.” For continual self-accusation and remembrance of our sins contribute not a little to lessening their magnitude. There is another road more effective than this: to bear no grudge against any who have sinned against us, to forgive all who have offended against us their offenses. Would you learn a third as well? Hear Daniel saying, “Redeem your sins by almsgiving and your iniquities by compassion on the poor.” And there is another besides this: continual prayer, and persevering patiently in our petitions to God. Fasting too brings us no small comfort and release from our sins, when it is joined with kindness to others, and it quenches the vehemence of God’s anger. For [water will quench a blazing] fire, [and by almsgiving] sins are purged away. Let us walk all these roads, then. For if we are continually engaged in these, if we spend our leisure on them, not only shall we wash away our past offenses, but we shall gain the greatest things for the future. For [we shall not give the devil leisure to attack us,] either for slackness of life or for ruinous [curiosity]. For the devil brings these too, along with the rest, and from them introduces foolish questionings and harmful disputes about words, when he sees people at leisure and idle and taking no thought for virtue in their lives. But let us [shut] this [entrance] against him, so that, having toiled a little in this short time, we may obtain the immortal good things in the infinite ages, by the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom and with whom be glory to the Father together with the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.