Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus VII-XII

Tractate VII.

From that which is written, And I saw, and bore witness that this is the Son of God, as far as this, Amen I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Chapter 1, verses 34-51.

1. We rejoice together at your large attendance, because you have gathered eagerly beyond what we could have hoped. This is what gladdens us and consoles us in all the labours and dangers of this life: your love towards God, and your pious zeal, and sure hope, and fervour of spirit. You heard, when the Psalm was read, that the needy and poor man cries to God in this world (Ps. 73:21). For it is the voice, as you have very often heard, and ought to remember,

not of one man, and yet of one man: not of one, because the faithful are many; many grains groaning among the chaff, spread throughout the whole world: but of one, because all are members of Christ; and through this, one body. This people, then, needy and poor, does not know how to rejoice in the world: both its sorrow is within, and its joy is within, where none sees but He Who hears the one who groans and crowns the one who hopes. The gladness of the world is vanity. It is hoped for with great expectation that it may come, and it cannot be held when it has come. For this day, which today is glad for the lost in this city, tomorrow certainly will not be: nor will those same people be tomorrow what they are today. And all things pass, and all things fly away, and like smoke they vanish: and woe to those who love such things! For every soul follows what it loves. All flesh is grass, and all the honour of the flesh as the flower of grass; the grass has withered, the flower has fallen: but the Word of the Lord abides for ever (Isa. 40:6–8). Behold what you should love, if you wish to abide for ever. But you were about to say: Whence can I lay hold of the Word of God? The Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us (John 1:14).

2. Therefore, dearly beloved, let this too belong to our need and our poverty, that we grieve for those who seem to themselves to abound. For their joy is as that of the frenzied. Now just as a frenzied man mostly rejoices in his madness, and laughs, and bewails him who is sane: so we too, dearly beloved, if we have received the medicine coming from heaven, since we too were all frenzied, being as it were made whole, because we do not love the things we used to love, let us groan to God concerning those who are still mad. For He is able to make them too whole. And there is need that they look back upon themselves, and be displeasing to themselves. They wish to watch [shows], and they do not know how to watch themselves. For if they turn their eyes a little upon themselves, they see their own confusion. Until this happens, let our pursuits be other, let the diversions of our soul be other. Our sorrow is worth more than their joy. As far as concerns the number of the brethren, it is hardly likely that anyone from among the men has been carried off by that festivity: but as concerns the number of the sisters, it saddens us, and this is the more to be grieved over, because they do not rather run to the Church, they whom, if not fear, at least modesty ought to have called back from public places. Let Him Who sees see to this, and His mercy will be at hand, that He may heal all. But let us who have come together be fed with the banquet of God, and let His word be our joy. For He has invited us to His Gospel: and He Himself is our food, than which nothing is sweeter; but only if one has a healthy palate in the heart.

3. Now I think Your Charity remembers well that this Gospel is being read in order in fitting readings: and I suppose that what has already been treated has not slipped from you, especially the more recent matters concerning John and the dove. Concerning John, namely, what new thing he learned about the Lord through the dove, he who already knew the Lord. And this was found, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, that John indeed already knew the Lord, but that the Lord Himself was to baptize in such a way that the power of baptizing

He would transfer from Himself to no one, this he learned through the dove, because it had been said to him, Upon Whom you see the Spirit descending like a dove, and remaining upon Him, this is He Who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (John 1:33). What is "this is He"? No other, even if through another. But why through a dove? Many things have been said, and I neither can, nor is there need to, go over them all again: but chiefly for the sake of peace; because even the wood that has been baptized outside, since the dove found fruit in it, she brought to the ark: as you remember that the dove was sent out by Noah from the ark, which floated on the flood, and was washed by baptism, not drowned. When therefore she had been sent out, she brought back a branch of olive: but it did not have leaves alone, it had fruit too (Gen. 8:8–11). And so this is to be wished for our brothers who are baptized outside, that they may have fruit: the dove will not leave them outside, but will bring them back to the ark. And the whole fruit is charity, without which a man is nothing, whatever else he may have. And we have recalled and gone over how very fully this was said by the Apostle. For he says: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of Angels, but have not charity, I have become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal: and if I have all knowledge, and know all mysteries, and have all prophecy, and have all faith," (but how did he say all faith?) "so that I move mountains, but have not charity, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but have not charity, it profits me nothing" (1 Cor. 13:1–3). But in no way can those say that they have charity who divide unity. These things have been said: let us look at what follows.

4. John bore witness, because he saw. What witness did he bear? That He is the Son of God. It was fitting, therefore, that He should baptize Who is the only Son of God, not adopted. The adopted sons are ministers of the Only One: the Only One has the power, the adopted the ministry. Though a minister who does not belong to the number of the sons should baptize, because he lives badly and acts badly, what consoles us? This is He Who baptizes.

5. The next day again John was standing, and two of his disciples, and looking at Jesus walking he says, Behold the Lamb of God. Certainly this is the Lamb in a singular way: for the disciples too were called lambs, Behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves (Matt. 10:16). They themselves too were called light, You are the light of the world (ibid. 5:14): but He of Whom it was said is light otherwise, He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9). So too He is the Lamb in a singular way, alone without stain, without sin; not one whose stains have been wiped away, but one in Whom there was never any stain. For what? Because John said of the Lord, Behold the Lamb of God, was John himself not a lamb? Was he not a holy man? Was he not the friend of the bridegroom? Therefore He in a singular way, This is the Lamb of God; because by the blood of this Lamb alone, in a singular way, could men be redeemed.

6. My brothers, if we acknowledge that our price is the blood of the Lamb, who are those who today celebrate the festival of the blood of some woman or other?

and how ungrateful they are? Gold was snatched, they say, from a woman's ear, and blood ran, and the gold was placed in a balance or scale, and the blood far outweighed it. If a woman's blood had weight to tip the scale against gold, what weight to tip the scale against the world does the blood of the Lamb have, through Whom the world was made? And indeed that spirit, whoever it was, was appeased by blood so that it might press down the weight. The unclean spirits knew that Jesus Christ was to come; they had heard it from the Angels, they had heard it from the Prophets, and they were expecting Him to come. For if they were not expecting Him, why did they cry out, What have we to do with Thee? Hast Thou come before the time to destroy us? We know who Thou art, the Holy One of God (Mark 1:24). They knew that He was to come, but they did not know the time. But what did you hear in the Psalm about Jerusalem? For Thy servants have taken pleasure in its stones, and they will have pity on its dust: Thou, rising up, it says, wilt have mercy on Sion, for the time has come that Thou shouldst have mercy on it (Ps. 101:15, 14). When the time came for God to have mercy, the Lamb came. What sort of Lamb is it Whom wolves fear? What sort of Lamb is it Who, being slain, slew a lion? For the devil has been called a lion going about and roaring, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8): by the blood of the Lamb the lion was conquered. Behold the spectacles of Christians. And what is more, they with the eyes of the flesh see vanity, we with the eyes of the heart see truth. Do not think, brothers, that the Lord our God has left us without spectacles: for if there are no spectacles, why have you come together today? See, what we have spoken of you have seen, and you have cried out: you would not cry out unless you had seen. And it is a great thing to behold this throughout the whole world: the lion conquered by the blood of the Lamb, the members of Christ drawn out from the teeth of lions and joined to the body of Christ. Therefore some spirit or other imitated something like this, wishing his image to be bought with blood, because he knew that at some time or other the human race was to be redeemed by precious blood. For evil spirits feign for themselves certain shadows of honour, so as thereby to deceive those who follow Christ. So far does this go, my brothers, that those very men who lead astray by amulets, by incantations, by the devices of the enemy, mix the name of Christ into their incantations: because they can no longer lead Christians astray, when they give poison they add a little honey, so that by what is sweet what is bitter may be hidden, and it may be drunk to one's ruin. So far does this go that I myself knew at one time that a priest of that Capped One used to say, Even the Capped One himself is a Christian. Why this, brothers, except that Christians cannot be led astray otherwise?

7. Do not seek Christ, then, anywhere else than where Christ willed to be preached to you; and as He willed to be preached to you, so hold Him fast, so write Him in your heart. He is a wall against all the assaults and against all the snares of the enemy. Do not be afraid; nor does that one tempt, unless he has been permitted: it is certain that he does nothing unless he has been permitted or sent. He is sent as an evil angel by the ruling power; he is permitted when he asks for something: and this, brothers, does not happen except that the just may be proved and the unjust punished. Why then are you afraid? Walk in the Lord your God, be sure: what you

does not wish to suffer, you do not suffer; that He has permitted you to suffer is the scourge of one who corrects, not the punishment of one who condemns. We are being trained for an eternal inheritance, and we disdain to be scourged! My brothers, if some boy refused to be struck with blows or scourges by his father, how would he be called proud, hopeless, ungrateful for his father's discipline? And why does a human father train a human son? So that he may be able not to lose the temporal things which he has acquired for him, which he has gathered for him, which he does not want him to lose, which he himself who leaves them could not hold for ever. He does not teach a son with whom he may possess, but one who may possess after him. My brothers, if a father teaches his son as a successor, and the one he teaches is himself likewise to pass through all those things through which he too who admonished him is to pass, how do you want our Father to train us, to Whom we are not going to succeed, but to Whom we are going to come, and with Whom we are to remain for ever in an inheritance which does not wither, nor die, nor know hail? He Himself is both the inheritance and the Father. Him we shall possess, and ought we not to be trained? Let us endure, then, the training of the Father. Let us not, when our head aches, run to enchanters, to diviners and to the remedies of vanity. My brothers, shall I not lament over you? Daily I find these things; and what am I to do? Do I not yet persuade Christians that hope is to be placed in Christ? Behold, if someone for whom a remedy has been made should die (for how many have died with remedies? and how many have lived without remedies?), with what face has the soul gone out to God? It has lost the sign of Christ, it has received the sign of the devil. Or perhaps he may say: I have not lost the sign of Christ? Then you have had the sign of Christ together with the sign of the devil. Christ does not want partnership, but wants alone to possess what He bought. He bought at so great a price that He alone might possess: you make the devil His partner, the devil to whom you had sold yourself through sin. Woe to the double heart (Sir. 2:14)! to those who in their heart make a part for God and a part for the devil. God, angered because a part is made there for the devil, departs, and the devil will possess the whole. Not in vain, therefore, does the Apostle say: Do not give place to the devil (Eph. 4:27). Let us know the Lamb, then, brothers, let us know our price.

8 John was standing, and two of his disciples. Behold, two of the disciples of John: since John was such a friend of the bridegroom, he did not seek his own glory, but bore witness to the truth; did he wish his disciples to remain with him, so that they should not follow the Lord? Rather he himself showed his disciples Whom they should follow. For they held him as the Lamb: and he said, Why do you attend to me! I am not the Lamb; Behold the Lamb of God: of Whom he had also said above, Behold the Lamb of God. And what does the Lamb of God profit us? Behold, he says, Who takes away the sin of the world. On hearing this, the two who were with John followed Him.

9. Let us see what follows. Behold the Lamb of God: this is John's. "And the two disciples heard him speaking, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus, turning and seeing them following Him, says to them: What do you seek? And they said: Rabbi (which is said, being interpreted, Master), where do you dwell?" They were not following Him in such a way as if already

that they should cleave to Him: for it is plain when they cleaved to Him, namely when He called them from the boat. For among these two was Andrew, as you have just heard; and Andrew was Peter's brother: and we know from the Gospel that the Lord called Peter and Andrew from the boat, saying, Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). And from that time they already cleaved to Him, so as not to depart. Now therefore, as for these two following Him, they do not follow as men who would not afterwards depart; but they wished to see where He dwelt, and to do what is written, Let your foot wear away the threshold of his doors; rise to come to him constantly, and be instructed by his precepts (Sir. 6:36–37). He showed them where He abode: they came and were with Him. What a blessed day they spent, what a blessed night! Who is there to tell us what those men heard from the Lord? Let us too build in our own heart, and make a house to which He may come and teach us; may He converse with us.

10. « What do you seek? They said to Him: Rabbi (which is said, being interpreted, Master), where do you dwell? He says to them: Come and see. And they came, and saw where He abode, and stayed with Him that day: and it was about the tenth hour. » Do we think it was of no concern to the Evangelist to tell us what hour it was? Can it be that he wished us to notice nothing there, to inquire into nothing? It was the tenth hour. This number signifies the law, because the law was given in ten commandments. Now the time had come for the law to be fulfilled through love, since it could not be fulfilled by the Jews through fear. Hence the Lord says: I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it (Matt. 5:17). Fittingly, then, did these two follow Him at the tenth hour on the testimony of the bridegroom's friend: and at the tenth hour He heard Rabbi, which is interpreted Master. If at the tenth hour the Lord heard Rabbi, and the number ten pertains to the law, then the master of the law is none other than the giver of the law. Let no one say that one gave the law and another teaches the law: He Himself teaches it Who gave it; He is the master of His own law, and He teaches it. And mercy is on His tongue; therefore He teaches the law mercifully, as was said of wisdom, But she carries law and mercy on her tongue (Prov. 31:26). Do not fear that you cannot fulfil the law; flee to mercy. If fulfilling the law is too much for you, make use of that covenant, make use of that bond, make use of the prayers which the heavenly lawyer has appointed and composed for you.

11. For those who have a case and wish to petition the emperor look for some learned lawyer by whom their petition may be drawn up for them, lest perhaps, if they ask otherwise than they ought, they not only fail to obtain what they ask, but even incur punishment instead of a favour. So when the Apostles sought to make petition, and did not find how they might approach God the emperor, they said to Christ, Lord, teach us to pray: that is, Our lawyer, assessor, nay rather fellow-sitter with God, compose prayers for us. And the Lord taught from the book of heavenly law, He taught how they should pray: and in the very thing He taught He set a certain condition: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Luke 11:1–4).

If you do not petition according to the law, you will be guilty. Do you tremble before the emperor, having become guilty? Offer the sacrifice of humility, offer the sacrifice of mercy, say in your petitions: Forgive me, since I too forgive. But if you say it, do it. For what will you do, where will you go, if you have lied in your petitions? It is not as is said in the forum: you will lose the benefit of the rescript; rather, you will not even obtain the rescript. For it is a rule of the law of the courts that whoever has lied in his petition, what he has obtained does not profit him. But this holds among men, because a man can be deceived; the emperor could be deceived when you sent your petition: for you said what you wished, and he to whom you said it does not know whether it is true; he has left you to your adversary to be refuted, so that if before the judge you are convicted of a lie (since he could not but grant it, not knowing whether you had lied), there you will lose the very benefit of the rescript by which you brought the rescript about. But God, Who knows whether you are lying or speaking the truth, does not bring it about that it fails to profit you in the judgement; rather, He does not even allow you to obtain it, because you dared to lie to the Truth.

12. What then will you do? Tell me. To fulfil the law in every part, so that you offend in nothing, is difficult: guilt, then, is certain; are you unwilling to use the remedy? See, my brothers, what a remedy the Lord has set against the sicknesses of the soul. What then? When your head aches, we praise you if you put the Gospel to your head and do not run to an amulet. For to this has the weakness of men been brought, and so much are those men to be lamented who run to amulets, that we rejoice when we see a man laid in his bed, tossed with fevers and pains, and placing his hope nowhere except in putting the Gospel to his head: not because it was made for this, but because the Gospel has been preferred to amulets. If then it is put to the head so that the pain of the head may cease, is it not put to the heart so that it may be healed of sins? Let it be done, then. What is to be done? Let it be put to the heart, let the heart be healed. It is good, good, that you not busy yourself about the health of the body except to ask it from God. If He knows that it profits you, He will give it: if He does not give it to you, it would not have profited you to have it. How many lie sick in bed innocent, and if they were healthy, would go out to commit crimes? To how many is health harmful? The robber who goes out to the pass to kill a man, how much better would it have been for him to be sick? He who rises by night to dig through another's wall, how much better for him if he were tossed with fevers? He would be sick more innocently; he is healthy wickedly. God therefore knows what is expedient for us: let us only see to this, that our heart be healthy from sins; and when perhaps we are scourged in the body, let us entreat Him. The apostle Paul asked Him to take away the goad of the flesh, and He would not take it away. Was he troubled? Did he, saddened, say that he was forsaken? Rather he said he was not forsaken, because what he wished to be taken away was not taken away, so that that weakness might be healed. For this he found in the voice of the physician: My grace is sufficient for you; for strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:8–9). How then do you know that God does not wish to heal you? It is still expedient for you to be scourged. How do you know how putrid is that which the physician cuts, driving the steel through the putrid parts? Does he not know the measure, what he is doing, how far he is doing it? Does the howling of the one being cut draw

back the hand of a physician skilfully cutting? The one cries out; the other cuts. Is he cruel who does not listen to the one crying out, or rather merciful who pursues the wound so as to heal the sick man? These things, my brothers, I have said for this reason, that no one should seek anything besides the help of God, when perhaps we are under some correction of the Lord. See that you do not perish, see that you do not withdraw from the Lamb and be devoured by the lion.

13 We have said, then, why it was at the tenth hour: let us look at what follows. Andrew the brother of Simon Peter was one of the two who had heard from John, and had followed Him. This man found his brother Simon, and says to him, We have found the Messiah; which is interpreted Christ. Messiah is Hebrew, Christ is Greek, in Latin Anointed. For Christ is so called from anointing. Chrisma is Greek for anointing; therefore Christ is the anointed. He is singularly anointed, pre-eminently anointed; hence all Christians are anointed, He pre-eminently. Hear how He says in the Psalm: Therefore God, Thy God, has anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above Thy partakers (Ps. 44:8). For His partakers are all the saints; but He is singularly the Holy One of holy ones, singularly anointed, singularly Christ.

14. And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus, looking upon him, said, You are Simon the son of John, you shall be called Cephas; which is interpreted Peter. It is no great thing that the Lord said whose son this man was. What is great for the Lord? He knew all the names of His saints, whom He predestined before the foundation of the world; and do you marvel that He said to one man, You are the son of that man, and you shall be called this? Is it great that He changed his name, and made Peter out of Simon? Now Peter is from petra [rock], and the rock is the Church: therefore in the name of Peter the Church was figured. And who is secure, except he who builds upon the rock? And what does the Lord Himself say? "He who hears these My words and does them, I will liken him to a prudent man, building upon the rock" (he does not yield to temptations): "the rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it did not fall; for it was founded upon the rock. He who hears My words and does not do them" (now let each one of us fear and beware), "I will liken him to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand: the rain came down, the floods came, the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell; and great was its ruin" (Matt. 7:24–27). What does it profit that he enters the Church, who wishes to build upon the sand? For by hearing and not doing, he builds indeed, but upon the sand. For if he hears nothing, he builds nothing: but if he hears, he builds. But we ask, where. For if he hears and does, upon the rock: if he hears and does not do, upon the sand. There are two kinds of builders: either upon the rock, or upon the sand. What then of those who do not hear? Are they secure? Does he call them secure because they build nothing? They are naked under the rain, before the winds, before the floods: when these come, they carry those men off before they overthrow houses. Therefore there is one security: both to build, and to build upon the rock. If you wish to hear and not to do, you build; but you build a ruin: and when temptation comes, it overthrows the house, and carries you off with your very ruin. But if you do not hear, you are naked; you yourself are dragged off by those temptations. Hear therefore,

and do; there is one remedy. How many perhaps today, by hearing and not doing, have been carried off by the river of this festival? For by hearing and not doing, the river has come, this very anniversary festival; the torrent has been filled, it is going to pass and to dry up: but woe to him whom it has carried away! Let your Charity therefore know this, that unless one both hears and does, he does not build upon the rock; and he does not belong to so great a name, which the Lord commended thus. For He has made you attentive. For if he had been called Peter before, you would not thus see the mystery of the rock; and you would think that he was so called by chance, not by the providence of God: therefore He willed that he be called something else first, so that by the very change of name the liveliness of the sacrament might be commended.

15. And on the next day He wished to go out into Galilee, and He found Philip. He says to him: Follow Me. Now he was of the city of Andrew and Peter. And Philip found Nathanael: Philip, already called by the Lord. And he said to him: Him of Whom Moses wrote in the Law, and the Prophets, we have found, Jesus the son of Joseph. He was called the son of the man to whom His mother had been betrothed. For that He was conceived and born of her untouched, all Christians know well from the Gospel. This Philip said to Nathanael; he added also the place, from Nazareth. And Nathanael said to him: From Nazareth something good can be. What is to be understood, Brothers? Not as some pronounce it: for it is also customarily pronounced thus, Can something good be from Nazareth? For Philip's voice follows, and he says, Come, and see. But this voice can follow either pronunciation, whether you pronounce it thus, as confirming, From Nazareth something good can be; and he, Come, and see: or thus, doubting and putting the whole as a question, Can something good be from Nazareth? Come, and see. Since, therefore, whether it is pronounced in that way or in this, the words that follow are not inconsistent, it is for us to inquire what we should rather understand in these words.

16. What sort of man this Nathanael was, we prove in what follows. Hear what sort of man he was: the Lord Himself bears witness. The great Lord was made known by the witness of John; blessed Nathanael was made known by the witness of the Truth. For the Lord, even if He were not commended by the witness of John, bore witness to Himself; because the truth suffices Him for His own witness. But because men could not grasp the truth, they sought the truth through a lamp: and therefore John was sent, through whom the Lord might be shown. Hear the Lord bearing witness to Nathanael: And Nathanael said to him: From Nazareth something good can be. Philip says to him: Come, and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and says of him: Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. A great testimony! This was said neither to Andrew, nor to Peter, nor to Philip, which was said of Nathanael: Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile.

17. What then are we doing, brothers? Ought this man to have been first among the Apostles? Not only is he not found first among the Apostles, but Nathanael is neither in the middle nor last among the twelve, he to whom the Son of God bore so great a testimony, saying, Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom

there is no guile. Is the reason sought? So far as the Lord intimates, we find it with probability. For we ought to understand that Nathanael himself was learned and skilled in the Law: for this reason the Lord did not wish to place him among the disciples, because He chose the unlettered, by whom He might confound the world. Hear the Apostle saying these things: "For see, he says, your calling, brothers, that not many are powerful, not many noble: but God chose the weak things of the world, that He might confound the strong; and the ignoble and contemptible things of the world God chose, and the things that are not, as though they were, that the things that are might be brought to nothing" (1 Cor. 1:26–28). If a learned man were chosen, perhaps he would say that he had been chosen for this reason, because his learning deserved to be chosen. Our Lord Jesus Christ, wishing to break the necks of the proud, did not seek a fisherman by means of an orator, but by means of a fisherman gained an emperor. Great was Cyprian the orator, but before him was Peter the fisherman, through whom afterwards not only an orator but also an emperor would believe. No noble was chosen first, no learned man; because God chose the weak things of the world, that He might confound the strong. This man, then, was great and without guile: for this alone he was not chosen, lest the Lord should seem to anyone to have chosen the learned. And it came from that very learning in the Law, what [he said] when he had heard "from Nazareth": for he had searched the Scriptures, and knew that the Saviour was to be expected from there, which the other scribes and Pharisees did not readily know: this man, then, most learned in the Law, when he had heard Philip saying, We have found Jesus, of whom Moses wrote in the Law, and the Prophets, from Nazareth, the son of Joseph; he who knew the Scriptures best, on hearing the name Nazareth, was lifted up into hope, and said, From Nazareth something good can be.

18. Now let us see the rest concerning him: Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. What is "in whom there is no guile"? Perhaps he had no sin? Perhaps he was not sick? Perhaps a physician was not necessary for him? Far from it. No one has been so born here that he would not need that Physician. What then does "in whom there is no guile" mean? Let us inquire somewhat more attentively; it will appear presently, in the name of the Lord. The Lord says dolus; and everyone who understands Latin words knows that dolus is when one thing is done and another feigned. Let your Charity attend. Dolus is not dolor: I say this because many brothers less skilled in Latinity speak thus, so as to say, "Dolus torments him", in place of what is dolor. Dolus is fraud, it is pretence. When someone hides one thing in his heart and speaks another, it is guile, and he has as it were two hearts: he has, as it were, one recess of the heart, where he sees the truth; and another recess, where he conceives a lie. And that you may know that this is guile, it is said in the Psalms, Deceitful lips. What is "deceitful lips"? There follows, In heart and heart they have spoken evil things (Ps. 11:3). What is "in heart and heart", except with a double heart? If, then, there was no guile in this man, the Physician judged him curable, not sound. For a sound man is one thing, a curable man another, an incurable man another: he who is sick with hope is called curable; he who is sick with despair, incurable; but he who is already sound does not need a physician. The Physician, then, who had come to heal, saw this man to be curable, because guile in

him there was no guile. How was there no guile in him? If he is a sinner, he confesses himself a sinner. For if he is a sinner and calls himself just, there is guile in his mouth. So in Nathanael He praised the confession of sin; He did not judge that he was not a sinner.

19. Therefore, when the Pharisees, who seemed to themselves to be just, were reproaching the Lord because, as physician, He mingled with the sick, and were saying, Look with whom He eats, with publicans and sinners, the physician answered the frenzied: There is no need of a physician for the healthy, but for those who are unwell: I have not come to call the just, but sinners (Matt. 9:11–13). That is to say: Because you call yourselves just when you are sinners, you judge yourselves healthy when you are sick, you thrust away the medicine, you do not hold on to health. Hence that Pharisee who had invited the Lord to dinner seemed to himself to be healthy; but that sick woman burst into the house, where she had not been invited, and, made shameless by the desire for health, she approached, not the Lord's head, not His hands, but His feet; she washed them with tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them, anointed them with ointment: the sinful woman made peace with the footsteps of the Lord. That Pharisee who was reclining there, as one healthy, reproached the physician, and said within himself: If this man were a prophet, he would know what woman has touched his feet. Now he had suspected that He did not know, because He did not repel her, as if to keep from being touched by unclean hands; but He knew, and He allowed Himself to be touched, so that the touch itself might heal. The Lord, seeing the heart of the Pharisee, put forward a comparison: « There were two debtors to a certain moneylender; one owed him fifty denarii, the other five hundred; when they had nothing with which to repay, he forgave them both; which of them loved him more? And he said: I suppose, Lord, the one to whom he forgave more. And turning to the woman, He said to Simon: Do you see this woman? I entered your house, you gave Me no water for My feet; but she has washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair: you gave Me no kiss; she has not ceased to kiss My feet: you gave Me no oil; she has anointed My feet with ointment. Therefore I say to you: her many sins are forgiven her, because she has loved much; but he to whom little is forgiven, loves little » (Luke 7:36–47). That is to say: You are sicker, but you think yourself healthy; you think little is forgiven you, when you are a greater debtor. Rightly did she, because there was no guile in her, merit medicine. What does it mean, there was no guile in her? She confessed her sins. This too He praises in Nathanael, that there was no guile in him; for many Pharisees who abounded in sins called themselves just, and brought guile with them, because of which they could not be healed.

20. So He now saw this man, in whom there was no guile, and said: Behold, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. Nathanael says to Him: Whence do you know me? Jesus answered and said: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig, I saw you; that is, under the fig tree. Nathanael answered Him and said: Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel. This Nathanael was able to understand something great in what was said, When you were under the fig tree, I saw you,

before Philip called you. For he uttered such a word, You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel, as Peter uttered so long afterwards, when the Lord said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father Who is in heaven (Matt. 16:17). And there He named the rock, and praised the firm foundation of the Church in this faith. Here he already says, You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. From where? Because it was said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

21. It must be asked whether this fig tree signifies anything. For hear, my brothers: we find a fig tree cursed, because it had only leaves and did not have fruit (ibid. 21:19). At the origin of the human race, when Adam and Eve had sinned, they made aprons for themselves from fig leaves (Gen. 3:7): fig leaves, therefore, are understood as sins. Now Nathanael was under the fig tree, as if under the shadow of death. The Lord saw him, He of Whom it was said, Those who sat in the shadow of death, upon them a light has risen (Isa. 9:2). What, then, was said to Nathanael? You say to Me, O Nathanael, From where do you know Me? Now you are already speaking with Me, because Philip called you. Him whom He had called through an apostle, He already saw belonging to His Church. O you Church, O you Israel, in whom there is no guile: if you are the people of Israel in whom there is no guile, you have now already come to know Christ through the Apostles, as Nathanael came to know Christ through Philip. But His mercy saw you before you knew Him, when you lay under sin. For did we first seek Christ, and did He not seek us? Did we, the sick, come to the physician, and not the physician to the sick? Had that sheep not been lost, and, leaving the ninety-nine, did the shepherd not seek it and find it, and joyfully carry it back on his shoulders? Had that drachma not been lost, and did the woman not light a lamp, and seek in her whole house until she found it? And when she had found it, Rejoice with me, she says to her neighbours, because I have found the drachma which I had lost (Luke 15:4–10). So we too had been lost like the sheep, and we had been lost like the drachma: and our shepherd found the sheep, but He sought the sheep; the woman found the drachma, but she sought the drachma. Who is the woman? The flesh of Christ. What is the lamp? I have prepared a lamp for My Christ (Ps. 131:17). Therefore we were sought, that we might be found; having been found, we speak. Let us not be proud, because before we were found, we would have perished, had we not been sought. Let them not, therefore, say to us, those whom we love and whom we wish to win for the peace of the Catholic Church: What do you want with us? Why do you seek us, if we are sinners? We seek you for this reason, that you may not perish: we seek, because we were sought; we wish to find you, because we were found.

22. So when Nathanael had said, From where do you know Me? the Lord said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. O you Israel without guile, whoever you are, O people living by faith, before I called you through My Apostles, when you were under the shadow of death and you did not see Me, I saw you. The Lord then says to him: "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, you believe: you will see greater things than these." What is this, "you will see greater things than these"? And He says to him: Amen, amen I say to you, you will

see heaven opened, and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Brethren, I said something greater, I know not what, than “Under the fig tree I saw you.” For it is more that the Lord justified us when called than that He saw us lying under the shadow of death. For what would it have profited us if we had remained there where He saw us? Would we not be lying there still? What is this greater thing? When have we seen angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man?

23. I had already spoken at some time about these ascending and descending angels; but lest you have forgotten, I speak briefly, as one recalling it: for I would speak at greater length if I were not recalling it but only now introducing it. Jacob saw a ladder in a dream, and on that very ladder he saw angels ascending and descending; and the stone which he had placed for himself at his head, he anointed (Gen. 28:12–18). You have heard that the Messiah is Christ, you have heard that Christ is the Anointed. For he did not set up the anointed stone in such a way that he would come and adore it: otherwise it would be idolatry, not a signification of Christ. So a signification was made, as far as it was fitting for a signification to be made, and Christ was signified. A stone anointed, but not into an idol. A stone anointed: why a stone? Behold, I lay in Sion a chosen stone, precious, and whoever believes in it shall not be confounded (Isa. 28:16; 1 Pet. 2:6). Why anointed? Because Christ [is named] from chrism. But what did he see then on the ladder? Angels ascending and descending. So it is also with the Church, brethren: the angels of God are good preachers, preaching Christ; that is, they ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. How do they ascend, and how do they descend? We have an example from one: hear the apostle Paul; what we find in him, let us believe this of the other preachers of the truth. See Paul ascending: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up as far as the third heaven, whether in the body or outside the body I do not know, God knows: and that he heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to speak” (2 Cor. 12:2–4). You have heard him ascending, hear him descending. “I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to carnal: as to little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not solid food” (1 Cor. 3:1–2). Behold, he who had ascended has descended. Ask where he had ascended. As far as the third heaven. Ask where he descended. As far as giving milk to little ones. Hear that he descended: I became a little one, he says, in your midst, as if a nurse were cherishing her children (1 Thess. 2:7). For we see both nurses and mothers descend to little ones: and if they know how to speak Latin words, they cut them short, and in a manner shake up their own tongue, so that out of eloquent speech childish endearments may be made; because if they speak thus, the infant does not hear, nor indeed does the infant make progress. And some eloquent father, if he is so great an orator that the forums resound with his tongue and the tribunals are shaken; if he has a little son, when he has returned home, he sets aside the forensic eloquence to which he had ascended, and with a childish tongue descends to the little one. Hear in one place the Apostle himself ascending and descending, in one sentence: “For whether, he says, we have gone out of our mind, it is for God: whether we are temperate,