Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus XIII-XIX

harvest was ready. Rightly was there a ripe crop, as it were, when so many thousands of men were bringing the prices of their possessions, and, laying them at the feet of the Apostles, their shoulders freed from worldly burdens, were following Christ the Lord: truly a ripe harvest. What came of it? From that very harvest a few grains were cast out, and they sowed the whole world, and another harvest is springing up which is to be reaped at the end of the age. Of that harvest it is said, Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy (Ps. 125:5). To that harvest, then, not Apostles but Angels shall be sent: The reapers, He says, are the Angels (Matt. 13:39). This harvest, then, grows among the tares, and waits to be cleansed at the end. But that harvest was already ripe, to which the disciples were sent first, where the Prophets had laboured. But nevertheless, brethren, see what is said: Let both he who sows and he who reaps rejoice together. They had labours at different times, but they shall enjoy joy alike, they shall receive together as their wage eternal life.

33. And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him, because of the word of the woman bearing witness, He told me all things whatsoever I did. So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days. And many more believed because of His word; and they said to the woman: We now believe not because of your speech; for we ourselves have heard, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world. And this must be noticed a little, since the reading is finished. The woman first announced it, and at the woman's testimony the Samaritans believed, and they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed there two days, and more believed; and when they had believed, they said to the woman, We believe now not because of your word, but we ourselves have come to know, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world: first through report, afterwards through His presence. So it is done today with those who are outside and are not yet Christians: Christ is announced through Christian friends; as though through that woman, that is, through the Church announcing Him, they come to Christ, they believe through that report; He stays with them two days, that is, He gives them the two precepts of charity; and many more believe in Him, and more firmly, because He truly is the Saviour of the world.

Tractate XVI.

From that place of the Gospel, And after two days He went out from there, and went away into Galilee; as far as this, And he himself believed, and his whole household. Chap. 4, vv. 43-53.

1. Today's Gospel reading, which is set before us for discussion, follows the reading of yesterday. In it the meanings are indeed not difficult to search out, but worthy of preaching, worthy of admiration and praise. Let us therefore rather recall this passage of the Gospel with commendation than treat it with difficulty. For Jesus, after the two days which He had spent in Samaria, went away into Galilee, where He had been brought up. And the Evangelist, continuing, says: For Jesus Himself bore witness that a prophet has no honour in his own country.

It was not for this reason that Jesus departed from Samaria after two days, that He had no honour in Samaria: for Samaria was not His fatherland, but Galilee. Since, then, He had left that place so quickly, and had come to Galilee where He had been brought up, how does he bear witness that a prophet has no honour in his own fatherland? He would seem rather to have been able to bear witness that a prophet would have no honour in his own fatherland if He had disdained to go into Galilee and had remained in Samaria.

2. Let your Charity, then, give heed to the no small mystery intimated to us, as the Lord suggests and grants what I am to speak. You have learned the question put forward; seek out its solution. But let us repeat the proposition, so that we may make the solution desirable. It moves us why the Evangelist said, For Jesus Himself bore witness that a prophet has no honour in his own fatherland. Moved by this, we went back over the preceding words, so as to find why the Evangelist wished to say this; and we find his preceding words narrating thus, that after two days He set out from Samaria into Galilee. Is it for this reason, then, O Evangelist, that you said that Jesus bore witness that a prophet would have no honour in his own fatherland, because after two days He left Samaria and hastened to come into Galilee? Nay rather, I seem to myself to understand more fittingly that, if Jesus had no honour in His own fatherland, He would not have hurried to it, leaving Samaria behind. But unless I am mistaken, nay because it is true and I am not mistaken, the Evangelist saw better than I what he was saying; he, who drank it from the breast of the Lord, saw the truth better than I. For he is John the evangelist, who among all the disciples reclined upon the breast of the Lord; and whom the Lord, though owing love to all, yet loved before the rest (John 13:25, and 21:20). Would he, then, be mistaken, and I judge rightly? Nay, if I am piously wise, let me obediently hear what he said, so that I may deserve to perceive what he perceived.

3. Receive, therefore, dearly beloved, what I think here, without prejudice, should you have perceived something better. For we all have one Master, and in one school we are fellow pupils. This, then, is what I think; and see whether what I think is not either true or near to the truth. In Samaria He spent two days, and the Samaritans believed in Him: He spent as many days in Galilee, and the Galileans did not believe in Him. Go back over, or call again to mind, yesterday's reading and sermon. He came into Samaria, where that woman had first proclaimed Him, with whom at Jacob's well He had spoken great mysteries: when He had been seen and heard, the Samaritans believed in Him on account of the woman's word, and believed more firmly on account of His word, and more of them believed: so it is written. Having spent two days there (by which number of days the number of the two commandments is mystically commended, on which two commandments the whole Law hangs and the Prophets [Matt. 22:37–40], as you remember that we commended to you yesterday), He goes on into Galilee, and comes to the city of Cana of Galilee, where He made the water wine. And there, when He turned the water into wine, as John himself writes, His disciples believed in Him (John 2,

2:1-11): and certainly the house was full of crowds of banqueters. So great a miracle was done, and none believed in Him except His disciples. This city of Galilee He has now revisited. And behold, a certain ruler, whose son was sick, came to Him, and began to ask that He would come down, to that city or house, and heal his son; for he was beginning to die. He who was asking, did he not believe? What do you expect to hear from me? Ask the Lord what He thought of him. For being asked, He answered thus: Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe. He rebukes the man as lukewarm in faith, or cold, or of no faith at all, but as desiring to test, by the healing of his son, what sort Christ was, who He was, how much He could do. For we have heard the words of the one asking; we do not see the heart of the one distrusting: but He pronounced, Who both heard the words and looked into the heart. Finally the Evangelist himself also, by the testimony of his narrative, shows that he had not yet believed, he who desired the Lord to come to his house to heal his son. For after it was announced to him that his son was well, and he found him healed at that hour at which the Lord had said, Go, your son lives; and he believed, it says, himself, and his whole house. If therefore he himself and his whole house believed for this reason, because his son was announced to him as well, and he compared the hour of those announcing with the hour of Him Who foretold it, then when he was asking, he did not yet believe. The Samaritans had expected no sign; they had believed His word alone: but His own fellow citizens deserved to hear, Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe; and yet there, though so great a miracle was done, none believed except he himself and his house. At His word alone many Samaritans believed: at that miracle only that house believed where it was done. What then, brethren, what does the Lord commend to us? Then Galilee of Judaea was the Lord's homeland, because He was brought up there: but now, since that matter portends something (for not without cause are they called prodigies, except because they portend something: for a prodigy is so called as if a porrodicium, because it speaks forth, signifies forth, and portends that something is to come), since therefore all those things portended something, all those things foretold something, let us now make the homeland of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh (for He had no homeland on earth except according to the flesh, which He received on earth); let us then make the homeland of the Lord the people of the Jews. Behold, in His homeland He has no honour. Now consider the crowds of the Jews, consider now that nation dispersed over the whole world, and torn up from its roots; consider the branches broken, cut off, scattered, dried up, through whose breaking the wild olive deserved to be grafted in (Rom. 11:17): see the crowd of the Jews, what does it say now? He Whom you worship, Whom you adore, was our brother. And let us answer, A prophet has no honour in his own homeland. Finally they saw the Lord Jesus walking on earth and working miracles; giving light to the blind, opening ears to the deaf, loosing the mouths of the mute, strengthening the limbs of the paralysed, walking on the sea, commanding the winds and the waves, raising the dead; they saw Him doing such great signs, and scarcely

few from there believed. I speak to the people of God: so many of us have believed, what signs have we seen? That, therefore, which was done then foreshadowed this which is being done now. The Jews were, or are, like the Galileans; we are like those Samaritans. We have heard the Gospel, we have assented to the Gospel, through the Gospel we have believed in Christ; we have seen no signs, we demand none.

4. For although he was one of the twelve, chosen and holy, yet that Thomas who longed to put his fingers into the places of the wounds was an Israelite, that is, of the Lord's own nation. The Lord rebuked him just as He rebuked this official. To this one He said, Unless you see signs and wonders you do not believe; but to that one He said, Because you have seen, you have believed. He had come to the Galileans after the Samaritans who had believed His word, among whom He had done no miracles, whom, firm in faith, He had left soon and without anxiety, because He had not left them as to the presence of His divinity. So when the Lord said to Thomas, Come, put out your hand, and do not be unbelieving, but believing; and when he, having touched the places of the wounds, cried out and said, My Lord and my God: he is rebuked and it is said to him, Because you have seen, you have believed. Why, unless because a prophet has no honour in his own country? But because this prophet has honour among foreigners, what follows? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed (John 20:25–29). We were foretold; and what the Lord praised beforehand He has also deigned to fulfil in us. Those who crucified Him saw, they handled, and so few believed: we have not seen, we have not handled, we have heard, we have believed. May the blessedness He promised come about in us, be accomplished in us; both here, because we have been preferred to His own country, and in the world to come, because we have been grafted in in place of the broken branches.

5. For He was showing that He would break off these branches and graft in this wild olive when, moved by the faith of the Centurion, who said to Him, «I am not worthy that You should come in under my roof; but only speak with a word, and my servant shall be healed: for I too am a man set under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to this one, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. Turning to those who were following Him, He said, Amen I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel.» Why did He not find such great faith in Israel? Because a prophet has no honour in his own country. Could not the Lord have said to that centurion too what He said to this official, Go, your boy lives? See the distinction: this official longed for the Lord to come down to his house; that centurion said that he was unworthy. To the one it was said, I am coming and will heal him; to this one it was said, Go, your son lives. To the one He promised His presence; this one He healed by a word. This one, however, tried to wring His presence from Him; that one said that he was unworthy of His presence. Here way was given to pride; there concession was made to humility. As if He were saying to this one, Go, your son lives, do not weary Me. Unless you see signs and wonders, you do not believe: you want My presence in your house; I can command even by a word; do not

to believe from signs: the centurion, a foreigner, believed that I could act by a word, and he believed before I acted; you do not believe unless you see signs and wonders. If it is so, then, let the proud branches be broken off and let the humble wild olive be grafted in. Yet let the root remain, those being cut off and these received. Where does the root remain? In the Patriarchs. For the fatherland of Christ is the people of Israel, since He came from them according to the flesh; but the root of this tree is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the holy patriarchs. And where are they? In rest with God, in great honour. So it was that that poor man, helped, was lifted into Abraham's bosom after his departure from the body, and in Abraham's bosom was seen from afar by the proud rich man (Luke 16:22–23). The root therefore remains, and the root is praised. But the proud branches deserved both to be cut off and to wither, while the humble wild olive found a place through their being cut off.

6. Hear, then, how the natural branches are cut off and how the wild olive is grafted in, from the centurion himself, whom I thought I should mention for the sake of comparison with this royal official. Amen, He says, I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel: therefore I say to you that many from the east and the west. How widely the wild olive had taken over the earth! This world was a bitter forest. But because of humility, because of I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, Many will come from the east and the west. And suppose that they come: what will become of them? For if they come, they have already been cut out of the forest: where are they to be grafted in, so that they do not wither? And they will recline, He says, with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. At what banquet? You would not, perhaps, be inviting them to drinking much rather than to living for ever? They will recline with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Where? In the kingdom, He says, of heaven. And what will become of those who came from the stock of Abraham? What will become of the branches with which the tree was full? What, except that they will be cut off, so that these may be grafted in? Show that they will be cut off: But the sons of the kingdom will go into the outer darkness (Matt. 8:5–12).

7. Let the Prophet, then, have honour among us, since He did not have honour in His own fatherland. He did not have honour in the fatherland in which He was made; let Him have honour in the fatherland which He made. For in that one the maker of all things was made; He was made in it according to the form of a servant. For that very city in which He was made, Zion itself, the very nation of the Jews, Jerusalem itself, He Himself made when He was the Word of God with the Father: For all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made [John 1:3]. Of that man, then, of whom we heard today, the one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5), the Psalm also spoke beforehand, saying, Mother Zion, a man will say [Ps. 86:5]. A certain man, the mediator of God and men, a man, says Mother Zion. Why does He say Mother Zion? Because from there He received flesh; from there came the Virgin Mary, from whose womb the form of a servant was taken up, in which He deigned to appear most humble. A man says Mother Zion, and this man who says Mother Zion was made in her: a man was made in her. For He was God