Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus XX-XXV

Tractate 20.

Again on that [saying], Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing: for whatever the Father does, these same things the Son also does likewise. Chap. 5, v. 19.

1. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially those which John the evangelist records, who not without cause reclined upon the breast of the Lord (John 13:23), except that he might drink in the secrets of His higher wisdom, and that what he had drunk by loving he might belch forth by evangelizing, are so secret and profound in their meaning that they trouble all who are of perverse heart, and exercise all who are of upright heart. Accordingly, let your Charity give heed to these few things which have been read. Let us see whether in any way we can, by the gift and help of Him Who willed that His words be recited to us, which were then heard and written down so that they might now be read, [discover] what is meant by what you have just heard Him say, Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing: for whatever the Father does, these same things the Son also does likewise.

2. You must be reminded of where this discourse arose, because of the earlier parts of the reading, where the Lord had healed a certain man among those who lay in the five porches of that pool of Solomon, to whom He had said, Take up your bed, and go into your house. Now He had done this on the sabbath: hence the Jews, disturbed, were slandering Him as a subverter and transgressor of the Law. Then He had said to them, My Father works until now, and I work (John 5:8, 17). For they, taking the observance of the sabbath carnally, thought that God after the labour of fashioning the world was, as it were, sleeping until this day; and that He had therefore sanctified that day, from which He began, as it were, to rest from His labours. But the sacrament of the sabbath was enjoined upon our ancient fathers (Exod. 20:8–11), which we Christians observe spiritually, so that we abstain from all servile work, that is, from all sin (because the Lord says, Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin (John 8:34), and have rest in our heart, that is, spiritual tranquillity. And although we strive for this in this world, yet we shall not attain to that perfect rest until we have departed from this life. But it was said that God rested for this reason, that He no longer created any creature after all things were completed. And Scripture called it rest for this reason, to admonish us that we shall rest after good works. For thus we have it written in Genesis, And God made all things very good, and God rested on the seventh day (Gen. 1:31 and 2:2): so that you, O man, when you consider that God Himself rested after good works, may not hope for rest for yourself except when you have done good works: and just as God, after He made man in His own image and likeness on the sixth day, and on that day completed all

His works very good, rested on the seventh day; so you too should not hope for rest unless you return to the likeness in which you were made, which you lost by sinning. For God is not to be said to have laboured, Who spoke, and they were made. Who is there who, after such ease of working, would wish to rest as if after labour? If He had commanded and someone had resisted Him, if He had commanded and it had not been done, and He had laboured that it might be done, it might rightly be said that He rested after labour; but since in the very book of Genesis we read, God said, Let there be light; and light was made: God said, Let there be a firmament; and a firmament was made (Gen. 1:3, 6, 7); and the rest were made at once at His word, to which the Psalm also bears witness, saying, He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created (Ps. 32:9 and 148:5): how, after the world was made, would He seek rest as though to cease, Who in commanding had never laboured? Therefore those things are mystical, and were set down thus for this reason, that we may hope for rest for ourselves after this life, but only if we have done good works. Therefore the Lord, beating back the impudence and error of the Jews, and showing that they did not think rightly about God, says to them, scandalized because He was working the healing of men on the sabbath, My Father works until now, and I work: do not therefore think that My Father rested on the sabbath in such a way that from then on He does not work; but just as He works now, so I too work. But as the Father works without labour, so too the Son without labour. God said, and they were made: Christ said to the sick man, Take up your bed, and go into your house, and it was done.

3. But the Catholic faith holds that the works of the Father and of the Son are not separable. This is what I wish, if I can, to speak to your Charity: but according to those words of the Lord, He who can receive it, let him receive it (Matt. 19:12). But he who cannot receive it, let him not ascribe it to me, but to his own slowness; and let him turn himself to Him Who opens the heart, that He may pour in what He gives. Finally, if anyone has failed to understand for this reason, that it was not said by me as it ought to have been said, let him pardon human frailty, and make supplication to divine goodness. For we have Christ as our teacher within. Whatever you cannot receive through your ear and my mouth, turn to Him in your heart, Who both teaches me what I speak, and distributes to you as He deigns. He Who knows what to give, and to whom to give it, will be present to him who asks, and will open to him who knocks. And if perhaps He has not given, let no one say that he has been deserted. For perhaps He delays giving something, but He leaves no hungry man behind. For if He does not give at the moment, He is exercising the seeker, not despising the petitioner. See then and attend to what I wish to say, even if perhaps I am not able. The Catholic faith, made firm by the Spirit of God in His saints against all heretical depravity, holds this, that the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable. What is it that I have said? Just as the Father Himself and the Son are inseparable, so too the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable. How are the Father and the Son inseparable? Because He Himself said, I and the Father are one (John 10:30). Because the Father and the Son are not two gods, but one God,

the Word and He Whose Word it is, one and the Only One, one God, Father and Son embraced in charity, and the one Spirit of charity is theirs, so that the Trinity may be Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Therefore not only of the Father and the Son, but also of the Holy Spirit, just as the equality and inseparability of the persons, so also the works are inseparable. Let me say still more plainly what this is: the works are inseparable. The catholic faith does not say that God the Father made something, and the Son made something else; but what the Father made, this the Son also made, this the Holy Spirit also made. For through the Word all things were made: when He spoke and they were made, they were made through the Word, they were made through Christ. For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: all things were made through Him (John 1:1, 3). If all things were made through Him, God said, Let there be light; and light was made: He made it in the Word, He made it through the Word.

4. Behold, then, we have now heard the Gospel, when He was answering the Jews who were indignant because He was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God His father, making Himself equal to God (ibid. 5:18): for so it is written in the preceding chapter. When, therefore, the Son of God and the Truth was answering such straying indignation of theirs, He said, Amen, amen I say to you, the Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. As if He were saying, Why are you scandalized, because I have called God My Father, and because I make Myself equal to God? I am equal in such a way that He has begotten Me; I am equal in such a way that He is not from Me, but I am from Him. For this is understood in these words, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. That is, whatever the Son has that He may do, He has from the Father that He may do it. Why does He have from the Father that He may do? Because He has from the Father that He is Son. Why does He have from the Father that He is Son? Because He has from the Father that He is able, because He has from the Father that He is. For to the Son, to be is the same as to be able. With man it is not so. From a comparison with human weakness, which lies far below, lift up your hearts as best you can; and lest perchance any of us should reach the secret, and, shuddering as at the flash of a great light, should grasp something, so that he may not remain without understanding: yet let him not think that he understands the whole, lest he become proud and lose what he has understood. Man is one thing in what he is, another in what he is able to do. For sometimes he is indeed a man, and is not able to do what he wills; but sometimes he is a man in such a way that he is able to do what he wills: and so his being is one thing, his being able another. For if his being were the same as his being able, he would be able whenever he willed. But God, for Whom there is not one substance by which He is and another power by which He is able, but whatever is His is consubstantial with Him, and whatever He is, because He is God, He is not in one way and able in another way; but He has being and being able together, because He has willing and doing together. Since, therefore, the power of the Son is from the Father, so also the substance of the Son is from the Father; and since the substance of the Son is from the Father, so the power of the Son is from the Father. The power in the Son is not one thing and the substance another; but the power is the very same as the substance: substance that He may be, power that He may be able. Therefore, because the Son is from the Father,

therefore He said, The Son cannot do anything of Himself. Because the Son is not from Himself, therefore He cannot [act] of Himself.

5. For He seems to have made Himself as it were lesser, when He said, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Here heretical vanity raises its neck, namely that of those who say that the Son is less than the Father, of lesser power, majesty, capability, not understanding the mystery of Christ's words. But let your Charity attend, and see how in their carnal understanding they are now thrown into confusion by the very words of Christ. Now I said this in advance a little before, that the Word of God troubles all perverse hearts, just as it exercises pious hearts, especially what is said through John the evangelist. For lofty things are said through him, not things of just any sort, not things that are easily understood. See, now the heretic, if perchance he hears these words, raises himself up and says to us: See, the Son is less than the Father; see, hear the words of the Son, Who says, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Wait, as it is written, Be meek to hear the word, that you may understand (Ecclus. 5:13). For suppose that I have been thrown into confusion by these words, since I say that the power and majesty of the Father and of the Son are equal, when I heard, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. Troubled by these words, I ask of you, who already seem to yourself to have understood: We know from the Gospel that the Son walked upon the sea (Matt. 14:25); where did He see the Father walk upon the sea? Here now he is thrown into confusion. Set aside, then, what you had understood, and let us inquire together. What then do we do? We have heard the words of the Lord, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing. He Himself walked upon the sea; the Father never walked upon the sea. Certainly the Son does not do anything, except what He has seen the Father doing.

6. Return then with me to what I was saying, [to see] whether perhaps it should be so understood that we may both come out of the question. For I, according to the catholic faith, see how I may come out without offence, without stumbling; but you, shut in all round, are seeking where you may get out. See where you had come in. Perhaps you have not understood this either, what I said, See where you had come in: hear Him saying, I am the door (John 10:7). Not without cause, then, do you seek where you may get out and do not find it, except that you did not enter through the door, but fell in over the wall. Therefore, as best you can, gather yourself up from your fall, and enter through the door, that you may enter without stumbling and get out without error. Come through Christ, and do not bring from your own heart what you say; but what He has shown, that speak. See how the catholic faith comes out of this proposition. The Son walked upon the sea, He set the feet of the flesh upon the waves; the flesh walked, and the divinity guided: when, then, the flesh walked and the divinity guided, was the Father absent? If He was absent, how does the Son Himself say, But the Father abiding in Me, He does His works (John 14:10)? If, then, the Father abiding in the Son, He does His works, that walking of the flesh upon the sea was done by the Father, was done through the Son. Therefore that walking is the inseparable work of the Father and of the Son. I see both working there:

neither has the Father deserted the Son, nor has the Son departed from the Father. Thus whatever the Son does, He does not do without the Father; because whatever the Father does, He does not do without the Son.

7. From here a way out has been found. See that we rightly say that the works of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit are inseparable. For in the way you understand it: behold, God made light, and the Son saw the Father making light, according to your carnal understanding, you who for this reason want to understand Him as lesser, because He said, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He sees the Father doing. God the Father made light; what other light did the Son make? God the Father made the firmament, the heaven between waters and waters; the Son saw Him, according to your slow and gross understanding: since the Son saw the Father making the firmament, and said, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He sees the Father doing, give me another firmament. Have you lost the foundation? But those who are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone, are brought to peace in Christ (Eph. 2:14–20); and they do not contend and stray in heresy. We understand, therefore, that light was made by God the Father, but through the Son; that the firmament was made by God the Father, but through the Son. For all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. Shake out your understanding; it is not to be called understanding, but plainly foolishness. God the Father made the world: what other world did the Son make? Give me the world of the Son. This one in which we are, whose is it? Tell us, by whom was it made? If you say, By the Son, not by the Father, you have strayed from the Father; if you say, By the Father, not by the Son, the Gospel answers you, And the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him (John 1:3, 10). Acknowledge, therefore, Him through Whom the world was made, and do not be among those who did not know Him Who made the world.

8. The works of the Father and of the Son are therefore inseparable. But this, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, is what it would be if He said, The Son is not of Himself. For if He is Son, He was born: if He was born, He is from Him of Whom He was born. But yet He begot [one] equal to Himself. For nothing was lacking to the One begetting, nor did He seek time in order to beget, He Who begot [one] coeternal; nor did He seek a mother in order to beget, He Who brought forth the Word from Himself; nor had the Father in begetting preceded the Son in age, so as to beget a lesser Son. And perhaps someone says that after many ages, in His old age, God received a Son. As the Father is without old age, so also is the Son without increase: neither did the One grow old nor did the Other grow; but the Equal begot an equal, the Eternal an eternal. How, someone says, the Eternal an eternal? As a temporal flame generates a temporal light. Now the generating flame is coeval with the light which it generates, and the generating flame does not precede in time the generated light; but from the moment the flame begins, from that moment the light begins. Give me a flame without light, and I give you God the Father without the Son. This, then, is The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He sees the Father doing; because for the Son to see, this is to be born of the Father. His vision is not one thing and His substance another; nor is His power one thing, His substance another. All that He is, is from the Father; all that He can do, is from the Father: since what He can do and what He is, this is one; and the whole is from the Father.

9. He Himself follows on in His words, and unsettles those who understand wrongly, so as to call those who stray back to a right understanding. When He had said, The Son cannot do anything of Himself, except what He has seen the Father doing: lest perhaps a carnal understanding should creep in and turn the mind aside, and a man should picture to himself as it were two craftsmen, one the master, the other the pupil as it were watching the master making, for example, a chest; so that as the one made a chest, the other too should make another chest according to the sight he had observed in the master at work: so, lest a carnal understanding should double some such thing for itself in that simple Godhead, He went on to say, For whatever the Father does, these same things the Son also does likewise. The Father does not do some things and the Son other things like them, but the same things likewise. For He does not say, Whatever the Father does, the Son also does other things like them: but, Whatever, He says, the Father does, these same things the Son also does likewise. What He [does], this He also [does]: the Father the world, the Son the world, the Holy Spirit the world. If three gods, three worlds: if the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one God, one world was made by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. These things therefore the Son does which the Father also does, and does not do them unlike: He both does these things, and does them likewise.

10. He had already said, He does these things; why did He add, He does them likewise? Lest another perverse understanding or error should arise in the mind. For you see the work of a man; there is in a man a mind and a body: the mind commands the body, but there is much difference between body and mind: the body is visible, the mind invisible; between the power and strength of the mind and that of any body, even a heavenly one, there is much difference. Yet the mind commands its own body, and the body acts: and what the mind is seen to do, this the body also does. The body therefore is seen to do this same thing as the mind, but not likewise. How does it do this same thing, but not likewise? The mind makes a word within itself, commands the tongue, and it utters the word which the mind made: the mind made it, and the tongue made it; the master of the body made it, and the servant made it: but in order that the servant might make it, he received from the master what he should make, and made it at the master's command. This same thing was made by both: but was it made likewise? How not likewise, someone says? See, the word which my mind made remains in me: what my tongue made, when the air was struck, passed away, and is not. When you have spoken a word in your mind, and it has sounded through your tongue, return to your mind, and see that the word which you made is there. Did it remain on your tongue as it remained in your mind? What sounded through your tongue, the tongue made by sounding, the mind made by thinking: but what the tongue sounded has passed away; what the mind thought abides. This therefore the body made, which the mind made; but not likewise. For the mind made what the mind may hold; but the tongue made what sounds, and strikes the ear through the air. Do you follow the syllables, and make them remain? Not so, then, the Father and the Son; but He does these same things, and does them likewise. If God made the heaven which remains, this heaven which remains the Son made. If God the Father made man who dies, the same man who dies the Son made. Whatever abiding things the Father made, these abiding things the Son also made; because He made them likewise: and whatever

the Father made temporal, these same things the Son made temporal; for He not only made the same things, but also made them likewise. For the Father made through the Son, because through the Word the Father made all things.

11. Seek a separation in the Father and the Son: you do not find it. But if you have risen up, then you do not find it; if you have touched something above your mind, then you do not find it. For if you busy yourself among those things which the wandering mind makes for itself, you are speaking with your own images, not with the Word of God: your images deceive you. Transcend the body too, and savour the mind; transcend the mind too, and savour God. You do not touch God unless you have passed beyond the mind as well: how much less do you touch Him if you remain in the flesh? Those, then, who savour the flesh, how far are they from savouring what God is? For they would not be there even if they savoured the mind. A man withdraws far from God when he savours carnally; and there is a great distance between flesh and mind, yet a greater distance between mind and God. If you are in the mind, you are in the middle: if you attend below, it is the body; if you attend above, it is God. Lift yourself up from the body, pass beyond even yourself. For see what the Psalm said, and you are reminded how God is to be savoured: "My tears," it says, "have become bread to me day and night, while it is said to me daily, Where is your God?" As if the pagans were saying: "Behold our gods; your God, where is He?" For they show what is seen; we worship what is not seen. And to whom should we show it? To a man who has nothing to see with? For indeed, if they see their gods with their eyes, we too have other eyes with which we may see our God. These very eyes are to be cleansed by our God, that we may see our God: for "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). So when he had said that he was troubled, while it is said to him daily, "Where is your God?", "These things I remembered," he says, "because it is said to me daily, Where is your God?" And as though wishing to lay hold of his God, "These things I remembered," he says, "and I poured out my soul above myself" (Ps. 41:4–5). So that I might reach my God, of whom it was said to me, "Where is your God?", I poured out my soul not upon my flesh but above myself: I transcended myself, that I might touch Him. For He is above me Who made me: no one reaches Him except one who has passed beyond himself.

12. Think of the body: it is mortal, it is earthly, it is fragile, it is corruptible: cast it aside. But perhaps the flesh is temporal. Think of other bodies, think of the heavenly bodies: they are greater, better, splendid. Attend to them too: they revolve from east to west, they do not stand still; they are seen with the eyes, not only by man but also by a beast: pass beyond them too. "And how," you will say, "do I pass beyond the heavenly bodies, when I walk on earth?" You do not pass beyond in the flesh, but in the mind. Cast them aside too: though they shine, they are bodies; though they gleam from heaven, they are bodies. Come, since perhaps you think you have nowhere to go when you consider all these things. "And beyond the heavenly bodies, where am I to go," you say, "and what am I to pass beyond with the mind?" Have you considered all these things? "I have considered them," you say. With what did you consider them? Let the considerer himself appear. For the considerer himself of all these things, their discriminator, distinguisher and in a manner weigher in the balance of wisdom,

is the mind. Without doubt the mind with which you have thought all these things is better than all these things which you have thought. This mind, then, is spirit, not body: pass beyond it too. First compare this mind itself, so that you may see where you are passing to; compare it with the flesh. Far be it from you to deign to make the comparison. Compare it with the brightness of the sun, the moon, the stars: greater is the brightness of the mind. First look at the swiftness of the mind itself. See whether the spark of the thinking mind is not more vigorous than the splendour of the shining sun. With your mind you see the rising sun: how slow is its motion compared with your mind? Quickly you were able to think what the sun is going to do. It is going to come from the east to the west, and tomorrow it rises again from the other side. When your thought has done this, the sun is still slow, and you have travelled through everything. A great thing, then, is the mind. But how do I say "is"? Pass beyond it too; for the mind itself is also changeable, although it is better than every body. Now it knows, now it does not know; now it forgets, now it remembers; now it wills, now it does not will; now it sins, now it is righteous. Pass beyond, then, all changeableness; not only everything that is seen, but also everything that changes. For you have passed beyond the flesh, which is seen; you have passed beyond the heaven, the sun, the moon, and the stars, which are seen; pass beyond also everything that changes. For when these had been passed through you had come to your own mind, but there too you found the changeableness of your mind. Is God changeable? Pass beyond, then, your mind too. Pour out your soul above yourself, so that you may reach God, of whom it is said to you, Where is your God?

13. Do not think that you are going to do something that a man cannot do. John the evangelist himself did this. He transcended the flesh, he transcended the earth on which he trod, he transcended the seas which he saw, he transcended the air where the birds fly, he transcended the sun, he transcended the moon, he transcended the stars, he transcended all spirits which are not seen, he transcended his own mind by the very reason of his soul. Transcending all these things, pouring out his soul above himself, where did he arrive? What did he see? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. If, then, you do not see separation in the light, why do you seek separation in the work? See God, see His Word cleaving to the Word Who speaks: for He Himself, speaking, does not speak in syllables; but to shine with the splendour of wisdom, that is to speak. What has been said of His Wisdom? It is the brightness of the eternal light (Wis. 7:26). Consider the brightness of the sun. It is in the heaven, and it spreads its brightness through all lands, through all seas: and yet it is a bodily light. If you can separate the brightness of the sun from the sun, separate the Word from the Father. I am speaking of the sun. One slender little flame of a lamp, which could be put out with one breath, scatters its light over all things that lie beneath it. You see the light scattered, generated by the little flame; you see the emission, you do not see the separation. Understand, then, dearest brothers, that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit cohere inseparably with one another, that this Trinity is one God; and that all the works of the one God are the Father's, are the Son's, are the Holy Spirit's.