Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus XXVII-XXXIV

TRACTATE XXXIV.

On the words, I am the light of the world: he who follows Me does not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Chap. VIII, v. 12.

1. What we have just heard and attentively received, when the holy Gospel was being read, I do not doubt that we all also tried to understand: and each of us, according to his small measure, has taken what he could from so great a matter as was read; and, the bread of the word having been set out, there is no one who complains that he has tasted nothing. But again I do not doubt that it is hard for anyone to have understood the whole. Yet even if there is someone who sufficiently understands all the words of our Lord Jesus Christ just recited from the Gospel, let him bear with our ministry, until, if we can, with His help, by expounding we bring it about that either all or many understand what a few rejoice to have understood.

2. That the Lord says, I am the light of the world, is clear, I think, to those who have eyes by which they may become partakers of this light: but those who have no eyes except in the flesh alone wonder at what was said by the Lord Jesus Christ, I am the light of the world. And perhaps there may be someone who says within himself: Can it be that the Lord Christ is this sun, which by its rising and setting completes the day? For there have not been lacking heretics who held such things. The Manichaeans thought that this sun, visible to the eyes of the flesh, set out and public for seeing not only to men but even to cattle, is Christ the Lord. But the right faith of the Catholic Church rejects such a fiction, and knows it to be a devilish doctrine: and not only recognizes it by believing, but, in those whom it can, refutes it also by disputing. Let us therefore reject an error of this kind, which holy Church anathematized from the beginning. Let us not think that the Lord Jesus Christ is this sun which we see rise in the east and set in the west; on whose course night follows, whose rays are overshadowed by a cloud, which passes from place to place by a fixed motion: this is not the Lord Christ. The Lord Christ is not the sun that was made, but He through Whom the sun was made. For all things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing (John 1:3).

3. There is therefore a light which made this light: let us love this, let us desire to understand this, let us thirst for it; so that, with it as our guide, we may some day come to it, and may so live in it that we never die at all. For this is the light of which prophecy, sent before long ago, sang thus in the Psalm: Men and beasts Thou wilt save, O Lord; as Thy mercy has been multiplied, O God. These are the words of the holy Psalm: mark what the ancient speech of the holy men of God set down beforehand concerning such a light. Men, it says, and beasts Thou wilt save, O Lord; as Thy mercy has been multiplied, O God. For since Thou art God, and hast manifold mercy, that same manifoldness of Thy mercy reaches not only to men, whom Thou didst create to Thine image, but also to the cattle which Thou didst subject to men. For from Whom is the salvation of man, from Him is also the salvation of the beast. Do not blush to think this of the Lord your God: rather, presume and trust it, and beware of thinking otherwise. He who

saves you, He Himself saves your horse, He Himself your sheep; let us come down to the very least things, He Himself your hen: salvation is the Lord's (Ps. 3:9), and God saves these things. It troubles you, you ask; I wonder why you doubt. Will He disdain to save, Who deigned to create? The salvation of Angels, of men, of cattle is the Lord's; salvation is the Lord's. As no one is from himself, so no one is saved by himself. Therefore the Psalm says most truly and most excellently, Men and beasts Thou wilt save, O Lord. Why? As Thy mercy has been multiplied, O God. For Thou art God, Thou didst create, Thou savest: Thou gavest being, Thou givest being whole.

4. If therefore, as the mercy of God has been multiplied, men and beasts are saved by Him, do not men have something else which God the Creator grants them, which He does not grant to beasts? Is there no distinction between the living being made to the image of God and the living being subjected to the image of God? There plainly is: besides this salvation common to us with the dumb animals, there is something which God grants to us, but does not grant to them. What is this? Follow on in the same psalm: But the sons of men shall hope under the covering of Thy wings. Having for now a salvation in common with their cattle, The sons of men shall hope under the covering of Thy wings. They have one salvation in fact, another in hope. The salvation which is in the present is common to men and cattle: but there is another which men hope for; and those who hope receive it, those who despair do not receive it. For the sons of men, it says, shall hope under the covering of Thy wings. And those who hope perseveringly are protected by Thee, lest they be cast down from hope by the devil: they shall hope under the covering of Thy wings. If then they shall hope, what shall they hope for, if not what the cattle will not have? They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house; and of the torrent of Thy pleasure Thou wilt make them drink. What kind of wine is it, by which to be inebriated is praiseworthy? What kind of wine is it, which does not disturb but directs the mind? What kind of wine is it, which makes one sound for ever, and does not by inebriating make one unsound? They shall be inebriated. From what? With the plenty of Thy house; and of the torrent of Thy pleasure Thou wilt make them drink. From what? For with Thee is the fountain of life. The very fountain of life walked on earth; He Himself said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me (John 7:37). Behold the fountain. But we had begun to speak of light, and were treating the question about light set before us from the Gospel. For it was read to us, the Lord saying, I am the light of the world. Hence the question, lest anyone with carnal wisdom should think this sun is to be understood: from there we came to the Psalm, and, having considered it, we found meanwhile that the Lord is the fountain of life. Drink and live. With Thee, it says, is the fountain of life: therefore the sons of men hope under the shelter of Thy wings, seeking to be inebriated from this fountain. But we were speaking of light. Follow on, then: for the Prophet, when he had said, With Thee is the fountain of life, went on to add, In Thy light we shall see light (Ps. 35:8, 10); God from God, light from light. Through this light the light of the sun was made: and the light which made the sun, under which He made us too, was made under the sun for our sake. The light, I say, which made the sun was made under the sun for our sake. Do not despise

the cloud of the flesh: He is covered by a cloud, not that He may be obscured, but that He may be tempered.

5. Speaking therefore through the cloud of the flesh, the unfailing light, the light of wisdom, says to men, I am the light of the world: he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness; but shall have the light of life. How has He taken you away from the eyes of the flesh, and called you back to the eyes of the heart? For it is not enough to say, He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have light; for He added, of life; just as it was said there, For with Thee is the fountain of life. See therefore, my brethren, how the words of the Lord agree with the truth of that psalm: there too light is set with the fountain of life, and by the Lord it is called the light of life. But in these bodily uses light is one thing, a fountain another: the throat seeks a fountain, the eyes light: when we are thirsty we seek a fountain; when we are in darkness, we seek light; and if perhaps we are thirsty at night, we light a light that we may come to the fountain. Not so with God: what is light, this is the fountain; He Who shines on you that you may see, Himself flows for you that you may drink.

6. You see then, my brethren, you see, if you see inwardly, what this light is of which the Lord says, He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness. Follow this sun; let us see whether you will not walk in darkness. See, by rising it comes out towards you: it goes on its course to the west; your journey perhaps is to the east: unless you go in the opposite direction, not the way it is heading, by following it you will certainly go astray, and will hold the west instead of the east. If you follow it on land, you will go astray: if a sailor follows it at sea, he will go astray. Finally, it seems to you that the sun is to be followed, and you yourself also head to the west, whither it too heads: let us see, when it has set, whether you will not walk in darkness. See how, even if you are unwilling to desert it, it will desert you, completing the day by the necessity of its servitude. But our Lord Jesus Christ, meanwhile, even when through the cloud of the flesh He did not appear to all, held all things by the power of wisdom. Your God is wholly everywhere: if you do not fall away from Him, He never sets away from you.

7. He therefore who follows Me, He says, shall not walk in darkness; but shall have the light of life. What He promised He put in a verb of the future tense: for He does not say, has; but, shall have, He says, the light of life. Yet He does not say, he who shall follow Me; but, he who follows Me. In what we must do He put the present tense: but what He promised to those who do it He signified by a verb of the future tense. He who follows shall have. Now he follows, afterwards he shall have: now he follows by faith, afterwards he shall have by sight. For while we are in the body, says the Apostle, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:6, 7). When by sight? When we shall have the light of life, when we shall have come to that vision, when this night shall have passed. For of that day which is to rise it has been said, In the morning I will stand before Thee, and will contemplate (Ps. 5:5). What is in the morning? When the night of this world has passed, when the terrors of temptations have passed, when that lion has been overcome who goes about roaring in the night, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8). In the morning I will stand

before Thee, and I shall contemplate. But now what do we think, brethren, befits this time, except what is said again in a Psalm: I will wash my bed every night, I will water my couch with my tears (Ps. 6:7)? Every night, he says, I will weep: I will burn with desire for the light. The Lord sees my desire; for another psalm says to Him: Before Thee is all my desire, and my groaning is not hidden from Thee (Ps. 37:10). Do you desire gold? You can be seen; for in seeking gold you will be plain to men. Do you desire grain? You ask who has it; and to the one you wish to come to, you make known what you desire. Do you desire God? Who sees, except God? For from whom do you ask for God, as you ask for bread, as for water, as for gold, as for silver, as for grain? From whom do you ask for God, except from God? He Himself is asked of Himself, Who promises Himself. Let the soul stretch out its longing; and with a more capacious bosom let it seek to grasp what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it gone up into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). It can be desired, it can be longed for, it can be sighed after: worthily thought of, and set out in words, it cannot be.

8. Therefore, my brethren, since the Lord says briefly, I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life: in these words one thing is what He commanded, another what He promised. Let us do what He commanded, so that we may not with shameless brow desire what He promised; lest He say to us at His judgement, Have you then done what I commanded, that you should seek what I promised? What then didst Thou command, O Lord our God? He says to you, That you should follow Me. You asked counsel of life. Of what life, except that of which it has been said, With Thee is the fountain of life? A certain man heard, Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. He went away sad; he did not follow: he sought a good master, he questioned the teacher, and he despised Him as He taught; he went away sad, bound by his desires; he went away sad, carrying a great load of avarice upon his shoulders (Matt. 19:16–22). He was labouring, he was in a fever; and the One Who wished to take the load off him he thought not one to be followed, but one to be forsaken. But after the Lord cried out through the Gospel, Come to Me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you; take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart (Matt. 11:28–29): how many, having heard the Gospel, did what that rich man, having heard it from His own mouth, did not do? Let us therefore do it now, let us follow the Lord; let us loose the fetters by which we are hindered from following. And who is able to loose such knots, unless He help to Whom it was said, Thou hast broken my bonds (Ps. 115:16)? Of Whom another psalm says, The Lord looses the fettered, the Lord lifts up those who are dashed down (Ps. 145:8).

9. And what do those who are loosed and lifted up follow, except the light from which they hear, I am the light of the world: he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness? For the Lord gives light to the blind. We are given light now, then, brethren, having the eye-salve of faith. For His spittle mixed with earth went before, with which he who was born blind was anointed (John 9:6). We too were born blind from Adam, and we need Him to give us light

He mixed spittle with earth: The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He mixed spittle with earth; therefore it was foretold, Truth has sprung from the earth (Ps. 84:12): and He Himself said, I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). We shall enjoy the truth to the full when we see face to face; for this too is promised to us. For who would dare to hope for what God had not deigned either to promise or to give? We shall see face to face. The Apostle says: Now I know in part, now in a riddle through a mirror, but then face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). And John the apostle in his Epistle: Most beloved, now we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that when He appears we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). This is a great promise; if you love, follow. I love, you say; but by what way do I follow? If the Lord your God had said to you, I am the truth and the life; desiring the truth, longing for life, you would surely seek the way by which you might come to these, and you would say to yourself: A great thing is truth, a great thing is life; if only there were a way for my soul to come there! You ask, by what way? Hear Him saying first, I am the way. Before He told you whither, He set first by what way: I am, He says, the way. The way whither? And the truth and the life. First He said by what way you are to come, afterwards He said whither you are to come. I am the way, I am the truth, I the life. Abiding with the Father, the truth and the life: putting on flesh, He became the way. It is not said to you, Toil in seeking the way, that you may come to the truth and the life; this is not said to you. Sluggard, rise; the way itself has come to you, and has roused you sleeping from your sleep, if indeed it has roused you: rise, and walk. Perhaps you try to walk and cannot, because your feet hurt. Why do your feet hurt? Did they run over rough places at avarice's bidding? But the Word of God has healed the lame as well. Look, you say, I have sound feet, but I do not see the way itself. He has given light to the blind as well.

10. All this is through faith, as long as we are pilgrims away from the Lord, abiding in the body: but when we have walked the length of the way and have come to the homeland itself, what will be more joyful for us? What will be more blessed for us? For nothing will be more peaceful: for nothing will rebel against man. But now, brethren, it is hard for us to be without strife. We have indeed been called to concord, we are commanded to have peace among ourselves; towards this we must strive, and press on with all our strength, that one day we may come to the most perfect peace: but now we often quarrel with those whose good we wish to serve. One man goes astray, you wish to lead him to the way; he resists you, you quarrel: the pagan resists, you argue against the errors of idols and demons: the heretic resists, you argue against other doctrines of demons; a bad Catholic does not wish to live well, you rebuke even the brother within, your own: he stays with you in the house, and seeks lost ways; you are in a fever how to correct him, so that you may render a good account of him to the Lord of you both. How many necessities of strife on every side! Often a man, stricken with weariness, says within himself: What is it to me to put up with gainsayers, to put up with those who return evil for good? I wish to serve their good, they wish to perish: I wear out my life in quarrelling; I have no peace: moreover I make enemies of those whom I ought to have as friends, if they heeded the goodwill

of the one advising: why should I endure this? Let me return to myself, I shall be with myself, I shall call upon my God. Return to yourself: there you find strife; if you have begun to follow God, there you find strife. What strife, you say, do I find? The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17). Behold, you are yourself, behold, you are alone, behold, you are with yourself, behold, you suffer no other man: but you see another law in your members, fighting against the law of your mind, and taking you captive in the law of sin, which is in your members. Cry out therefore, and from the inner strife call to God, that He may make you at peace with yourself: Unhappy man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 7:23–25). For he who follows Me, He says, will not walk in darkness; but will have the light of life. When the whole strife is finished, immortality will follow, because the last enemy, death, will be destroyed. And what kind of peace will there be? This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:26, 53). That we may come there, since then it will be in reality, let us now follow in hope Him Who said, I am the light of the world: he who follows Me will not walk in darkness; but will have the light of life.