Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus XXXVI-XLV

has already received the truth; it is another thing that God is truthful because He has begotten the truth. See how God is truthful: not by participating in the truth, but by begetting it. I see that you have understood, and I rejoice: let this suffice you for today; the rest we shall expound when it pleases the Lord, as He grants.

Tractate 40.

From the place, "Jesus therefore said to them: When you have lifted up the Son of man," as far as, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Chapter 8, verses 28-32.

1. From the holy Gospel according to John, which you see us carrying in our hands, Your Charity has already heard many things, which by God's gift we have discussed as well as we could, commending to you above all that this evangelist chose to speak of the Lord's divinity, according to which the only Son of God is also equal to the Father, and that he has for this reason been compared to an eagle: for no bird is said to fly higher. Therefore listen most attentively to what follows in order, as the Lord grants us to treat it.

2. We spoke to you about the preceding reading, suggesting how the Father is to be understood as truthful and the Son as the truth. But when the Lord Jesus had said, "He who sent Me is truthful" (John 8:26), the Jews did not understand that He was speaking to them about the Father. And He said to them what you heard just now when it was read: "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you shall know that I am, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father has taught Me, these things I speak." What is this? For He seems to have said nothing other than that they would know who He was after His passion. Without doubt, then, He saw there some whom He Himself knew, whom He Himself, together with the rest of His saints, had chosen by foreknowledge before the foundation of the world, who would believe after His passion. These are the very ones whom we constantly commend, and set forth for imitation with great exhortation. For when the Holy Spirit had been sent from above after the Lord's passion and resurrection and ascension, and miracles were being done in the name of Him whom the Jews, persecuting Him, had despised as one dead, they were pierced to the heart; and those who in their fury had killed Him were changed and believed; and the blood which they had shed in their fury they drank by believing: those three thousand and those five thousand of the Jews (Acts 2:37, 41, and 4:4), whom He saw there when He said, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you shall know that I am." As if saying, "I defer your knowing, that I may fulfil My passion: in your own order you shall know who I am." Not that all of those who were listening were then going to believe, that is, after the Lord's passion: for a little later he says, "As He was saying these things, many believed in Him," and the Son of man had not yet been lifted up. For He speaks of the lifting up of the passion, not of glorification; of the cross, not of heaven: for He was lifted up there too, when He hung on the tree. But that lifting up was a humiliation. For then He became obedient unto the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). This had to be fulfilled through the hands of those who were afterwards to believe, to whom He says, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you shall know that I am." Why this,

unless so that no one, conscious of guilt in whatever crime, should despair, when he saw the murder forgiven to those who had killed Christ?

3. The Lord, therefore, recognizing these in that crowd, said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am. You already know what "am" means; nor must it be constantly repeated, lest so great a matter breed weariness. Recall that saying, I am Who am, and He Who is has sent me (Exod. 3:14); and you will recognize what was meant by, Then you will know that I am: but the Father also is, and the Holy Spirit is. To that very being the whole Trinity belongs. But because the Lord was speaking as the Son, lest perhaps in what He said, Then you will know that I am, there should creep in the error of the Sabellians, that is, of the Patripassians, an error which I commended to you not to be held but to be guarded against, namely of those who said, He Himself is the Father, He Himself is the Son; there are two names, but one thing: on account of this error, then, which is to be guarded against, when the Lord had said, Then you will know that I am, lest He Himself should be understood to be the Father, He at once added, And of Myself I do nothing, but as the Father taught Me, these things I speak. The Sabellian had already begun to rejoice, having found an occasion for his error: as soon as he raised himself up, as it were in the dark, he was confounded by the light of the following sentence. You had thought that He was the Father, because He said, I am: hear that He is the Son, And of Myself I do nothing. What is, Of Myself I do nothing? Of Myself I am not. For the Son is God from the Father; but the Father is not God from the Son: the Son is God from God; but the Father is God, but not from God: the Son is light from light; but the Father is light, but not from light: the Son is, but there is One from Whom He is; but the Father is, but there is none from whom He is.

4. As to what, then, He added, As the Father taught Me, these things I speak; let no carnal thought steal upon any of you, my brothers. For human weakness cannot think anything except what it is accustomed to do or to hear. Do not, therefore, set before your eyes as it were two men, one a father, the other a son, and the father speaking to the son: as you do, when you say some words to your son, admonishing him and instructing him how he should speak, so that whatever he has heard from you he may commit to memory; when he has committed it to memory, he may also bring it forth with the tongue, articulate it in sounds, and convey to the ears of others what he received in his own. Do not think thus, lest you fashion idols in your heart. A human form, the outlines of human limbs, the shape of human flesh, these visible senses, the stature and movements of the body, the office of the tongue, the distinctions of sounds, do not think of these in that Trinity, except what pertains to the form of a servant, which the only-begotten Son took when the Word was made flesh, that He might dwell in us (John 1:14). There I do not forbid you, human weakness, to think what you know; indeed I even compel you. If the faith in you is true, think of Christ as such: but as such from the Virgin Mary, not from God the Father. He was an infant, He grew as a man, He walked as a man, He hungered, He thirsted as a man, He slept as a man, finally He suffered as a man, was hung on the wood, was killed, was buried as a man; in the same form He rose again, in the same form before the eyes of the disciples

into heaven, in the same form He will come to judgement. For the voice of the angels is expressed in the Gospel: He will come in the way that you saw Him going into heaven (Acts 1:11). When, therefore, you think of the form of a servant in Christ, think of a human likeness, if there is faith in you; but when you think, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1), let every human figuring perish from your heart; let whatever is bounded by a bodily limit, whatever is contained in a space of place, or is spread out in a mass of whatever size, be driven from your thoughts; let such a fiction utterly perish from your heart. Think, if you can, of the beauty of wisdom; let the beauty of justice present itself to you. Is it a form? Is it a stature? Is it a colour? It is none of these, and yet it is: for if it were not, it would neither be loved, nor deservedly praised, nor, loved and praised, be held fast in the heart and in conduct; but as it is, men become wise; whence would they become so, unless there were wisdom? Furthermore, O man, if you cannot see your own wisdom with the eyes of the flesh, nor think of it with such imagining as bodily things are thought of, do you dare to thrust upon the wisdom of God the form of a human body?

5. What then do we say, brethren? How did the Father speak to the Son, since the Son says, As the Father taught Me, these things I speak? Did He speak to Him? When the Father taught the Son, did He make words, as you, when you teach your son, make words? How does He make words for the Word? What many words would be made for the one Word? Did the Word of the Father, then, have ears at the mouth of the Father? These are carnal things; let them perish from your hearts. For I say this: see, if you have understood what I said, I certainly have spoken, and my words have sounded, and with their sounds they have struck your ears, and through the sense of your hearing they have conveyed the meaning to your heart, if you have understood. Suppose some man of the Latin tongue has heard, has only heard, and yet has not understood what I said: as far as concerns the noise sent forth from my mouth, he who did not understand has become a sharer in it just as you have; he heard that sound, the same syllables struck his ears; but in his heart they brought forth nothing. Why? Because he did not understand. But you, if you have understood, whence have you understood? I sounded to the ear; did I kindle a light in the heart? Without doubt, if what I said is true, and you have not only heard this truth but also understood it, two things have taken place there; distinguish them, hearing and understanding. Hearing was brought about through me; understanding through whom? I spoke to the ear that you might hear; who spoke to your heart that you might understand? Without doubt someone also said something to your heart, so that not only should this noise of words strike your ear, but also something of truth should descend into your heart: someone spoke also to your heart, but you do not see him; if you have understood, brethren, it has been spoken also to your heart. Understanding is the gift of God. Who has said this in your heart, if you have understood? He to whom the Psalm says, Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments (Ps. 118:73). For example, the bishop has spoken. Someone says, What did he say? You answer what he said, and you add: He spoke the truth. Then another, who did not understand, says

"What did he say," "or what is it that you praise?" Both heard me, to both I spoke; but to one of them God spoke. If it is allowed to compare small things with great, since what are we in relation to Him? yet God does I know not what in us incorporeally and spiritually, which is neither a sound that strikes the ear, nor a colour that is discerned by the eyes, nor an odour that is caught by the nostrils, nor a flavour that is judged by the palate, nor something hard and soft that is felt by touching: yet it is something which is easy to feel, impossible to explain. If therefore God, as I had begun to say, speaks in our hearts without sound, how does He speak to His Son? So then, brethren, so think of it, as far as you can, as I said, if it is permitted in some way to compare small things with great; so think of it. Incorporeally the Father spoke to the Son, because incorporeally the Father begot the Son. Nor did He so teach Him as though He had begotten Him untaught: but to have taught Him is this, to have begotten Him knowing; and this is "the Father taught Me", that is, "the Father begot Me knowing". For if, as few understand, the nature of truth is simple, for the Son to be is this, to know. From Him therefore He has it that He knows, from Whom He has it that He is: not that He first was from Him, and afterwards knew from Him; but just as by begetting He gave Him to be, so by begetting He gave Him to know: because for the simple nature of truth, as has been said, to be and to know are not one thing and another, but the very same.

6. He said these things, then, to the Jews, and added: And He Who sent Me is with Me. He had said this before as well, but He keeps recalling a great matter: He sent Me, and He is with Me. If then He is with Thee, O Lord, not one was sent by the other, but You both came. And yet, though both are together, one was sent, the other sent: since the sending is the incarnation, and the incarnation itself is of the Son only, not also of the Father. The Father therefore sent the Son, but did not withdraw from the Son. For it is not the case that where He sent the Son, the Father was not there. For where is He not Who made all things? where is He not Who said, Heaven and earth I fill (Jer. 23:24)? But perhaps the Father is everywhere, and the Son is not everywhere? Hear the evangelist: He was in this world, and the world was made through Him (John 1:10). Therefore, He says, He Who sent Me, by Whose authority, as a father's, I was made flesh, is with Me, He has not left Me. Why has He not left Me? He has not left Me, He says, alone, because I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. That is equality itself, always, not from some beginning and thereafter, but without beginning, without end. For the generation of God has no beginning in time, because through the One begotten times were made.

7. As He was saying these things, many believed in Him. Would that, as I too am speaking, many who held otherwise may understand, and believe in Him. For perhaps there are some Arians in this multitude. I do not dare to suspect that there are Sabellians, who say that the Father Himself is He Who is the Son: for that heresy is very old, and has gradually been disembowelled. But that of the Arians still seems to have some movements, as of a rotting corpse; or certainly, at most, as of a man breathing his last: the rest must be set free from it, just as many have been set free from it. And indeed this city did not have them; but after many foreigners arrived, some also

they themselves came. Behold, while the Lord was speaking these things, many Jews believed in Him; behold, while I too am speaking, let the Arians believe, not in me, but with me.

8. The Lord therefore said to those Jews who had believed in Him: If you abide in My word. He says "abide" because you have been initiated, because you have begun to be there. If you abide, that is, in the faith which has begun to be in you who believe, where will you arrive? See what a beginning it is, and to where it leads. You have loved the foundation; consider the summit, and out of this lowliness seek another height. For faith has lowliness: knowledge and immortality and eternity have not lowliness but height; uprightness, no failing, eternal stability, no assault from the enemy, no fear of failing. Great is that which begins from faith; but it is despised. In a building too the foundation is commonly despised by the unskilled. A great trench is made, stones are thrown in here and there anyhow; no polish is there, no beauty appears: just as in the root of a tree, no beauty appears either; yet whatever delights you in the tree has risen from the root. But you see the root and are not delighted; you see the tree and you marvel. Fool, what you marvel at has risen from that in which you take no delight. The faith of believers seems a small thing; you have no balance on which to weigh it. Hear then where it arrives, and see how great it is: as the Lord Himself also says in another place, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed (Matt. 17:19). What is lowlier, what more forceful? what smaller, what more fervent? Therefore you too, He says, if you abide in My word, in which you have believed, where will you be led? You will truly be My disciples. And what does it profit us? And you will know the truth.

9. What does He promise to believers, brothers? And you will know the truth. What then? Had they not known it when the Lord was speaking? If they had not known it, how did they believe? They did not believe because they had known, but they believed in order that they might know. For we believe in order that we may know; we do not know in order that we may believe. For what we are to know, neither has eye seen, nor ear heard, nor has it gone up into the heart of man (Isa. 64:4; 1 Cor. 2:9). For what is faith, but to believe what you do not see? Faith, then, is to believe what you do not see; truth, to see what you have believed: as He Himself says in a certain place. Therefore the Lord first walked on earth in order to produce faith. He was man, He had been made lowly; He was seen by all, yet He was not known by all; He was rejected by many, He was slain by the crowd, He was mourned by a few: but even by those by whom He was mourned He was not yet recognized as He was. All this is as it were the beginning of the outlines of faith and of the structure to come. Attending to this, the Lord Himself says in a certain place, He who loves Me keeps My commandments; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will show Myself to him (John 14:21). Those who were hearing Him certainly saw Him already; yet to them, if they loved, He promised that He would be seen. So here too, You will know the truth. What then? Is what You have said not truth? It is truth, but it is still believed, not yet seen. If one abides in that which is believed, one arrives at that which is seen. Thence

John himself, the holy evangelist, in his Epistle: Most beloved, he says, we are sons of God, but it has not yet appeared what we shall be. Already we are, and we shall be something. What more shall we be than we are? Hear: It has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that when He shall have appeared, we shall be like Him. Whence? Because we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). A great promise; but it is the reward of faith. You seek the reward: let the work go before. If you believe, demand the reward of faith; but if you do not believe, with what face do you seek the reward of faith? If therefore you remain in My word, you will truly be My disciples: so that you may contemplate the truth itself as it is; not through sounding words, but through shining light, when it shall have satisfied us, as is read in the Psalm, The light of Thy countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord (Ps. 4:7). We are God's money; as a coin we have strayed from the treasury. By straying, what had been stamped upon us has been worn away; He has come to re-form it, because He Himself had formed it: He too seeks His coin, as Caesar seeks his coin; therefore He says, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's (Matt. 22:21): to Caesar coins, to God your very selves. Then therefore the truth will be expressed in us.

10. What shall I say to your Charity? O if only the heart were in some fashion sighing towards that ineffable glory! O if only we felt our pilgrimage with groaning, and did not love the world, and knocked perpetually with a dutiful mind at Him Who called us! Desire is the bosom of the heart; we shall take [it] in, if we stretch desire out as far as we can. This is what divine Scripture does with us, this the gathering of the peoples, this the celebration of the sacraments, this holy baptism, this the songs of God's praise, this our very discourse: that this desire may not only be sown and sprout, but may also be enlarged to the measure of so great a capacity, that it may be fit to receive what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it gone up into the heart of man. But love together with me. He who loves God does not love money much. And I too have humoured weakness: I did not dare to say, He does not love money; but, he does not love money much: as if money were to be loved, but not much. O if we loved God worthily, we would not love money at all! Money will be for you an instrument of pilgrimage, not an incitement of greed; something to use for necessity, not something to enjoy for delight. Love God, if what you hear and praise has worked anything in you. Use the world; let not the world take you captive. In that you have entered, you are making a journey; you came to go out, not to remain: you are making a journey, this life is an inn. Use money as a traveller in an inn uses table, cup, pitcher, bed, as one who will leave them behind, not stay on. If you are such, lift up your heart, you who can, and hear me: if you are such, you will come to His promises. For it is not much for you, because great is the hand of Him Who called you. He has called: let Him be called upon; let it be said to Him: Thou hast called us, we call upon Thee; behold, we have heard Thee calling, hear us calling upon Thee: lead us through to where Thou hast promised, perfect what Thou hast begun; do not forsake Thy gifts, do not forsake Thy field,