Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus LI-LXIV

Tractate 51.

From that which is written, But on the next day a great crowd which had come to the feast day, etc., up to this, If anyone serves Me, My Father will honour him. Chap. 12, vv. 12-26.

1. After the Lord raised the man four days dead, while the Jews were astounded, and some of them believed by seeing, while others perished by envying, on account of the good odour, which is to some unto life, to others unto death (2 Cor. 2:15); after He reclined at table in the house with Lazarus reclining with Him, who had been dead and was raised, after the ointment poured out upon His feet, whereby the house was filled with the odour; after the Jews with lost heart conceived a vain savagery, and a most foolish and most insane crime, even concerning the killing of Lazarus; about all which things we have spoken in earlier sermons as we were able, as the Lord gave: now let your Charity attend to how great a fruit of His preaching appeared before the Lord's passion, and how great a flock of sheep, out of those of the house of Israel which had perished, heard the voice of the shepherd.

2. For thus speaks the Gospel, which you heard just now when it was being read: But on the next day a great crowd which had come to the feast day, when they had heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palms, and went forth to meet Him, and cried out, Hosanna, blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. The branches of palms are praises, signifying victory; because the Lord was about to overcome death by dying, and by the trophy of the cross to triumph over the devil, the prince of death. But Hosanna is the utterance of one beseeching, as some say who know the Hebrew tongue, indicating a feeling rather than signifying some thing: just as there are in the Latin tongue those which they call interjections, as when in grief we say, Alas! or when we are delighted, we say, Ah! or when we wonder, we say, O great thing! for then O signifies nothing but the feeling of one wondering. And this is to be believed to be so for the reason that neither a Greek nor a Latin was able to translate it: like that saying, Whoever says to his brother, Racha (Matt. 5:22). For this too is held to be an interjection, showing the feeling of one indignant.

3. But Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord,

the King of Israel, is rather to be taken thus, that "in the name of the Lord" is understood as in the name of God the Father; although it could also be understood as in His own name, because He too is Lord. Hence it is also written elsewhere, The Lord rained from the Lord (Gen. 19:24). But His own words direct our understanding better, Who says: I have come in the name of My Father, and you have not received Me: another will come in his own name, him you will receive (John 5:43). For Christ is the teacher of humility, Who humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). He does not therefore lose His divinity when He teaches us humility: in the former He is equal to the Father, in the latter like us; by that whereby He is equal to the Father, He created us that we might be; by that whereby He is like us, He redeemed us that we might not perish.

4. These praises the crowd were saying to Him: Hosanna, blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. What torment of mind could the envy of the chief men of the Jews have suffered, when so great a multitude was acclaiming Christ as their King? But what was it to the Lord to be King of Israel? What great thing was it for the King of the ages to become a king of men? For Christ is not King of Israel for exacting tribute, or for arming an army with the sword and vanquishing enemies visibly; but King of Israel in that He rules minds, in that He takes counsel for eternity, in that He leads into the kingdom of heaven those who believe, hope and love. That the Son of God, therefore, equal to the Father, the Word through Whom all things were made, willed to be King of Israel, is a condescension, not a promotion; it is a token of compassion, not an increase of power. For He Who was called on earth King of the Jews is in the heavens Lord of the Angels.

5. And Jesus found a young ass, and sat upon it. Here it is said briefly; for how it was done is read most fully in the other evangelists (Matt. 21:1–16; Mark 11:1–11; and Luke 19:29–48). But a prophetic testimony is applied to this deed, so that it might be evident that the malign chief men of the Jews did not understand Him in Whom what they read was being fulfilled. Jesus therefore found a young ass, and sat upon it; as it is written, Do not fear, daughter of Sion: behold, your King comes sitting upon the foal of an ass. In that people, then, was the daughter of Sion: she is Jerusalem, which is Sion. In that people, I say, reprobate and blind, there was nevertheless the daughter of Sion, to whom it might be said, Do not fear: behold, your King comes sitting upon the foal of an ass. This daughter of Sion, to whom these things are said by God, was among those sheep which heard the voice of the shepherd; she was in that multitude which with such devotion was praising the Lord as He came, and with so great a throng was escorting Him. To her it was said, Do not fear: acknowledge Him Who is praised by you, and do not tremble when He suffers; for that blood is being shed through which your offence may be blotted out and life restored. But by the foal of an ass on which no one had sat (for this is found in the other evangelists) we understand the people of the Gentiles, which had not received the Law of the Lord; and by the she-ass (since both beasts were brought to the Lord) His common people which came from the people of Israel, not entirely untamed, but which had acknowledged the manger of the Lord.

6. These things His disciples did not understand at first: but when Jesus was glorified, that is, when He showed the power of His resurrection: then they remembered that these things were written about Him, and that they did these things to Him, that is, they did not do other things to Him than those which were written about Him. For, recalling according to the Scripture the things that were fulfilled before the Lord's passion or in the Lord's passion, there they found this too, that according to the utterances of the Prophets He sat on the colt of an ass.

7. The crowd therefore that was with Him when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. For this reason also the crowd came to meet Him, because they heard that He had done this sign. The Pharisees therefore said among themselves: Do you see that we are achieving nothing? See, the whole world has gone after Him. The crowd troubled the crowd. But why do you envy, blind crowd, that the world goes after Him through Whom the world was made?

8. "Now there were certain Gentiles among those who had gone up to worship on the feast day. These therefore came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him, saying: Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip comes and tells Andrew: Andrew in turn and Philip tell Jesus." Let us hear what the Lord answered to these things. See, the Jews want to kill Him, the Gentiles to see Him: but those too were of the Jews who were crying out, Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel. See, these from the circumcision, those from the uncircumcision, like two walls coming from different directions, and running together into the one faith of Christ with the kiss of peace: let us therefore hear the voice of the cornerstone. But Jesus, it says, answered them, saying: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Here someone perhaps thinks that He said He was glorified because the Gentiles wished to see Him. It is not so. But He saw that these same Gentiles would believe in all nations after His passion and resurrection: because, as the Apostle says, Blindness in part has befallen Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in (Rom. 11:25). On the occasion, therefore, of these Gentiles who desired to see Him, He announces the future fullness of the Gentiles; and He promises that the hour of His glorification is now all but at hand, which having taken place in the heavens, the Gentiles were to believe. Whence it was foretold, Be Thou exalted above the heavens, O God, and Thy glory above all the earth (Ps. 107:6). This is the fullness of the Gentiles, of which the Apostle says, Blindness in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in.

9. But it was fitting that the lowliness of the passion should precede the height of the glorification: therefore He went on to add, Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground dies, it remains alone: but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Now He was speaking of Himself. He Himself was the grain to be put to death and to be multiplied: to be put to death by the unbelief of the Jews, to be multiplied by the faith of the peoples.

10. And now, exhorting [them] to follow the footsteps of His passion: He who loves, He says, his life, will lose it. Which can be understood in two ways: He who loves,

will lose, that is, If you love, lose; if you desire to hold on to life in Christ, do not fear death for Christ. Again, in another way: He who loves his soul will lose it. Do not love, lest you lose: do not love in this life, lest you lose in eternal life. But this which I said second seems rather to have the sense of the Gospel: for there follows, And he who hates his soul in this world will keep it unto eternal life. Therefore in what was said above, He who loves, there is understood "in this world"; he indeed will lose: but he who hates, namely in this world, he will keep it unto eternal life. A great and wonderful saying, how a man's love towards his own soul is such that it perishes, and his hatred such that it does not perish! If you love wrongly, then you have hated: if you hate rightly, then you have loved. Happy are those who have hated by keeping, so that they do not lose by loving. But see that it does not steal upon you that you should wish to kill yourself, understanding in that way that you ought to hate your soul in this world. For from this certain malicious and perverse men, murderers more cruel and more wicked towards themselves, give themselves to the flames, choke themselves in the waters, dash themselves to pieces by a fall, and perish. Christ did not teach this; nay rather, even to the devil when he suggested a fall headlong He answered: Get back, Satan; it is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God (Matt. 4:7). But to Peter He said, signifying by what death he was to glorify God: When you were younger, you used to gird yourself, and go where you wished; but when you have grown old, another will gird you, and carry you where you do not wish (John 21:18–19). Here He expressed clearly enough that he who follows the footsteps of Christ ought to be killed not by himself but by another. When therefore the critical point of the case has come, so that this condition is set before him, that either he must act against the commandment of God, or depart from this life, and a man is forced to choose one of the two, the persecutor threatening death; then let him choose to die with God loved rather than to live with God offended: then let him hate his soul in this world, that he may keep it unto eternal life.

11. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. What is "let him follow Me", except "let him imitate Me"? For Christ suffered for us, says the apostle Peter, leaving us an example, that we should follow His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). Behold what was said: If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. With what fruit? With what wage? With what reward? And where I am, He says, there also will My servant be. Let Him be loved freely, so that the price of the work by which He is served may be to be with Him. For where will it be well without Him, or when could it be ill with Him? Hear it more plainly. If anyone has served Me, My Father will honour him. With what honour, except that he may be with His Son? For what He said above, Where I am, there also will My servant be, He is understood to have explained when He says, My Father will honour him. For what greater honour could the adopted son receive than to be where the Only Son is; not made equal to the Godhead, but made a partaker of eternity?

12. But what it is to serve Christ, the work for which so great a wage is set forth, this rather we ought to inquire. For if we shall have thought that to serve Christ is this, to prepare the things that are necessary for the body, or to cook food for Him at supper or set it before Him, or to give the cup and mix the drink; those did this who were able

to have Him present in the body, as Martha and Mary did, when Lazarus too was one of those reclining at table. But in that way even the lost Judas ministered to Christ; for he himself also had the purse, and although he most wickedly stole from the things that were put into it, yet through him the necessary things were also provided (John 12:2, 6). Hence it is that, when the Lord said to him, What you do, do quickly, some thought that He had ordered him to prepare what was necessary for the feast day, or to give something to the needy (John 13:27, 29). In no way, therefore, would the Lord say of ministers of this kind, Where I am, there will My minister also be; and, If anyone ministers to Me, My Father will honour him: since we see Judas, ministering in such things, reprobated rather than honoured. Why then do we look elsewhere for what it is to minister to Christ, and do not rather recognize it in these very words? For when He said, If anyone ministers to Me, let him follow Me, He wished this to be understood, as if He were saying, If anyone does not follow Me, he does not minister to Me. They minister, therefore, to Jesus Christ who seek not their own things, but the things of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:21). For this is what let him follow Me means: let him walk in My ways, not in his own; as it is written elsewhere, He who says that he abides in Christ ought himself also to walk just as He walked (1 John 2:6). He ought also, if he holds out bread to the hungry, to do it out of mercy, not out of boasting; to seek nothing else there than the good work, the left hand not knowing what the right hand does (Matt. 6:3), that is, so that the intention of cupidity may be kept far from the work of charity. He who ministers thus ministers to Christ; and rightly will it be said to him, When you did it to one of the least of Mine, you did it to Me (Matt. 25:40). And not only doing the things that pertain to bodily mercy, but doing all good works for Christ's sake (for then they will be good, since Christ is the end of the Law, unto justice for everyone who believes (Rom. 10:4), he is a minister of Christ even up to that work of great charity, which is to lay down one's life for the brethren: for this is also to lay it down for Christ. For this too He will say on account of His members: When you did it for these, you did it for Me. Indeed, it was of such a work that He deigned to make Himself, and to call Himself, a minister, where He says: Just as the Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to lay down His life for many (Matt. 20:28). Hence, therefore, is each one a minister of Christ, whence Christ too is a minister. Him who ministers thus to Christ His Father will honour, with that great honour, that he may be with His Son, and that his happiness may never fail.

13. When, therefore, brethren, you hear the Lord saying, Where I am, there will My minister also be, do not think only of good bishops and clerics. You too, in your own measure, minister to Christ, by living well, by giving alms, by preaching His name and teaching to whomever you can; so that every father of a family also may recognize by this name that he owes a father's affection to his household. For Christ and for eternal life let him admonish, teach, exhort, rebuke all his own; let him bestow kindness, exercise discipline: thus in his own house he will fulfil an ecclesiastical and in a certain manner an episcopal office, ministering to Christ so that for eternity