Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus LXVI-LXXXIV

the kingdom (Matt. 25:34): that is, you who were the kingdom and were not reigning, come, reign; so that what you had been in hope, you may also be in reality. This house of God, then, this temple of God, this kingdom of God and kingdom of the heavens, is still being built, still being constructed, still being prepared, still being gathered together. In it there will be mansions, as the Lord is still preparing them: in it there already are, as the Lord has already predestined them.

3. But what does it mean that He went away in order to prepare, when surely it is we ourselves whom He would be preparing, which He will not do if He has left [us]? I recognize it, Lord, as far as I can: surely Thou signifiest this, that for these mansions to be prepared, the just man must live by faith (Rom. 1:17). For he who is sojourning away from the Lord has need to live by faith; since through this he is prepared for contemplating the sight [of Him] (2 Cor. 5:6–8). For blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God (Matt. 5:8): and, By faith He cleanses their hearts (Acts 15:9). The former is read in the Gospel, the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. Now faith, by which the hearts of those who are going to see God are cleansed for as long as they are sojourning abroad, believes what it does not see: for if you see, it is not faith. For the one who believes merit is gathered, to the one who sees the reward is rendered. Let the Lord go, then, and prepare a place; let Him go so as not to be seen, let Him be hidden so as to be believed. For the place is prepared then, if one lives by faith. Let Him, once believed, be desired, so that, once desired, He may be possessed: the desire of love is the preparation of the mansion. So, Lord, prepare what Thou preparest: for Thou preparest us for Thyself, and Thyself for us; since Thou preparest a place, both for Thyself in us, and for us in Thee. For Thou hast said, Abide in Me, and I in you (John 15:4). As far as each has been a partaker of Thee, one less, another more, this will be the diversity of rewards according to the diversity of merits: this will be the multitude of mansions according to the unevenness of those who will dwell in them; but yet all of them living in eternity, and blessed without end. What does it mean that Thou goest? What does it mean that Thou comest? If I understand Thee rightly, Thou withdrawest neither from where Thou goest nor from where Thou comest: Thou goest by being hidden, Thou comest by appearing. But unless Thou abidest by ruling, so that we may make progress by living well, how will the place be prepared where we may abide by enjoying [Thee] to the full? Let this suffice as said about the words of the Gospel that were read out, up to where the Lord says, I come again, and I will take you to Myself. But what is meant by what follows, That where I am, you also may be. And where I go you know, and the way you know, we shall better hear and more fittingly treat after the question that follows, put by the disciple, as if we too were asking through him.

Tractate 69.

On what the Lord says, And where I go you know, and the way you know; as far as, No one comes to the Father except through Me. Chap. 14, vv. 4-6.

1. Now it falls to us, most beloved, as far as we are able, to understand from the Lord's later words the earlier ones, and from those that follow the ones that precede, in what you have heard was answered to the apostle Thomas when he asked. For the Lord had said above, when, of the mansions,

He was speaking, which He said both exist in His Father's house, and that He goes to prepare them; whereby we have understood both that the mansions themselves already exist in predestination, and that they are being prepared when the hearts of those who are to dwell there are cleansed through faith, since they themselves are the house of God; and what else is it to dwell in the house of God than to be in the people of God, since that same people is in God, and God in it? That He might prepare this, the Lord went away; so that by believing in Him Who is not seen, the dwelling which will be for ever in sight may now be prepared through faith: for this reason, therefore, He had said, And if I go away, and prepare a place for you, I come again, and I will receive you to Myself, that where I am you also may be. And whither I go you know, and the way you know. To this Thomas says to Him: Lord, we do not know whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? The Lord had said that they knew both; this man says that he knows neither, both the place whither one goes and the way by which one goes. But He does not know how to lie: therefore these men knew, and did not know that they knew. Let Him convince them that they already know what they think they still do not know. Jesus says to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. What is this, brothers? Behold, we have heard the disciple asking, we have heard also the master teaching, and we do not yet grasp, even after the sounding voice, the hidden meaning. But what is it that we cannot grasp? Could His apostles, with whom He was speaking, say to Him, We do not know Thee? Accordingly, if they knew Him, and He Himself is the way, they knew the way; if they knew Him, and He Himself is the truth, they knew the truth; if they knew Him, and He Himself is the life, they knew the life. Behold, they are convicted of knowing what they did not know that they knew.

2. What, then, is it that we too did not grasp in this discourse? What do you think, my brothers, except that He said, And whither I go you know, and the way you know? And behold, we have recognized that they knew the way, because they knew Him Who is the way: but the way is that by which one goes; is the way also that whither one goes? Yet He had said that they knew both, both whither He goes and the way. It was necessary, therefore, that He should say, I am the way, to show that they who knew Him knew the way which they had thought they did not know: but what need was there for Him to say, I am the way, and the truth, and the life, when, the way by which He was going being known, it remained to know whither He was going; unless because He was going to the truth, He was going to the life? He was going, therefore, to Himself, through Himself. And whither do we go, except to Him? And by what way do we go, except through Him? He, then, [goes] to Himself through Himself; we to Him through Him: nay rather, both He and we [go] to the Father as well. For of Himself too He says elsewhere, I go to the Father (John 16:10): and in this place, on our account, No one, He says, comes to the Father except through Me. And by this both He [goes] through Himself and to Himself and to the Father, and we through Him and to Him and to the Father. Who grasps these things, except one who has spiritual understanding? And how much is it that he grasps here, even if he has spiritual understanding? Brothers, why do you wish these things to be expounded by me? Consider how lofty they are. You see what I am, I see what you are: in all of us the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that thinks many things (Wis. 9:15). Do we think we can say: To Thee have I lifted up my soul, Thou Who dwellest in heaven (Ps. 122:1)? But under so great a weight, where we groan, weighed down,

how shall I lift up my soul, unless He lift it with me Who laid down His own for me? Let me therefore say what I can; let whoever of you can, grasp it. By His gift I speak, by His gift he grasps who grasps, and by His gift he believes who does not yet grasp. For unless you believe, says the prophet, you will not understand (Isa. 7:9, according to the Septuagint).

3. Tell me, my Lord, what I am to say to Thy servants, my fellow servants. The apostle Thomas, in order to question Thee, had Thee before him; and yet he would not have understood Thee unless he had Thee within him: I question Thee because I know that Thou art above me; and I question Thee in so far as I am able to pour out my soul above me, where I may hear Thee, not sounding and yet teaching. Tell me, I beseech Thee, how dost Thou go to Thyself. Hadst Thou left Thyself in order to come to us, especially since Thou camest not from Thyself, but the Father sent Thee? I know indeed that Thou didst empty Thyself; but in that Thou tookest the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7), not in that Thou didst either let go the form of God as one to which Thou wouldst return, or lose it as one Thou wouldst receive back: and yet Thou camest, and didst reach not only as far as fleshly eyes, but even as far as the hands of men. How, if not in the flesh? Through this Thou camest while remaining where Thou wast, through this Thou didst return without leaving the place to which Thou hadst come. If therefore through this Thou camest and didst return, through this without doubt Thou art not only for us [the way] by which we might come to Thee, but also for Thyself Thou wast the way by which Thou mightest come and return. And when Thou didst go to life, which Thou Thyself art, Thou didst certainly lead that same flesh of Thine from death to life. For the Word of God is one thing, man another: but the Word was made flesh, that is, man. And so there is not one person of the Word and another of the man, since both together are Christ, one person: and for this reason, just as when the flesh died, Christ died, and when the flesh was buried, Christ was buried (for thus with the heart we believe unto righteousness, thus with the mouth we make confession unto salvation [Rom. 10:10]), so when the flesh came from death to life, Christ came to life. And since Christ is the Word of God, Christ is life. Thus in a certain wonderful and ineffable manner He Who never let go or lost Himself came to Himself. Now God had come, as has been said, through the flesh to men, the truth to liars: for God is truthful, but every man a liar (Rom. 3:4). When therefore He took His flesh away from men, and raised it up to that place where no one lies, He Himself, since the Word was made flesh, returned through Himself, that is, through the flesh, to the truth, which He Himself is. And this truth, though among liars, He preserved even in death: for Christ was once dead, but never was He false.

4. Receive an example, which, though different and far unequal, is nevertheless of some use for understanding God, taken from those things which are more closely subject to God. Look, I myself, as far as concerns my mind, since I am what you also are, if I am silent, am with myself: but if I speak to you something for you to understand, I in a certain manner go forth to you, and yet I do not leave myself, but I both approach you and do not withdraw from where I go forth. And when I have fallen silent, I in a certain manner return to myself; and in a certain manner I remain with you, if you hold on to what you have heard in the discourse which

I say. If the image which God made can do this, what can the image of God do which is not made by God but born of God, God: whose body, that by which He came forth to us and in which He went back from us, did not pass away as my sound has passed away, but abides there where He no longer dies, and death shall no more have dominion over Him (Rom. 6:9)? Many things perhaps could and should still be said about these words of the Gospel; but your hearts are not to be burdened with spiritual foods, however sweet; especially since the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41).

Tractate 70. On what the Lord says, If you had known Me, you would surely have known My Father also; as far as this, Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? Chapter 14, verses 7-10.

1. The words of the holy Gospel, brethren, are rightly understood in this way: if they are found to be in agreement with what goes before; for what precedes must accord with what follows when the Truth speaks. Earlier the Lord had said, "And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I come again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, you also may be"; then He had added, "And where I go you know, and the way you know"; and He showed that what He said was nothing other than that they knew Him. What, then, it would be for Him to go to Himself through Himself, which He also grants to the disciples, that they go to Him through Him, we have already said in the former discourse as well as we could. So when He says, That where I am, you also may be, where were they to be, if not in Him? And by this He too is in Himself, and therefore they are there where He also is, that is, in Him. He is therefore the eternal life in which we shall be when He has taken us to Himself; and that eternal life which He is, is in Him, so that where He is, we too may be, that is, in Him. For as the Father has life in Himself, and assuredly the life which He has is nothing other than what He Himself is Who has it, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:26), since He is the very life which He has in Himself. But shall we be that life which He is, when we have begun to be in that life, that is, in Him? Certainly not, for He, by existing as life, has life, and He is what He has, and that which is life in Him, He Himself is in Himself; but we are not life itself, but partakers of His life, and so we shall be there in such a way that in ourselves we cannot be what He is, but that we ourselves, not being life, may have Him as life, Who has Himself as life, because He is life. In short, He is both in Himself unchangeably and in the Father inseparably; but we, when we wished to be in ourselves, were troubled towards ourselves; hence that cry, Towards myself my soul is troubled (Ps. 41:7); and being changed for the worse, we could not even remain what we were. But when through Him we come to the Father, as He says, No one comes to the Father except through Me, abiding in Him, no one will be able to separate us either from the Father or from Him.

2. Connecting therefore what follows with what precedes: If you have known Me, He says, you have surely known My Father also.

This is what He says: No one comes to the Father except through Me. Then He adds: And from now on you will know Him, and you have seen Him. But Philip, one of the Apostles, not understanding what he had heard, said: Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. To him the Lord said: Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who sees Me sees the Father also. See, He rebukes [them] because He had been with them so long a time and was not known. Had He not Himself said, And where I am going you know, and the way you know; and when they said that they did not know, had He not proved that they knew these things, by adding and saying, I am the way, the truth and the life? How then does He now say, Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known Me? when surely they knew both where He was going and the way for no other reason than that they certainly knew Him. But this question is easily solved if we say that some of them knew Him and some did not know Him, and that among those who did not know was Philip also; so that what He said, And where I am going you know, and the way you know, is understood to have been said to those who knew, not to Philip, to whom it was said, Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known Me, Philip? To those, therefore, who already knew the Son, this too was said about the Father, And from now on you will know Him, and you have seen Him: for it was said on account of the complete likeness which He has with the Father, so that they might for that reason be said from now on to know the Father, because they knew the Son who is like Him. So they already knew the Son, if not all, certainly some of those to whom it is said, And where I am going you know, and the way you know: for He Himself is the way. But they did not know the Father; therefore they hear, If you have known Me, you have known My Father also: certainly through Me, Him too. For I am one, He is another. But lest they should think Him unlike, And from now on, He says, you will know Him, and you have seen Him. For they had seen His Son who is most like Him, but they had to be reminded that the Father also, whom they did not yet see, is such as the Son whom they saw. And to this purpose serves what is afterwards said to Philip, He who sees Me sees the Father also. Not that He Himself was both Father and Son, which the catholic faith condemns in the Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians, but that the Father and the Son are so alike that whoever has known one has known both. For we are accustomed to speak thus of two who are very alike to those who see one of them and wish to know what the other is like, so that we say: You have seen this one, you have seen that one. Thus therefore it was said, He who sees Me sees the Father also: not, surely, that He who is the Son is Himself the Father, but that the Son differs in nothing at all from the likeness of the Father. For unless the Father and the Son were two, it would not have been said, If you have known Me, you have known My Father also. For certainly, since no one, He says, comes to the Father except through Me; if you have known Me, you have known My Father also: since I, through Whom one comes to the Father, will lead you to Him, so that you may know Him too. But since I am altogether most like Him, from now on you will know Him, when you know Me: and you have seen Him, if you have seen Me with the eyes of the heart.

3. What then is it that you say, Philip, Show us the Father, and it is enough for us? Have I been with you so long a time, He says, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who sees Me sees the Father also. But if it is too much for you to see this, at least believe this which you do not see. How