Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus LXXXV-CII

15:26)? Why do you think, except that, just as He is accustomed to refer to Him even what is His own, from Whom He Himself also is? Hence is that which He says: My teaching is not Mine, but His Who sent Me (John 7:16). If therefore His teaching is understood here, which He nevertheless said was not His own but the Father's, how much more is the Holy Spirit to be understood there to proceed from Him, where He speaks thus: He proceeds from the Father, so that He did not say: He does not proceed from Me? But from Whom the Son has it that He is God (for He is God from God), from Him He certainly has it that the Holy Spirit should proceed from Him also; and through this the Holy Spirit has it from the Father Himself that He should proceed also from the Son, as He proceeds from the Father.

9. Here also that is in some way understood, so far as it can be understood by such as we are, why the Holy Spirit is not said to be born, but rather to proceed. For if He too were called Son, He would certainly be called the Son of both, which is most absurd. For no one is the son of two, except of father and mother. But far be it from us to suspect any such thing between God the Father and God the Son. For not even a son of men proceeds at the same time both from father and from mother; but when he proceeds from the father into the mother, he does not then proceed from the mother; and when he proceeds from the mother into this light, he does not then proceed from the father. But the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father into the Son, and then proceed from the Son to sanctify the creature; rather He proceeds at the same time from both, although the Father has given this to the Son, that just as from Himself, so from Him also He should proceed. For neither can we say that the Holy Spirit is not life, when the Father is life and the Son is life. And therefore, just as the Father, since He has life in Himself, gave also to the Son to have life in Himself, so He gave to Him that life should proceed from Him, as it proceeds also from Himself. Next follow the words of the Lord saying: And the things that are to come He will announce to you. He will glorify Me, because He will receive of Mine, and will announce it to you. All things whatsoever the Father has are Mine: therefore I said that He will receive of Mine, and will announce it to you. But because this [sermon] is already long, they must be put off to another sermon.

Tractate 100. On the last words of the same reading. Chapter 16, verses 13-15.

1. When the Lord was promising that the Holy Spirit would come, He said: He will teach you all truth; or, as is read in some codices: He will lead you in all truth. For He will not speak from Himself, but whatever things He will hear, He will speak. Concerning these words of the Gospel we have already discussed what the Lord granted: now attend to those which follow. And the things that are to come, He says, He will announce to you. Nor is there need to linger here, since it is plain: for it holds nothing of a question whose exposition should be demanded of us. But what He adds, He will glorify Me, because He will receive of Mine, and will announce it to you, is not to be passed over carelessly. For what He says, He will glorify Me, can be understood as meaning that by pouring out charity in

the hearts of believers, and making them spiritual, He made clear to them how the Son was equal to the Father, Him Whom they had previously known only according to the flesh, and Whom, being men, they thought of as a man. Or certainly, because, filled with confidence through that very charity and with fear driven out, they proclaimed Christ to men; and thus His fame was spread throughout the whole world. So that He said, He will make Me bright, as though He were saying: He will take fear away from you, and will give love, by which, preaching Me more ardently, you will spread the fragrance of My glory through the whole world, you will commend My honour. For what they were going to do in the Holy Spirit, this He said that same Spirit would do; such as is also that saying, For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father Who speaks in you (Matt. 10:20). For the Greek word, which is δοξάσει, the Latin translators rendered, each in his own translation, one as 'will make bright', another as 'will glorify'; since that very word which in Greek is called δόξα, from which the verb δοξάσει is formed, is interpreted both as brightness and as glory. For by glory each person becomes bright, and by brightness glorious; and therefore what is signified by each word is the selfsame thing. Now, as the most illustrious ancient authors of the Latin language defined it, glory is frequent fame about someone together with praise. When this has come about in this world concerning Christ, it must not be believed to have conferred anything great on Christ, but on the world. For to praise the good benefits not the one praised, but those who praise.

2. But there is also false glory, when those who praise are deceived by error, whether in things, or in men, or in both. For they are deceived in things when they think that to be good which is evil; in men, when they think him to be good who is evil; and in both, when that which is a vice is thought a virtue, and the man himself who is praised on that account does not have what he is thought to have, whether he be good or whether he be evil. For to give away one's goods to actors is a monstrous vice, not a virtue; and you know how frequent the fame with praise is concerning such men; because, as it is written, The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does iniquitous things is blessed (Ps. 9:3). Here the praisers are deceived not in the men but in the things: for what they believe to be good is evil. But those who are vicious through this evil of lavish giving are certainly such as those who praise them do not merely suspect them to be, but see them to be. Further, if anyone feigns himself to be just and is not, but whatever he seems to do praiseworthily before men he does not do for God's sake, that is, for the sake of true justice, but seeks and loves only glory from men; and those among whom his fame with praise is frequent think that he lives praiseworthily for no other reason than for God's sake: they are not deceived in the thing, but they are deceived in the man. For what they believe to be good is good; but he whom they believe to be good is not good. But if, for example, skill in the magical arts is thought a good, and someone, while he is believed to have freed his fatherland by those very arts of which he is wholly ignorant, should obtain among impious men frequent fame with praise, which has been defined as glory;

those who praise err in both respects: namely, both in the matter, because they think good that which is evil; and in the man, because he is not what they think. Therefore glory in these three kinds is false. But when, concerning someone who is just through God and for the sake of God, that is, truly just, there is frequent fame with praise because of his very justice, it is indeed true glory; yet it is not to be believed that the just man is made blessed by it, but those who praise are to be congratulated, because they judge rightly and love the just man. How much more, then, did the Lord Christ by His glory profit not Himself but those whom He profited by His death?

3. But His glory among heretics is not true, although among them He seems to have frequent fame with praise. This is not true glory, because they are deceived in both respects: for they both think good what is not good, and think Christ to be what Christ is not. For that the only-begotten Son is not equal to the One who begets is not good; that the only-begotten Son of God is only a man, not God, is not good; that the flesh of the Truth is not true flesh is not good. Of these three things that I have mentioned, the Arians hold the first, the Photinians the second, the Manichaeans the third. But since none of these is good, and Christ is none of these, they are deceived in both respects: nor do they give true glory to Christ, although among them there seems to be frequent fame about Christ with praise. And absolutely all the heretics, whom it would take too long to recount, who do not think rightly about Christ, err for this reason, that they also do not think what is true about good and evil things. The pagans also, since very many of them are praisers of Christ, are themselves likewise deceived in both respects, who, not according to the truth of God but rather according to their own surmise, say that He was a man who was a magician. For they revile Christians as ignorant, but praise Christ as a magician, and thus betray what they love: but they do not love Christ, since what they love is what Christ was not. Therefore they are deceived in both respects, because both to be a magician is evil, and Christ was not a magician, because He is good. Therefore, since nothing is to be said in this place about those who revile and blaspheme Christ, since we are speaking of His glory with which He has been glorified in the world: the Holy Spirit has not glorified Him with true glory except in the holy catholic Church. For elsewhere, that is, either among heretics or among certain pagans, His true glory on earth cannot be, even where there seems to be frequent fame about Him with praise. His true glory in the catholic Church, then, is sung thus by the prophet: Be exalted above the heavens, O God, and Thy glory above all the earth (Ps. 107:6). Since, therefore, after His exaltation the Holy Spirit was to come and to glorify Him, this the sacred Psalm, this the Only-begotten Himself promised would come to pass, which we see fulfilled.

4. But as to His saying, He will receive of Mine, and will announce it to you, hear it with catholic ears, perceive it with catholic minds. For it is not on this account, as certain heretics have thought, that the Holy Spirit is less than the Son: as though the Son receives from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Son, by certain grades of natures. Far be it to believe this, far be it to say this, far be it from Christian hearts to think it.

Finally He Himself at once solved the question, and explained why He had said this. All things, He says, whatever the Father has, are Mine: therefore I said that He will receive of Mine, and will announce it to you. What more do you want? Therefore the Holy Spirit receives from the Father, from Whom the Son receives; because in this Trinity the Son is born of the Father, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. But He Who is born of none and proceeds from none is the Father alone. But how the only-begotten Son said, All things that the Father has are Mine (for certainly not in the way in which it was said to that son who was not only-begotten, but the elder of two, You are always with me, and all things that are mine are yours [Luke 15:31]), will, if the Lord wills, be treated with careful consideration in that place where the Only-begotten says to the Father, And all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine (John 17:10): so that this present discourse may be closed here; since what follows demands another beginning in which to be discussed.

Tractate 101. On what the Lord says, A little while and now you will not see Me; as far as this, And on that day you will ask Me nothing. Chapter 16, verses 16-23.

1. These words of the Lord, where He says, A little while and now you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me, because I am going to the Father, were so obscure to the disciples, before what He says had been fulfilled, that, inquiring among themselves what it was that He was saying, they confessed that they did not know at all. For the Gospel goes on: Then some of His disciples said to one another, What is this that He says to us, A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me, and, Because I am going to the Father? They were saying therefore, What is this that He says, A little while? We do not know what He is speaking of. For this is what troubled them, that He said, A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me. For in what preceded, because He had not said, A little while, but had said, I am going to the Father, and now you will not see Me (John 16:10), He seemed to them to have spoken plainly, and they did not inquire anything among themselves about this. Now therefore what was obscure to them then, and was soon made manifest, is now certainly manifest to us: for after a little while He suffered, and they did not see Him; again, after a little while He rose, and they saw Him. But as to what He says, Now you will not see Me, in that by this word, that is, now, He wished it to be understood that they would not see Him any further, we have explained how it is to be taken in that place where He said, The Holy Spirit will convict the world of righteousness, because I am going to the Father, and now you will not see Me (above, Tractate 95): namely, that they would not see Christ as mortal any further.

2. But Jesus knew, as the Evangelist says next, that they wished to question Him, and He said to them: You are inquiring among yourselves about this, that I said, A little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me. Amen, amen I say to you, that you will weep and lament; but the world will rejoice: and you will be made sorrowful, but your sorrow will become joy. And this can be taken thus, that the disciples were made sorrowful over the death of the Lord, and immediately gladdened over the resurrection: but the world, by which name

are signified the enemies by whom Christ was slain, then indeed they rejoiced when Christ was slain, at the time when the disciples were made sorrowful. For by the name of the world the wickedness of this world can be understood, that is, of the men who are friends of this world. Hence the apostle James says in his Epistle, Whoever wishes to be a friend of this age is made an enemy of God (Jas. 4:4): by which enmities against God it came about that not even His Only-begotten was spared.

3. Then He adds, and says: A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she has brought forth a boy, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world: and you therefore now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you. Nor does this likeness seem difficult to understand; for its comparison is ready to hand, since He Himself explains why it was spoken. For the travail is compared to sorrow, but the birth to joy; and this is usually the greater when not a girl but a boy is born. But as for what He says, Your joy no one shall take from you, since their joy is Jesus Himself, there is signified what the Apostle says, Christ rising from the dead dies now no more, and death shall have dominion over Him no longer (Rom. 6:9).

4. Up to this point in this chapter of the Gospel, on which we are discoursing today, everything has run along as if easy to understand: a keener attention is needed for what follows. For what is it that He says, And in that day you shall not ask Me anything? This verb, rogare, signifies not only to request but also to question; and the Greek Gospel, from which this was translated, has a verb such that it can be understood either way, so that this ambiguity is not resolved from there either: although even if it were resolved, it would not follow on that account that no question remained. For we read that the Lord Christ, after He rose again, was both questioned and asked. For He was questioned by the disciples when about to ascend into heaven, as to when He would be made present, and when the kingdom of Israel would be (Acts 1:6): but when He was now in heaven, He was asked by the holy Stephen to receive his spirit (Acts 7:58). And who would dare either to think or to say that Christ seated in heaven is not to be asked, and that while abiding on earth He was asked? that He is not to be asked as immortal, but ought to have been asked as mortal? Nay rather, dearly beloved, let us ask Him to untie the knot of this question Himself, by shining in our hearts so that we may see what He says.

5. For I think that what He says, But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you, is not to be referred to that time when He rose again and showed them His flesh to be seen and touched (John 20:27): but rather to that of which He had already said, He who loves Me shall be loved by My Father; and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him (John 14:21). For He had already risen again, He had already shown Himself to them in the flesh, He was already sitting at the right hand of the Father, when this same apostle John, whose Gospel this is, said in his Epistle: Dearly beloved, now we are sons of God, and it has not yet been made manifest what

we shall be: we know that when it has been made manifest, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). This vision belongs not to this life but to the life to come; it is not temporal but eternal. For this is eternal life, as the Life Himself says: that they may know Thee, He says, the one true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent (John 17:3). Of this vision and knowledge the Apostle says: Now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face: now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I have been known (1 Cor. 13:12–13). This fruit of all her labour the Church now brings forth in labour by desiring, and then is to give birth to it by beholding; now she labours with groaning, then she is to give birth with rejoicing; now she labours by praying, then she is to give birth by praising. And therefore [the child is] male; because all the duties of action are referred to this fruit of contemplation. For it alone is free, because it is sought for its own sake and is not referred to anything else. Action serves it: for to it is referred whatever is done well, since it is for its sake that it is done; but it itself is held and possessed not for the sake of anything else, but for its own sake. There, then, is the end that suffices us. It will therefore be eternal: for no end suffices us except one of which there is no end. This had been inspired in Philip when he said: Show us the Father, and it suffices us. And in that showing the Son too promised Himself, saying: Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me (John 14:8, 10)? Of this, then, which suffices us, we most rightly hear: Your joy no one will take from you.

6. Of this too, I think, what was said above is better understood: A little while and now you will not see Me, and again a little while and you will see Me. For this whole span through which the present age flies past is a little while: whence the same evangelist says in his Epistle, It is the last hour (1 John 2:18). For this reason indeed He added, because I go to the Father, which is to be referred to the former statement, where He says, A little while and now you will not see Me; not to the latter, where He says, and again a little while and you will see Me. For by going to the Father He was to bring it about that they would not see Him. And so it was not said for this reason, that He was about to die and to withdraw from their sight until He should rise again; but because He was to go to the Father, which He did after He had risen, and, having spent forty days with them, ascended into heaven (Acts 1:3, 9). To them, therefore, He says, A little while and now you will not see Me, who were then seeing Him bodily, because He was to go to the Father, and thereafter they were not going to see Him mortal, such as they saw Him when He was speaking these things. But what He added, and again a little while and you will see Me, He promised to the whole Church, just as He promised to the whole [Church]: Behold, I am with you even to the consummation of the age (Matt. 28:20). The Lord does not delay His promise: a little while, and we shall see Him, where we shall no longer ask anything, no longer question anything; because nothing will remain to be desired, nothing will lie hidden to be sought. This little while seems long to us, because it is still going on: when it has been finished, then we shall perceive how little a while it was. Let our joy, then, not be such as the world has, of which it was said, But the world will rejoice: