Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus CIII-CXVI

Tractate 103.

On that which follows, His disciples say to Him: Behold, now You speak openly; as far as this, But take courage, I have overcome the world. Chapter 16, verses 29-33.

1. What sort of men the disciples of Christ were when, before His passion, He spoke great things with little ones (but as it was fitting that great things be spoken even to little ones), because, not yet having received the Holy Spirit as they received Him after His resurrection, both by His own breathing upon them and from above, they savoured human rather than divine things, is declared by many judgements throughout the whole Gospel; and from this too comes what they said in this reading. For the Evangelist says: "His disciples say to Him: Behold, now Thou speakest openly, and speakest no proverb: now we know that Thou knowest all things, and Thou hast no need that anyone should question Thee; by this we believe that Thou camest forth from God." The Lord Himself had said a little before, "These things I have spoken to you in proverbs: the hour comes when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs." How then do these say, Behold, now Thou speakest openly, and speakest no proverb? Had the hour already come in which He had promised that He would no longer speak in proverbs? That that hour had not yet come is plainly shown by the continuation of His words, which runs thus: "These things," He says, "I have spoken to you in proverbs: the hour comes when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will tell you openly of My Father. On that day you will ask in My name: and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father, and came into the world: again I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John 16:25–28). Since by all these words He still promises that hour in which He will no longer speak in proverbs, but will tell them openly of the Father; in which hour He says that they will ask in His name, and that He will not ask the Father for them, because the Father Himself loves them, since they too have loved Christ, and have believed that He went out from the Father and came into the world, about to leave the world again and to go to the Father: since, then, that hour in which He is to speak without proverbs is still being promised, why do these say, Behold, now Thou speakest openly, and speakest no proverb; unless because those things which He knows to be proverbs to those who do not understand, they so far fail to understand that they do not even understand that they do not understand? For they were little ones, and did not yet judge spiritually the things they heard concerning matters pertaining not to the body but to the spirit.

2. Accordingly, admonishing them about that very age of theirs, still small and weak according to the inner man, "Jesus answered them: Do you now believe? Behold, the hour comes, and has now come, that you will be scattered each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And I am not alone,

because the Father is with Me." A little before He had said, "I leave the world, and I go to the Father": now He says, "The Father is with Me." Who goes to one who is with him? But to one who understands this is a plain word, to one who does not understand it is a proverb: yet in such a way that what is not now understood by the little ones is somehow sucked in; and even if it does not offer them solid food, because they do not yet grasp it, at least it does not deny them milky nourishment. It is from this nourishment that they knew He knew all things, and that there was no need for anyone to question Him: why indeed they said this may be asked. For it seems rather that it should have been said, "There is no need for Thee to question anyone"; not, "that anyone should question Thee." For they said, "We know that Thou knowest all things": and certainly He who knows all things is usually questioned by those who do not know, so that those who ask may hear what they wish from Him who knows all things; He who knows all things does not Himself question, as if wishing to know something. What then does it mean that to Him whom they knew to know all things, when they seem to have been bound to say, "There is no need for Thee to question anyone," they thought it rather to be said, "There is no need for Thee that anyone should question Thee"? What of the fact that we read that both were done, namely that the Lord both questioned and was questioned? But this is quickly resolved: because this was needful not for Him, but rather for those whom He questioned, or by whom He was questioned. For He did not question any people in order to learn something from them, but rather in order to teach them. And those who questioned Him, wishing to learn something from Him, for them indeed it was needful that they should know some things from Him who knew all things. Surely, then, for this reason there was no need that anyone should question Him. For we, when we are questioned by those who wish to know something from us, learn from their very questions what they wish to learn; it is needful for us, therefore, to be questioned by those whom we wish to teach something, so that we may know their inquiries, to which an answer must be given: but for Him who knew all things not even this was needful; nor did He have need to learn through a man's question what each wished to know from Him, because before He was questioned He knew the will of the one about to question. But He allowed Himself to be questioned for this reason, that He might show, either to those who were then present or to those who would hear these things when spoken or read them when written, what sort of men they were by whom He was questioned; and that in this way we might know either by what deceits He was not circumvented, or by what approaches progress was made with Him. Now to foresee the thoughts of men, and therefore to have no need that anyone should question Him, was no great thing for God, but it was a great thing for the little ones who said to Him, "By this we believe that Thou camest forth from God." But much greater was that to the understanding of which He wished them to be stretched out and to grow, that when they had said, and said truly, "Thou camest forth from God," He said, "The Father is with Me"; lest they should think that the Son had so gone forth from the Father as to suppose that He had also withdrawn from Him.

3. Then, concluding this great and lengthy discourse, He says: "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have distress; but take courage, I have overcome the world." This distress was to have that beginning,

of which [He spoke] above, when, in order to show them to be little ones, to whom, since they did not yet understand and took one thing for another, whatever great and divine things He had said were in a manner proverbs, He says, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour comes, and has now come, that you be scattered each one to his own. Behold the beginning of the pressure, but not one that would continue in that manner. For as to what He added, and leave Me alone, He does not wish them to be such in the subsequent pressure, which they were to have in the world after His ascension, that they should leave Him; but that they should have peace in Him, abiding in Him. For when He was seized, they left not only His flesh with their flesh, but also the faith with their mind. To this pertains what He says, Do you now believe? Behold, the hour comes that you be scattered to your own, and leave Me: as if He were saying, Then you will be so troubled that you will leave even what you now believe. For they came to so great a despair and, so to speak, death of their former faith, as appeared in that Cleopas, who after His resurrection, not knowing that he was speaking with Him, and recounting what had happened to Him, said, We were hoping that He was the one who would redeem Israel (Luke 24:21). Behold how they had left Him, deserting even the very faith with which they had previously believed in Him. But in that pressure which they endured after His glorification, having received the Holy Spirit, they did not leave Him: and although they fled from city to city, they did not flee away from Him; but so that, having pressure in the world, they might hold peace in Him, they were not fugitives from Him, but rather had Him as their refuge. For when the Holy Spirit had been given to them, there was accomplished in them what is now said to them, Be confident, I have conquered the world. They were confident, and they conquered. In whom, if not in Him? For He would not have conquered the world, if the world were conquering His members. Hence the Apostle says, Thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory; and he immediately added, through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:57): Who had said to His own, Be confident, I have conquered the world.

Tractate 104.

On what follows, These things Jesus spoke, and having lifted up His eyes to heaven He said: Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee. Chapter 17, verse 1.

1. Before these things which, with the Lord's help, we are now about to treat, Jesus had said, These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace: by which we ought to understand not merely the more recent things said by Him a little above, but all of them, whether whatever He spoke to them from the time He began to have them as disciples, or at any rate from the time when, after the supper, He began this admirable and lengthy discourse. For He recalled such a reason why He had spoken to them, that to that end may most rightly be referred either all the things He spoke to them, or especially those which He said when now about to die for them, as His last words, after he who was to betray Him had gone out from the holy banquet. For this is the reason He commended for His discourse, that they should have peace in Him, for the sake of which the whole of our being Christians is carried on. For this peace

will have no end in time, but it will itself be the end of all our devout intention and action. For its sake we are imbued with His sacraments, for its sake we are instructed by His wonderful works and words, for its sake we have received the pledge of His Spirit, for its sake we believe and hope in Him, and are kindled with love of Him as far as He grants: by this peace we are consoled in all distresses, by this we are delivered from all distresses: for its sake we bravely endure every tribulation, so that in it we may reign happily without any tribulation. Rightly did He close with it the words which were proverbs to the disciples, who understood little; they were to understand them when He had given them the promised Holy Spirit, of Whom He said above: "These things I have spoken to you while remaining with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and will suggest to you all things whatsoever I shall have said to you" (John 14:25–26). This, no doubt, was to be that hour in which He had promised that He would no longer speak in proverbs, but would tell them plainly of the Father. For these same words of His, when the Holy Spirit revealed them, were no longer going to be proverbs to those who now understood. For while the Holy Spirit was speaking in their hearts, the only-begotten Son was not going to be silent, He Who said that in that hour He would tell them plainly of the Father, which to them, now understanding, would certainly not be a proverb. But this very thing too, how both the Son of God and the Holy Spirit speak together in the hearts of their spiritual ones, nay, the Trinity itself, which works inseparably, is a word to those who understand, but to those who do not understand a proverb.

2. When, therefore, He had said for what purpose He had spoken all things, namely that in Him they might have peace, while having distress in the world, and had exhorted them to be confident, because He Himself has overcome the world, having finished the discourse which was addressed to them, He then directed His words to the Father, and now began to pray. For thus the Evangelist continues, saying: These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up His eyes to heaven He said: Father, the hour has come, glorify Thy Son. The Lord, the Only-begotten and coeternal with the Father, could, in the form of a servant and out of the form of a servant, have prayed in silence, if this had been needful; but He willed to show Himself to the Father as one praying in such a way as to remember that He was our teacher. Accordingly, the prayer which He made for us He made known to us also; since of so great a master not only the discourse to them, but also the prayer to the Father on their behalf, is the edification of the disciples. And if of those who were present to hear these things spoken, then assuredly ours also, who were to read them written down. Therefore, by this which He says, Father, the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, He showed that every time, and what He should do or permit to be done and when, has been ordered by Him Who is not subject to time; since the things that were to come in their several times have their efficient causes in the wisdom of God, in which there are no times. Let it not be believed, then, that this hour came under the pressure of fate, but rather by God's ordering. Nor did any necessity of the stars bind Christ to His passion: for far be it that the stars should compel the Maker of the stars to die. It was not, then, time that drove Christ to die, but Christ chose the time at which He would die

He Who also, together with the Father, appointed the time at which He was born of the Virgin, the Father of Whom He was born without time. In accordance with this true and sound doctrine, the apostle Paul too says, 'But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son' (Gal. 4:4); and God says through the prophet, 'At an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you' (Isa. 49:8); and again the Apostle, 'Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation' (2 Cor. 6:2). Let Him therefore say, Father, the hour has come, He Who with the Father disposed all hours: as if saying, Father, the hour which for the sake of men and among men we together appointed for My glorification has come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.

3. Some take the Son's being glorified by the Father to consist in this, that He did not spare Him, but delivered Him up for us all (Rom. 8:32). But if He is said to have been glorified by the passion, how much more by the resurrection! For in the passion it is His humility rather than His glory that is set forth, as the Apostle bears witness, who says, 'He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross'; then he continues, and now speaks of His glorification, 'Wherefore God also exalted Him, and gave Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of things heavenly, earthly and infernal, and every tongue confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.' This is the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ, which took its beginning from His resurrection. His humility, then, begins in the Apostle's discourse at the place where he says, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant; and it reaches as far as, unto the death of the cross. But His glory begins at the place where he says, Wherefore God also exalted Him; and it reaches as far as, is in the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:7–11). For as to the very word, if the Greek manuscripts are examined, the language from which the apostolic Epistles were translated into Latin, where 'gloria' is read here, 'doxa' is read there: from which a verb is derived in Greek so that 'doxason' is said, which the Latin translator renders 'clarifica' [make bright], though he could also have said 'glorifica' [glorify], which means just as much. And so in the Apostle's Epistle too, where 'gloria' stands, 'claritas' [brightness] could have been put: and if this were done it would mean just as much. But so as not to depart from the sounds of the words, just as 'clarificatio' is derived from 'claritas', so 'glorificatio' is derived from 'gloria'. In order, therefore, that the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, might be glorified or made glorious by the resurrection, He was first humbled by the passion: for He would not have risen from the dead, had He not died. Humility is the merit of glory; glory is the reward of humility. But this was done in the form of a servant; in the form of God, however, glory always was and always will be: nay rather, it was not as though it now is not, nor will it be as though it is not yet; but without beginning, without end, glory always is. When, therefore, He says, Father, the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, it is to be understood as though He had said, The hour has come for sowing humility; do not put off the fruit of glory. But what is meant by what follows, That Thy Son may glorify Thee? Did God the Father also endure the humility of the flesh or of the passion, out of which it was fitting for Him to