Augustine, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus CXXIV

TRACTATE CXXIV.

From the place, And when He had said this, He says to him: Follow Me, etc., to the end of the Gospel. Chap. XXI, vv. 19-25.

1. It is no small question why the Lord, when He manifested Himself to the disciples for the third time, said to the apostle Peter, Follow Me; but of the apostle John, Thus I will that he remain until I come; what is that to you? To the thorough handling or to the solving of this question, so far as the Lord Himself shall have granted, we devote the last discourse of this work. When, therefore, the Lord had foretold to Peter by what death he was to glorify God, He says to him: Follow Me. Peter, turning about, saw that disciple whom Jesus loved following: who also reclined at the supper upon His breast, and said, Lord, who is it that will betray Thee? When Peter, therefore, had seen this one, he says to Jesus: Lord, but what of this man? Jesus says to him: Thus I will that he remain until I come; what is that to you? You follow Me.

Therefore this saying went out among the brethren, that that disciple does not die. And Jesus did not say to him, He does not die; but, Thus I will that he remain until I come; what is that to you? See how far the question extends in this Gospel, which by its depth exercises in no ordinary degree the mind of one who searches into it. For why is it said to Peter, Follow Me, and not said to the rest who were present together with him? And assuredly the disciples were following Him as their master. But if it is to be understood with reference to suffering, did Peter alone suffer for the Christian truth? Was there not there among those seven the other son of Zebedee, the brother of John, who after His ascension is plainly shown to have been slain by Herod (Acts 12:2)? But someone may say that, since James was not crucified, it was with good reason said to Peter, Follow Me, who experienced not only death, but even the death of the cross, as Christ did. Let this be so, if nothing else that is more fitting can be found. Why, then, was it said of John, Thus I will that he remain until I come; what is that to you? and why was it repeated, You follow Me; as though that one would not follow for this reason, that He willed him to remain until He comes? Who would easily believe that anything else was said than what the brethren who then were had believed, namely, that that disciple was not going to die, but that until Jesus should come he would remain in this life? But John himself took away this opinion, declaring by an open contradiction that the Lord had not said this. For why would he subjoin, Jesus did not say, He does not die, unless lest what had been false should cling to the hearts of men?

2. But let whoever pleases still resist; and let him say that what John says is true, that the Lord did not say that that disciple does not die, but that this nevertheless was signified by such words as he related Him to have said; and let him assert that the apostle John lives, and contend that in that tomb of his which is at Ephesus he is sleeping rather than lying dead. Let him take up as an argument that the earth there is reported to well up gently and, as it were, to bubble; and let him affirm, whether steadfastly or stubbornly, that this happens by his breathing. For there cannot fail to be those who believe it, if there are not wanting those who assert that even Moses lives: because it is written that his tomb is not found (Deut. 34:6), and he appeared with the Lord on the mountain, where Elijah also was (Matt. 17:3), of whom we read that he did not die, but was caught up (2 Kgs. 2:11). As though the body of Moses could not have been so hidden somewhere that it should be altogether concealed from men where it was, and from there be divinely raised up for the hour, when Elijah and he were seen with Christ: just as for the hour many bodies of the saints arose, when Christ suffered, and after His resurrection appeared to many in the holy city, as it is written (Matt. 27:52, 53). But nevertheless, as I had begun to say, if certain people deny that Moses is dead, of whom Scripture itself, where we read that his tomb is nowhere found, nevertheless testifies without any ambiguity that he is dead; how much more is John, on the occasion of those words where the Lord says, Thus I will that he remain until I come, believed to be sleeping alive beneath the earth? Of whom they also hand down (which is found in certain writings, although

apocryphal) that, when he ordered a tomb to be made for himself, he was present in sound health; and that, when it had been dug out and most carefully prepared, he laid himself there as in a bed, and at once died: but, as those suppose who understand these words of the Lord in this way, that he did not die, but lay down like one dead; and that, when he was thought dead, he was buried sleeping; and that he remains so until Christ comes, and makes his life known by the welling up of the dust: which dust is believed to be driven by the breath of the one resting, so that it rises from the depth to the surface of the mound. I consider it superfluous to struggle against this opinion. For let those who know the place see whether the earth there does or undergoes what is said; because in truth we have heard it from men who are not light-minded.

3. Meanwhile let us yield to the opinion, which we are not able to refute by sure proofs, lest another thing should in turn arise to be asked of us, Why upon a buried dead man the ground itself should seem in a certain way to live and breathe. But is this so great a question thereby solved, if by a great miracle, such as the Almighty can perform, a living body is for so long in slumber beneath the earth, until the end of the world comes? Nay rather, it becomes larger and more difficult, why Jesus should have given to the disciple whom He loved above the rest, so much so that he was found worthy to recline upon His breast, a long sleep in the body as a great gift: whereas He released blessed Peter, through the mighty glory of martyrdom, from the burden of the body itself, and granted to him what the apostle Paul said and wrote that he had longed for, To be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23). But if, as is more commonly believed, holy John says that the Lord did not say, He does not die, for this reason, lest by those words which He did say He should be thought to have wished this to be understood; and his body lies lifeless in his tomb like those of other dead men: it remains that, if what rumour has spread abroad truly happens there concerning the earth, which, being repeatedly taken away, grows up again, it either happens for this reason, that in that way his precious death may be commended, since martyrdom does not commend it (for no persecutor killed him for the faith of Christ), or on account of something else which is hidden from us. Yet the question remains why the Lord said of a man who was going to die, Thus I will that he remain until I come.

4. This also in these two apostles, Peter and John — whom would it not move to inquire, why the Lord loved John more, when Peter loved the Lord Himself more? For wherever John makes mention of himself, so that with his name passed over in silence he himself may be understood, he adds this, that Jesus loved him, as though He loved him alone, so that by this sign he might be distinguished from the rest, all of whom He assuredly loved: what, then, did he wish to be understood when he said this, except that he was loved more fully? which far be it that he should say falsely. And what greater token of His greater love towards him could Jesus give, than that a man who was, with the rest of his fellow disciples, a sharer in so great a salvation should nevertheless alone have reclined upon the breast of the Saviour Himself? Further, that the apostle Peter loved Christ more than the others, many proofs can indeed be brought forward: but, not to go far off to others, in the reading a little earlier, of that same third manifestation of the Lord, which precedes this one, quite evidently

it appears, where, questioning him, He said, Do you love Me more than these? This He assuredly knew, and yet He asked, so that we also who read the Gospel might come to know Peter's love towards the Lord, both by the one asking and by the other answering. But as to the fact that, in what Peter answered, I love Thee, he did not add, more than these, he answered what he knew of himself. For he could not know how much He was loved by any other, since he could not see another's heart. But nevertheless, by saying in the earlier words, Yes, Lord, Thou knowest (John 21:15, 16), he himself also sufficiently declared that the Lord, knowing it, had asked what He asked. The Lord therefore knew not only that Peter loved Him, but also that he loved Him more than those did. And yet if we propose the question, which of the two is the better, he who loves Christ more, or he who loves Him less; who will hesitate to answer that he who loves more is the better? Likewise, if we propose which of the two is the better, he whom Christ loves less, or he whom He loves more; we shall answer without doubt that he who is more loved by Christ is the better. In that comparison, therefore, which I put first, Peter is set before John; but in this other, John before Peter. Accordingly we propose a third in this way: which of the two disciples is the better, he who loves Christ less than his fellow disciple does, and is loved by Christ more than his fellow disciple is? or he whom Christ loves less than his fellow disciple, although he himself loves Christ more than his fellow disciple does? Here plainly the answer falters, and the question grows. But so far as I myself understand, I would easily answer that he who loves Christ more is the better, but he whom Christ loves more is the happier; if only I could see clearly how I might defend the justice of our Deliverer in loving less him by whom He is more loved, and more him by whom He is less loved.

5. I will undertake therefore, in the manifest mercy of Him Whose justice is hidden, to discuss the solving of so vast a question, according to the powers which He Himself shall have given: for up to this point it has been proposed, not expounded. And of its exposition let this be the beginning: that we remember that in this corruptible body, which weighs down the soul (Wis. 9:15), we live a miserable life. But we who have already been redeemed through the Mediator, and have received the Holy Spirit as a pledge, have the blessed life in hope, although in reality we do not yet hold it. But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why does he hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it through patience (Rom. 8:24, 25). Now patience is needed in the evils which each one suffers, not in the goods which he enjoys. This life, therefore, of which it is written, Is not human life upon earth a temptation (Job 7:1)? in which daily we cry to the Lord, Deliver us from evil (Matt. 6:13), man is compelled to endure even when his sins have been forgiven: although, that he should come into that misery, the first sin was the cause. For the penalty is longer drawn out than the fault; lest the fault be thought small, if the penalty too ended with it. And for this reason, whether for the demonstration of the misery that is due, or for the amendment of this slippery life, or for the exercise

of necessary patience, the penalty holds man in time, even him whom the fault no longer holds guilty unto everlasting damnation. This is the condition of these days, which we pass as evil in this mortality, although in it we love to see good days: a condition to be wept for indeed, but not to be reproached. For it comes from the just wrath of God, of which Scripture speaking says, Man born of woman, of short life, and full of wrath (Job 14:1): since the wrath of God is not as a man's, that is, a disturbance of an aroused mind, but the tranquil appointment of a just punishment. In this His wrath God, not withholding, as it is written, His compassions (Ps. 76:10), besides the other consolations of the miserable which He does not cease to supply to the human race, in the fulness of time, when He Himself knew that this should be done, sent His only-begotten Son (Gal. 4:4), through Whom He created all things, that remaining God He might become man, and that there might be a mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5): that those believing in Him, the guilt of all sins being loosed through the laver of regeneration, both of the original [sin], namely, which generation draws after it, against which above all regeneration was instituted, and of the others which have been contracted by doing evil, might be freed from perpetual damnation, and might live in faith and hope and charity, pilgrims in this world, and amid its toilsome and perilous temptations, but with the consolations of God both bodily and spiritual, might walk on to the sight of Him, holding to the way which Christ has become for them. And because even those walking in Him are not without sins, which creep in from the infirmity of this life, He gave the saving remedies of almsgiving, by which their prayer might be helped, where He taught them to say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:12). This the Church does, blessed in hope, in this toilsome life: of which Church the apostle Peter, on account of the primacy of his Apostleship, bore the person by a figurative generality. For as regards what pertains to him properly, by nature he was one man, by grace one Christian, by more abundant grace one and the same the first apostle: but when it was said to him, To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven, he signified the whole Church, which in this world is shaken by diverse temptations as by rains, floods, and tempests, and does not fall, because it is founded upon the rock, whence Peter received his name. For not from Peter is the rock, but Peter from the rock; just as Christ is not named from the Christian, but the Christian from Christ. For this reason indeed the Lord says, Upon this rock I will build My Church, because Peter had said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (ibid. 16:16–19). Upon this rock therefore, He says, which you have confessed, I will build My Church. For the rock was Christ (1 Cor. 10:4): upon which foundation Peter himself also was built. For other foundation no one can lay beside that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus (ibid. 3:11). The Church therefore, which is founded in Christ, received from Him in Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that is, the power of binding and loosing sins. For what

the Church is in Christ by proper right, this Peter is in the rock by signification; by which signification Christ is understood as the rock, Peter as the Church. This Church therefore, which Peter signified, so long as it lives among evils, by loving and following Christ is freed from evils. But it follows more [closely] in those who strive for the truth even unto death. But to the whole body it is said, Follow me, for which whole body Christ suffered: of Whom the same Peter says, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). Behold on what account it was said to him, Follow me. But there is another life, immortal, which is not among evils: there we shall see face to face what here is seen through a glass and in an enigma (1 Cor. 13:12), when great progress is made in beholding the truth. The Church therefore knows two lives divinely proclaimed and commended to her, of which one is in faith, the other in sight; one in the time of pilgrimage, the other in the eternity of abiding; one in labour, the other in rest; one on the way, the other in the fatherland; one in the work of action, the other in the reward of contemplation; one turns aside from evil and does good, the other has no evil from which to turn aside, and has a great good to enjoy; one fights with the enemy, the other reigns without an enemy; one is strong in adversities, the other feels nothing adverse; one bridles carnal lusts, the other is free for spiritual delights; one is anxious with the care of conquering, the other secure in the peace of victory; one is helped in temptations, the other, without any temptation, rejoices in the Helper Himself; one succours the needy, the other is there where it finds no one needy; one forgives the sins of others that its own may be forgiven it, the other neither suffers anything to forgive, nor does anything for which to ask to be forgiven; one is scourged with evils, lest it be lifted up in goods, the other through so great a fulness of grace is free of every evil, so that without any temptation of pride it cleaves to the highest good; one discerns good and evil, the other beholds those things which alone are good: therefore the one is good, but still miserable; the other better and blessed. The former was signified by the apostle Peter, the latter by John. The former is carried on wholly here, until the end of this world, and there it finds its end: the latter is deferred, to be completed after the end of this world, but in the world to come it has no end. Therefore it is said to the one, Follow me: but of the other, So I will him to remain until I come; what is it to you? Follow you me. For what is this? As far as I understand, as far as I grasp, what is this, unless, Follow you me by imitation in bearing temporal evils; let him remain until I come to render everlasting goods? Which can be said more plainly thus: Let perfected action follow me, formed by the example of my passion; but let contemplation, [only] begun, remain until I come, to be perfected when I shall have come. For the godly fulness of patience, reaching even unto death, follows Christ: but the fulness of knowledge remains until Christ comes, to be manifested then. For here the evils of this world are endured in the land of the dying; there the good things of the Lord will be seen in the land of the living. For when He says, I will him to remain until I come, it is not to be understood as if He had said, to stay behind or to stay on; but, to wait: since

what is signified through him will be fulfilled, not indeed now, but when Christ shall have come. But what is signified through this one, to whom it was said, Follow you me, unless it be done now, one will not arrive at that which is awaited. And in this active life, the more we love Christ, the more easily are we freed from evil. But He Himself loves us less such as we now are; and for that reason frees us from here, lest we be always such. But there He loves us more; since we shall have nothing that displeases Him and that He must take away from us: nor does He love us here for any other reason than that He may heal us and carry us over from those things which He does not love. Here therefore [He loves us] less, where He does not will us to remain: there more, whither He wills us to pass over, and whence He does not will us to perish. Let Peter therefore love Him, that we may be freed from this mortality: let John be loved by Him, that we may be kept in that immortality.

6. But by this reasoning it is shown why Christ loved John more than Peter, not why Peter loved Christ more than John. For it is not so that, if Christ loves us more in the world to come, where we shall live with Him without end, than in this one from which we are being rescued so that we may be there for ever, we are therefore going to love Him less then, when we shall be better; since we can by no means be better except by loving Him more. Why then did John love Him less than Peter, if he signified that life in which He is to be loved much more, unless it was for this reason that it was said, I will that he remain, that is, wait, till I come: because that very love too, which will then be much greater, we do not yet have, but we wait for it as something to come, that we may have it when He Himself has come? For as the same apostle says in his Epistle, It has not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). Then, therefore, we shall love more what we shall see. But the Lord Himself, knowing that life of ours which is to come, what it is to be in us, loves it more by predestination, so that by loving He may lead us to it. Wherefore, since all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps. 24:10), we know our present misery, because we feel it; and therefore we love more the mercy of the Lord, which we wish to be shown to us who are to be delivered from misery, and daily we ask for it above all for the remission of sins, and we have it: this was signified through Peter, loving more but loved less; because Christ loves us less when we are wretched than when we are blessed. But the contemplation of truth, such as it will then be, we love less, because we do not yet know it or have it: this was signified through John, loving less, and therefore waiting, until the Lord comes, both for that contemplation itself and for the fulfilling in us of the love of it, such as is owed to it; but loved more, because that which is figured through him is what makes us blessed.

7. Yet let no one separate these illustrious apostles. Both were in that which Peter signified; and both were to be in that which John signified. In signifying, this one followed, that one remained: but in believing, both endured the present evils of this misery, both awaited the future goods of that blessedness.

Nor they alone, but the whole holy Church, the bride of Christ, does this, to be rescued from these temptations, to be kept in that felicity. These two lives Peter and John figured, each one of them one: but both walked in this one in time by faith, and both will enjoy that one for ever by sight. For all the saints, therefore, who belong inseparably to the body of Christ, for the steering of this most tempestuous life, Peter, the first of the Apostles, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven for binding and loosing sins: and for all these same saints, for the most quiet bosom of that most secret life, John the evangelist reclined upon the breast of Christ. Since neither does the one alone, but the whole Church binds and looses sins: nor did the other alone drink from the fountain of the Lord's breast [the words] In the beginning was the Word, God with God, and the other sublime things concerning the divinity of Christ, and concerning the trinity and unity of the whole divinity, which in that kingdom are to be contemplated face to face, but now, until the Lord come, are to be looked upon in a glass and in an enigma, that he might pour them forth in preaching; but the Lord Himself spread abroad that very Gospel through the whole world, to be drunk by all His own, each according to his capacity. There are some, and these indeed not contemptible expounders of the sacred word, who have held that John the apostle was loved more by Christ for this reason, that he never took a wife, and lived most chastely from his earliest boyhood (Jerome, Against Jovinian, Book I). This indeed does not plainly appear in the canonical Scriptures: yet this too greatly helps the fitness of this opinion, that that life was signified through him in which there will be no marriages.

8. This is that disciple who bears witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true. But there are also, he says, many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written one by one, I think that not even the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written. It is not to be believed that the world could not contain them by extent of space: for how could they be written in it, if it would not bear them once written? But perhaps they could not be comprehended by the capacity of the readers: although, with the truth of the things kept intact, words very often seem to go beyond belief. This does not happen when something that was obscure or doubtful is expounded with its cause and reason given: but when that which is plain is either enlarged or lessened, and yet there is no straying from the path of the truth that is to be signified; since the words go beyond the thing indicated in such a way that the intention of one who speaks and does not deceive is apparent, who knows how far he will be believed, when by him, in speaking, something is either diminished or enlarged beyond what is to be believed. This manner of speaking the teachers not only of Greek but also of Latin letters call by a Greek name, hyperbole. This manner is found, as in this place, so in some other places of the divine Scriptures: as, They have set their mouth against heaven (Ps. 72:9); and, The crown of the hair of those who walk on in their sins (Ps. 67:22); and many things of this kind, which are not wanting in the holy Scriptures, as neither are the other tropes, that is, modes of speech. Of these I would discourse more laboriously, were it not that, as the Evangelist ends his Gospel, I too am compelled to end my discourse.