Tractates on the Gospel of John 11.2–11.13

See, you have heard that when the Lord Jesus Christ was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in his name, seeing the signs that he was doing. Many believed in his name: and what follows? “But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them.” What then does this mean: they believed in his name, and “Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them”? Had they perhaps not believed in him, but pretended to have believed, and for that reason Jesus did not entrust himself to them? But the evangelist would not say, “Many believed in his name,” unless he were bearing true witness to them. A great thing, then, and a wonderful thing: men believe in Christ, and Christ does not entrust himself to men. Especially since he is the Son of God, he certainly suffered willingly; and if he had not willed, he would never have suffered; if he had not willed, he would not even have been born; and if he had willed only this, to be born and not to die, he would have done whatever he willed; for the almighty Father's Son is almighty. Let us prove it from the facts themselves. For when they wanted to seize him, he departed from them. The Gospel says: “And when they wanted to throw him down from the brow of the hill, he departed from them unharmed.” And when they came to arrest him, already sold by Judas the traitor, when Judas thought he had it in his power to hand over his master and Lord, there too the Lord showed that he suffered by his will, not by necessity. For when the Jews wanted to arrest him, he said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” And he said, “I am he.” When they heard this word, they went backward and fell down. In that by his answer he threw them to the ground, he showed his power; so that in letting himself be arrested by them he might show his will. So his suffering was an act of mercy. “For he was handed over for our sins, and rose again for our justification.” Hear his own words: “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again: no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself, that I may take it up again.” Since then he had such power, since he proclaimed it in words and showed it in deeds, what does it mean that Jesus did not entrust himself to them, as though they would harm him against his will, or do something to him against his will, especially since they had already believed in his name? And of the same people of whom the evangelist says, “They believed in his name,” he says, “But Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them.” Why? “Because he knew all men, and because he had no need that anyone should bear witness about man; for he himself knew what was in man.” The craftsman knew better what was in his work than the work itself knew what was in itself. The Creator of man knew what was in man, which the created man himself did not know. Do we not prove this from Peter, who did not know what was in himself when he said, “With you even to death”? Hear that the Lord knew what was in man: “You with me even to death? Amen, amen, I say to you, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” So the man did not know what was in himself; but the Creator of man knew what was in man. Yet many believed in his name, and Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them. What do we say, brothers? Perhaps what follows will show us what the mystery of these words means. That men had believed in him is plain, it is true: no one doubts it; the Gospel says it, the truthful evangelist testifies to it. Likewise that Jesus himself did not entrust himself to them is also plain, and no Christian doubts it; for the Gospel says this too, and the same truthful evangelist testifies to it. Why then did they believe in his name, and Jesus did not entrust himself to them? Let us see what follows.

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: he came to him by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi’” (you already know that Rabbi means teacher), “‘we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’” So this Nicodemus was one of those who had believed in his name, seeing the signs and wonders that he did. For above he said this: “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in his name.” Why did they believe? He goes on and says, “seeing his signs which he was doing.” And what does he say of Nicodemus? “There was a ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus: he came to him by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher.’” So he too had believed in his name. And why had he believed? It goes on: “For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” If then Nicodemus was one of those many who had believed in his name, let us now look in this Nicodemus at why Jesus did not entrust himself to them. “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a man is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” So Jesus entrusts himself to those who have been born anew. See, those men had believed in him, and Jesus did not entrust himself to them. Such are all catechumens: they already believe in the name of Christ, but Jesus does not entrust himself to them. Let your Charity attend and understand. If we say to a catechumen, “Do you believe in Christ?” he answers, “I believe,” and signs himself: he already carries the cross of Christ on his forehead, and is not ashamed of the cross of his Lord. See, he has believed in his name. Let us ask him, “Do you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink the blood of the Son of Man?” He does not know what we are saying, because Jesus has not entrusted himself to him.

Since then Nicodemus was of that number, he came to the Lord; but he came by night, and perhaps this bears on the matter. He came to the Lord, and he came by night: he came to the light, and he came in darkness. But what do those born again of water and the Spirit hear from the apostle? “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord: walk as children of light”; and again, “But let us who are of the day be sober.” So those who have been born again were of the night and are of the day; they were darkness and are light. Now Jesus entrusts himself to them, and they do not come to Jesus by night as Nicodemus did; they do not seek the day in darkness. For such people now even make profession: Jesus has drawn near to them, has worked salvation in them; for he himself said, “Unless a man eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he will not have life in him.” And since the catechumens have the sign of the cross on their foreheads, they already belong to the great house; but let them become sons instead of servants. For those who already belong to the great house are not nothing. But when did the people of Israel eat the manna? When they had crossed the Red Sea. And what the Red Sea signifies, hear the apostle: “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea.” As though you asked him why they passed through the sea, he goes on and says, “And all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” If then the figure of the sea availed so much, how much will the reality of baptism avail? If what was done in figure brought the people across to the manna, what will Christ bestow in the truth of his baptism, when his people have been brought across by him? By his baptism he brings believers across, with all their sins slain like pursuing enemies, just as all the Egyptians perished in that sea. Where does he bring them across to, my brothers? Where does Jesus bring them across to by baptism, Jesus whose figure Moses bore then when he brought them across the sea? Where does he bring them? To the manna. What is the manna? “I am,” he says, “the living bread, who came down from heaven.” The faithful receive the manna, having now been brought across the Red Sea. Why the Red Sea? Sea, yes; but why red as well? That Red Sea signified the baptism of Christ. Why is the baptism of Christ red, if not because it is consecrated by Christ's blood? Where then does he lead believers who have been baptized? To the manna. See, I say “manna”: it is known what the Jews received, that people Israel; it is known what God rained on them from heaven; and catechumens do not know what Christians receive. Let them blush, then, because they do not know; let them cross the Red Sea, let them eat the manna; so that as they have believed in the name of Jesus, so Jesus may entrust himself to them.

Therefore attend, my brothers, to what this man who came to Jesus by night answers. Although he came to Jesus, yet because he came by night, he still speaks from the darkness of his flesh. He does not understand what he hears from the Lord, does not understand what he hears from the Light, “which enlightens every man coming into this world.” The Lord had already said to him, “Unless a man is born anew, he will not see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus says to him, “How can a man be born when he is old?” The Spirit speaks to him, and he savors the flesh. He savors his own flesh, because he does not yet savor the flesh of Christ. For when the Lord Jesus had said, “Unless a man eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he will not have life in him,” some who were following him were scandalized and said among themselves, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” For they thought Jesus meant that they could cut him up like a lamb, cook him, and eat him: recoiling from his words, they went away and followed him no more. So the evangelist says. And the Lord himself remained with the twelve; and they said to him, “Lord, see, those men have left you”; and he said, “Do you also want to go away?” wishing to show that he was necessary to them, not they to Christ. Let no one think to frighten Christ when he is told to become a Christian, as though Christ will be happier if you become a Christian. It is good for you to be a Christian; for if you are not, it will be no loss to Christ. Hear the voice of the psalm: “I said to the Lord, ‘You are my God, for you have no need of my goods.’” That is why you are my God: because you have no need of my goods. If you are without God, you will be less; if you are with God, God will not be greater. He is not greater from you, but you are less without him. Grow, then, in him; do not withdraw yourself, as though he would be lessened. You will be renewed if you draw near; you will fail if you draw away. He remains whole when you draw near; he remains whole also when you fall away. So when he had said to the disciples, “Do you also want to go away?” Peter, that rock, answered with the voice of all: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” The Lord's flesh savored well in his mouth. But the Lord explained it to them and said, “It is the Spirit that gives life.” When he had said, “Unless a man eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he will not have life in him,” so that they might not understand it carnally, he said, “It is the Spirit that gives life, but the flesh profits nothing: the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

This spirit and this life this Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus by night, did not savor. Jesus said to him, “Unless a man is born anew, he will not see the kingdom of God.” And he, savoring his own flesh, in whose mouth the flesh of Christ did not yet savor, said, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?” He knew only one birth, from Adam and Eve; the birth from God and the Church he did not yet know. He knew only those parents who beget to death; he did not yet know those parents who beget to life. He knew only those parents who beget successors; he did not yet know those who, ever living, beget children who will abide. Since then there are two births, he understood one. One is from earth, the other from heaven; one is from the flesh, the other from the Spirit; one is from mortality, the other from eternity; one is from male and female, the other from God and the Church. But each of these two is single; neither the one nor the other can be repeated. Nicodemus rightly understood the birth of the flesh: so you too understand the birth of the Spirit as Nicodemus understood the birth of the flesh. What did Nicodemus understand? “Can a man enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?” So whoever tells you to be born again spiritually a second time, answer what Nicodemus said: “Can a man enter his mother's womb a second time and be born?” I have already been born of Adam; Adam cannot beget me again. I have already been born of Christ; Christ cannot beget me again. As the womb cannot be repeated, so neither can baptism.

He who is born of the Catholic Church is born as from Sarah, born of the free woman; he who is born of heresy is born as from the slave woman, but of the seed of Abraham. Let your Charity note how great a mystery: God testifies and says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Were there no other patriarchs? Was there not before these the holy Noah, who alone in the whole human race, with all his household, was found worthy to be delivered from the flood, in whom and in whose sons the Church was prefigured? They escape the flood, carried by wood. Then afterward the great ones whom we know, whom holy Scripture commends: Moses, faithful in all his house. And these three are named as though they alone had deserved it: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; this is my name forever.” A great mystery! The Lord is able to open both our mouths and your hearts, so that we may speak as he has deigned to reveal, and you may receive as is good for you.

These, then, are the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You already know that the sons of Jacob were twelve, and from them came the people of Israel; for Jacob himself is Israel, and the people of Israel is twelve tribes, belonging to the twelve sons of Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: three fathers, and one people. Three fathers as at the beginning of the people; three fathers in whom the people was prefigured; and that earlier people was itself a figure of the present people. For in the people of the Jews the people of Christians was prefigured. There the figure, here the truth; there the shadow, here the body, as the apostle says: “Now these things happened to them in figure.” It is the apostle's voice: “They were written,” he says, “for our sake, upon whom the end of the ages has come.” Let your mind now go back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In these three we find free women bearing children, and slave women bearing too: we find there the offspring of free women, and we find there the offspring of slave women. The slave woman signifies nothing good: “Cast out the slave woman,” it says, “and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.” The apostle recalls this; and the apostle says that in those two sons of Abraham there was a figure of the two Testaments, the Old and the New. To the Old Testament belong the lovers of temporal things, the lovers of the world; to the New Testament the lovers of eternal life. Therefore that Jerusalem on earth was a shadow of the heavenly Jerusalem, the mother of us all, which is in heaven; and these are the apostle's words. And about that city from which we are on pilgrimage you know much and have already heard much. But we find a wonderful thing in these births, that is, in these offspring, in these generations of free women and slave women: namely, four kinds of men; and in these four kinds the figure of the future Christian people is fulfilled, so that it is no wonder that in those three it was said, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” For among all Christians, brothers, attend, either good men are born through bad, or bad through good, or good through good, or bad through bad: more than these four kinds you cannot find. I will repeat them again; note them, keep them; rouse your hearts, do not be sluggish; grasp, lest you be caught, how there are four kinds of all Christians. Either good men are born through good, or bad through bad, or bad through good, or good through bad. I think it is plain. Good through good: if those who baptize are good, and those who are baptized believe rightly and are rightly counted among the members of Christ. Bad through bad: if those who baptize are bad, and those who are baptized come to God with a double heart and do not keep the ways of life that they hear in the Church, so as to be grain there and not chaff. For your Charity knows how many these are. Good through bad: sometimes an adulterer baptizes, and the one baptized is justified. Bad through good: sometimes those who baptize are holy, while those who are baptized will not keep the way of God.

I think, brothers, that what we are saying is known in the Church and made plain by daily examples; but let us consider them in our earlier fathers, because they too had these four kinds. Good through good: Ananias baptized Paul. What of bad through bad? The apostle speaks of certain preachers of the Gospel, who, he says, were not accustomed to proclaim the Gospel with pure motives, whom he tolerates in Christian fellowship, and says, “What then? Provided that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, in this I rejoice.” Was he malicious, and did he rejoice at another's evil? No, but because the truth was preached even through bad men, and Christ was preached through the mouths of bad men. If these men baptized any like themselves, bad men baptized bad; if these men baptized such as the Lord admonishes when he says, “What they say, do; but what they do, do not do,” bad men baptized good. Good men baptized bad, as Simon Magus was baptized by the holy Philip. These four kinds, then, are known, my brothers. See, I repeat them again; keep them, count them, note them; beware of what is bad, keep what is good. Good men are born through good when saints are baptized by saints; bad through bad when both those who baptize and those who are baptized live unrighteously and impiously; good through bad when those who baptize are bad and those who are baptized are good; bad through good when those who baptize are good and those who are baptized are bad.

How do we find these in those three names, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? We take the slave women for the bad, the free women for the good. Free women bear good children: Sarah bore Isaac. Slave women bear bad: Hagar bore Ishmael. We have in Abraham alone both the kind in which good are born through good and the kind in which bad are born through bad. Where were bad through good prefigured? Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, was free: read it; she bore twins, one was good, the other bad. You have Scripture saying openly, in the voice of God, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Rebecca bore these two, Jacob and Esau: one of them is chosen, the other rejected; one succeeds to the inheritance, the other is disinherited. God does not make his people from Esau, but from Jacob. One seed, but those conceived were different; one womb, but those born were different. Did not the same free woman who bore Jacob bear Esau? They struggled in their mother's womb, and it was said to Rebecca while they struggled there, “Two peoples are in your womb.” Two men, two peoples; a good people, a bad people: yet they struggle in one womb. How many bad men are in the Church, and one womb carries them until they are separated at the end! The good cry out against the bad, and the bad cry back against the good, and both struggle in the bowels of one mother. Will they always be together? At the end there is a coming forth into the light; the birth that is prefigured here in a mystery is declared; and then it will appear: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

So now, brothers, we have found good from good, Isaac from the free woman; and bad from bad, Ishmael from the slave woman; and bad from good, Esau from Rebecca. Where shall we find good from bad? Jacob remains, so that the full set of these four kinds may be completed in the three patriarchs. Jacob had free wives, and he had slave women too: the free women bear, and the slave women bear, and the twelve sons of Israel come into being. If you count all of those from whom they were born, not all were from free women, not all from slave women; but all were from one seed. What then, my brothers? Did those born of the slave women not possess the land of promise together with their brothers? We find there good sons of Jacob born of slave women, and good sons of Jacob born of free women. Birth from the wombs of slave women did them no harm, since they recognized their seed in their father, and accordingly held the kingdom with their brothers. So, just as among the sons of Jacob it did not hinder those born of slave women from holding the kingdom and receiving the land of promise equally with their brothers (their birth from slave women did not harm them, but the father's seed prevailed), so whoever are baptized through bad men seem as it were born of slave women; but yet, because they are of the seed of the word of God, which is prefigured in Jacob, let them not be sad: they will possess the inheritance together with their brothers. Let him then who is born of good seed be secure; only let him not imitate the slave woman, if he is born of a slave woman. Do not imitate the bad slave woman in her pride. For why did Jacob's sons born of slave women possess the land of promise with their brothers, while Ishmael, born of a slave woman, was driven out of the inheritance? Why, except that he was proud, and they were humble? He raised his neck and wanted to lead his brother astray by playing with him.

There is a great mystery there. Ishmael and Isaac were playing together; Sarah saw them playing, and said to Abraham, “Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And when Abraham was grieved, the Lord confirmed his wife's word to him. Here the mystery is now plain, because that event was in labor with something to come. She saw them playing, and she says, “Cast out the slave woman and her son.” What is this, brothers? For what harm had Ishmael done to the boy Isaac by playing with him? But that play was mockery; that play signified deception. For let your Charity attend to a great mystery. The apostle calls it persecution; that very play, that very sport, he calls persecution. For he says, “But as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now”; that is, those born according to the flesh persecute those born according to the Spirit. Who are those born according to the flesh? Lovers of the world, lovers of this age. Who are those born according to the Spirit? Lovers of the kingdom of heaven, lovers of Christ, those who long for eternal life, who worship God for nothing. They play, and the apostle calls it persecution. For after the apostle said these words, “And as then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now,” he went on and showed what persecution he meant: “But what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.’” We look for where Scripture says this, to see whether any persecution by Ishmael against Isaac had preceded it; and we find that it was said by Sarah when she saw the boys playing together. The play which Scripture says Sarah saw, the apostle calls persecution. Those, then, who lead you astray by mocking you persecute you more: “Come, come; be baptized here; here you have the true baptism.” Do not play: there is one true baptism; that other is mockery. You will be led astray, and that persecution will be grievous to you. It would have been better for you to win Ishmael for the kingdom; but Ishmael will not, because he wants to play. You hold on to your father's inheritance, and hear: “Cast out the slave woman and her son; for the son of the slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.”

These men even dare to say that they habitually suffer persecution from Catholic kings or Catholic rulers. What persecution do they endure? Bodily affliction: whether they have ever suffered it, or how they have suffered it, let them know it themselves and question their own consciences; still, it is bodily affliction they have suffered. The persecution that they inflict is graver. Beware when Ishmael wants to play with Isaac, when he flatters you, when he offers another baptism: answer, “I already have baptism.” For if this baptism is true, he who wants to give you another wants to mock you. Beware of the persecutor of the soul. For if the party of Donatus has at any time suffered anything from Catholic rulers, it has suffered in the body, not by mockery of the spirit. Hear and see in those ancient deeds all the signs and tokens of things to come. Sarah is found to have afflicted Hagar the slave woman: Sarah is the free woman. After the slave woman began to be proud, Sarah complained to Abraham and said, “Cast out the slave woman; she has raised her neck against me.” And as though it were Abraham's doing, the woman complained of Abraham. But Abraham, who was bound to the slave woman not by the lust of using her but by the duty of begetting, since Sarah had given her to him so that he might have offspring, said to her, “See, your slave woman: treat her as you wish.” And Sarah afflicted her harshly, and she fled from her face. See, the free woman afflicted the slave woman, and the apostle does not call that persecution; the servant plays with the master's son, and he calls it persecution. That affliction is not called persecution, and that play is called persecution. What do you think, brothers? Do you not understand what was signified? So when God wills to stir up the powers against heretics, against schismatics, against the scatterers of the Church, against those who blow upon Christ, against the blasphemers of baptism, let them not wonder; for God stirs them up, so that Hagar may be beaten by Sarah. Let Hagar know herself; let her bow her neck. For when, humbled, she was departing from her mistress, an angel met her and said, “What is it, Hagar, slave of Sarah?” When she had complained of her mistress, what did she hear from the angel? “Return to your mistress.” She is afflicted, then, for this purpose: that she may return. And would that she would return! For her offspring, like the sons of Jacob, will hold the inheritance with their brothers.