Tractates on the Gospel of John 19.15–19.20

Do not, then, Lord, be silent about the resurrection of the flesh, lest people not believe it, and we remain arguers, not preachers. “So, as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself.” Let those who hear understand; let them believe in order to understand; let them obey in order to live. Let them hear yet something more, lest they think the resurrection ends here. “And he has given him power to execute judgment also.” Who? The Father. To whom did he give it? To the Son. For to the one to whom he gave to have life in himself, he gave power to execute judgment also. “Because he is the son of man.” For this Christ is both Son of God and son of man. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; he was in the beginning with God.” See how he gave him to have life in himself. But because “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” having been made man from the Virgin Mary, he is the son of man. Therefore, because he is the son of man, what did he receive? Power to execute judgment also. What judgment? At the end of the world; and there will be the resurrection of the dead, but of bodies. God, then, raises souls through Christ the Son of God; God raises bodies through the same Christ, the son of man. “He has given him power.” He would not have this power unless he received it, and he would be a man without power. But he who is the son of man is himself also the Son of God. For by the son of man cleaving to the Son of God in unity of person, one person was made, the same who is Son of God and son of man. But what he has, and on account of what, must be discerned. The son of man has a soul, has a body. The Son of God, who is the Word of God, has the man, as the soul has the body. Just as the soul having a body does not make two persons, but one man, so the Word having the man does not make two persons, but one Christ. What is man? A rational soul having a body. What is Christ? The Word of God having man. I see what things I am speaking of, and who I am that speak, and to whom I speak.

Now hear, concerning the resurrection of bodies, not me but the Lord, who is about to speak, on account of those who have risen by rising from death, by clinging to life. To what life? To the life that knows no death. Why does it know no death? Because it knows no changeableness. Why does it know no changeableness? Because it is life in itself. “And he has given him power to execute judgment also, because he is the son of man.” What judgment, what kind of judgment? “Do not marvel at this,” that I said, “He has given him power to execute judgment also”; “for the hour is coming.” He did not add, “and now is”; so he wishes to suggest a certain hour at the end of the world. Now is the hour for the dead to rise; there will be an hour at the end of the world for the dead to rise: but let them rise now in the mind, then in the flesh; let them rise now in the mind through the Word of God, the Son of God; let them rise then in the flesh through the Word of God made flesh, the son of man. For the Father himself will not come to the judgment of the living and the dead; and yet the Father does not withdraw from the Son. How, then, will he himself not come? Because he himself will not be seen at the judgment. “They will look on him whom they pierced.” That form will be judge which stood before a judge; that will judge which was judged: for it was judged unjustly; it will judge justly. The form of a servant, then, will come, and it will appear. For how would the form of God appear to the just and the unjust? If the judgment were to take place among the just alone, the form of God would appear as to the just; but because the judgment is to be of the just and the unjust, and the unjust are not permitted to see God—for “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”—the judge will appear in such a form as can be seen both by those he is to crown and by those he is to condemn. The form of a servant, then, will be seen; the form of God will be hidden. The Son of God will be hidden in the servant, and the son of man will appear; because “he has given him power to execute judgment also, because he is the son of man.” And because he alone will appear in the form of a servant, while the Father will not appear, because he has not put on the form of a servant, therefore he said above, “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.” So it was rightly deferred, that the one who set the question might be the one who explained it. For above it was hidden; now, as I think, it is clear that “he has given him power to execute judgment also,” because “the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son”: because the judgment will be by means of that form which the Father does not have. And what kind of judgment? “Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming”: not the one that is now, for souls to rise, but the one that is to come, for bodies to rise.

Let him say this more expressly, so that the heretic who denies the resurrection of the body may find no ground for cavil—although the meaning is already shining out. When it was said above, “The hour is coming,” he added, “and now is”; but now, “The hour is coming,” and he did not add, “and now is.” Still, let him break with open truth all the handles, all the little hooks of cavils, all the knots of snares. “Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs.” What is clearer? What more express? Bodies are in the tombs; souls are not in the tombs, neither of the just nor of the unjust. The soul of the just man was in Abraham's bosom; the soul of the unjust man was tormented in hell: neither the one nor the other in a tomb. Above, when he said, “The hour is coming, and now is”—I beg you, pay attention. You know, brothers, that one reaches the bread of the belly with toil; how much more the bread of the mind? You stand and hear with toil; but we stand and speak with greater toil. If we labor for your sake, ought you not to labor with us for your own sake? Above, then, when he said, “The hour is coming,” and added, “and now is,” what did he subjoin? “When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” He did not say, “All the dead will hear, and those who hear will live”; for he wished the dead to be understood as the unjust. And do all the unjust obey the gospel? The apostle says openly, “But not all obey the gospel.” Yet those who hear will live, because all who obey the gospel will pass to eternal life through faith; yet not all obey, and this is now. But at the end, “all who are in the tombs,” that is, just and unjust, “will hear his voice and come forth.” Why was he unwilling to say, “and will live”? For all will come forth, but not all will live. For in what he said above, “And those who hear will live,” he wished eternal and blessed life to be understood in the very obeying, which not all will have who come forth from the tombs. So now, by the mention of the tombs and by the express statement of the coming forth from the tombs, we plainly understand the resurrection of bodies.

“All will hear his voice and come forth.” And where is the judgment, if all will hear and all will come forth? It is as if everything is confused; I see nothing distinguished. Certainly you have received the power of judging, because you are the son of man; see, you will be present at the judgment; bodies will rise: say something about the judgment itself, that is, about the separation of the bad and the good. Hear this too: “Those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” Above, when he was speaking of the resurrection of minds and souls, did he make a distinction? No: “all who hear will live,” because by obeying they will live. But in rising and coming forth from the tombs, not all will go to eternal life, but those who have done well; those who have done evil, to judgment. For here he has put “judgment” for punishment. And there will be a separation, and not such as there is now. For even now we are separated, not by places, but by conduct, affections, desires, faith, hope, love. For we live together with the unjust, but the life of all is not one: we are divided in secret, separated in secret; as grains on the threshing floor, not as grains in the granary. Grains on the threshing floor are both separated and mixed: separated, when they are stripped of the chaff; mixed, because they are not yet winnowed. Then the separation will be open: as of conduct, so also of life; as of wisdom, so also of bodies. Those who have done well will go to live with the angels of God; those who have done evil, to be tormented with the devil and his angels. And the form of a servant will pass away. For it presented itself for this purpose, to execute judgment; after the judgment he will go away from here, he will lead with him the body whose head he is, and he will offer the kingdom to God. Then indeed that form of God will be seen which could not be seen by the unjust, to whose sight the form of a servant had to be displayed. He speaks thus elsewhere too: “These will go into everlasting burning” (of certain ones on the left), “but the righteous into eternal life”; of which he says in another place, “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Then there will appear he who, “being in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal with God.” Then he will show himself, as he promised he would show himself to those who love him. For “he who loves me,” he says, “keeps my commandments; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will show myself to him.” He was present to those to whom he was speaking; but they saw the form of a servant; the form of God they did not see. They were being led on the beast of burden to the inn to be cured; but once healed they will see, because “I will show myself,” he says, “to him.” How is he shown equal to the Father? When he says to Philip, “He who sees me sees my Father also.”

“I can do nothing of myself: as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just.” Because we were going to say to him, “You will judge, and the Father will not judge, because he has given all judgment to the Son; so you will not judge according to the Father,” he added, “I can do nothing of myself: as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just; because I do not seek my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” Certainly “the Son gives life to whom he will.” He does not seek his own will, but the will of him who sent him. Not mine, not my own; not mine, not that of the son of man; not mine, such as would resist God. For people do their own will, not God's, when they do what they will, not what God commands; but when they do what they will in such a way that they nonetheless follow the will of God, they do not do their own will, although they do what they will. Do willingly what you are commanded; and so you will both do what you will and not do your own will, but that of the one commanding.

What then? “As I hear, so I judge.” The Son hears, and the Father shows him, and the Son sees the Father doing. And we had deferred treating these matters a little more thoroughly, as far as our strength allows, if time and strength remained to us when the reading had been finished. If I were to say that I can still speak, perhaps you can no longer listen. Again, perhaps, in your eagerness to hear, you say, “We can.” It is better, then, that I confess my weakness, that being now tired I cannot speak, than that I should pour still more into you, who are already well filled, which you would not digest well. Therefore, as to this promise, which I had deferred to today's time if any remained, hold me, with the Lord's help, your debtor until tomorrow.