Tractates on the Gospel of John 21.14–21.17

See, the form of a man will be seen by the devout and the ungodly, by the just and the unjust, by believers and unbelievers, by those rejoicing and those lamenting, by the confident and the confounded: see, it will be seen. When that form has been seen at the judgment, and the judgment has been completed—where it was said that the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son for this reason, that the Son will appear at the judgment in the form he received from us—what will happen afterward? When will the form of God be seen, for which all the faithful thirst? When will that be seen which was in the beginning, the Word, God with God, through whom all things were made? When will that form of God be seen, of which the apostle says, “Being in the form of God, he did not think it robbery to be equal with God”? For great is that form in which the equality of Father and Son is still known: ineffable, incomprehensible, especially to little ones. When will it be seen? See, the just are on the right, the unjust on the left; all alike see the man, they see the Son of man, they see the one who was pierced, they see the one who was crucified; they see him humbled, they see him born of the Virgin, they see the Lamb from the tribe of Judah: when will they see the Word, God with God? He will be that then too, but the form of a servant will appear. The form of a servant will be shown to servants; the form of God will be kept for sons. Let the servants, then, become sons; let those on the right go into the eternal inheritance long promised, which the martyrs believed without seeing, for whose promise they shed their blood without hesitation: let them go there and see there. When will they go there? Let the Lord himself say: “So these will go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into eternal life.”

See, he has named eternal life. Has he told us that there we shall see and know the Father and the Son? What if we shall live for ever, but shall not see the Father and the Son? Hear another place where he named eternal life and expressed what eternal life is. Do not fear, I am not deceiving you: not without reason did I make a promise to those who love me, saying, “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will show myself to him.” Let us answer the Lord and say: What great thing is this, Lord our God? What great thing? Are you going to show yourself to us? Why, did you not show yourself to the Jews too? Did not even those who crucified you see you? But you will show yourself at the judgment, when we stand at your right hand: will not those too who stand at the left see you? What is it that you will show yourself to us? For do we not see you now, when you speak? He answers: I will show myself in the form of God; now you see the form of a servant. I will not cheat you, O faithful man; believe that you will see. You love, and you do not see: will not love itself bring you to see? Love; persevere in loving. I will not cheat your love, he says, I who have cleansed your heart. For why have I cleansed your heart, except that God may be seen by you? “For blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” “But this,” says the servant, as if arguing with his Lord, “you did not express when you said, ‘The righteous will go into eternal life’; you did not say, ‘They will go to see me in the form of God, to see the Father to whom I am equal.’” Notice what he said elsewhere: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

And now, then, after the mention of the judgment, all of which the Father has given to the Son, judging no one himself, what will happen? What follows? “That all may honor the Son as they honor the Father.” By the Jews the Father is honored, the Son despised. For the Son was seen as a servant; the Father was honored as God. The Son too will appear equal to the Father, “that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father.” Now, then, hold this in faith. And let the Jew not say, “I honor the Father; what have I to do with the Son?” Let the answer be given him: “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father.” You lie altogether: you blaspheme the Son and do injury to the Father. For the Father sent the Son; you despise the one he sent: how do you honor the sender, you who blaspheme the one sent?

“See,” someone says, “the Son was sent; so the Father is greater, because he sent him.” Withdraw from the flesh. The old man suggests what is old; in the new, recognize what is new. Let the one who is new to you, ancient before the world, everlasting, eternal, call your understanding back to this. Is the Son less because the Son is said to have been sent? I hear of a sending, not of a separation. “But we see this,” he says, “in human affairs, that the one who sends is greater than the one who is sent.” But human affairs deceive a man; divine affairs cleanse him. Do not attend to human affairs, where the one who sends seems greater and the one sent lesser; although even human affairs bear witness against you. For example, if someone wants to seek a wife and cannot do so himself, he sends a greater friend to ask for her on his behalf. And there are many cases in which a greater person is chosen to be sent by a lesser. Why, then, do you now want to cavil because the one sent and the other was sent? The sun sends forth a ray and does not separate it; the moon sends forth its splendor and does not separate it; a lamp pours out light and does not separate it: I see sending there, and I see no separation. For if you seek examples from human affairs, O heretical vanity—although, as I said a little before, even human affairs refute and convict you in some examples—yet notice how different it is in human affairs, from which you want to draw examples for divine things. A man who sends stays himself, and the one who is sent goes: does the man go with the one he sends? But the Father who sent the Son did not withdraw from the Son. Hear the Lord himself saying, “See, the hour will come when each of you will go off to his own and you will leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” How did he send him with whom he came? How did he send him from whom he did not withdraw? In another place he said, “But the Father, abiding in me, does his works.” See, he is in him; see, he works. The sender did not withdraw from the one sent, because the one sent and the sender are one.