Tractates on the Gospel of John 50.1–50.14

Today's reading of the holy Gospel follows yesterday's, about which we said what the Lord gave us to say; about today's we shall say what the Lord will give. Some things in the Scriptures are so plain that they call for a hearer rather than an expositor: on these we ought not to linger, so that there may be time enough for the necessary matters on which we must linger.

"Now the Passover of the Jews was near." The Jews wanted to have that feast day stained with the Lord's blood. On that feast day the Lamb was slain who consecrated that same feast day for us with his blood. There was a plan among the Jews to kill Jesus; he who had come from heaven to suffer willed to draw near to the place of his passion, because the hour of his passion was at hand. "And many went up to Jerusalem from the country before the Passover, to sanctify themselves." The Jews did this according to the Lord's command, given through holy Moses in the Law, that on the feast day of the Passover all should gather from everywhere and be sanctified by the celebration of that day. But that celebration was a shadow of what was to come. What is "a shadow of what was to come"? A prophecy of Christ who was to come, a prophecy of him who was to suffer for us on that day; so that the shadow might pass and the light come, so that the sign might pass and the truth be held. So the Jews had the Passover in shadow, we in light. For what need was there for the Lord to command them to kill a sheep on that very feast day, unless it was because he was the one of whom it was prophesied, "Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter"? With the blood of a slain beast the doorposts of the Jews were marked; with the blood of Christ our foreheads are marked. And that marking, because it was a sign, is said to have kept the destroyer away from the marked houses: the sign of Christ drives the destroyer away from us if our heart receives the Saviour. Why have I said this? Because many have their doorposts marked, and no inhabitant dwells within: they readily have the sign of Christ on their forehead, and do not receive the word of Christ in their heart. That is why I said, brothers, and I repeat it: the sign of Christ drives the destroyer away from us if our heart has Christ as its inhabitant. I have said this lest anyone perhaps wonder what these feasts of the Jews meant. So the Lord came as to the sacrifice, so that we might have the true Passover, when we celebrate his passion as the sacrifice of the sheep.

So they were seeking Jesus, but wickedly. For blessed are those who seek Jesus, but rightly. They sought Jesus so that neither they nor we should have him; but as he departed from them, we received him. Some who seek are blamed, some who seek are praised: for the mind of the seeker finds either praise or condemnation. For you have in the Psalms too: "Let them be confounded and put to shame who seek my soul": these are those who sought wickedly. But in another place it says: "Flight has perished from me, and there is none to seek my soul." Those who sought are blamed; those who did not seek are blamed. So let us seek Christ in order to have him; let us seek in order to hold him, but not in order to kill him: for they too sought in order to hold him, but so as soon not to have him. "So they sought him, and spoke among themselves: What do you think, that he has not come to the feast?"

"Now the chief priests and Pharisees had given a command that, if anyone knew where he was, he should report it, so that they might seize him." Let us now report to the Jews where Christ is. Would that all who are of the seed of those who had given the command that it be reported to them where Christ was were willing to hear and to seize him! Let them come to the Church, let them hear where Christ is, and let them seize him. Let them hear it from us, let them hear it from the Gospel. He was killed by their fathers, he was buried, he rose again, he was recognized by the disciples, before their eyes he ascended into heaven, there he sits at the right hand of the Father; he who was judged will come as judge: let them hear, and hold him. They answer: "How shall I hold one who is absent? How shall I put my hand into heaven to hold him who sits there?" Put out faith, and you have held him. Your fathers held him in the flesh; you hold him in the heart: for Christ, though absent, is also present. Unless he were present, he could not be held by us ourselves. But since what he said is true, "Behold, I am with you even to the end of the world," he both went away and is here; he both returned and does not forsake us: for he carried his body into heaven, but did not take away his majesty from the world.

"Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus had died, whom Jesus raised. And there they made him a supper, and Martha served; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at table." Lest people should think that a phantom had been produced because a dead man rose again, he was one of those reclining at table; he lived, he spoke, he feasted: the truth was shown, the unbelief of the Jews was put to confusion. So the Lord reclined with Lazarus and the others; Martha, one of Lazarus's sisters, served.

"But Mary, the other sister of Lazarus, took a pound of ointment of precious pistic nard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment." We have heard the event; let us search out the mystery. Whatever soul of you wishes to be faithful, anoint the Lord's feet with precious ointment, together with Mary. That ointment was righteousness; therefore it was a pound. But it was ointment "of precious pistic nard." When it says "pistic," we ought to believe it is some place from which this precious ointment came; yet even this is not without meaning, and it accords very well with the mystery. In Greek pistis means faith. You were seeking to work righteousness: "the just lives by faith." Anoint the feet of Jesus: by living well, follow the Lord's footsteps. Wipe them with your hair: if you have superfluities, give them to the poor, and you have wiped the Lord's feet; for the hair seems to be the superfluous part of the body. You have something to do with your superfluities: to you they are superfluous, but to the Lord's feet they are necessary. Perhaps on earth the Lord's feet are in need. For of whom, if not of his members, will he say at the end, "When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me"? You spent your superfluities, but you have served my feet.

"And the house was filled with the fragrance": the world was filled with good report; for a good fragrance is a good report. Those who live wickedly and are called Christians do Christ an injury: of such it is said that through them the name of the Lord is blasphemed. If through such the name of God is blasphemed, through the good the name of the Lord is praised. Hear the Apostle: "We are the good fragrance of Christ," he says, "in every place." It is said also in the Song of Songs: "Your name is ointment poured out." Turn your attention back to the Apostle: "We are," he says, "the good fragrance of Christ in every place, both in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing: to some we are the fragrance of life unto life, to others the fragrance of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these things?" The present reading of the holy Gospel gives us occasion to speak of this fragrance in such a way that it may be spoken sufficiently by us and heard attentively by you, while the Apostle himself says, "And who is sufficient for these things?" So, as we try to speak of it, are we sufficient, or are you sufficient to hear these things? We indeed are not sufficient; but he is sufficient who deigns to say through us what will profit you to hear. See, the Apostle is a good fragrance, as he himself says; but that good fragrance is to some the fragrance of life unto life, to others the fragrance of death unto death; and yet it is a good fragrance. For does he say, "To some we are a good fragrance unto life, to others a bad fragrance unto death"? He called himself a good fragrance, not a bad one; and he said that the same good fragrance was to some unto life, to others unto death. Happy are those who live by the good fragrance; but what is more unhappy than those who die by the good fragrance?

"And who is it," someone says, "whom a good fragrance kills?" This is what the Apostle says: "And who is sufficient for these things?" How God brings it about in wonderful ways that by a good fragrance both the good live and the wicked die; how it happens, so far as the Lord deigns to inspire (for perhaps a deeper understanding lies hidden there which I cannot penetrate); yet so far as I have been able to penetrate, it ought not to be denied you. The Apostle Paul, acting well, living well, preaching righteousness by word, showing it by deed, an admirable teacher, a faithful steward, was spread abroad everywhere by report: some loved him, some envied him. For he himself says in one place of certain people that they proclaimed Christ not sincerely, but out of envy, "thinking," he says, "to stir up affliction for my bonds." But what does he say? "Whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be proclaimed." Those who love me proclaim him, those who envy me proclaim him; the former live by the good fragrance, the latter die by the good fragrance: yet, with both preaching, let the name of Christ be proclaimed, let the world be filled with the best fragrance. You loved one who acts well: you lived by the good fragrance. You envied one who acts well: you died by the good fragrance. Did you, because you chose to die, thereby make that fragrance bad? Do not envy, and the good fragrance will not kill you.

Finally, hear here too, from this ointment, how to some it was a good fragrance unto life, to others a good fragrance unto death. After devout Mary had done this in service to the Lord, at once one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was going to betray him, said: "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the needy?" Woe to you, wretch! The good fragrance has killed you. For why he said this, the holy evangelist has disclosed. We too would have thought, if his mind had not been laid bare to us by the Gospel, that he could have said this out of care for the poor. It is not so. But what? Hear the truthful witness: "Now he said this, not because he cared for the needy, but because he was a thief, and, having the purse, he carried what was put in it." Did he carry it, or carry it off? He carried it in his office; he carried it off by theft.

Hear, then, that this Judas did not become perverse only at the time when, corrupted by the Jews, he betrayed the Lord. For many who do not attend carefully to the Gospel think that Judas perished at the time when he took money from the Jews to betray the Lord. He did not perish then: he was already a thief, and he followed the Lord as a lost man, because he followed not with the heart but with the body. He filled out the number of the twelve apostles; he did not have the apostolic blessedness; he had been the twelfth only in appearance. When he departed and another succeeded, both the apostolic truth was made complete and the integrity of the number remained. What, then, my brothers, did our Lord Jesus Christ wish to teach his Church when he chose to have one lost man among the twelve, if not that we should bear with the wicked and not divide the body of Christ? See, Judas is among the saints; see, Judas is a thief, and, lest you think little of it, a thief and a sacrilegious one, no ordinary thief: a thief of the purse, but the Lord's purse; of the purse, but a sacred one. If in the forum crimes are distinguished, as of ordinary theft and of peculation (for peculation is the name for theft from the commonwealth, and theft of private property is not judged in the same way as theft of public property), how much more severely must the sacrilegious thief be judged, who has dared to take, not from just anywhere, but from the Church? Whoever steals something from the Church is compared with lost Judas. Such was this Judas, and yet he went in and out with the eleven holy disciples. He came with them to the Lord's supper itself: he could associate with them, he could not defile them. Peter and Judas both received of the one bread, and yet "what part has the believer with the unbeliever?" For Peter received unto life, Judas unto death. For as that fragrance was good, so that food was good. As, then, the good fragrance, so also the good food gives life to the good and death to the wicked. "For whoever eats unworthily eats and drinks judgment to himself": judgment to himself, not to you. If it is judgment to himself, not to you, then bear with the wicked, you who are good, so that you may come to the rewards of the good and not be sent into the punishment of the wicked.

Take the example of the Lord while he lived on earth. Why did he, to whom angels ministered, have a purse, unless because his Church was going to have its purses? Why did he admit a thief, unless so that his Church might patiently bear with thieves? But he who had been used to taking money out of the purse did not hesitate to sell the Lord himself for money received. Let us see what the Lord answers to this. See, brothers: he did not say to him, "You say this because of your thefts." He knew him to be a thief and did not expose him, but rather bore with him, and showed us an example of patience in enduring the wicked in the Church. "So Jesus said to him: Let her alone, that she may keep it for the day of my burial." He foretold that he would die.

But what is it that follows? "For the poor you will always have with you, but me you will not always have." We understand indeed "the poor you will always have": what he said is true. When is the Church without the poor? But "me you will not always have": what does it mean? How is "but me you will not always have" to be understood? Do not be alarmed: it was said to Judas. Why, then, did he not say "you will have" in the singular, but "you will have" in the plural? Because Judas is not one. One wicked man signifies the body of the wicked, as Peter signifies the body of the good, or rather the body of the Church, but in the good. For if the mystery of the Church were not in Peter, the Lord would not say to him: "To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven." If this was said to Peter alone, the Church does not do this. But if it is done in the Church as well, that what is bound on earth is bound in heaven and what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven (because when the Church excommunicates, the excommunicated person is bound in heaven; when he is reconciled by the Church, the reconciled person is loosed in heaven), if, then, this is done in the Church, Peter, when he received the keys, signified the holy Church. If in the person of Peter the good in the Church were signified, in the person of Judas the wicked in the Church were signified; to them it was said, "But me you will not always have." For what is "not always"? And what is "always"? If you are good, if you belong to the body that Peter signifies, you have Christ both in the present and in the future: in the present by faith, in the present by the sign, in the present by the sacrament of baptism, in the present by the food and drink of the altar. You have Christ in the present, but you will have him always; for when you depart from here, you will come to him who said to the thief, "Today you will be with me in paradise." But if you live wickedly, you seem to have Christ in the present, because you enter the church, you sign yourself with the sign of Christ, you are baptized with the baptism of Christ, you mingle yourself with the members of Christ, you approach the altar of Christ: in the present you have Christ, but by living wickedly you will not always have him.

It can also be understood this way: "The poor you will always have with you, but me you will not always have." Let the good take this too to themselves, but let them not be anxious: for he was speaking of the presence of his body. For according to his majesty, according to his providence, according to his ineffable and invisible grace, what he said is fulfilled: "Behold, I am with you even to the end of the world." But according to the flesh which the Word assumed, according to that which was born of the Virgin, that which was seized by the Jews, nailed to the tree, taken down from the cross, wrapped in linen cloths, laid in the tomb, manifested in the resurrection, "you will not always have it with you." Why? Because, having lived in bodily presence forty days with his disciples, while they accompanied him by seeing, not by following, he ascended into heaven, and is not here. For he is there, he sits at the right hand of the Father; and he is here, for the presence of his majesty has not withdrawn. In other words: according to the presence of his majesty we always have Christ; according to the presence of his flesh, it was rightly said to the disciples, "But me you will not always have." For the Church had him according to the presence of the flesh for a few days: now it holds him by faith, it does not see him with the eyes. So whichever way "but me you will not always have" was said, there is now, I think, no question left, since it has been solved in two ways.

Let us hear the few things that remain: "So a great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there; and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from the dead." Curiosity brought them, not love: they came, and they saw. Hear the astonishing counsel of folly. When Lazarus had been seen raised, since so great a miracle of the Lord had been spread abroad with such evidence and declared with such openness that they could neither hide nor deny what had been done, see what they devised. "But the chief priests took counsel to kill Lazarus also, because on his account many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus." O foolish thought and blind cruelty! Could the Lord Christ, who was able to raise one who had died, not raise one who had been killed? When you were bringing death on Lazarus, were you taking power away from the Lord? If a dead man seems one thing to you and a slain man another, see, the Lord did both: he raised Lazarus when dead, and himself when slain.