Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.1–53.13

When the Lord Christ had foretold his passion and his fruitful death in the lifting up of the cross, where he said he would draw all things after him; when the Jews had understood that he had spoken of his death, and had put the question to him how he could say he would die, since they had heard from the Law that the Christ remains for ever; he exhorted them, while there was still a little light in them by which they had learned that the Christ is eternal, to walk, so that they might learn the whole and not be overtaken by darkness. And when he had said these things, he hid himself from them. These things you learned in the Lord's readings and our words on previous days.

Then the evangelist added the passage from which today's portion was read, and says: "But though he had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in him: that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Here he shows plainly enough that the Son of God himself is called the arm of the Lord: not that God the Father is bounded by the shape of human flesh, and the Son clings to him like a member of the body; but because all things were made through him, therefore he is called the arm of the Lord. For as your arm is that by which you work, so God's Word is called God's arm, because through the Word he wrought the world. For why does a man stretch out his arm to do something, if not because what he has said is not done at once? But if he prevailed with such power that what he said was done without any movement of his body, his arm would be his word. But the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God the Father, just as he is not a member of the Father's body, so he is not a word that is thought or sounded and passes away; because, since all things were made through him, he was the Word of God.

So when we hear that the arm of God the Father is the Son of God, let not carnal habit make a din against us; but, as far as we can by his gift, let us think of the Power and Wisdom of God, through whom all things were made. Such an arm is neither extended by being stretched out nor drawn in by being gathered up. For he is not the same as the Father, but he and the Father are one; and, equal to the Father, he is everywhere whole, as the Father is: lest any opening be given to the detestable error of those who say that there is only the Father, but that by reason of different occasions he himself is called the Son and he himself is called the Holy Spirit; and who on the strength of these words dare to say, "See, you see that the Father alone exists, if the Son is his arm; for a man and his arm are not two persons but one." They do not understand or notice how words are transferred from some things to other things because of some likeness, even in daily speech about visible and very familiar things; how much more, so that things ineffable may be spoken of to us in some fashion, things that cannot at all be spoken of as they are? For a man too calls another man, through whom he usually does whatever he does, his arm; and if he is taken from him, he says in grief, "I have lost my arm"; and to the one who took him away he says, "You have taken my arm from me." Let them understand, then, how the Son is called the arm of the Father, through whom the Father wrought all things; lest, by not understanding this and remaining in the darkness of their error, they become like the Jews themselves, of whom it was said, "And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

Here another question arises; to discuss it fittingly, and to search out and sift as it deserves all its most hidden recesses, I judge to be beyond my powers, beyond the narrow limits of time, and beyond your capacity. Yet because your expectation does not let us pass on to other things unless we say something about it, receive what we can give; and where we fall short of your expectation, ask the increase from him who set us to plant and to water; for, as the Apostle says, "Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase." Some, then, mutter among themselves, and sometimes, where they can, cry out and contend in turbulent dispute, saying: "What did the Jews do, or what fault was theirs, if it was necessary that the word of Isaiah the prophet should be fulfilled which he spoke: Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" To them we answer that the Lord, foreknowing the future, foretold through the prophet the unbelief of the Jews; foretold it, however, did not cause it. For God does not compel anyone to sin because he already knows the future sins of men. For he foreknew their sins, not his own; not anyone else's, but theirs. Therefore, if what he foreknew as theirs is not theirs, he did not truly foreknow it; but since his foreknowledge cannot be deceived, without doubt it is not another but they themselves who sin, whom God foreknew would sin. So the Jews committed a sin which he who is not pleased by sin did not compel them to commit; but he from whom nothing is hidden foretold that they would commit it. And therefore, if they had wished to do not evil but good, they would not have been prevented; and they would have been foreseen as going to do this by him who knows what each will do and what he will render to him for his work.

But the words of the Gospel that follow press harder and make the question deeper; for he adds and says: "Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again: He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they may not see with their eyes, and [not] understand with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them." For it is said to us: "If they could not believe, what sin is it in a man not to do what he cannot do? But if they sinned by not believing, then they could believe, and did not. If, then, they could, how does the Gospel say, 'Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart'; so that, what is more grave, the cause of their not believing is referred to God, since he himself blinded their eyes and hardened their heart?" For this is not said even of the devil, but of God, as the prophetic Scripture itself testifies. For if we were to think that it was said of the devil that he blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, we would have to labour to show how they were at fault for not believing, of whom it is said, "they could not believe." And then what shall we answer about another testimony of the same prophet, which the Apostle Paul cited, saying: "What Israel sought, it did not obtain; but the election obtained it, and the rest were blinded; as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this present day"?

You have heard the question set before us, brothers, and you see indeed how deep it is; but we answer as we can. They could not believe because the prophet Isaiah foretold this; and the prophet foretold it because God foreknew that it would be so. But why they could not, if I am asked, I answer quickly: because they would not. For God foresaw their evil will, and he from whom things to come cannot be hidden announced it beforehand through the prophet. "But the prophet," you say, "gives another cause, not their will." What cause does the prophet give? "That God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear," and "he blinded their eyes and hardened their heart." I answer that their will deserved even this. For God blinds and hardens in this way, by abandoning and not helping: which he can do by a hidden judgment, but cannot do by an unjust one. This the piety of the devout must keep wholly unshaken and inviolate; as the Apostle, when he was treating this same most difficult question, says, "What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? Far from it." If, then, it is far from God that there should be unrighteousness with him, whether when he helps he acts mercifully, or when he does not help he acts justly; for he does all things not rashly but by judgment. Moreover, if the judgments of the saints are just, how much more those of God, who sanctifies and justifies? They are just, then, but hidden. So when questions of this kind come up, why one is thus and another thus, why one is blinded when God abandons him, another enlightened when God helps him, let us not usurp for ourselves a judgment on the judgment of so great a judge, but trembling let us exclaim with the Apostle: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" Hence it is said in the Psalm, "Your judgments are like a great deep."

Let not the expectation of your Love, then, brothers, push me to penetrate this height, to sift this abyss, to search out what is unsearchable. I know my own measure, and I think I sense yours too. This is higher than my growth and stronger than my strength; I think than yours too. So let us together hear Scripture admonishing and saying: "Seek not things higher than yourself, and search not things stronger than yourself." Not that these things are denied us, since God the teacher says, "There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed"; but if we walk in that to which we have attained, then, as the Apostle says, not only what we do not know and ought to know, but also if we think otherwise in anything, God will reveal that too to us. Now we have attained to the way of faith: let us hold it most perseveringly. It will lead us to the chamber of the King, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For the Lord Jesus Christ himself did not grudge his great and specially chosen disciples when he said, "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." We must walk, we must advance, we must grow, so that our hearts may be capable of the things we cannot grasp now. And if the last day finds us advancing, there we shall learn what we could not learn here.

But if anyone knows that he can explain this question more clearly and better, and is confident of doing so, far be it from me not to be readier to learn than to teach. Only let no one dare so to defend free choice as to try to take away from us the prayer in which we say, "Lead us not into temptation"; and again, let no one deny the choice of the will and dare to excuse sin. But let us hear the Lord both commanding and helping, both ordering what we ought to do and helping us to be able to fulfil it. For some have been lifted up into pride by excessive confidence in their own will, and some cast down into negligence by excessive distrust of their own will. The former say: "Why do we ask God that we may not be overcome by temptation, when that is in our own power?" The latter say: "Why do we strive to live well, when that is in God's power?" O Lord, O Father who are in heaven, lead us not into either of these temptations, but deliver us from evil! Let us hear the Lord saying, "I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail," so that we may not think our faith is so in our free choice that it does not need divine help. Let us hear the evangelist too, saying, "He gave them power to become sons of God," so that we may not think at all that our believing is not in our power: yet in both let us acknowledge his benefits. For thanks must be given because the power has been given; and prayer must be made, lest weakness give way. This is the faith that works through love, according as the Lord has apportioned its measure to each; that he who glories may glory, not in himself, but in the Lord.

It is not surprising, then, that they could not believe, whose will was so proud that, being ignorant of God's righteousness, they wished to establish their own, as the Apostle says of them: "They have not submitted to the righteousness of God." For because they were puffed up, not by faith but as if by works, blinded by their very swelling they stumbled on the stone of stumbling. But "they could not" was said where it is to be understood that they would not; just as it was said of the Lord our God, "If we do not believe, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself." Of the Almighty it was said, "he cannot." As, then, the fact that the Lord cannot deny himself is a praise of the divine will, so the fact that they could not believe is a fault of the human will.

See, I too say that those who think so proudly that they suppose so much must be ascribed to the strength of their own will that they deny they need divine help in order to live well cannot believe in Christ. For the syllables of Christ's name and the sacraments of Christ are of no profit where the faith of Christ is resisted. Now the faith of Christ is to believe in him who justifies the ungodly; to believe in the Mediator, without whose intervention we are not reconciled to God; to believe in the Saviour, who came to seek and to save what was lost; to believe in him who said, "Without me you can do nothing." Because, then, being ignorant of God's righteousness by which the ungodly is justified, he wishes to establish his own, by which the proud man is convicted, he cannot believe in him. Hence they too could not believe: not because men cannot be changed for the better, but as long as they think such things, they cannot believe. Hence they are blinded and hardened; because, by denying divine help, they are not helped. This God foreknew of the Jews who were blinded and hardened, and the prophet foretold it in his Spirit.

But as to what he added, "and be converted, and I heal them": is "not" to be understood, that is, "and not be converted," connected with the clause above, where it was said, "that they may not see with their eyes and understand with their heart," since here too it is certainly meant "that they may not understand"? For conversion itself is of his grace, to whom it is said, "God of hosts, convert us." Or perhaps this too is to be understood as done by the mercy of the heavenly medicine: that, since they were of a proud and perverse will and wished to establish their own righteousness, they were abandoned to this end, that they might be blinded; blinded to this end, that they might stumble on the stone of stumbling and their faces be filled with shame; and so, humbled, might seek the name of the Lord, and not their own righteousness, by which the proud man is puffed up, but the righteousness of God, by which the ungodly is justified? For this turned out for the good of many of them, who, pierced to the heart by their crime, afterwards believed in Christ; for whom he himself had also prayed, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Of this ignorance of theirs the Apostle too says, "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge"; for then he also added and said, "Being ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God."

"These things Isaiah said when he saw his glory and spoke of him." What Isaiah saw, and how this relates to the Lord Christ, is to be read and understood in his book. For he saw, not as he is, but in a certain significant manner, as the prophet's vision had to be shaped. For Moses too saw, and yet he said to him whom he saw, "If I have found grace before you, show me yourself, openly, that I may see you"; because he did not see him as he is. But when this is to be for us, this same holy John the evangelist says in his Epistle: "Beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." He could have said "for we shall see him" and not added "as he is"; but because he knew that he had been seen by certain fathers and prophets, but not as he is, therefore, when he had said "we shall see him," he added "as he is." Let none of those deceive you, brothers, who say that the Father is invisible and the Son visible. For those assert this who think he is a creature, and do not understand in what respect it was said, "I and the Father are one." Assuredly in the form of God, in which he is equal to the Father, the Son too is invisible; but in order to be seen by men he took the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men, he was made visible. So even before he took flesh he showed himself to the eyes of men, as he willed, in a creature subject to him, not as he is. Let us cleanse our hearts by faith, so that we may be prepared for that ineffable and, so to speak, invisible vision. For "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

"Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed in him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God." See how the evangelist noted and reproved certain people whom he nevertheless said had believed in him; who, if they advanced on this entrance into faith, would by advancing overcome the love of human glory too, which the Apostle had overcome, saying, "But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." For this purpose the Lord himself fixed his cross, where the madness of proud impiety mocked him, on the foreheads of those who would believe in him, where in a way is the seat of shame, so that faith may not blush for his name, and may love the glory of God more than that of men.