Homilies on the Gospel of John 62

'And it was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem, and it was winter.'

'And Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon's porch.'

'Then the Jews surrounded Him, and said to Him:

How long do you keep our soul in suspense?' (I)

Every virtue is a fair thing, but most of all fairness of temper and meekness.

This shows us to be men, this distinguishes us from the beasts, this prepares us to vie with the angels.

For this reason Christ also continually spends many words upon this virtue, bidding us be meek and gentle.

And He spends not words only, but also teaches this by His deeds;

now being struck and bearing it, now being reviled and plotted against, and again standing by those who plotted against Him.

For those who both called Him one possessed of a demon, and a Samaritan, and often wished to kill Him, and stoned Him—these, surrounding Him, asked, 'Are you the Christ?' And not even so did He repel them, after such and so great plots, but answered with much fairness.

Rather, it is necessary to examine the whole passage from its beginning.

For it says, 'And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem, and it was winter.'

This was some great and public festival.

For the day on which the temple was rebuilt, after they had returned from the long captivity in Persia, this they kept with much zeal.

At this feast too Christ was present.

For henceforth He frequently sojourned in Judaea, since the Passion was now at the doors.

The Jews therefore encircled Him and said,

'How long dost thou hold our soul in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly.'

And He did not say, 'Why do you question Me? You have often called Me one possessed by a demon and mad, and a Samaritan, and you have deemed Me an enemy of God and a deceiver;

and but recently you said, Thou bearest witness of thyself;

thy witness is not true;

how then do you question and desire to learn from Me, whose witness you reject?' But He said none of these things, although indeed He knew the intent with which they questioned, that it was evil.

For their surrounding Him and saying, 'How long dost thou hold our soul in suspense?' seemed to be a mark of some longing and love of learning;

but the mind with which they asked was corrupt and full of guile.

For since His works did not admit of calumny and reproach, while they were able to fasten upon His words,

examining Him otherwise than has been said, they were always bringing forward questions, wishing to silence Him from His words; and being unable to charge Him with anything in His works, they desired to find some handle from His sayings.

For this reason they said, 'Tell us.'

For to the Samaritan woman also He said it;

and to the blind man, 'Thou hast both seen Him, and He that talketh with thee, it is He.'

And to those others too He had said it, if not in this way, yet in other words.

And yet if they had understanding, and had wished to examine rightly, it remained for them henceforth to confess Him by His words;

for through His works He Himself had shown this many times.

But now observe their perversity and love of strife.

For when He addresses the people and instructs them by words, they say, 'What sign showest thou?' but when He furnishes the proofs through His works, they say to Him, 'If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly'—the works crying aloud, yet they seeking words;

and when His words teach them, they take refuge in His works, ever setting themselves against what is before them.

That they did not seek in order to learn, the outcome showed.

For Him whom they deemed so worthy of credit as to receive even His witness concerning Himself, when He had uttered a few words, they straightway stoned; so that their surrounding Him and pressing upon Him was done with malice.

And the manner of their questioning was also full of hostility.

For, 'Tell us plainly, if thou art the Christ.'

And yet He said all things with plainness, ever frequenting the feasts, and He spake nothing in secret;

but for this reason they put forward words of flattery, saying, 'How long dost thou hold our soul in suspense?' that, having drawn Him out, they might again find some handle.

That everywhere they asked for this reason, not that they might learn, but that they might fasten upon His words, is plain not only from this, but also from many other places.

For when they came asking whether it was lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not;

and when they disputed about the putting away of a wife;

and when they inquired about that woman whom they said had had seven husbands, they were convicted as bringing questions to Him not out of love of learning, but out of a malicious intent.

But there indeed He rebukes them, saying,

'Why tempt ye Me, ye hypocrites?'—showing that He knew their secret things;

but here He utters nothing of the kind, teaching us not always to rebuke those who plot against us, but to bear much with forbearance and gentleness.

Since then it was madness, when His works proclaimed Him, to seek the witness that comes from words, hear how He answers them;

at once hinting to them that they sought these things superfluously, and not for the sake of learning;

and at the same time declaring that He had sent forth a voice clearer than that which comes by words, namely the voice that comes through His works.

'For often,' He says, 'I told you, and ye believe Me not;

the works that I do in My Father's name, these are they that bear witness of Me.'

Which thing even the more tolerable among them continually said to one another;

for, 'A man that is a sinner cannot do such signs;'

'A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind;'

and, 'No one can do such signs, except God be with him.'

And beholding the signs which He did, they said,

'Is not this the Christ?' And others said, 'When the Christ cometh, will He do more signs than these which this man hath done?' And these very ones on this account wished to believe on Him, saying,

'What sign showest thou unto us, that we may see and believe thee?' 2.

Since then they pretended at that time to be persuaded by a bare word—they who had not been persuaded by so many works—He reproves their wickedness, saying that, 'If ye believe not the works, how will ye believe the words?' So that the question was superfluous.

'But I told you,' He says, 'and ye believe Me not, because ye are not of My sheep.'

'For I have fulfilled on My part all things which it behoved the shepherd to do;

and if ye follow Me not, it is not because I am not a shepherd, but because ye are not My sheep.'

'For My sheep,' He says, 'hear My voice, and follow Me;

and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish for ever;

and no one is able to snatch these out of My hand.'

'Because My Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all;

and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.'

Observe how in forbidding He urges them on to follow.

'Ye hear Me not,' He says;

'but those who follow, these are of the flock.'

And these things He said, that they might strive to become sheep.

Then, having told what they shall obtain, He goads these men, so as to rouse them and cast them into desire.

What then? If through the Father's power no one snatches them, but Thou art without strength, and art weak for their protection? By no means.

And that thou mayest learn that the saying, 'The Father, who gave them to Me,' was spoken on their account, lest they should again call Him an enemy of God;

having said that 'No one snatches them out of My hand,' as He went on He showed His own hand and the Father's to be one.

For if it were not so, the consistent thing would have been to say, 'The Father, who gave them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.'

But He said not so, but, 'Out of My Father's hand.'

Then, that thou mightest not think that He Himself is weak, but that it is through the Father's power that the sheep are in safety, He added:

'I and the Father are one.'

It is as though He said: I did not say this to mean that no one snatches them away because of the Father, as though I Myself were too weak to guard the sheep.

'For I and the Father are one.'

Here He is speaking with respect to power;

for His whole discourse concerned this very thing.

But if the power is the same, it is quite plain that the essence is also the same.

For since the Jews were contriving countless things—plotting against them and casting them out of the synagogue—He says that all their schemes are devised in vain and to no purpose.

For the sheep are in the hand of My Father, as the prophet also says:

'In My hands I have portrayed thy walls.'

Then, showing that the hand is one, He says that it belongs at one time to Himself and at another to the Father.

But when you hear of a 'hand,' think of nothing perceptible to the senses, but rather of power and authority.

But if no one snatched them away merely because the Father was strengthening Him, it would have been superfluous to add what follows: 'I and the Father are one.'

For if He were inferior, this saying would have been an act of great presumption.

For He shows nothing other than the equality of power;

which the Jews indeed perceived, and so they cast stones at Him.

Yet not even so did He take down this opinion and this supposition of theirs.

And indeed, if they had suspected wrongly, He ought to have corrected them and said:

'Why do you do these things? It was not to testify that My power is equal to the Father's that I said these words.'

But now He does the very opposite: He confirms their supposition and reinforces it;

and this too while they were growing savage.

For He does not defend what He had said as though it were ill-spoken, but rather rebukes them for not holding the fitting opinion concerning Him.

For since they were saying, 'For a good work we do not stone thee, but for blasphemy, and because thou, being a man, makest thyself God,' hear what He says:

'If the Scripture called those gods to whom the word of God came, how do you say that I blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God?' And what He means is this:

If those who received this by grace are not censured for calling themselves gods,

how could He who possesses this by nature justly be rebuked? Yet He did not put it thus, but established it afterwards, first relaxing and lowering His discourse, and saying:

'Whom the Father sanctified and sent';

and when He had soothed their wrath, then He brings in the clear declaration.

For a while, in order that His word might be received, He spoke in a more humble manner;

but afterwards He raised His discourse to the greater truth, speaking thus:

'If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not;'

'but if I do, though you believe not Me, believe My works.'

Do you see how He establishes what I said—that He is in no respect inferior to Him, but everywhere equal? For since it was impossible to behold His essence, from the equality and identity of His works He furnishes the proof of an undeviating sameness in power.

'And what shall we believe?' you ask. 'That I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.'

For I am nothing other than what the Father is, while remaining Son;

and He is nothing other than what I am, while remaining Father.

And whoever knows Me has known the Father, and has learned the Son.

But if what pertains to power were less, then what pertains to knowledge too would be falsified.

For neither is one essence known through another, nor...

They sought therefore to seize Him, and He went forth out of their hand, and departed beyond the Jordan, to the place where John was baptizing at the first; and many came to Him and said:

'John indeed did no sign;'

'but all things whatsoever John spoke concerning this man are true.'

For whenever He utters something great and lofty, He quickly withdraws, yielding to their fury, so that their passion might abate and cease through His absence.

But why does the evangelist mention the place? That you may learn that He went there for this reason: to remind them of the things done and said there by John, and of his testimony.

At any rate, when they came there they immediately remembered John;

and for this reason they also say that John indeed did no sign;

for what logical connection would there have been in adding this? But it was because the place brought them to remembrance of the Baptist, and they came to the remembrance of his testimony.

And observe how they weave together incontrovertible syllogisms.

'John indeed did no sign;'

'but this man does,' they say. 'Therefore even from this His superiority is shown.'

'If then, when that one did no sign, we believed, much more shall we believe this man.'

Then, since it was John himself who had borne witness, lest by not having done a sign he should seem unworthy of credit as a witness, they added:

'Even if he did no sign, yet nonetheless he spoke the truth in all that concerned this man,' thereby declaring not this man trustworthy from that one, but that one worthy of belief from the things this man did.

'Many therefore believed on Him.'

For there were many things drawing them.

For they remembered the words which John spoke, calling Him mightier than himself, and Light, and Life, and Truth, and all the rest; and the voice borne from above; and the Spirit that then appeared in the form of a dove and pointed Him out to all;

and, together with these, the proof from the miracles, seeing which they were now confirmed.

'For if it was right to believe John,' they say, 'much more this man.'

'If we believed that one without signs, much more this man, who together with that one's testimony also possesses the proof from signs.'

Do you see how greatly their sojourn in that place profited them, and their riddance of wicked men? For this reason He continually leads them out and takes them away from the company of those men;

which He is also seen to have done in the Old Testament, when far from the Egyptians, in the wilderness, He fashioned and disciplined the Jews in all things.

This He also exhorts us to do, bidding us flee marketplaces and tumults and disturbances, and to pray in our chamber with quietness.

For a ship free from turmoil sails with a fair wind;

and a soul that is outside the reach of affairs sits in harbour.

Wherefore women too ought to be more given to the contemplative life than men, since for the most part they are fixed at home in household duties.

Thus, at any rate, Jacob too became guileless, since he dwelt in a house and was free from the tumults that are in the midst of the world.

For Scripture has not set this down without purpose, when it says, 'Dwelling in a house.'

'But even in a house,' one might say, 'there is much tumult.'

That is because you so will it, and gather round yourself a throng of cares.

For the man, turning about in the midst of marketplaces and law-courts, is deluged as it were by certain waves of tumults from without;

but the woman, seated at home as in some school of the contemplative life, and gathering her mind into herself, will be able to attend to prayers and readings and to the rest of the contemplative life.

And just as those who dwell in the deserts have no one to trouble them,

so also she, being continually within the house, is able perpetually to enjoy tranquillity.

But if at some time a necessity to go out should arise, not even then is there any occasion of tumult for her there.

For either up to the point of attending here, or when the body needs to be tended by a bath, the goings-out are necessary for women;

but the greater part of her time she sits within, and it is possible both for her to cultivate wisdom, and, when she receives her husband troubled, to calm and compose him, to bring him into order, to prune away from him what is superfluous and savage in his reasonings, and thus to send him forth again, having laid aside whatever evils he dragged in from the marketplace, and having learned whatever he learned from the household.

For nothing, nothing is stronger than a devout and prudent woman for bringing a man into order and for moulding his soul into whatever she may wish.

For neither from friends, nor from teachers, nor from rulers will he so patiently bear correction as from his wife, when she exhorts and counsels him.

For the exhortation carries with it a certain pleasure, because the one who counsels is so exceedingly loved.

And I could mention many husbands, harsh and disobedient, who were thus softened.

For she shares with him table and bed, and the begetting of children,

and things spoken and unspoken, and comings-in and goings-out, and far more besides; and being bound to him in all things, and so united to him as it is fitting that a body be joined to a head, if she happen to be prudent and well-attuned, she will surpass and outdo all others in the care of the one she lives with.

For this reason I exhort you to make this your task, and to give the needful counsels.

For as toward virtue, so also toward vice she has great power.

She it was who destroyed Absalom; she who destroyed Amnon; she who would have destroyed Job;

she it was who snatched Nabal from the slaughter; she who saved a whole nation.

For indeed Deborah and Judith displayed the achievements of commanding generals;

and countless other women besides.

For this reason Paul also says:

'For how do you know, O wife, whether you shall save your husband?' And in those times too we saw Persis and Mary and Priscilla take part in apostolic contests.

These it is necessary for you also to emulate, and to bring the one you live with into order not by words alone, but also by deeds.

But how shall we instruct him through our deeds? When he sees you not being wicked, nor extravagant and fond of adornment, nor demanding superfluous outlays of money, but content with what you have;

for then, then indeed will he bear with you even when you counsel him.

But if you philosophize in words, while in your deeds you do the contrary, he will condemn you for much idle chatter.

But when together with words you also furnish him the teaching that comes from works, then he will both accept you and be persuaded the more;

as for instance when you do not seek gold, nor pearls, nor costliness of garments;

but in place of these, orderliness, self-control, goodwill; and when you bring these in from yourself, and require these from him.

For if one must do anything to please a husband, one ought to adorn the soul, not the body—and by adorning the body one corrupts it.

For gold hung about you will not make you so lovely and desirable to him, as self-control and goodwill toward him, and readiness to die for the one you live with.

These things rather subdue husbands.

For that other adornment is even offensive to him, straitening his money for him, and causing him much expense and anxiety;

but the things spoken of will fasten the husband to his wife.

For goodwill and affection and longing bring neither anxieties nor occasion expense, but altogether the opposite.

And that adornment, through familiarity, becomes tedious;

but that of the soul blossoms afresh each day, and kindles a greater flame.

So that if you wish to please your husband, adorn your soul with self-control, with devotion, with the management of the household.

These things both more truly subdue him, and never cease to do so.

Old age does not dissolve this adornment, nor does sickness destroy it.

For the adornment of the body long time relaxes, and sickness consumes, and many other things besides;

but the things of the soul are above all these.

And that adornment both carries envy and kindles jealousy;

but this one is pure of that disease, and is freed from all vainglory.

Thus too the affairs of the household will be easier, and the income will come with ease, when the gold is not hung about your body, nor binding your hands, but is set aside for necessary uses;

such as for the feeding of the household servants, and the necessary care of children, and other needful occasions.

But if these things are not so, and they are hung about the countenance while the heart is straitened, what is the gain? what the profit? Her grief does not allow the wonder of her adornment to be beheld.

For you know, you know that even if one sees her the most comely of all women, he cannot take delight in her while her soul is in pain;

to take delight, one must first rejoice and be glad.

But when all the gold is heaped upon the adornment of the woman's body, and there is straitness throughout the household, there is no delight for the one who lives with her.

So that if we wish to please our husbands, let us establish them in pleasure;

and we shall establish them in pleasure, if we strip away the adornment and the beautifyings.

For all these things seem to have a certain delight only at the very season of the wedding procession;

but afterward, with time, it withers away.

For if the heaven, being so beautiful, and the sun, being so bright—to which you could name no body as equal—we do not admire in like manner because of familiarity;

how shall we admire a beautified body? These things I say, wishing you to be adorned with the wholesome adornment which Paul enjoined:

'Not with gold or pearls, or costly apparel, but with what befits women professing godliness through good works.'

But do you wish to please those outside, and to be praised by them? Above all indeed this longing is not that of a modest woman.

Nevertheless, if you wish, you will have even these as ardent admirers and praisers of your self-control.

For that other woman no one decent and moderate will praise, but only the licentious and lustful;

or rather, not even these will praise, but will even speak ill of her, their eyes being roused by their wantonness concerning the woman;

but her—both those and these, and all—will approve, since they receive no evil from her, but rather instruction in the wisdom of God;

and great will be the praise from men, and great too the reward from God.

Let us therefore emulate this adornment, that both here we may live in security, and may attain the good things to come;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.