Homilies on the Gospel of John 70

Nevertheless, even of the rulers many believed in Him;

but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest

For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.

It is necessary for us to flee alike all the passions that corrupt the soul;

but much more those which are many and of themselves beget sins;

such as, for instance, the love of money.

In itself, then, the disease is dreadful;

but it becomes far more grievous, because it is the root and mother of all evils.

Behold, at any rate, these too were broken off from the faith through their lust for glory.

'For many,' he says, 'even of the rulers, believed in Him;

but because of the Jews they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.'

This is the very thing He also said to them earlier:

'How can ye believe, who receive glory one from another, and seek not the glory that is from the only God?' They were not, then, rulers, but slaves in the uttermost slavery.

Yet even this fear was afterward loosed.

For nowhere do we see the apostles held fast by this passion.

For indeed, in their day rulers believed, and priests.

For the grace of the Spirit, when it came, made them all firmer than adamant.

Since, then, this was what hindered them from believing at that time, hear what He says:

'He that believeth in me, believeth not in me, but in Him that sent me.'

'Why are ye afraid to believe in me? Faith in God passes over through me, just as unbelief also does.'

See how through all things He shows the invariable identity of the essence.

And He did not say, 'He that believeth me,' lest anyone should say that He spoke for the sake of the words, which it was possible to say even of men.

For he who believes in the apostles does not believe in them, but in God.

But that you may learn that he speaks of faith directed to his very essence, he did not say, 'He who believes my words,' but, 'He who believes in me.'

And why, one asks, did he nowhere say it in the reverse manner:

'He who believes in the Father does not believe in the Father, but in me'? Because they would have said: Behold, we believe in the Father, but in you we do not believe.

For they were still disposed in too weak a fashion.

At any rate, when conversing with the disciples, he spoke thus:

'You believe in God; believe also in me.'

But seeing that these men were too weak to hear such words, he leads them on by another way.

He shows, then, that it is impossible to believe in the Father without having believed in himself.

And lest you should suppose that this was said as of a man, he adds:

'He who beholds me beholds him who sent me.'

What then? Is God a body? By no means.

For here he speaks of the beholding that belongs to the mind, and by this he makes plain the consubstantiality.

And what is the meaning of, 'He who believes in me'? It is as though one should say:

He who draws up the water of the river takes not that of the river, but that of the spring.

Rather, even this image is still too weak for the matter at hand.

'I have come as light into the world.'

For since the Father is everywhere called by this name, both in the Old Testament and in the New, and himself makes use of the name,

for this reason Paul also calls him the effulgence, having learned it from this very source.

And here he shows the great kinship with the Father, and that there is nothing between, seeing that he says the faith directed to himself passes not to himself, but to that One.

And he called himself light because he delivers from error and dissolves the spiritual darkness.

'If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.'

'For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.'

For lest they should suppose that it was out of weakness that he let those who despised him pass by, on this account he said, 'I did not come to judge the world.'

Then, lest they should on this account become more careless, having learned that he who believes is saved but he who disbelieves is punished, see how he set before them a fearful tribunal, adding and saying:

'He who rejects me and does not receive my words has one who judges him.'

If the Father judges no one, and you also came not to judge the world, who judges him? 'The word that I have spoken, that shall judge him.'

they said that he is not from God, so he spoke thus:

showing that they will not then be able to say these things, but, The words which I have now spoken shall stand in the place of an accuser, convicting them and cutting off every defense.

What word? 'That I have not come of myself, but he who sent me, the Father, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak.'

Therefore these things were spoken thus for their sake, that they might have no pretext for defense.

For if this were not so, in what would he have more than Isaiah? For that prophet too says this very same thing:

'The Lord gives me a tongue of instruction, that I may know when it is fitting to speak a word.'

And what of Jeremiah? For he too, when he was sent, was inspired.

And what of Ezekiel? For he too, having eaten the scroll, then spoke forth.

In another sense too, those who were about to hear what he was saying will be found to be themselves the cause of the knowledge given to him.

For if, when he was sent, he then received a commandment as to what he should say, you will go on to say that even before he was sent he did not know.

And what could be more impious than these words, if one should so receive them and not understand the reason for their lowliness? But Paul says that he himself knows, and so do his disciples, 'what is the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect';

yet the Son did not know until he received a commandment? And how could this have any reason? Do you see that for this cause he brings his words to an extreme of lowliness, that he may both draw those men and stop the mouths of those who came after? For this reason, then, he utters human words, that even so he may compel men to flee the meanness of what is said, being conscious that the things spoken belong not to his nature, but to the weakness of the hearers.

'And I know that his commandment is life eternal.'

'What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has commanded me.'

Do you see the lowliness of what is said? For he who has received a commandment is not his own master.

'For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he wills.'

Then does he have authority to raise whom he wills, but does not have it to say what he wishes? What, then, he wishes to say through what was spoken is this:

that it is not in the nature of the matter that he should say one thing and I should utter another.

'And I know that his commandment is life eternal.'

It was against those who called him a deceiver and said he had come for men's ruin that he said this.

But when he says, 'I do not judge,' he shows that he is not himself the cause of the perdition of such men.

For by these words he all but solemnly testifies, being about to depart from them and no longer to associate with them, that: I have spoken to you nothing as of my own, but all as from the Father.

And for this reason he enclosed his discourse to them in lowly terms, that he might say: Even to the end, this is the final utterance I have left with them.

And what is this utterance? 'As the Father has told me, so I speak.'

But if I were opposed to God, I would say the contrary:

namely, that I say nothing of what seems good to God, so as to turn the glory upon myself.

But as it is, I have referred everything so completely to him, as to say that nothing is my own.

Why then do you not believe me when I say that I have received a commandment, and so vehemently do away with your wicked suspicion of opposition? For just as those who receive a commandment cannot do or say anything other than what those who sent them wish, so long as they fulfill the commandment and do not falsify it,

even so it is not possible for me to do or say anything other than what the Father wishes.

'For what I do, he does, because he is with me, and the Father has not left me alone.'

Do you see how everywhere he shows himself joined to him who begot him, and that there is nothing between? For even when he says, 'I have not come of myself,' he does not say it as taking away his authority, but as doing away with the alien and the contrary.

For if men are masters of themselves, much more is the only-begotten Son.

And that this is true, hear what Paul says:

'He emptied himself, and gave himself up for us.'

But as I said, vainglory is a dreadful thing, dreadful.

For it is this that made those men disbelieve, and others believe wrongly, and made them take, for impiety, the very things that were said for their sakes out of loving-kindness.

Let us therefore flee this beast by every means.

For it is manifold and of every kind, and everywhere it scatters its own venom—both in riches, and in luxury, and in the beauty of bodies.

On this account we everywhere go beyond our need;

on this account comes the covetousness about garments, the great swarm of household servants;

on this account everywhere need is despised—both in houses, and in garments, and at the table;

Do you wish to enjoy glory? Practice almsgiving;

then the angels will praise you;

then will God receive you.

For now the wonder reaches no further than the goldsmiths and the weavers;

but you withdraw uncrowned, seeing yourself the object of many a curse.

But if you do not hang these ornaments upon your body, but instead pour them out into the bellies of the needy, great will be the applause on every side, great the praise.

You will then possess these things, when you give them to others;

but as long as you keep them for yourself alone, you do not possess them.

For the house is an untrustworthy treasury;

but the hands of the poor are a secure treasury.

Why do you adorn the body while the soul is neglected, held fast in uncleanness? Why do you not bestow upon the soul as much care as upon the body? And indeed more was due;

yet nevertheless, beloved, at the very least you ought to have provided for it care equal to the body's.

If someone were to ask you, which would you prefer: that your body be radiant and in good health, and triumph in bloom of beauty, yet wear cheap garments;

or to have it maimed and filled with diseases, yet be decked in gold and beautified? Would you not far rather choose to have comeliness in the very nature of the body than in the wrapping of garments? Then upon the body you will choose this, but upon the soul the opposite, and though you have it foul and misshapen and black,

do you suppose you gain anything from the gold? And of how great folly is this? Turn this adornment inward, and hang these necklaces upon the soul.

For the things laid about the body benefit it neither for health nor for beauty;

for they will not make the dark fair, nor the ugly beautiful or comely;

but if you lay them about the soul, you will quickly make it white instead of black, and instead of foul and misshapen, beautiful and comely.

And this is not my word, but the Lord's own, who speaks thus:

'Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow;'

and, 'Give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you.'

And being so disposed, you will make not only yourself beautiful, but your husband also.

For if they see you have laid aside this adornment, they will feel no great compulsion of expense;

and having nothing to spend on it, they will withdraw from all covetousness, and will be readier for almsgiving; and you too will be able to counsel them with boldness concerning what is fitting.

For now you have stripped yourselves of all such authority.

For with what mouth will you discourse of these things? With what eyes will you look them in the face, demanding almsgiving from your husbands, when you yourselves squander the greater part on the wrapping of the body? Then will you be able to speak with your husband boldly about almsgiving, when you have laid aside the adornment of gold.

And even if you accomplish nothing, you have fulfilled your whole part;

or rather, it is impossible not to win him over as well, when you plead through the very deeds themselves.

For what do you know, O woman, whether you shall save your husband? As, therefore, you must now give account both for yourself and for him, so, if you put off all this vain show, you will have a double crown, wearing the garland together with your husband and going in procession throughout those undefiled ages, and enjoying the eternal good things;

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