Commentary on John 1 part 93/94

And if one must speak somewhat more mystically, on account of the inescapable need of these thoughts: we shut the doors, yet Christ visits and appears to us all, both invisibly and visibly;

invisibly indeed as God, but visibly again in the body.

And he permits and grants us to touch his holy flesh.

For we draw near, by the grace of God, to the partaking of the mystical blessing, receiving Christ into our hands, that we too may firmly believe that he has truly raised his own temple.

For that the communion of the mystical blessing is a certain confession of the resurrection of Christ would become clear, and that very easily, through the words which he himself spoke when he accomplished through himself the type of the mystery;

for having broken the bread, as it is written, he distributed it, saying, 'This is my body, which is given for you unto the remission of sins;'

'this do in remembrance of me.' The partaking of the holy mysteries is therefore a certain true confession and remembrance that the Lord died and rose again for us and on our behalf, that we too might be filled full with the divine blessing thereby.

Let us therefore, as a deadly thing, refuse unbelief even after touching Christ, but rather let us be found most faithful and holding a steadfast mind.

And for what cause, has already been clearly stated; yet I shall recall it none the less, cutting short the length of the discourse.

For to the one it was not yet the season that gave leave to touch, because he had not yet been sanctified by the grace of the Spirit;

but to the other this was already fitting, as to one who had grown rich in the Spirit together with the rest.

For as we have already said before, it was not because he had been left behind that he was therefore without part in the Spirit.

For the bounty of the Giver was extended to him also, since the gift was apportioned to the whole fulness of the holy disciples.

But I think it necessary, in addition to these things, to search out that matter also.

Thomas felt the side of the Saviour, and sought out the wounds made by the soldier's spear;

he saw the marks of the nails.

Then how, someone might perhaps say, were the signs of corruption showing forth in the incorruptible body? For a proof of bodily corruption is retained, in the piercing of the hands and side still remaining and preserved, and in the appearances of wounds and of the stabbings made by iron—and yet the true and blameless reasoning declares that the body which has been refashioned unto incorruption ought to put off, together with corruption, all things also that come from it.

For will one who chances to be lame rise again still having the maiming of the foot or leg? And if one should have lost his eyes in this present life, will he be raised bereft of sight? How then, someone might say, have we shaken off corruption, if the sufferings that come from it are still preserved and prevail over our bodies? I do not think that the discourse upon this matter is without need of a necessary inquiry; yet we say this to those perplexities of what lies before us, being eager, so far as is possible, to speak in their aid: that at the time of the resurrection no remnant whatever of the corruption that was brought in shall be left in us, but, as the wise Paul said concerning this body, 'it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; and it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory.' And what else could it perhaps be, to expect that the resurrection of this body shall be in power and glory, except that, having cast off all weakness and dishonour that come from corruption and sufferings, it shall run back to its original making? For it was made not for death and corruption.

And since Thomas asked this too for clear assurance, our Lord Jesus Christ necessarily, giving no pretext to our littleness of faith, appears just as he asked to see; for even while ascending into heaven itself, and making known to the powers above—the principalities and authorities, and to those who preside and hold precedence over the angelic ranks—the power of the mystery concerning himself, he showed himself again in this very same form, in order that they too might truly believe that the Word who is from the Father and in the Father became man for our sakes, and might know that he exercises so great a providence over his own creatures that he even died on behalf of our life.

And in order that the power of the word may become clearer to those who hear it, I shall set down the very things spoken concerning these very matters through the voice of Isaiah.

He says, therefore: 'Who is this that comes from Edom, with the redness of his garments from Bozrah?' But those who cry out and say these things—I mean the words 'Who is this that comes from Edom,' that is, from the earth—are angels and rational powers;

for they marvel at the Lord as he ascends into the heavens.

And he who teaches righteousness, how would he not be understood, by common consent, to be a lawgiver?

And if a lawgiver, how would he not altogether be God as well? Then the angels say to him, as Christ shows them too, as it were, the marks of the nails: 'What are these wounds in the midst of your hands?' And to them the Lord replies: 'Those with which I was smitten in the house of my beloved.' For Israel, being a beloved house, smote the Lord with nails and spear.

It might fittingly be ascribed to the heads.

For they themselves brought it about that the Lord suffered.

When, therefore, Christ, willing to give full assurance to the holy angels also—that he had indeed become man, and that he had endured the cross on our behalf, and had been raised and had risen again from the dead—was not content with words alone, but showed the signs of the passion;

what is there wonderful or strange, if, willing to release even the blessed Thomas himself from unbelief, he showed the marks of the nails, and was seen even beyond what is likely, for the benefit of all, and so that we might believe beyond dispute that the mystery of the resurrection has been accomplished—no other body having been raised, but the very one that suffered death? Thomas answered him and said to him, 'My Lord and my God.' Quick unto confession is he who was just now slow concerning the need to believe in him, and in a wholly brief time he was healed.

For only eight days had passed, and the hindrances of his little faith were done away by Christ, who showed both the marks of the nails and the side itself.

But perhaps someone will say to this: 'For what, tell me, does the mind of the holy disciples come through so subtle an inquiry and so exact a search? For would not the sight of the body, the character of the countenance, the measure of stature, have sufficed for a proof that the Lord had truly been raised from the dead and been recognized?' And what do we say to this? The wondrous disciples did not have their understanding free from doubt, even though they had beheld the Lord.

For they thought that it was not truly that same one who had of old been with them and lived among them and been hanged upon the tree, but rather a spirit cunningly fashioned into the likeness of the Saviour, and falsifying the traces of the form which they knew.

They slipped into thinking thus, not without some occasion that with good reason called them to this.

For since he entered marvellously while the doors were shut—whereas the earthly and grosser body seeks a sufficient entrance for itself, and compels the openings of the chambers to be widened so far as the bulk of each requires;

therefore, and very usefully, our Lord Jesus Christ bared his side to Thomas, and made the wounds in the flesh plainly visible, giving full assurance to all through him.

For the saying is recorded of the holy Thomas alone: 'Unless I put my hands and see the marks of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will by no means believe;' yet the charges of little faith were somehow common to all, and we shall find the mind of the other disciples too not free from disturbance, even though they too said to the holy Thomas, 'We have seen the Lord.' And that the word of the truth does not desert us is nothing hard to learn from what the divine Luke said to us concerning these matters: 'For while they were speaking these things,' he says, 'he stood in the midst of them'—he himself, evidently, Christ.

And he says to them, 'Peace be unto you.'

But they were startled and became afraid, supposing that they beheld a spirit.

And he said to them, 'Why are you troubled, and why do reasonings arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.'

'Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you behold me having.'

And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

And while they still disbelieved for joy and marveled, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' And they gave him, it says, a piece of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb; and taking it, he ate before them. Do you see how the reasoning of unbelief lurks within, not in the blessed Thomas alone, but how this affliction sickens the mind of the other disciples as well? For behold, behold, seeing them of little faith even after the sight of the wounds upon the cross, he thought it needful to persuade them by yet another means—one in no way befitting a spirit, but belonging rather peculiarly to bodies of earth and to the nature of flesh.

For he ate up the little fish that was brought forward, or rather a portion of it.

But we shall grant that each of these was, as it were, a work of necessity.

For though the holy flesh especially, once wholly preserved, no longer needed anything after the resurrection—inasmuch as it had risen again to incorruption—nor was it believed to require its accustomed nourishment as before, yet he displayed the marks of the nails and did not refuse to partake of food, that he might root deeply the great mystery of the resurrection and implant the faith concerning it in the souls of us all.

And he does things utterly foreign to the nature of spirits.

For marks of nails, and traces of wounds, and partaking of bodily food—whence or how could these belong to a spirit wholly naked and unentwined with flesh, in which, according to the account of its own nature, it would be fitting that it should delight to occupy itself? Therefore, lest any should suppose that the Lord had risen as a subtle spirit, or as an untouchable body, shadowy and airy—which some are wont to call spiritual—but rather that this very thing which was sown in corruption, according to the utterance of Paul, having risen, might be believed, he both did and showed the things befitting a solid body.

Moreover, it will not be beside the fitting reasoning to say at the outset that the blessed disciple did not so much disbelieve through weakness of judgment, as he experienced this from exceeding great joy.

For we have heard the blessed Luke declaring concerning all the rest as well, that 'while they disbelieved for joy and marveled.' Therefore the marveling wrought in the disciples the slowness in believing.

But since henceforth unbelief was without excuse for those who saw, consistently the blessed Thomas made concerning him the most upright confession, saying, 'My Lord and my God.'

For to him who is by nature Lord and who holds dominion over all, there would truly and confessedly belong also the being God; even as, without doubt, to him who is by nature God there would be seen to belong altogether both the power to rule over all things and to be clothed with the glory of lordship.

But it must be observed that he says 'My Lord and my God' in the singular and with the article joined.

For he did not simply say 'my Lord and my God,' lest anyone should suppose that he was called Lord and God after the likeness of ourselves or of the holy angels;

for there are many in heaven and on earth who are lords and gods, even as the wise Paul taught us;

but he says 'My Lord and my God,' as of one who is peculiarly and uniquely Lord and God, as begotten of the Father who is by nature Lord and God; and—what is yet greater for the establishing of the truth—the Savior heard his own disciple saying this, being so disposed and having believed that in truth he was himself both the Lord and God, yet he did not think it needful to rebuke him.

Therefore he commended him for having believed, and most rightly.

And you may see this to be true very readily.

For to him who had thus believed and was so disposed, he says at the end of the Gospel, 'Go, make disciples of all the nations.' But if he commands one who was of such a mind to teach all the nations, and appointed him a mystagogue for the whole world, he does not wish us to hold any other faith.

For he is truly by nature Lord and God, even when he became man.

For consider that the disciple, having handled his hands and feet and side, offered him his confession, not dividing Emmanuel into a pair of sons, but acknowledging one and the same together with the flesh;

for there is one Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures.

Jesus says to him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed;

blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'

Most full of gracious dispensation indeed is the Savior's word, and able to work in us the very greatest benefit.

For herein too he provided not moderately for our souls, since he is good and wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, according to what is written.

But the reason for the marvel is this.

A sign might become an occasion calling to unbelief those who sought to be benefited by such things.

But it was necessary to hold in no small account the security given to us as well.

Besides that, it was needful to look also to the other point—I mean, that those who should live in the times thereafter should not easily be dragged down anywhere into unbelief.

For it was likely that some, going outside the straight road and cultivating a spurious scrupulousness out of ignorance, would put away the faith and not admit the resurrection of the dead, and would come into the midst telling us, after the manner of that disbelieving disciple, 'Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.' Then what manner of full assurance could still suffice for them, since Christ was no longer bodily upon earth, but had rather ascended into the heavens? And how would they not at times have been suspected of speaking such things rightly, when they appeared to be emulating the Savior's disciple, and having chosen as some excellent thing not to believe readily, but strove rather to demand, for their sure assurance, the very things that had been shown to the holy disciples themselves? Therefore Christ reins in beforehand the assault that would at times come in such matters, and guards against the slip.

For being true God, he knew, yea he knew, the malice-loving mind of the devil, and his craftiness for deception.

Wherefore he declares blessed those who believe even without seeing;

and for what cause? For to things that lie before the eyes no doubtful faith is owed;

for there is nothing at all that persuades to hesitation.

But he who, concerning what he has not beheld, should receive it and believe to be true that which the words of the one who initiates should convey into his ears, has honored with a most estimable faith the one who is proclaimed.

The blessedness therefore will follow everyone who believes through the voice of the holy apostles, who became both eyewitnesses and beholders of the mighty deeds and ministers of the word, as Luke says;

to whom it is necessary that we also give heed, if we are lovers of eternal life, and are earnest to make much of dwelling in the mansions above.

'Now Jesus did many other signs also in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.'

'But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have eternal life in his name.'

He sums up, as it were, his own composition, and makes plain to his hearers the aim of the evangelical proclamations.

For 'that you may believe,' he says, 'and believing may have eternal life'—for this these things were put together;

and he says that the signs are many, and does not confine the mighty deeds and the marvelous works of our Savior to those which have been made known and told by him and by him alone, but assigns, as also to the other evangelists, to convey those things which might come to their accurate remembrance, if they should so wish.

For not all things, he says, are written in this book, but these alone were set down through my voice, which were likely to suffice in no small measure to be able to persuade the hearers that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

These things, then, the inspired Evangelist has said;

but I in turn shall think it needful to say that other thing profitably.

For if the whole force of the things written works in us such a faith, and persuades us to be disposed and very rightly so, that he who was born of the holy virgin, who also was named Jesus through the voice of the angel, is this very one who is proclaimed through the God-inspired Scripture as Christ;

and this very one it is, and no other, not simply a son, but the Son of God uniquely and peculiarly—what then will they do, what will they utter, and what judgment will they have, at the time of the great day, those who out of ignorance are divided concerning the faith, and beyond this have undertaken to teach others to think that there are two Christs?

For they cut him apart into a man peculiarly and into God the Word peculiarly, even after the union and the utterly ineffable and inconceivable conjunction with the body.

For when we examine the account of nature, whenever we think anything concerning Christ, we find the flesh to be other than God the Word who is from the Father and in the Father;

but when we consider the power of the conjunction with him, and, as far as is possible, examine this extraordinary mystery that surpasses the mind, we think of the Word as one thing together with his own flesh, not changed into flesh;

for we do not say this—for the nature of the Word is unchangeable and unalterable and altogether incapable of receiving any change;

but that, according to our holy and God-inspired Scripture, being conceived both from the divine temple which holds the whole limit of the manhood, and from the living Word, henceforth one is Jesus and Christ and Son.

And one might understand this very thing to be true also in our own case, and to be so by nature.

For we are compounded into one man out of soul and body, the body being one thing, and again the soul in the body another, according to the account belonging to each, yet running together into the manifestation of one living creature, and by no means enduring to be divided at all after their mutual intertwining.

'After these things Jesus manifested himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias, and he manifested himself in this way.'

'There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called the Twin, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples.'

'Simon Peter says to them, 'I am going fishing.''

'They say to him, 'We also are coming with you.''

'They went out and got into the boat, and on that night they caught nothing.'

'But when morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; the disciples, however, did not know that it was Jesus.'

'Jesus says to them, 'Children, have you any fish?' They answered him, 'No.''

'And he said to them, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find.''

'So they cast it, and they were no longer able to draw it in for the multitude of fish.'

Our Lord Jesus Christ once more lavishes upon his own disciples the enjoyment of his much-longed-for sight, and grants them a third visitation now, upon two others already, that, namely, he might work in them a mind firm and immovably established in the faith that is toward him.

For those who had beheld him not once, but now even a third time, how should they not have rid their own mind of all littleness of faith, and become for all others accurate mystagogues of the doctrines of true religion? Peter therefore goes out fishing together with the rest;

for they run together with him as he goes to this task, our Savior Christ perhaps dispensing something profitable also through these things.

For the blessed disciples, plying the craft that was their own, being fishermen, caught nothing at all, and this though they had toiled through the whole night.

But when morning had now come, and the light was already beginning to spread abroad with the shining of the sun, Jesus stood upon the shore.

Yet they did not know that it was He Himself.

And when He questioned them closely, asking whether any of what was needed for a meal had come within their nets, they said that they had taken nothing whatever.

Then He bids them let down the net into the right-hand parts of the boat.

And they, though throughout the whole night they had spent labours vain and profitless, say: 'At Your word we will cast the net.'

And when this was done, the weight of what had been caught now overpowered the strength of those who were hauling it up.

These things, then, the inspired Evangelist has related to us.

And since the Saviour has assured the holy apostles, most vividly and truly and in full accomplishment, that they were indeed to become, according to His word, fishers of men, come, let us, transferring as far as possible and rightly into a manifestation of the truth the things that were fulfilled as in a type, bear witness to the truth by the Saviour's words; and unfolding each of the things that came to pass, so far as is possible, let us set before the readers no small occasions, as I think, of spiritual contemplation.

'Instruct a righteous man, and he will receive yet more.' I think, then, that the disciples' fishing throughout the whole night, yet catching nothing at all and enduring vain labours, signifies something of this sort: that by the preachings of the more ancient teachers we shall find none at all persuaded, and gathered as in a net unto that which is perfectly pleasing to God, or exceedingly few.

For the exceedingly small is on a par with nothing, especially when it is taken out of a great multitude.

And 'man' throughout all the inhabited world is fittingly understood as very many indeed.

What then? What was it that hindered and was found to be an obstacle, which rendered the labour of the men of old vain? And what was it that made the preaching, as it were, fruitless for them? It was night and darkness still, and a kind of spiritual mist and demonic deception seated upon the eyes of the understanding, and not permitting them to behold the light that is truly divine and true.

For 'there was none that did good,' according to the word of the psalmist; 'there was not so much as one, but they all went astray, together they became unprofitable.'

And even if Israel had somehow been caught through Moses, yet he was on a par with those who had not been caught at all, practising the worship that is in shadows and types, and being disciplined by a law that perfected nothing.

Those who had been called through Moses to the learning that is of the Law, having spurned the very Law that had been given, and all but laughing broadly against the holy commandment, turned aside to the precepts and teachings of men.

And they sank down to this from a hard and unyielding purpose, so that even the word of the holy prophets grew weak.

Therefore they also cried out: 'Lord, who has believed our report?' And Jeremiah again: 'Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me a man of strife and a man of contention in all the earth; I have neither profited, nor has anyone profited me.'

'My strength has failed among those who curse me.' How then would one not grant that disobedient and intractable Israel is placed on a par with those who had not been caught at all, seeing that he has trodden underfoot the very Law that was appointed through Moses? And that the very multitude of the nations was also as yet uncaught by the net, and remained utterly outside the enclosure of the divine teachings, we should need no word to demonstrate.

For them, then, there was darkness in the heart and a diabolical night, shutting out the light of the true knowledge of God.

Therefore, having toiled, so to speak, throughout the whole night, those before the Advent kept their spiritual dragnet still bereft of fish.

May it become food for God, who as it were hungers for the salvation of us all.

For Scripture named the conversion of the Samaritans His own food.

And when those who were questioned had plainly acknowledged that they had nothing at all, He commands them again to let down the net into the right-hand parts of the boat.

For the blessed Moses too let down the net of instruction, namely through the letter of the Law.

But the catch came about somehow on the left, since the commandment of our Saviour is understood as being on the right.

On the right, then, shall stand the things that are through Christ, the right hand signifying to us the superiority He has over the Law and the prophets.

Without delay, therefore, being persuaded by the injunctions of our Saviour, the inspired disciples let down the net.

And this too signifies to us that they did not snatch the grace of the apostolate for themselves, but went out to the spiritual catch by His injunctions.

For 'Go,' He says, 'make disciples of all the nations'; and they themselves say that they let down the net at the word of Christ.

For they draw men in with the net not otherwise than by the words of our Saviour and the evangelical commands.

And of the fish that had come within the nets there was a very great multitude, so that the disciples could no longer easily haul it up.

For innumerable are those who have been caught in the net and have believed, and the wonder attending this now appears greater than, and truly surpassing, the strength of the holy apostles.

For it is the working of Christ, who by His own power gathers the multitude of those being saved, as into an apostolic net, the Church upon earth.

That disciple, then, whom Jesus loved says to Peter: 'It is the Lord.'

Simon Peter therefore, hearing that it was the Lord, girded on his outer garment, for he was naked, and cast himself into the sea.

But the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about two hundred cubits off, dragging the net of fish.

When, then, they had stepped onto the land, they see a charcoal fire laid, and a fish lying upon it, and bread.

And Jesus says to them: 'Bring of the fish which you have now caught.'

Simon Peter therefore went up and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three.

And though there were so many, the net was not torn.

And none of the disciples dared to question Him, 'Who are You?' knowing that it was the Lord.

Jesus comes and takes the bread and gives it to them, and the fish likewise.

This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to His disciples after He was raised from the dead.

Here again he who composed this book says that he himself is the beloved disciple.

And he was greatly beloved, on account, as it seems, of his abundant sagacity and purity of mind and keenness of the heart's eyes, and because he was very well fitted to be able to understand something quickly.

And so, seizing before all the others the perception of the sign, he knew that Christ was present, and made it plain to the rest, not hesitating at all, but rather crying out, and that very boldly: 'It is the Lord.'

And the inspired Peter leaps forth first, having considered that his arrival by the boat would somehow be too slow.

For he was ever fervent in eagerness, and stirred to boldness and to the love that is toward Christ.

And the rest follow the foremost one together with the boat, bringing the net.