Commentary on John 1 part 94/94

Then they behold a charcoal fire laid, Christ having marvellously kindled the fire and set upon it a fish, plainly one caught by His ineffable power, and this too by dispensation.

For it was not the hand of the holy apostles that began, that is, the preaching of the spiritual catch understood in our case, but the strength of the Saviour.

For He first drew in the net, taking as a firstfruits of things to come one, and we do not by any means say absolutely one, but through the one is signified that they were not exceedingly many.

After this the disciples draw in the multitude with the net, being again nerved by His most God-befitting bidding unto being able to take something of what was sought.

And Peter hauls up the dragnet, through which again it is possible to understand that the labour of the holy apostles would not be without accomplishment.

For they presented to Him who had ordered the catching the crowd of those caught, which is also signified in the fishes by the number one hundred and fifty-three.

The hundred, as it appears to me and seems rightly to be, signifying the fullness of the nations.

For the number one hundred is most complete, being composed of ten tens; therefore also our Lord Jesus Christ Himself sometimes says that the sheep belonging to Him are a hundred, thereby making plain the having of the rational creatures complete in number; and sometimes He affirmed that the best land would bring forth a hundredfold, thereby signifying the perfection unto good fruit-bearing of the devout soul.

The fifty setting before the mind, as it were, the remnant of grace according to election from among those of Israel, for fifty is in the half of the hundred, and falls short of the complete number.

And the three being able to bring in the manifestation, as it were in number alone, of the holy and consubstantial Trinity, unto whose glory and unceasing praise the life of those caught through faith is inscribed and is conjointly understood.

For God is in all those who believe, having near Himself, according to the manner understood in sanctification, those who have been persuaded by the evangelical preachings.

And Christ all but wishes to signify what is said in the Psalms: 'You shall eat the fruits of your labours.' Yet they do not take and eat for themselves, but rather Christ distributes to them, that we may again learn, as in a type, that at that time too Christ Himself will be the bestower to us of the divine gifts of grace, and the distributor of the things wont to profit, as Lord.

When, then, they had dined, Jesus says to Simon Peter: 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?' He says to Him: 'Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.'

He says to him: 'Feed My lambs.'

He says to him again a second time: 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?' He says to Him: 'Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.'

He says to him: 'Shepherd My sheep.'

He says to him a third time: 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?' Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?'

And he said to Him: 'Lord, You know all things.'

'You know that I love You.'

Jesus says to him: 'Feed My sheep.'

Peter took the lead before the others, and, as is likely, thought little of arriving by way of the boat, on account of the incomparably fervent and enviable warmth of his love toward Christ.

Wherefore he also is the first to come up and to draw the net;

for he was always in some way a man quick to turn himself about, spurred on in no moderate degree to eagerness both to act and to speak.

For this reason too he was the first to confess the faith, when the Saviour had put a question to them in the region of Caesarea Philippi, saying, 'Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?' For when the others had answered, some Elijah, and some Jeremiah or one of the prophets, and when Christ asked again and said, 'But whom say ye that I am?', the chief once more leapt forth before the rest, being set at their head, and says, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And indeed, when the band of soldiers was present together with the officers of the Jews, mingled in among them, to carry off Jesus to the rulers, all the others forsook him and fled, according to that which is written, but Peter with the sword cut off the ear of Malchus.

For he thought it necessary by every means to defend his own teacher, even though the undertaking he made was altogether unbefitting to Him.

More earnestly than the others He puts the question, whether he loves Him more than they; and this was done a third time.

And Peter consents and confesses that he loves, declaring that He Himself is the witness of the disposition dwelling within him.

And at each of the confessions he hears in varying terms that he is to hold fast the care of the rational sheep.

For I say that one must truly search out also the meaning hidden in these words;

these things too were not written in vain, but the word again travails with something, and the sense of what lies before us assuredly holds something lurking within.

For will not someone reasonably say: Why does He question Simon alone, though the other disciples were standing by, for what cause? And what would He wish to indicate by 'Feed my lambs,' and the words akin to these? We say, then, that the divine Peter had already been ordained to the divine apostleship together with the other disciples;

for our Lord Jesus Christ Himself named them apostles, according to that which is written;

but when the plot of the Jews came to be carried out, and something in the meantime went amiss and befell him;

for the divine Peter, seized by unmixed terror, denied the Lord three times;

He heals that which had suffered, and demands back in varied fashion the threefold confession, setting this as a counterweight to that fall, and framing the amendment as a counterpoise to the transgressions.

For what was stumbled in by word and had the force of the charges in bare utterances alone, one might grant to be absolved in like manner.

And He requires him to say whether he loves Him more than the others.

And indeed truly, inasmuch as he had enjoyed a greater forbearance, and as it were with a more bountiful hand had received the remission of his fault, how should he not reasonably, having gathered up within himself a love greater than that of the others, requite his Benefactor with affections reaching the very highest pitch? For it was common to all the holy disciples to have turned to flight, since the inhumanity of the Jews implanted in them unbearable terror, and the savagery of the soldiers threatened cruel death, when they came to seize Jesus;

but in addition to this there befell Peter, in a special way, his own transgression, that through the threefold denial.

Therefore, as having received a greater remission than the others, he is required to say whether he also loves more;

for according to the Saviour's word, to whom much is forgiven, he also will love much.

And here again there is a pattern for the churches, that they must ask a third time the confession of faith in Christ from those who choose to love Him, through their also coming forward to holy baptism.

And for teachers, knowledge has entered through the contemplation of what lies before us, that they could not otherwise be well-pleasing to the Chief Shepherd of all, that is, to Christ, unless they take thought for the vigour of the rational sheep and for their continuance in well-being.

Such a one was the divine Paul, being weak with the weak, and naming those who through him had believed and had chosen to be well approved through the splendour of their works, the boast and joy and crown of his own apostleship.

For he knew, indeed he knew, that this is the manifest fruit of perfect love toward Christ.

And one might behold this by a reasoning both fair and good.

For if He died for us, how should He not have deemed worthy of all care the salvation and life of us all? And if truly those sin against Christ who sin against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, how is it not true to say that they act piously toward the Lord Himself who guide the mind of those already believing and of those expected to be called to this, and who are zealous through every benefit to procure for them steadfastness in the faith? Therefore through the threefold confession of blessed Peter the transgression which had come about in triple denial was annulled;

and through the Lord's saying, 'Feed my lambs,' there is understood to come about, as it were, a renewal of the apostleship already given to him, loosing the reproach of the falls that had come in between, and blotting out the faint-heartedness that arose from human weakness.

'Verily, verily I say unto thee, When thou wast younger, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest;

but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and others shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.'

But this He spake, signifying by what death he should glorify God.

And when He had spoken this, He saith unto him, 'Follow me.'

Most graciously indeed and exceedingly kindly our Lord Jesus Christ bore witness to His own disciple of the genuineness of his love toward Him, and of the boast of his piety and endurance reaching to the very summit.

For He plainly declares to what end his apostleship shall at length issue, and what kind of end of life shall succeed him.

For He foretold that someone would carry him off even into an unwished-for region, that is, into the place where his persecutors fixed the cross, or rather where they laid upon him the punishment unto blood.

And He says that the place of the cross was unwished-for to Peter.

For none of the saints suffers willingly.

But even though death is bitter, and comes upon them even most unwillingly, yet longing for the glory that is from God, they despise this earthly life.

Christ therefore announced beforehand that blessed Peter should be carried off into a discordant and hated place of death.

But he would not have come to this height of glory, nor would he have been crucified for Christ, unless the charges followed upon his care for the rational sheep, and unless, having the power of love toward Christ deeply rooted within him, he called to obedience those who had been ensnared by the devil's deceits into wandering.

For those who dared to do even this killed blessed Peter, having no other charge to lay against him, but accusing him only of his piety toward Christ.

It is possible then to see through these things also, that usefully and necessarily our Lord Jesus Christ announced beforehand the end of Peter, in order that through the things he was about to suffer He might in a certain manner set His seal upon, and show to be true, that which had been said to Him, 'Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.' For to die altogether for the sake of the preaching, how should it not become a clear and indisputable proof of loving, and that in no way was he falling short of perfect love, I mean that toward Christ? He adds moreover to what Christ said to Peter the words 'Follow me,' having indeed an indication, as in the common sense of the following understood according to discipleship, but again enigmatically hinting, according to what is likely, nothing other than this: 'Come in the track of my perils, and, as it were walking the same road, having by deed and word benefited the souls of those who are called, shrink not at all from going even to that death upon the tree, which He says shall come to pass when he has advanced into old age,' not permitting the dread to become premature for him, but stretching out the onset of fear to long spans of time.

Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned back on his breast at the supper, and said unto Him, 'Lord, who is he that betrayeth thee?' Peter therefore seeing him saith to Jesus, 'Lord, and what shall this man do?' Jesus saith unto him, 'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.'

This saying therefore went out among the brethren, that that disciple should not die;

yet Jesus said not unto him that he should not die, but, 'If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?' Once more the divine Evangelist marks himself out, more obscurely indeed, yet nonetheless he does mark himself.

For he too is the one beloved and who had leaned back upon the breast of Christ at the time of the supper, and asked who was he that should betray Him.

Peter therefore, having beheld this man, tried to inquire and thought fit to learn with what and what kind of perils he himself also should have to do thereafter, or even to what end perhaps the term of his own life should come.

But the question appeared to be beyond fitting speech, and was a work rather of officious curiosity than of laudable love of learning, that one who had received knowledge of what concerned himself should seek out what should befall others.

For this cause therefore, I think, the Lord answered indeed something, yet not directly to what was asked, that is, to what was sought, but carrying away in a certain manner to other things the aim of the questioner, He says that John should not be immortal;

'Thou hast heard, O Peter, the things concerning thyself; why shouldest thou be curious about the things of others, and dig up, as it were untimely, the knowledge of the divine judgments? For even if he should not die at all,' He says, 'what then will this comfort thy anxiety? The wise and prudent man therefore will be indifferent, if he too is about to suffer something, whether another be saved or not;

for it is laid up for him to suffer his own things, receiving nothing at all from another's misfortune or good cheer toward his own consolation.'

Something like this is what the meaning of the passage before us travails with.

And the word about these things intimates to us that, since altogether and in every way John too was at some time going to be in peril, either in like manner or perhaps in some other, blessed Peter, as it were for the consolation of what concerned himself, watchfully busied himself also about the things that were going to befall him.

And do not wonder, but rather consider this:

for this too is in some way common among us, even though it is altogether unprofitable, the being wont at times, when we love, not to see ourselves alone suffering, or about to endure something of the things we would pray against, but rather to hear also of the things of others, either of those who have already suffered, or of those who are expected to fall into this.

'This is the disciple who both testifieth of these things, and who also wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.'

I think that none of the more sensible will doubt that the Lord would not have loved John, unless he had been someone exceedingly excellent and conspicuous in virtue, and fitly disposed toward every good thing whatsoever and perfectly furnished.

For God would not be found inclining by any irrational impulses toward those unworthy of the love that is from Him, for such passions are rather befitting to men;

but He who is altogether inexperienced of the assault and inroad of passions, and who stands most firmly established in every form of virtue, or rather is Himself every form of virtue, how should He not do even this with discernment, and make His inclination altogether beyond reproach, I mean that toward deeming worthy of love him who ought to obtain it? Having therefore very well set it forth beforehand and having said beforehand that he was loved, in an unboastful and altogether unambitious manner he says that he has testified concerning these things, in a way now most admirable and good, asking, as of necessity, that his hearers should assent to the things he has written and testified;

for the herald would not have lied against the truth.

For this cause also he says, 'We know that his testimony is true.'

It is therefore truly perilous and altogether dreadful to speak falsehood at all, for a man who knows not how to refrain from uttering a word;

for the Truth would not have loved him who dissolved the truth.

'And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that not even the world itself could contain the books that should be written. Amen.'

'Very great indeed,' he says, 'is the multitude of the divine signs, and altogether innumerable will appear the catalogue of the mighty deeds, and out of countless numbers these have been taken, being not incapable of producing in the hearers the fullest benefit.'

'But let not the lover of hearing and the eager learner blame the one who has written the book,' he says, 'even though he made not mention of the others.'

For indeed, if each single one of the things accomplished had been written, none being left out, the uncontainable throng of the books would have filled the whole inhabited world.

And we say that even now the force of the word has been made by way of hyperbole.

For one might truly conceive that countless wonders have been accomplished through the might of our Saviour.

The heralds of the Gospels have nevertheless written down the more illustrious of the things that came to pass, as is fitting, and those through which the hearers might most of all be able to be confirmed unto the incorruptible faith, and to have instruction both moral and doctrinal, in order that, being pre-eminent in right faith, and adorned in manifold ways with works that look toward piety, and having attained unto that city above, and being joined to the Church of the firstborn, they may drive on even into the very kingdom of heaven in Christ, through whom and with whom to God the Father be glory together with the Holy Spirit unto the ages. Amen.