Homilies on John, Homily 2

“In the beginning was the Word.” If John were going to speak to us with words of his own, we would need to describe his family, homeland, and education. But since it is God speaking to humanity through him, rather than John himself, investigating these matters seems to me unnecessary and distracting. Even so, it is actually very necessary. When you have learned who he was, where he came from, who his parents were, and what his character was, and then hear his voice and all his heavenly wisdom, you will know very well that these (doctrines) come from the divine power moving his soul, rather than from him. What was his native place? He came from no city, but from a poor village in a region held in little respect and producing nothing good. The Scribes speak badly of Galilee: “Search and see, because no prophet arises from Galilee.” ( John vii. 52.) The “Israelite indeed” also speaks badly of it: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Even within that region, he did not come from a notable place, but from one without even a distinguished name. That was where he came from, and his father was a poor fisherman, so poor that he brought his sons into the same occupation. You all know that no working man chooses to raise his son to follow him in his trade unless poverty presses him very hard, especially when it is a lowly trade. Nothing could be poorer, lower, or more ignorant than fishermen. Yet even among them some are greater and others less, and our Apostle belonged to the lower rank even there. Instead of catching fish in the sea, he spent his time on a certain small lake. Christ called him while he was working there with his father and his brother James, mending their broken nets, which itself was a sign of extreme poverty. These facts show that he had no worldly education at all. Luke also testifies to this, writing that he was not only uneducated but completely illiterate. ( Acts iv. 13.) That is what we would expect. He was so poor that he never attended public assemblies or met respectable people, but was practically nailed to his fishing. Even if he did meet anyone, he spoke with fish sellers and cooks. How, I ask, could he be likely to be any better off than the animals without reason? How could he avoid being as speechless as his own fish? [2.] Let us see what this fisherman says and what he speaks to us about: this man occupied with lakes, nets, and fish, this native of Bethsaida in Galilee, this son of an extremely poor fisherman, this utterly ignorant man who never learned to read and write either before or after he accompanied Christ. Does he speak about fields? About rivers? About the fish trade? Perhaps that is what one expects to hear from a fisherman. But do not be afraid. We will hear none of that. We will hear about heavenly things that no one ever learned before this man. As we should expect from someone speaking from the very treasures of the Spirit, he has come bringing us sublime teachings and the best way of life and wisdom, [as though just arrived from the very heavens; yea, rather such as it was not likely that all even there should know, as I said before.] Tell me, do these things belong to a fisherman? Do they belong even to a rhetorician, sophist, philosopher, or anyone trained in pagan wisdom? Certainly not. The human soul simply cannot reason in this way about that pure and blessed nature, the powers next to it, immortality and endless life, the nature of mortal bodies that will later be immortal, punishment and the coming judgment, or the investigations into deeds, words, thoughts, and imaginings. It cannot explain what humanity is or what the world is, who is truly human and who appears human but is not, or the nature of virtue and vice. [3.] The disciples of Plato and Pythagoras did investigate some of these things. We do not need to mention the other philosophers at all; they have all been so utterly ridiculous on this subject. Those held in greater esteem and regarded as the leaders in this field have been more ridiculous than the rest. They have composed writings about the ordering of society and about doctrines, and in all of them have been more shamefully ridiculous than children. They have spent their whole lives making women common to everyone, overturning the very order of life, abolishing the honor of marriage, and making other equally ridiculous laws. As for their teachings about the soul, there is nothing outrageously shameful that they have left unsaid. They claim that human souls become flies, gnats, and bushes, and that God Himself is a soul, along with other similar indecencies. Their constantly shifting stream of words also deserves blame. They base every assertion on uncertain, misleading arguments, like people swept back and forth in the Euripus, never staying in the same place. This fisherman is different. Everything he says is infallible, and he never shifts his ground, as though standing on a rock. Since he has been judged worthy of entering the most secret places and has the Lord of all speaking within him, he is subject to no merely human limitation. They, however, are like people who are not considered worthy even in a dream to enter the king’s palace. They spend their time in the marketplace with everyone else, guessing from their own imagination about what they cannot see. They have gone terribly wrong, colliding with one another as they wander like blind or drunken people. They even collide with themselves, continually changing their opinions about the very same matters. [4.] But consider this illiterate, ignorant man, this native of Bethsaida, Zebedee’s son. Even if the Greeks mock the rustic sound of these names ten thousand times, I will speak them with all the greater confidence. The more barbaric his nation seems to them, and the further he seems from Greek education, the more brightly our teaching shines. An uneducated barbarian speaks about things no one on earth ever knew. That alone would be a great wonder, but he also gives another, stronger proof that what he says is divinely inspired: he convinces all his hearers throughout all time. Who would not marvel at the power dwelling in him? As I said, this is the strongest proof that he is laying down no laws of his own. This barbarian has taken possession of the whole inhabited world by writing his Gospel. In his body he has taken possession of the center of Asia, where all the Greek philosophers once practiced their philosophy. He shines among his enemies, scatters their darkness, and tears down the demons’ stronghold. His soul, however, has withdrawn to the place fitting for someone who has done such things. [5.] The Greeks’ writings have all been extinguished and disappeared, while this man’s shine more brightly every day. Since he and the other fishermen appeared, the (doctrines) of Pythagoras and Plato, which previously seemed dominant, have ceased to be discussed, and most people do not even know their names. Yet Plato, they say, was invited to be a companion of kings, had many friends, and sailed to Sicily. Pythagoras occupied Magna Graecia and practiced ten thousand kinds of sorcery there. His conversations with oxen, which they say he held, were simply a form of sorcery. This makes it very clear: the man who spoke with animals did nothing to benefit humanity and actually did it the greatest harm. Human nature was certainly better suited to philosophical reasoning, yet he used sorcery, they say, to converse with eagles and oxen. He did not turn their unreasoning nature into a rational one, which was impossible for a human being. He deceived foolish people through his magic tricks. Instead of teaching people anything useful, he taught them that eating beans was no better than eating their parents’ heads. He persuaded his companions that their teacher’s soul had actually once been a bush, at another time a girl, and at another a fish. Isn’t there good reason that these things are extinct and have completely disappeared? There is very good reason. But the words of this uneducated, illiterate man are different. Syrians, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Ethiopians, and ten thousand other nations have translated the teachings he introduced into their own languages. Barbarians though they are, they have learned to live and think wisely. So I had good reason to say that the whole world has become his theater. He did not abandon his own kind and waste his work on animals without reason, an act of excessive vanity and extreme foolishness. Free from this and the other passions, he was intent on just one thing: that the whole world should learn something beneficial that could carry it from earth to heaven. This is also why he did not hide his teaching in mist and darkness, as those people did who wrapped obscure language like a veil around the harmful things stored inside. His teachings are clearer than sunbeams, and so they have been opened up to everyone throughout the world. He did not teach like Pythagoras, commanding those who came to him to remain silent for five years or sit like senseless stones. Nor did he invent myths defining the universe as made up of numbers. He threw away all this devilish rubbish and harm and filled his words with such simplicity that everything he said was clear to women and young people as well as to the wise. He was convinced that his words were true and beneficial to everyone who would listen. Every age since then bears witness to him. He has drawn the whole world to himself and, when we have listened to these words, has freed our life from every monstrous display of wisdom. So we who hear them would rather give up our lives than the teachings he passed on to us. [6.] This and every other circumstance make it clear that none of this man’s teaching is merely human. The lessons coming to us through this divine soul are divine and heavenly. We will find no grand-sounding sentences, magnificent language, or excessive, useless arrangement of words and sentences, all far removed from true wisdom. Instead, we find invincible divine strength, the irresistible force of sound teachings, and a rich supply of countless good things. Their excessive concern with expression was worthy of mere sophists, or rather not even sophists, but foolish boys. Even their chief philosopher presents his own teacher as deeply ashamed of this art. He has him tell the judges that they will hear him speak plainly and without preparation, without rhetorical embellishment or (fine) sentences and words. He says that it surely would not be fitting for a man of his age to appear before them like a boy making up speeches. Notice the utter absurdity: the very thing he described his teacher avoiding as disgraceful, unworthy of philosophy, and a task for boys is what he himself cultivated above everything else. They were completely given over to the mere desire for distinction. If you open tombs whitened on the outside, you find them full of decay, stench, and rotting bones. In the same way, if you strip the philosopher’s teachings of their flowery language, you will see that they are full of horrible things, especially when he discusses the soul, which he both honors and disparages without measure. This is the devil’s trap: never keeping the proper balance, but using excess on either side to lead those caught in it into evil speech. At one moment he says that the soul is of God’s substance. After elevating it so immoderately and impiously, he then goes to the other extreme and insults it, making it pass into pigs, donkeys, and animals held in even less esteem. But enough of this; even this much is excessive. If we could learn anything beneficial from these matters, we would need to spend longer on them. But if the point is only to see their indecency and absurdity, we have already said more than necessary. So let us leave their myths and hold to our own teachings, brought to us from above through this fisherman’s tongue, with nothing merely human in them. [7.] Let us turn to his words, reminding you again of my opening appeal to pay close attention to what is said. What does this Evangelist say at the very beginning? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” ( Ver. 1.) Do you see the great confidence and power of these words? He doubts nothing and offers no conjectures, but states everything plainly. A teacher should be unwavering in what he says. If someone meant to guide the others needs another person to give him certainty, he should rightly be counted among the students rather than the teachers. Someone may ask, “Why has he passed over the first cause and spoken to us immediately about the second?” We will refuse to speak of “first” and “second,” because the Divinity is above number and the succession of times. We reject those expressions, but confess that the Father is from no one and that the Son is begotten of the Father. “Yes,” someone may say, “but why does he leave the Father and speak about the Son?” Because everyone already knew the former, at least as God even if not as Father, while the Only-Begotten was unknown. So he had good reason to hasten, right from the beginning, to plant knowledge of Him in those who did not know Him. Besides, his writing about these matters does not leave the Father unmentioned. Please notice his spiritual wisdom. He knows that people honor most highly the oldest being, who existed before everything, and regard this as God. That is where he begins. As he goes on, he declares that God exists, rather than claiming, like Plato, sometimes that He is intellect and sometimes that He is soul. These things are far removed from that divine, unmixed Nature, which has nothing in common with us and shares nothing with created things in substance, I mean, though not in relationship. This is why he calls Him “The Word.” He is about to teach that this “Word” is the only-begotten Son of God. To keep anyone from imagining that His generation involves suffering, he gives Him the name “The Word” and removes that harmful suspicion in advance. He shows that the Son is from the Father without the Father undergoing suffering (change). [8.] Do you see, then, that, as I said, his words about the Son do not leave the Father unmentioned? Do not be surprised if these examples cannot fully explain the whole matter. Our subject is God, whom it is impossible to describe or imagine adequately. This is why this man nowhere names His essence, since it is impossible to say what God is in essence. Instead, he always makes Him known to us through His actions. Shortly afterward you can see this “Word” called “Light,” and the “Light” in turn called “Life.” That was not the only reason he gave Him this name. It was the first reason; the second was that He was going to tell us about the things of the Father. He says, “I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.” ( John xv. 15.) He calls Him both “Light” and “Life” because He has freely given us the light that comes from knowledge and the life that follows it. One name is not enough, nor two, three, or even more, to teach us what belongs to God. We must be content if, even through many names, we can grasp His attributes, however dimly. He has not simply called Him “Word,” but added the article, distinguishing Him from the rest in this way too. Do you see why I said that this Evangelist speaks to us from heaven? Just look at where he has lifted the soul right from the beginning, giving it wings and carrying his hearers’ minds up with him. He sets it above everything perceived by the senses, above earth, sea, and heaven. Then he leads it by the hand above the angels themselves, above cherubim and seraphim, above thrones, principalities, and powers. In a word, he persuades it to travel beyond all created things. [9.] What then? Once he has brought us to such a height, can he really stop us there? Certainly not. Imagine moving someone standing on the shore, looking at cities, beaches, and harbors, into the middle of the sea. You remove them from what they saw before, but you give their sight no stopping point, bringing them instead to a view without boundaries. In the same way, this Evangelist brings us above all creation and escorts us toward the eternal ages beyond it. He leaves our sight suspended, allowing it no upper limit to reach, because there is none. The mind rises to “the beginning” and asks what “beginning” means. Then it finds that the word “was” always runs ahead of its imagination, leaving no place for its thought to stop. Looking intently ahead and unable to stop at any point, it grows tired and turns back to the things below. For “was in the beginning” simply expresses being that is everlasting and infinite. Do you see true philosophy and divine teachings? They are unlike those of the Greeks, who assign times and say that some gods are younger and others older. There is nothing like that among us. If God Is, as He certainly Is, nothing existed before Him. If He is the Creator of everything, He must be first. If He is Master and Lord of all, everything, both created beings and ages, comes after Him. [10.] I wanted to take on other difficulties too, but perhaps our minds are tired. So I will stop again after giving you some advice useful for listening both to what has been said and to what remains to be said. What is this advice? I know that many of you have become confused because I have spoken at such length. This happens when the soul is weighed down with many burdens from this life. When the eye is clear and transparent, its sight is sharp, and it does not tire easily even when distinguishing the tiniest objects. But when some harmful fluid pours into it from the head, or smokelike vapors rise to it from below, a thick cloud forms in front of the eyeball and keeps it from seeing even larger objects clearly. The soul naturally experiences the same thing. When it is purified and no passion disturbs it, it looks steadily at the things it should regard. But when many passions darken it and it loses its proper excellence, it cannot readily manage anything lofty. It soon grows tired and falls back. Turning aside to sleep and laziness, it lets things concerning its excellence and the resulting life pass by, instead of welcoming them eagerly. To keep this from happening to you, and I will never stop warning you about it, strengthen your minds so that you do not hear what the faithful among the Hebrews heard from Paul. He told them that he had “many things to say, and hard to express” ( Heb. v. 11 ), because, he said, “you have become slow to listen,” rather than because the matters were naturally difficult. A weak, unhealthy person is confused by a few words as readily as by many, and thinks clear, easy things are hard to understand. Let no one here be like that. Drive away every worldly care and then listen to these teachings. When the desire for money takes possession of the hearer, the desire to listen cannot possess them too. The soul is one and cannot accommodate many desires. One of the two is harmed by the other and grows weaker through this division as its rival gains the upper hand and uses everything for itself. This often happens with children. A man with only one child loves that child intensely. But when he becomes the father of many, his affection is divided and grows weaker. If this happens where nature has absolute authority and power and the loved ones are related to one another, what can we say about desire and affection governed by deliberate choice? This is especially true when the desires directly oppose one another, because loving wealth opposes loving this kind of listening. When we enter here, we enter heaven, in our attitude rather than our location. Someone on earth can stand in heaven, see what is there, and hear the words coming from there. [11.] So let no one bring earthly things into heaven or stand here worrying about what is at home. People should take what they gain here with them and keep it at home and in their business, instead of letting it be weighed down with the burdens of home and marketplace. We come to this place of teaching to cleanse ourselves of the outside world’s filth. If things said or done outside are going to harm us even during this brief time, we would be better off not coming in at all. Let no one in the assembly think about household matters. Instead, at home let them be stirred by what they heard in the assembly. Let these things be more precious to us than anything else. They concern the soul, while the others concern the body. Or rather, what is said here concerns both body and soul. So let these things be our main occupation and all the rest secondary tasks. These belong to both the future and present life. The others belong to neither unless they are managed according to the law laid down for these. From these teachings it is possible to learn not only what we will be in the future and how we will live then, but also how to direct our present life rightly. This house is a spiritual clinic where we can heal whatever wounds we have received outside, rather than gather new ones to take away with us. Yet if we pay no attention to the Spirit speaking to us, we will not only fail to rid ourselves of our old injuries but receive additional ones. Let us pay very close attention to the book as it is explained to us. If we learn its first principles and fundamental teachings accurately, we will not need much detailed study afterward. After working a little at the beginning, we will be able to instruct others too, as Paul says. ( Rom. xv. 14.) This Apostle is very lofty, rich in many teachings, and he spends more time on these than on other matters. Let us not listen carelessly. This is why we explain these things to you little by little, so that you can easily understand everything and it will not slip from your memory. Let us fear being condemned by the saying, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin.” ( John xv. 22.) How will we benefit more than those who have not heard if, after hearing, we go home with nothing, merely marveling at what has been said? Let us sow in good soil. Allow it, so that you may draw us all the more toward you. Anyone with thorns should throw the Spirit’s fire among them. Anyone with a hard, stubborn heart should use the same fire to make it soft and yielding. Anyone trampled by every kind of thought on the roadside should move to a more sheltered place, instead of lying exposed to anyone who wants to invade and plunder. Then we can see your grainfields waving with grain. If we take such care of ourselves and devote ourselves diligently to this spiritual listening, we will certainly be freed from all life’s cares, gradually if not immediately. So let us be careful that our ears are not called the ears of a deaf viper. ( Ps. lviii. 4.) Tell me, how does a listener like this differ from an animal? How could someone who pays no attention when God speaks be anything but more irrational than any animal without reason? If being truly human means pleasing God, what but an animal can someone be who will not even listen to how this can be achieved? Consider how terrible it would be to fall willingly from (the nature of) human beings to (that of) animals, when Christ wants to take us as human beings and make us equal to angels. Serving the stomach, being possessed by the desire for riches, surrendering to anger, biting, and kicking belong to animals rather than human beings. Even animals each have, one might say, just one passion, and that by nature. But when a human being throws off the rule of reason and tears himself away from the commonwealth God designed, he surrenders to all the passions. He is no longer simply an animal but a kind of monster made up of many different forms. He does not even have the excuse of nature, because all his wickedness comes from deliberate choice and determination. May we never have reason to suspect this of Christ’s Church. We are convinced of better things about you, things that belong to salvation. But the more convinced we are, the more carefully we will keep giving words of warning, so that we may climb to the height of excellence and obtain the promised blessings. May we all obtain them through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom may glory be given to the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.