Homilies on John, Homily 73

“Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, where are You going? Jesus answered him, Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow Me afterward.” [1.] Love is a great thing, stronger than fire itself, and it rises to heaven itself; no obstacle can hold back its sweeping force. So when the intensely devoted Peter hears, “Where I am going you cannot come,” what does he say? “Lord, where are You going?” He said this less from a wish to learn than from a desire to follow. He did not yet dare to say openly, “I am going,” but instead, “Where are You going?” Christ answered his thoughts, not his words. That this was his wish is clear from Christ’s words: “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now.” Do you see that he longed to follow Him and therefore asked the question? And when he heard, “You will follow Me afterward,” even that did not restrain his longing. Though he had been given good reason for hope, he was so eager that he said, Ver. 37. “Why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.” Once he had shaken off the fear of being the traitor and had been shown to be one of His own, he then boldly asked for himself, while the others remained silent. “What are you saying, Peter? He said, ‘You cannot,’ and you say, ‘I can’? Through this trial, then, you will learn that your love is nothing without the help that comes from above.” This makes it clear that He allowed even that fall out of care for him. He wanted to teach him through His first words, but when Peter persisted in his fervor, He did not push or force him into the denial. He left him on his own so that he could learn his own weakness. Christ had said that He must be betrayed; Peter replied, “May that never happen to You, Lord; this will not happen to You.” ( Matt. xvi. 22.) He was rebuked, but he did not learn. On the contrary, when Christ wanted to wash his feet, he said, “You will never wash my feet.” ( Ver. 8.) Again, when he hears, “You cannot follow Me now,” he says, “Though everyone denies You, I will not deny You.” Since his habit of contradiction was likely to make him foolishly proud, Jesus next teaches him not to oppose Him. Luke implies this too when he tells us that Christ said, “And I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail” ( Luke xxii. 32 ); that is, “that you may not be lost in the end.” In every way He was teaching him humility and proving that human nature by itself is nothing. But because his great love made him prone to contradiction, He now brings him to his senses, so that later, when he had received the stewardship of the world, he would not be subject to this. Instead, remembering what he had suffered, he would know himself. And look at how violently he fell: it did not happen once or twice, but he was so beside himself that in a short time he spoke the words of denial three times, so that he might learn that he did not love as much as he was loved. And yet, to someone who had fallen so far, He says again, “Do you love Me more than these?” So the denial was caused not by his love growing cold, but by his being stripped of help from above. He accepts Peter’s love, then, but cuts away the spirit of contradiction it produced. “For if you love, you ought to obey the One you love. I said to you and those with you, ‘You cannot’; why do you argue? Do you know what it means to contradict God? But since you will not learn in this way that it is impossible for what I say to fail to happen, you will learn it through the denial.” And yet this seemed to you much more unbelievable. For you did not even understand this, while you knew that in your heart. Yet what you did not even expect still happened. “I will lay down my life for You.” Since he had heard, “No one has greater love than this,” he immediately sprang forward, insatiably eager and longing to reach the very height of virtue. But Christ, to show that He alone had the authority to promise these things, says, Ver. 38. “Before the rooster crows.” That is, “now”; there was only a short time left. He spoke late at night, after the first and second watches had passed. Chap. xiv. ver. 1. “Do not let your heart be troubled.” He says this because they were likely to be troubled by what they heard. For if the leader of their group, a man so intensely devoted, was told that before the rooster crowed he would deny his Master three times, they were likely to expect some great disaster that could bend even souls as hard as diamond. Since these thoughts were likely to leave them stunned, see how He comforts them, saying, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” With these first words He shows the power of His Godhead, because He knew what was in their hearts and brought it to light. “You believe in God; believe also in Me.” That is, “All dangers will pass you by, for faith in Me and in My Father is more powerful than the things that come upon you, and will allow no evil to prevail against you.” Then He adds, Ver. 2. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places.” Just as He comforts Peter in his bewilderment by saying, “But you will follow afterward,” He also gives the others this glimpse of hope. To keep them from thinking that the promise was given to Peter alone, He says, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places.” “If it were not so, I would have told you, I am going to prepare a place for you.” That is, “The same place that receives Peter will receive you.” For there is a great abundance of dwellings there, and it cannot be said that they need preparation. When He said, “You cannot follow Me now,” He added the following so that they would not think they had been cut off forever: Ver. 3. “So that where I am, you may be also.” “I have been so intent on this that I would already have devoted Myself to it, if preparations had not been made for you long ago.” He shows them that they should be very bold and confident. Then He adds the following so that He will not seem to be speaking merely to entice them, and so that they will believe this really is so: [2.] Ver. 4. “And you know where I am going, and you know the way.” Do you see that He gives them proof that these things were not said without meaning? He used these words because He knew within Himself that their souls now wanted to learn this. For Peter had said what he said out of a desire to follow Him, not to learn. But after Peter had been rebuked and Christ had declared possible what seemed impossible for the time being, the apparent impossibility led him to want an exact understanding of the matter. That is why He says to the others, “And you know the way.” For just as, after saying, “You will deny Me,” He searched their hearts and said, “Do not be troubled,” before anyone spoke a word, so here too, by saying, “You know,” He revealed the desire in their hearts and Himself gave them an opening to ask questions. Now Peter asked, “Where are You going?” out of deeply loving affection; Thomas asked out of cowardice. Ver. 5. “Lord, we do not know where You are going.” “We do not know the place,” he says, “so how will we know the way that leads there?” Notice how submissively he speaks. He does not say, “Tell us the place,” but, “We do not know where You are going”; for they had all long yearned to hear this. If the Jews questioned one another when they heard (of His departure), even though they wanted to be rid of Him, how much more would those who wished never to be separated from Him want to learn? They were therefore afraid to ask Him, yet their great love and anxiety made them ask. What, then, does Christ say? Ver. 6. “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” “Why, then, when Peter asked Him, ‘Where are You going?’ did He not say directly, ‘I am going to the Father, but you cannot come now’? Why did He take such a roundabout course, putting together so many questions and answers? He had good reason not to tell the Jews this, but why not these men?” He had indeed told both these men and the Jews that He came from God and was going to God; now He says the same thing more clearly than before. Besides, He did not speak so clearly to the Jews, for if He had said, “You cannot come to the Father except through Me,” they would immediately have thought it mere boasting. Instead, by concealing this, He left them perplexed. “But why,” someone asks, “did He speak this way both to the disciples and to Peter?” He knew Peter’s great eagerness, and that because of it he would press Him all the more and trouble Him. So, to turn him away from this, He conceals the matter. Then, after accomplishing what He wanted through the obscurity and veiled language, He reveals the matter again. After saying, “Where I am, no one can come,” He adds, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places”; and again, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.” He would not tell them this at first, so as not to plunge them into greater despair, but now that He has comforted them, He tells them. For by rebuking Peter He drove out much of their despair; and because they feared being addressed in the same way, they were more restrained. “I am the Way.” This proves the statement, “No one comes to the Father except through Me”; and “the Truth, and the Life” proves “that these things will certainly happen.” “There is no falsehood in Me, then, if I am ‘the Truth’; and if I am also ‘Life,’ even death will be unable to keep you from coming to Me. Besides, if I am ‘the Way,’ you will need no one to lead you by the hand; if I am also ‘the Truth,’ My words are not falsehoods; if I am also ‘Life,’ even if you die, you will obtain what I have told you.” Now they both understood and accepted His being “the Way,” but they did not understand the rest. They did not, however, dare to say what they did not understand. Still, they gained great comfort from His being “the Way.” “If,” He says, “I alone have the authority to bring you to the Father, you will certainly come there; for it is impossible to come by any other way.” But by saying earlier, “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws him”; and again, “If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Me” ( c. xii. 32 ); and again, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” ( c. xiv. 6 ); He shows Himself equal to Him who fathered Him. But after saying, “You know where I am going, and you know the way,” how has He added, Ver. 7. “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him, and have seen Him”? He does not contradict Himself. They did know Him, but not as they should. They knew God, but not yet the Father. For afterward, when the Spirit came upon them, He brought about complete knowledge in them. What He says means this: “If you had known My Essence and My Dignity, you would also have known the Father’s; and from now on you will know Him, and have seen Him” (the first statement refers to the future, the second to the present), that is, “through Me.” By “sight,” He means knowledge through intellectual perception. For we may see those who are seen without knowing them; but we cannot know those who are known and yet not know them. That is why He says, “And you have seen Him”; just as it says, “was seen also by Angels.” ( 1 Tim. iii. 16.) Yet His very Essence was not seen; still, it says He “was seen,” that is, as far as it was possible for them to see. These words are used so that you may learn that anyone who has seen Him knows Him who fathered Him. But they saw Him clothed with flesh, without seeing His unveiled Essence. Elsewhere He often uses “sight” to mean “knowledge,” as when He says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” ( Matt. v. 8.) By “pure,” He means those who are free not only from sexual immorality, but from all sins. For every sin brings filth upon the soul. [3.] Let us, then, use every means to wipe away the filth. First the baptismal font cleanses us; afterward there are other ways as well, many and of every kind. For God, being merciful, has given us various ways of reconciliation even after this, and the first of them all is giving alms. “By giving alms,” it says, “and by deeds of faith sins are cleansed away.” ( Ecclus. iii. 30.) By giving alms I do not mean giving what comes from injustice, for this is not giving alms, but savagery and inhumanity. What good is it to strip one person and clothe another? We ought to begin the act with mercy, but this is inhumanity. If we give away everything we have taken from other people, we gain nothing by it. Zacchaeus shows this: on that occasion he said that he appeased God by giving four times as much as he had taken. ( Luke xix. 8.) But when we plunder without limit and give only a little, we think we are winning God’s favor, when instead we provoke Him even more. Tell me, if you dragged a dead, rotting donkey from the roadsides and alleys and brought it to the altar, wouldn’t everyone stone you as cursed and polluted? Well then, if I prove that a sacrifice obtained through robbery is more polluted than this, what defense will we have? Suppose some item has been obtained through robbery: doesn’t it smell fouler than a dead donkey? Do you want to learn how rotten sin is? Hear the Prophet say, “My wounds stank and festered.” ( Ps. xxxviii. 5 , LXX.) Do you ask God in words to forget your misdeeds, while through your own actions—robbing, grabbing, and placing your sin on the altar—you make Him remember them continually? But this is not the only sin. There is another, more serious one: you defile the souls of the saints. For the altar is only a stone, and it is consecrated, but they always carry Christ Himself within them. Do you dare to send anything so impure there? “No,” someone says, “not the same money, but other money.” This is mockery and nonsense. Don’t you know that if one drop of injustice falls on a great quantity of wealth, the whole is defiled? Just as someone who throws dung into a pure spring makes it all unclean, so with riches: anything ill-gotten that enters them taints them with its own foul smell. Yet we wash our hands when we enter church, but not our hearts. Why, do our hands speak? It is the soul that speaks the words, and God looks to it. A clean body is no use while the soul is defiled. What good is it to wipe your outward hands clean while keeping your inward hands impure? For this is the terrible thing that overturns all good: we are fearful about trifles and careless about important matters. Praying with unwashed hands is neither good nor bad in itself; praying with an unwashed mind is the worst of all evils. Hear what was said to the Jews who concerned themselves with such outward impurities: “Wash your heart clean of wickedness; how long will thoughts of your labors remain within you?” ( Jer. iv. 14.) Let us also wash ourselves with clean water rather than mud, through giving alms rather than greed. First break free from robbing others, and then give alms. Let us “turn away from evil, and do good.” ( Ps. xxxvii. 27.) Keep your hands from greed, and then turn them to giving alms. But if we use the same hands to strip one group of people, even if we do not clothe the others with what we have taken from them, we will still not escape punishment. For the very foundation for appeasing God becomes the foundation of every kind of wickedness. It is better not to show mercy than to show it this way; for Cain too would have been better off not bringing his offering at all. Now if someone who brought too little angered God, how can someone who gives what belongs to another fail to anger Him? “I commanded you,” He will say, “not to steal, and you honor Me with what you have stolen? What do you think? That these things please Me?” Then He will say to you, “You wickedly thought that I was just like you; I will rebuke you and set your sins before your face.” ( Ps. l. 21 , LXX.) But may none of us ever hear this voice. Instead, having given pure alms and with our lamps burning, may we enter the bridal chamber by the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory forever and ever. Amen.