Homilies on John, Homily 74

“Philip says to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us. Jesus says to him, Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know Me, Philip? Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.” [1.] The Prophet said to the Jews, “You had the face of a prostitute; you were shameless toward everyone.” ( Jer. iii. 3 , LXX.) Now it seems fitting to use this expression not only against that city, but against everyone who shamelessly sets their face against the truth. For when Philip said to Christ, “Show us the Father,” He replied, “Have I been with you so long, and you do not know Me, Philip?” And yet some people separate the Father from the Son even after these words. What closer relationship could you ask for? Indeed, this very saying has led some into the disease of Sabellius. But let us leave both groups, who are caught in directly opposite errors, and consider the precise meaning of the words. “Have I been with you so long, and you do not know Me, Philip?” He says. What then? Philip replies, “Are You the Father I am asking about?” “No,” He says. That is why He did not say, “Do you not know Him?” but, “Do you not know Me?” He declares nothing other than this: the Son is exactly what the Father is, while remaining the Son. But how did Philip come to ask this question? Christ had said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also” ( c. xiv. 7 ), and He had often said the same to the Jews. Peter and the Jews had often asked Him, “Who is the Father?” Thomas had asked Him too, and no one had learned anything clear; His words were still not understood. So Philip, to avoid seeming pushy and troubling Him by asking in his turn after the Jews, “Show us the Father,” added, “and that is enough for us”—“we ask for nothing more.” Yet Christ had said, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also,” and through Himself He revealed the Father. But Philip reversed the order and said, “Show us the Father,” as though he knew Christ fully. Christ, however, does not let this pass, but sets him on the right path, urging him to come to know the Father through Himself. Philip wanted to see Him with these bodily eyes, perhaps because he had heard that the Prophets “saw God.” But those cases, Philip, were acts of condescension. That is why Christ said, “No one has ever seen God” ( c. i. 18 ); and again, “Everyone who has heard and learned from God comes to Me.” ( c. vi. 45.) “You have never heard His voice or seen His form.” ( c. v. 37.) And in the Old Testament, “No one shall see My face and live.” ( Ex. xxxiii. 20.) What does Christ say? He says very reproachfully, “Have I been with you so long, and you do not know Me, Philip?” He did not say, “Have you not seen?” but, “Do you not know Me?” “Why,” Philip might say, “am I asking to learn about You? Right now I am seeking to see Your Father, and You say to me, Do you not know Me?” What connection does this have with the question? A very close one, certainly. For if He is what the Father is, while remaining the Son, He rightly reveals in Himself the One who begot Him. Then, to distinguish the Persons, He says, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father,” so that no one will claim that the same Person is both Father and Son. For if He had been the Father, He would not have said, “Whoever has seen Me has seen Him.” Why, then, did He not reply, “You are asking for something impossible and beyond what is allowed to human beings; this is possible for Me alone”? Because Philip had said, “That is enough for us,” as though he knew Christ, He shows that Philip had not even seen Him. For he certainly would have known the Father if he had been able to know the Son. That is why He says, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.” “If anyone has seen Me, he will also see Him.” What He means is this: “It is not possible to see either Me or Him.” For Philip sought the knowledge that comes through sight, and because he thought he had seen Christ in this way, he wanted to see the Father in the same way. But Jesus shows him that he had not even seen Jesus Himself. And if anyone here calls knowledge sight, I do not disagree with him, for Christ says, “Whoever has known Me has known the Father.” Yet He did not put it that way. Instead, wishing to establish the Consubstantiality, He declared, “Whoever knows My Essence knows the Father's Essence also.” “What does this prove?” someone says. “For whoever knows creation also knows God.” Yet everyone knows creation and has seen it, but not everyone knows God. Besides, let us consider what Philip seeks to see. Is it the Father's wisdom? Is it His goodness? No, it is precisely what God is, His very Essence. This, then, is what Christ answers with, “Whoever has seen Me.” Now whoever has seen creation has not seen the Essence of God just by seeing creation. “If anyone has seen Me, he has seen the Father,” He says. If He had been of a different Essence, He would not have spoken this way. But to use a more material argument, no one who does not know what gold is can discern the substance of gold in silver. For one nature is not revealed by another. That is why He rightly rebuked him, saying, “Have I been with you so long?” Have you benefited from so much teaching, have you seen miracles performed with authority, all belonging to the Godhead, which the Father alone performs—sins forgiven, secrets revealed, death retreating, a creation made from earth—and you do not know Me? Because He was clothed with flesh, He said, “Do you not know Me?” [2.] You have seen the Father; do not seek to see more, for in Him you have seen Me. If you have seen Me, do not pry further, for in Me you have also known Him. Ver. 10. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father?” That is, “I am seen in that Essence.” “The words I speak, I do not speak on My own.” Do you see the extraordinary closeness and the proof of the one Essence? “The Father who dwells in Me does the works.” How does He begin with words and move on to works? For the natural continuation would have been to say, “The Father speaks the words.” But here He includes two things, both teaching and miracles. Or it may have been because the words were also works. How, then, does He do them? Elsewhere He says, “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me.” ( c. x. 37.) How, then, does He say here that the Father does them? To show this very thing: there is no separation between the Father and the Son. What He means is this: “The Father would not act one way and I another.” Indeed, elsewhere both He and the Father work: “My Father has been working until now, and I work” ( c. v. 17 ). In the first passage He shows that Their works do not differ, and in the second that Their works are identical. And if the plain meaning of the words expresses humility, do not be surprised. For after first saying, “Do you not believe?” He spoke this way, showing that He shaped His words to bring Philip to faith, for He walked in their hearts. Ver. 11. “Believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” “When you hear ‘Father’ and ‘Son,’ you should need nothing else to establish Their relationship in Essence. But if this is not enough to prove to you Their equal Dignity and Consubstantiality, you can learn it even from the works.” If “Whoever has seen Me has seen My Father” had referred to works, He would not have said afterward, “Or else believe Me because of the works themselves.” And then, to show that He can do not only these things but also others much greater than these, He makes an even stronger statement. For He does not say, “I can do greater things than these,” but something much more wonderful: “I can also enable others to do greater things than these.” Ver. 12. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works I do; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” That is, “It is now your turn to work miracles, for I am going away.” Then, when He had made the point His argument was intended to establish, He says, Ver. 13. “Whatever you ask in My Name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in Me.” Do you see again that He is the One who does it? “I,” He says, “will do it”; not, “I will ask the Father,” but, “so that the Father may be glorified in Me.” Elsewhere He said, “God will glorify Him in Himself” ( c. xiii. 32 ), but here, “He will glorify the Father.” For when the Son appears with great power, the One who begot Him will be glorified. But what does “in My Name” mean? What the Apostles said: “In the Name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk.” ( Acts iii. 6.) For He performed in them all the miracles they did, and “the hand of the Lord was with them.” ( Acts xi. 21.) Ver. 14. “I will do it,” He says. Do you see His authority? He Himself does the things done through others; does He have no power to do the things He does Himself, except through the Father's working in Him? Who could say this? But why does He say it a second time? To confirm His own words and to show that the earlier sayings were acts of condescension. But “I am going to the Father” means this: “I will not perish, but remain in My own rightful Dignity, and I Am in Heaven.” He said all this to comfort them. For since they were likely to imagine something dreadful, because they did not yet understand His words about the Resurrection, in other statements He promises to give them such things, reassuring them in every way and showing that He remains continually; and not only remains, but will display even greater power. [3.] Let us, then, follow Him and take up the Cross. For although there is no persecution now, the time for another kind of death is here. “Put to death,” it says, “your members that are on earth.” ( Col. iii. 5.) Let us, then, extinguish lust, kill anger, and eliminate envy. This is a “living sacrifice.” ( Rom. xii. 1.) This sacrifice does not end in ashes or disperse in smoke; it needs no wood, fire, or knife. For it has both fire and a knife: the Holy Spirit. With this knife, circumcise the excess and foreign part of your heart; open your closed ears, for vices and evil desires tend to block the word from entering. When the desire for money takes hold of someone, it does not let him hear the word about almsgiving; and when malice is present, it raises a wall against the teaching about love. Then some other disease comes along in its turn and makes the soul still less responsive to everything. Let us, then, get rid of these wicked desires; we need only choose to do so, and they are all extinguished. For I beg you, let us focus not on how tyrannical the love of wealth is, but on how its tyranny comes from our own lack of resolve. Indeed, many say they do not even know what money is. For this desire is not natural. Natural desires were implanted in us from the first, from the beginning; but for a long time people did not even know what gold and silver were. Where, then, did this desire come from? From a desire for empty praise and an extreme lack of resolve. For some desires are necessary, some natural, and some neither. For example, desires that destroy a living creature if they are not satisfied are both natural and necessary, such as the desire for food, drink, and sleep. Sexual desire is natural but not necessary, for many have overcome it and have not died. But the desire for wealth is neither natural nor necessary; it is superfluous, and if we choose, we need not even let it begin. At any rate, when Christ speaks about virginity, He says, “Whoever can accept it, let him accept it.” ( Matt. xix. 12.) But He does not speak that way about riches. What does He say instead? “Unless a man gives up everything he has, he is not worthy of Me.” ( Luke xiv. 33.) He urged what was easy, but leaves what is beyond most people to their choice. Why, then, do we leave ourselves without any excuse? The person taken captive by a more tyrannical passion will not suffer a severe punishment, but the one subdued by a weak passion has no defense at all. For what will we answer when He says, “You saw Me hungry and did not feed Me”? ( Matt. xxv. 42 ); what excuse will we have? We will certainly plead poverty; yet we are not poorer than that widow, who surpassed all the rest by putting in two mites. For God asks for the measure of our willingness, not the size of the offering; and He does so out of His tender care. Let us, then, admire His loving kindness and contribute what we can, so that, having received God's loving kindness in abundance both in this life and in the life to come, we may enjoy the good things promised to us, through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.