Homilies on John, Homily 8

“That was the true Light, which gives light to everyone who comes into the world.” [1.] Nothing keeps us from discussing the same words again today, since our earlier explanation of doctrines kept us from considering everything that was read. Where now are those who deny that He is true God? For here He is called “the true Light,” and elsewhere “Truth itself” and “Life itself.” ( c. xiv. 6.) We will discuss that saying more clearly when we reach that passage; but for now we must spend a little time speaking to you, my beloved, about the other matter. If He “gives light to everyone who comes into the world,” how is it that so many remain unenlightened? For not everyone has known the majesty of Christ. How, then, does He “give light to everyone”? He gives light to all as far as it depends on Him. But if some deliberately close the eyes of their minds and refuse to receive the rays of that Light, their darkness comes not from the nature of the Light, but from their own wickedness, since they deliberately deprive themselves of the gift. For grace pours out upon everyone, turning away from neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian nor Scythian, free nor enslaved, male nor female, old nor young, but welcoming everyone alike and inviting everyone with equal regard. Those who are unwilling to enjoy this gift should justly blame themselves for their blindness. For if the gate is open to everyone and no one stands in the way, and some deliberately choose evil and remain outside, they perish through nothing but their own wickedness. Ver. 10. “He was in the world.” But He did not begin to exist at the same time as the world. Reject that thought completely. That is why he adds, “And the world was made by Him,” leading you back again to the eternal existence of the Only-Begotten. For anyone who has heard that this universe is His work, however dull, however full of hatred, however hostile to the glory of God, will certainly be forced, willingly or unwillingly, to admit that the maker exists before his works. This is why I am always astonished at the madness of Paul of Samosata, who dared to face so obvious a truth and deliberately threw himself over the cliff. For he went wrong not out of ignorance but with full knowledge, finding himself in the same position as the Jews. For just as they deferred to other people and abandoned sound faith, knowing that He was the only-begotten Son of God but refusing to confess Him because of their rulers, for fear of being expelled from the synagogue, so he is said to have sold his own salvation to please a certain woman. The tyranny of the desire for empty glory is powerful, powerful indeed. It can blind even the eyes of the wise unless they remain watchful; for if accepting bribes can do this, how much more can the still more violent force of this passion. That is why Jesus said to the Jews, “How can you believe, when you receive honor from one another and do not seek the honor that comes from God alone?” ( c. v. 44 .) “And the world did not know Him.” By “the world” he means here the corrupt multitude, closely attached to earthly things, the common, unruly, foolish people. For God's friends and those He favored all knew Him, even before His coming in the flesh. Christ Himself speaks of the Patriarch by name: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” ( c. viii. 56.) And concerning David, He refuted the Jews by saying, “How then does David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Take Your seat at My right hand.” ( Matt. xxii. 43; Mark xii. 36; Luke xx. 42.) And in many places, when arguing with them, He mentions Moses; and the Apostle (mentions) the rest of the prophets. For Peter declares that all the prophets from Samuel onward knew Him and announced His coming long beforehand, when he says, “All the prophets from Samuel and those who followed, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold these days.” ( Acts iii. 24.) And He appeared to Jacob, his father, and his grandfather, spoke with them, and promised to give them many great blessings, which He also brought about. “How then,” someone says, “did He Himself say, ‘Many prophets have desired to see the things you see and have not seen them, and to hear the things you hear and have not heard them’? ( Luke x. 24.) Did they then have no share in knowing Him?” Certainly they did; and I will try to make this clear from the very saying that some think denies them that knowledge. “For many,” He says, “have desired to see the things you see.” So they knew that He would come [to men] from heaven and would live and teach as He lived and taught. For if they had not known, they could not have desired it, since no one can desire things of which he has no idea. Therefore they knew the Son of Man and knew that He would come among people. What, then, were the things they did not hear? What were the things they did not know? The things you now see and hear. For if they did hear His voice and see Him, it was not in the Flesh, not among people, nor when He was living so closely with them and speaking so freely with them. Indeed, to show this, He did not simply say “to see Me”; what did He say? “The things you see.” Nor did He say “to hear Me”; what did He say? “The things you hear.” So although they did not witness His coming in the Flesh, they still knew it would happen, desired it, and believed in Him without having seen Him in the Flesh. So when the Greeks bring charges like these against us and say, “What, then, was Christ doing in earlier times, that He paid no attention to the human race? And why, after neglecting us for so long, did He finally come to help save us?” we will reply that He was in the world before this, cared for His works, and was known to everyone who was worthy. But if you say that because not everyone knew Him then, because He was known only to those noble and excellent people, He therefore went unrecognized, by that reasoning you will not admit that He is worshiped even now, since even now not everyone knows Him. But just as no one today would discredit those who know Him because of those who do not, so with earlier times we must not doubt that He was known to many, or rather to all those noble and admirable people. [2.] And if anyone says, “Why didn't everyone pay attention to Him? Why did only the righteous worship Him, instead of everyone?” I too will ask: Why doesn't everyone know Him even now? But why do I speak of Christ, when not everyone knew His Father then or knows Him now? For some say that everything is driven by chance, while others entrust the care of the universe to devils. Others invent another God besides Him, and some blasphemously assert that He is a power opposed to the true God and think that His laws are the laws of an evil demon. What then? Shall we say that He is not God because some people say so? And shall we admit that He is evil? For some even blaspheme Him in this way. Reject such confused thinking, such utter insanity. If we define doctrines according to the judgment of madmen, nothing keeps us from falling into the most terrible madness ourselves. No one, judging by people with weak vision, will claim that the sun harms the eyes; instead, judging by healthy people, he will say that it is suited to give light. And no one will call honey bitter because it tastes that way to the sick. Will anyone, then, decide from the imaginings of people who are sick (in mind) that God either does not exist or is evil, or that He sometimes exercises His Providence and sometimes does not exercise it at all? Who can say that such people are of sound mind, or deny that they are out of their minds, delirious, utterly mad? “The world,” he says, “did not know Him”; but those of whom the world was not worthy knew Him. And after speaking of those who did not know Him, he soon gives the cause of their ignorance. For he does not say without qualification that no one knew Him, but that “the world did not know Him”: that is, those people who are, so to speak, nailed to the world alone and set their minds on worldly things. For this is how Christ used to describe them, as when He says, “Holy Father, the world has not known You.” ( c. xvii. 25.) So the world was ignorant not only of Him but also of His Father, as we have said; for nothing darkens the mind so much as close attachment to the things of this present life. Knowing this, then, withdraw from the world and tear yourselves away from fleshly things as much as possible, for the loss these things bring you concerns not ordinary matters but the highest good. For someone who clings tightly to the things of this present life cannot truly take hold of the things in heaven; whoever pursues one must lose the other. “You cannot,” He says, “serve God and Mammon” ( Matt. vi. 24 ), for you must cling to one and hate the other. Experience itself proclaims this loudly. Those who, for example, scorn the lust for money are especially the ones who love God as they should, just as those who honor that rule (of Mammon) have the weakest love for Him of all. For once greed has completely captured the soul, it will not easily or readily refuse to do or say anything that angers God, since it is the slave of another master, whose every command directly opposes God. At last, then, come back to your senses and wake up. Remembering whose servants we are, let us love His kingdom alone; let us weep, let us mourn the time we spent as servants of Mammon. Let us throw off his unbearable, heavy yoke once and for all, and keep bearing Christ's light and easy yoke. For He gives us no commands like Mammon's. Mammon tells us to be everyone's enemies, while Christ tells us to embrace and love everyone. The one nails us to clay and brickmaking (for that is what gold is) and does not let us catch even a little breath at night; the other frees us from this excessive, senseless anxiety and tells us to gather treasures in heaven through our own righteousness instead of injustice toward others. The one, after all our toil and suffering, cannot help us when we are punished in that place and suffer because of his laws; indeed, he makes the flame burn hotter. The other, though He commands us to give only a cup of cold water, never lets us lose our reward and compensation even for this, but repays us with great abundance. Isn’t it the height of folly to disregard such a gentle rule, so full of every good thing, and serve a thankless, ungrateful tyrant who cannot help those who obey and listen to him either in this world or in the world to come? Nor is his failure to defend them when they are being punished the only dreadful thing or the only penalty. Beyond this, as I said before, he surrounds those who obey him with ten thousand evils. For among those punished in that place, you can see that most are punished for this reason: they were slaves to money, loved gold, and would not help those in need. So that we do not end up like them, let us scatter our wealth, let us give to the poor, let us free our souls from harmful anxieties in this world and from the vengeance appointed for us in that place because of these things. Let us store up righteousness in the heavens. Instead of riches on earth, let us gather treasures that no one can breach or capture, treasures that can accompany us on our journey to heaven, help us when we are in danger, and make the Judge look on us with favor at that hour. May we all find Him gracious to us, both now and on that day, and with great confidence enjoy the good things prepared in the heavens for those who love Him as they should, through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory, now and forever, for ages without end. Amen.