Homilies on John, Homily 88

“So when they had eaten, 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.” [1.] There are indeed many other things that can give us confidence before God and show us to be radiant and approved, but what brings favor from above more than anything else is tender care for our neighbor. This, then, is what Christ requires of Peter. For when they had finished eating, 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 sheep.” And why does He pass over the others and speak with Peter about these matters? He was the chosen one among the Apostles, the spokesman for the disciples, the leader of the group. This is also why Paul once went up to consult him rather than the others. At the same time, to show him that he should now take heart, since his denial had been put behind him, Jesus places the chief authority among the brothers in his hands. He does not bring up the denial or reproach him for what had happened, but says, “If you love Me, lead your brothers, and now show the warm love you always expressed and took joy in; and the life you said you would lay down for Me, now give for My sheep.” When, after being asked once and then again, he called on Him who knows the secrets of the heart as his witness, and was then asked even a third time, he was troubled, afraid that what had happened before would happen again (for then, after making such strong assertions, he had afterward been proved wrong). So he again turns to Him. For the words, Ver. 17. “You know all things,” mean “things present and things to come.” Do you see how he had become better and more clearheaded, no longer insisting on his own way or contradicting? This was why he was troubled: “Perhaps I think I love Him, yet do not, just as before, when I thought and asserted so much, yet was proved wrong in the end.” But Jesus asks him a third time, and a third time gives him the same command, to show how highly He values the care of His own sheep, and that this above all is a sign of love for Him. And after speaking to him about love for Himself, He foretells the martyrdom he would undergo, showing that He had spoken to him as He did not out of distrust, but because He trusted him greatly. He also wished to point out a proof of love for Him and to teach us how, above all, we ought to love Him. So He says, Ver. 18. “When you were young, you fastened your own belt and walked wherever you wished; but when you are old, others will fasten your belt and carry you where you do not wish to go.” And yet he did wish and long for this; that is also why He has revealed it to him. For since Peter had kept saying, “I will lay down my life for You” ( c. xiii. 37 ), and, “Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You” ( Matt. xxvi. 35 ), He has given him back what he desired. What, then, does “Where you do not wish to go” mean? He is speaking of natural feeling, of the constraints of the flesh, and of the soul being unwillingly torn from the body. So even when the will was firm, nature would still prove weak. For no one lays aside the body without feeling it. God, as I said before, has wisely arranged this so that violent deaths would not be common. For if, even as things are, the devil has been able to bring this about and has led ten thousand people to cliffs and pits, then, if the soul had not felt such a longing for the body, most people would have rushed to this at any ordinary discouragement. “Where you do not wish to go,” then, expresses natural feeling. But why, after saying, “When you were young,” does He then say, “When you are old”? This way of speaking declares that he was not young then (and he was not; nor was he old, but a middle-aged man. ) Why, then, did He remind him of his earlier life? To show that this is the nature of what belongs to Him. In the affairs of this life, the young man is useful and the old man useless. “But in My affairs,” He says, “it is different: when old age comes, excellence shines more brightly and courage is more glorious, entirely unhindered by age.” He said this to encourage him, not to frighten him, for He knew his love and that he had long yearned for this blessing. At the same time, He declares the kind of death. For since Peter always wanted to face dangers for His sake, He says, “Take heart. I will satisfy your desire so fully that what you did not suffer when young, you must suffer when you are old.” Then the Evangelist, to stir the listener, has added, Ver. 19. “He said this to indicate by what death he would glorify God.” He did not say, “Would die,” but, “Would glorify God,” so that you may learn that suffering for Christ brings glory and honor to the sufferer. “And when He had said this, He says, Follow Me.” Here again He alludes to Peter’s tender concern and his deep attachment to Himself. And if anyone should say, “How, then, did James receive the episcopal seat at Jerusalem?” I would answer that He appointed Peter to teach the world, not just the church under that bishop’s authority. Ver. 20, 21. “Then Peter turns and sees the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also leaned on His chest at supper; and says, Lord, what will this man do?” [2.] Why has he reminded us of that reclining? With a definite purpose, not casually: to show us Peter’s confidence after the denial. For the man who then did not dare to question Jesus, but left the task to someone else, was even entrusted with the chief authority over the brothers. And now he not only handles what concerns himself without leaving it to another, but personally asks his Master a question about someone else. John is silent, but Peter speaks. He also shows here the love he had for John, for Peter loved John deeply, as is clear from what followed, and their close bond is shown throughout the Gospel and in Acts. So when Christ had foretold great things for him, entrusted the world to him, spoken beforehand of his martyrdom, and testified that his love was greater than the others’, Peter wanted John to share with him and said, “And what will this man do?” “Will he not follow the same path with us?” And just as on that other occasion, unable to ask himself, he put John forward, so now, wishing to return the favor, and supposing that John would want to ask about what concerned himself but lacked the courage, he took on the questioning himself. What, then, does Christ say? Ver. 22. “If I wish him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” Since Peter spoke out of strong affection and a wish not to be separated from him, Christ shows that however much Peter might love, he could not surpass His love, and says, “If I wish him to remain—what is that to you?” With these words He teaches us not to be impatient or curious beyond what He sees fit. Because Peter was always passionate and quick to leap into questions like this, He says this to rein in his enthusiasm and teach him not to ask further questions. Ver. 23. “Then this saying spread among the brothers, that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say that he would not die, but, If I wish him to remain until I come, what is that to you?” “Never suppose,” He says, “that I arrange your affairs by a single rule.” He did this to draw them away from their ill-timed concern for one another. Since they were about to be entrusted with the world, they needed to stop remaining so closely together, for that would certainly have been a great loss to the world. So He says to him, “You have been entrusted with a task. Attend to it, accomplish it, work and struggle. What if I wish him to remain here? Attend to and care for your own responsibilities.” And notice, please, the Evangelist’s lack of pride here too. After mentioning the disciples’ opinion, he corrects it, indicating that they had not understood what Jesus meant. “Jesus did not say,” he tells us, “that ‘he would not die,’ but, ‘If I wish him to remain.’” Ver. 24. “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.” Why, when none of the others do so, does he alone use these words, and for the second time, testifying on his own behalf? For this seems offensive to listeners. What, then, is the reason? He is said to have been the last to take up writing, Christ having moved and stirred him to the work. This is why he continually speaks of his love, alluding to what prompted him to write. He keeps mentioning it to make his account trustworthy and to show that this was what moved him to undertake the work. “And I know,” he says, “that what he says is true. And if most people do not believe, they can find grounds for belief in this.” “In what?” In what he says next. Ver. 25. “There are also many other things Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” “From this it is clear that I could not have written to win favor. For although the miracles were so numerous, I have not even related as many as the others have. Instead, I have left most of them out and presented the plots of the Jews, the stonings, the hatred, the insults, the abuse, and shown how they called Him demon-possessed and a deceiver. I certainly could not have done this to win favor. Someone seeking favor would have had to do the opposite: leave out the shameful things and present the glorious ones.” Since, then, he wrote what he did with complete certainty, he does not hesitate to offer his own testimony, inviting people individually to investigate and examine the circumstances. For when we believe we are speaking the exact truth, we customarily never refuse to testify; and if we do this, how much more would someone who wrote by the Spirit. So he too says what the other Apostles declared when they preached: “We are witnesses of the things spoken, and the Spirit which He has given to those who obey Him.” ( Acts v. 32.) Besides, he was present for everything, did not abandon Him even while He was being crucified, and had His mother entrusted to him. All these things are signs of his love for Him and of his exact knowledge of everything. And if he has said that so many miracles took place, do not be astonished. Consider the inexpressible power of the One who did them, and accept what is said with faith. For it was as easy for Him to do whatever He wished as it is for us to speak, or rather, much easier: He only had to will it, and everything followed. [3.] Let us, then, pay close attention to these words, and never stop explaining and examining them thoroughly, for we gain something through constant study. In this way we will be able to cleanse our lives and uproot the thorns. For that is what sin and worldly anxiety are: fruitless and painful. And just as a thorn pricks whoever holds it, however it is held, so the things of this life, however they are grasped, bring pain to whoever hugs and cherishes them. Spiritual things are different: they resemble a pearl, which delights the eyes whichever way you turn it. Take this example. Someone has done an act of mercy. He is not only sustained by hopes for the future, but also encouraged by good things here, full of confidence wherever he goes and acting with great boldness. He has overcome an evil desire. Even before receiving the Kingdom, he has already received its fruit here, praised and approved by his own conscience before anyone else. Every good work is like this, just as conscience also punishes wicked deeds here, even before the pit. For if, after sinning, you consider the future, you become afraid and tremble, even if no one punishes you. If you consider the present, you have many enemies, live in suspicion, and can no longer even look those who have wronged you in the face—or rather, those who have not wronged you. For the pleasure we reap from those evil deeds is less than the misery we feel when conscience cries out against us, people outside condemn us, God is angry, the pit is in labor, ready to receive us, and our thoughts find no rest. Sin is heavy, heavy and burdensome, harder to carry than any lead. Anyone who feels its weight will be unable to lift his eyes even a little, however insensitive he may be. Ahab, for instance, though very ungodly, walked bent over, crushed and afflicted, when he felt this. This was why he clothed himself in sackcloth and shed fountains of tears. ( 1 Kings xxi. 27.) If we do this and grieve as he did, we will put away our sins as Zacchaeus did, and we too will obtain some forgiveness. ( Luke xix. 9.) For with tumors and fistulous ulcers, unless someone first stops the discharge that flows over and inflames the wound, all the remedies he applies are useless as long as the source of the trouble remains unchecked. In the same way, unless we keep our hands from greed and check that evil influx of wealth, all our giving to the poor is useless. For greed, coming afterward, tends to overwhelm and ruin what that giving has healed, making it harder to heal than before. Let us, then, stop plundering, and then give to the poor. But if we head for cliffs, how will we be able to recover? For if one party (that is, alms-doing) pulled a falling man from above while another dragged him forcefully from below, the only result of such a struggle would be to tear the man apart. To keep this from happening to us, and to keep giving to the poor from departing and leaving us while greed weighs us down from below, let us lighten ourselves and spread our wings. Then, made perfect by getting rid of evil things and practicing good, we may obtain everlasting good things, through the grace and loving kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, dominion, and honor, now and always and forever and ever. Amen.