Translated by Qwen.
Jn 14:1-3: Comfort in the Face of Death
Explanation: The disciple says: "Let not your heart be troubled; believe"—that is, believe in Him to whom it belongs by nature not to consider equality with God a thing to be grasped (cf. Philippians 2:6).
He says to the disciples: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, and believe also in Me."
Lest they should fear death for Him as for a mere man, and therefore be troubled, He comforts them, testifying that He is also God. "You believe," He says, "in God, and believe also in Me." For it follows that if you believe in God, you ought also to believe in Me—which would not follow if Christ were not God. "You believe in God, and in Him who is God."
For "He emptied Himself" (Philippians 2:7), yet without losing the form of God, but taking the form of a servant. Do you fear death for this form of a servant? "Let not your heart be troubled": God will raise up that form.
Jn 14:2-3: "In My Father's House Are Many Mansions"
Explanation: But what is this that follows: "In My Father's house are many mansions"—unless it is because they were afraid for themselves, on account of which they needed to hear: "Let not your heart be troubled"?
For who among them would not have feared, when it had been said to Peter—more confident and ready than the rest—"Before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times" (Matthew 26:34)? Therefore, as though they were about to perish apart from Him, they were rightly troubled. But when they hear: "In My Father's house are many mansions; if not, I would have told you that I go to prepare a place for you," they are refreshed from their disturbance, certain and confident that even after the dangers of temptations they would remain with God and with Christ—because although one may be stronger than another, another wiser than another, another more just than another, another holier than another, yet "in My Father's house are many mansions."
None of them shall be excluded from that house, where each one is to receive a mansion according to his merit.
Indeed, that denarius is equal to all, which the householder orders to be given to all who have worked in the vineyard, making no distinction therein between him who labored less and him who labored more (Matthew 20:9-10). By this denarius, of course, eternal life is signified, wherein no one lives more than another, since there is not a diverse measure of living in eternity; but the "many mansions" signify diverse dignities of merits within that one eternal life.
"For there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead" (1 Corinthians 15:41-42).
Just as the saints, like stars, obtain diverse mansions of diverse charity—as it were—in heaven in the kingdom; yet because of the one denarius, no one is separated from the kingdom. And so God will be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28), in such a way that, since God is charity (1 John 4:8), through charity it comes about that what each one has becomes common to all.
For thus each one has, when he loves in another what he himself does not yet have. Therefore, there was no envy of unequal brightness, because the unity of charity will reign in all.
Accordingly, they must be rejected from the Christian heart who think that "many mansions" were said for this reason: that there will be something outside the kingdom of heaven where the innocent might dwell in blessedness—those who have departed from this life without baptism, because without it they could not enter the kingdom of heaven.
This is not faith, because it is not true and Catholic faith. The Lord does not say: "In the whole world," or "in all creation," or "in life or everlasting blessedness are many mansions"; but He says: "In the house," He says, "of My Father are many mansions" (John 14:2).
Is not this the house "of which we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1)? Is not this the house of which we sing: "Blessed are they who dwell in Your house, O Lord; they shall praise You forever and ever" (Psalm 83:5)?
Therefore, will you dare to separate from the kingdom of heaven not the house of each baptized brother, but the house of God the Father Himself—to whom we all say: "Our Father, who art in heaven" (Matthew 6:9)—or to divide it in such a way that some of its mansions are in the kingdom of heaven, but others outside the kingdom of heaven?
Far be it, far be it, that those who wish to dwell in the kingdom of heaven would wish to dwell in this folly with you! Far be it, I say, that when the whole house of reigning sons is nowhere else but in the kingdom, any part of that royal house should not be in the kingdom!
On Predestination and Preparation
Explanation: How does He go and prepare a place, if there are already so many mansions? If they were not yet, He would have said: "I go to prepare." Or if they still need to be prepared, why would He not have deservedly said: "I go to prepare"?
Are these mansions both already existing and yet needing to be prepared? If they were not yet, He would have said: "I go to prepare." And yet, because they both exist and need to be prepared, He does not go to prepare them as they already are; but if He goes and prepares them as they will be in the future, then coming again He will receive His own to Himself, that where He is, they also may be.
How then are the mansions in the Father's house not different ones, but the very same, and without doubt already exist, just as they do not need to be prepared? How are we to understand this, unless as the prophet also proclaims concerning God, that He "makes the things that are to be" (cf. Isaiah 45:11, LXX)?
For He does not say "who will make the things that are to be," but "who made the things that are to be." Therefore, He both made them and will make them. For neither have they been made if He did not make them, nor will they be in the future if He did not make them.
He therefore made them by predestining; He will make them by working. Just as concerning the disciples, when He chose them, the Gospel sufficiently indicates (Matthew 4:18-22)—namely, at that time when He called them—and yet the Apostle says: "He chose us before the foundation of the world" (Ephesians 1:4), by predestining, of course, not by calling.
So also He both prepared and prepares the mansions; nor does He prepare different ones, but He prepares those which He prepared—who "made the things that are to be." He prepared them by predestining; He prepares them by working. Therefore, they already exist in predestination.
If they were not yet, He would have said: "I will go and prepare"—that is, "I will predestine." But because they do not yet exist in operation: "And if I go," He says, "and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself."
Moreover, He prepares mansions by preparing dwellers for the mansions. Indeed, when He had said: "In My Father's house are many mansions," what are we to understand by "the house of God" unless the temple of God?
But if the Apostle be asked what this is, he responds: "The temple of God is holy, which you are" (1 Corinthians 3:17). This is also the kingdom of God, which the Son will hand over to the Father—whence the same Apostle says: "The beginning is Christ; then those who are Christ's at His coming; then the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God and the Father" (1 Corinthians 15:23-24)—that is, those whom He redeemed by His blood, He hands over to His Father also by contemplation.
Thomas's Question and Christ's Response
Explanation: The Lord had said both things—that they knew both the place to which He goes and the way by which He goes. Thomas says he knows neither. But He cannot lie; therefore, they knew, and they did not know that they knew.
Jn 14:6 Let Him now convince them that they know what they think they still do not know. Jesus says to him: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."
Could not His apostles, with whom He was speaking, have said to Him: "We do not know You"? Accordingly, if they knew Him, and He is the way, they knew the way. If they knew Him, and He is the truth, they knew the truth. If they knew Him, and He is the life, they knew the life.
Behold, they are convinced that they know what they did not know that they knew.
What therefore do we also conceive in this discourse, my brothers, what do you think—unless that He said: "And where I go you know, and the way you know" (John 14:4)? And behold, we have recognized that they knew the life, and that they knew Him who is the way.
But the way is that by which one goes; is the way also that to which one goes? Yet He had said that they knew both things: both where He goes and the way. Therefore, there was need that He should say: "I am the way," that He might show them that they knew Him—the way—which they had thought they did not know.
But what was the need that He should say: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life," when, the way being known by which He would go, there remained to know where He would go—unless because He was going to the truth, He was going to the life?
He was going therefore to Himself through Himself; we, where do we go unless to Him, and by what do we go unless by Him? He therefore goes to Himself through Himself; we go to Him through Him—indeed, to the Father: both He and we.
For also concerning Himself He says elsewhere: "I go to the Father" (John 16:10); and in this passage, for our sake: "No one comes to the Father," He says, "except through Me" (John 14:6).
And so both He through Himself and to Himself and to the Father; and we through Him and to Him and to the Father.
The Mystery of Christ's Going and Coming
Explanation: Did You perhaps, that You might come to us, leave Yourself behind? Especially since You did not come from Yourself, but the Father sent You.
I know indeed that "You emptied Yourself," but because You took the form of a servant, not because You either left behind the form of God to which You might return, or lost that which You might receive. And yet You came, and not only as far as carnal eyes, but even as far as the hands of men—how, unless in the flesh? Through this You came, remaining where You were. Through this You returned, not leaving behind where You had come.
If therefore through this You came and returned, through this, without doubt, You were the way—not only for us, by which we might come to You, but even for Yourself, by which You might come and return.
But when You go to the life which You Yourself are, certainly You led that same flesh of Yours to life from death. For one thing is the Word of God, another is man; but "the Word was made flesh" (John 1:14)—that is, man. Therefore, there is not one person of the Word, another of the man, because both are Christ—one person.
And so, just as when the flesh died, Christ died; and when the flesh was buried, Christ was buried—for thus "with the heart we believe unto justice, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10)—so when the flesh came from death to life, Christ came to life; and because the Word of God is Christ, Christ is life.
Thus, in a certain wonderful and ineffable manner, He who never left or abandoned Himself, came to Himself.
He had come, as was said, through the flesh—God to men, Truth to liars (for "God is true, but every man a liar," Psalm 115:11). When therefore He took away from men and lifted up His flesh to that place where no one lies, He Himself—because "the Word was made flesh"—through Himself, as it were through the flesh, returned to the truth, which He Himself is; which truth indeed, although among liars and in death, He preserved.
For at one time Christ was dead, but He was never false.
An Analogy from Human Speech
Explanation: Behold, I myself, as far as concerns my mind, since I am what you also are: if I am silent, I am with myself. But if I speak to you, that you may understand, I proceed in a certain manner to you, nor do I leave myself, but I both come to you and do not depart from where I proceed.
But when I have been silent, in a certain manner I return to myself, and in a certain manner I remain with you, if you hold what you have heard in the word which I speak.
If the image which God made can do this, what can the image of God—not made by God, but born from God—do? God, whose body—that by which He went forth to us and in which He returned from us—did not elapse like my sound, but remains where it no longer dies, and "death shall no longer have dominion over it" (Romans 6:9).
Therefore, what He says: "That where I am, you also may be" (John 14:3)—where were they to be in the future, unless in Him? And therefore He also is in Himself; and so they will be there where He also is—that is, in Him.
This is therefore the eternal way in which we shall be when He receives us to Himself; and this is the eternal life, which He Himself is. In Him we shall be—that is, in Himself—just as the Father has life in Himself.
And certainly life is nothing other than what He Himself is who has it. "So He gave to the Son to have life in Himself" (John 5:26), when He Himself is that same life which He has in Himself.
Jn 14:7-9 Philip's Request: "Show Us the Father"
Explanation: But are we, who are not the life which He is, going to be this when we are in that life—that is, in Him?
Philip says: "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."
To whom the Lord responds: "Have I been so long a time with you, and have you not known Me, Philip? He who sees Me sees the Father also" (John 14:8-9).
How now does He say: "Have I been so long a time with you, and have you not known Me," when certainly they knew both where He was going and the way—unless for no other reason than that they certainly knew Him?
But this question is easily solved if we begin to understand: Not indeed because He, by existing, has life and is what He has, and what life is in Him, He Himself is in Himself; but we are not that same life, but partakers of His life—and so we shall be there that in ourselves we cannot be what He is, but we ourselves, not being life, may have Him who has Himself as life, because He Himself is life.
Finally, He both is in Himself immutably and in the Father inseparably; but we, when we wished to be in ourselves, were troubled in ourselves—whence that voice: "My soul is troubled within me" (Psalm 41:6)—and being changed for the worse, we could not remain what we were.
But when through Him we come to the Father—as He says: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6)—abiding in Him, no one will be able to separate us either from the Father or from Him.
On Knowing the Father Through the Son
Explanation: "If you had known Me," He says, "you would have known My Father also." This is what He says: "No one comes to the Father except through Me." Then He adds: "And from now on you know Him and have seen Him."
But Philip, one of the apostles, not understanding what he had heard—if we say that some of them knew Him, others did not know Him, and among those who did not know, Philip was—and that what He said: "And where I go you know, and the way you know," is to be understood as said to those who knew, not to Philip, to whom it was said: "Have I been so long a time with you, and have you not known Me, Philip?"
Therefore, to those who already knew the Son, that also concerning the Father was already said: "And from now on you know Him and have seen Him." For it was said on account of the complete similarity which He has with the Father, so that for this reason they would now be said to know the Father who knew the similar Son.
Therefore, they already knew the Son; and if not all, certainly some of those to whom it is said: "And where I go you know, and the way you know." For He Himself is the way.
But they did not know the Father; therefore they hear: "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also"—through Me, of course, and Him. For "I am one, He is another." But lest they should think Him dissimilar: "And from now on," He says, "you know Him." For they had seen His most similar Son.
But they needed to be admonished that the Father also, whom they did not yet see, was such as the Son whom they saw. And to this end avails what is afterward said to Philip: "He who sees Me sees the Father also"—not because He Himself is both Father and Son (which the Catholic faith condemns in the Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians), but because the Father and Son are so similar that whoever knows one, knows both.
For we are accustomed to speak thus concerning two very similar persons to those who see one of them and wish to know what the other is like, that we say: "You have seen this one; you have seen that one."
Thus therefore it was said: "He who sees Me sees the Father also"—not because the Father is He who is the Son, but because the Son differs in nothing at all from the likeness of the Father.
For unless the Father and Son were two, it would not have been said: "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also." Certainly, because "no one," He says, "comes to the Father except through Me"—"if you had known Me, you would have known My Father also," because I, through whom one comes to the Father, will lead you to Him, that you may know Him also.
But because I am altogether most similar to Him: "From now on you know Him, when you know Me, and you have seen Him"—if with the eyes of the heart you have seen Me.
Jn 14:10-11 Philip's Correction
Explanation: "But if it is too much for you to see this, at least believe what you do not see."
"For how," He says, "do you say: 'Show us the Father'? If you have seen Me, who am in every way similar to Him, you have seen Him to whom I am similar. But if you cannot see, do you not at least believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?" (John 14:10-11).
Philip could have said here: "I do indeed see You, and I believe You to be most similar to the Father; but am I to be rebuked and reproached because, when I see one who is similar, I also wish to see Him whose likeness he is? I know the similar one, but I still know the one without the other. It is not sufficient for me unless I also know Him to whom this one is similar. Show us therefore the Father, and it is sufficient for us."
But therefore the Master rebuked the disciple, because He saw the heart of the one asking: for as though the Father were better than the Son, so Philip desired to know the Father, and therefore did not know the Son—because he believed that something better existed.
To correct this understanding, it was said: "He who sees Me sees the Father also." How is it that you say: "Show us the Father"? I see how you speak: you do not seek to see another who is similar, but you think that One is better. You do not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. Why do you desire to perceive a difference in similars? Why do you desire to know separately those who are inseparable?
"The Words That I Speak..."
Explanation: "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? Otherwise..." (John 14:10-11).
Therefore, both words and works are [of the Father]. Certainly so. For indeed, whoever edifies his neighbor by speaking performs a good work.
But what is: "I do not speak from Myself," unless: "I who speak am not from Myself"? For He attributes to Him from whom He is, that which He does who is from Him.
Jn 14:12 Amen, amen, I say to you: he who believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do, because I go to the Father.
What is this? We did not find anyone who would do the works that Christ did—and shall we find someone who will do even greater? But we said in a previous discourse that it was a greater thing, by the passing of their shadow, that the disciples accomplished, than by the touch of His garment fringe, that the Lord Himself healed the sick (cf. Matt. 9), and because more people believed through the apostles than through the Lord Himself preaching with His own mouth, so that these things might be seen as greater works—not that one adopted son should be greater than the Only-Begotten, nor man greater than God, but that through them He Himself might deign to do these same greater works, He who says to them elsewhere: ‘Without me you can do nothing’ (John 15).
For indeed—passing over other things which are innumerable—He Himself without them made them; without them He made this world; and because He also deigned to become man, He made even Himself without them. But what can they do without Him, except sin? Finally, even here He immediately removed what could trouble us on this matter. For when He had said, ‘He who believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do, and greater than these shall he do,’ He immediately added: ‘because I go to the Father.’”
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