ACC ~ John 14 v1 - 6

OVERVIEW:

Jesus sees that his disciples are needlessly afraid for their Lord (AUGUSTINE), caught between the hope of his mercy and fear of their own stumbling (CYRIL) and the trials that awaited them (AUGUSTINE). He calls for faith in them, which is more powerful than anything (CHRYSOSTOM), making soldiers out of recent cowards (CYRIL). This statement, “Believe in God and believe in me also,” demonstrates his unity with the divine nature while also distinguishing his person as Christ the Son in the Trinity (HILARY).

Jesus then speaks of the many mansions in his Father’s house for the many members of his body, each allotted according to their readiness to trust (IRENAEUS, TERTULLIAN). He will rehabilitate our present fleshly houses into mansions, providing us better living through resurrection (TERTULLIAN). And so, as he prepares the mansions, he is also preparing the dwellers (AUGUSTINE). There will be abundance and rest in these plentiful mansions (GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS), and Christ has already taken care of the reservations (THEODORE). The mansions are already fully prepared, and so Christ goes ahead of us not so much to prepare them but to prepare the way by making our human nature capable of living in those divine dwellings (CYRIL). He is going to leave his disciples here in order to elicit faith, which, by definition, would not be possible had he remained (AUGUSTINE). But he is coming for them and us to bring all of us into himself where there is life, since he himself is life (AUGUSTINE) and the way to the place where we will all go (CYRIL).

Thomas’s question evidences that they did indeed know the way—they just did not know that they knew (AUGUSTINE). To follow Christ as the way is to follow the cross (LEO) toward perfection (BASIL) as we come to God through God (PETER CHRYSOLOGUs). The disciples understand and are comforted by the fact that Christ is the way, but they are not as comprehending of what follows (CHRYSOSTOM). Since Jesus is also the truth, he will not mislead us along the way (HILARY). In fact, not only is his name “Truth” (AMBROSE), but he is the truth, being equal to the Father (AMBROSE). We should then walk by faith in the truth that is Christ so that we may one day see that truth (AUGUSTINE).

Our Lord is also “the life” because he is the only one who can restore us to the life of incorruptibility that we hope for and for which we were made (CYRIL). What the soul is to the body, Christ is to the soul (PETER CHRYSOLOGUs), as he himself is immortality, which he gives to us (GREGORY OF NYSSA). Christ is the only way to the Father (AUGUSTINE), and no one can understand the Father apart from the Son (HILARY), nor can anyone partake of the divine nature apart from Christ’s mediation (CYRIL). May Christ be the way that receives us, the truth that strengthens us and the life that invigorates us (AMBROSE).

14:1a | Calm for Troubled Hearts

THE DISCIPLES NEEDLESSLY AFRAID FOR THEIR LORD

AUGUSTINE: Our Lord consoles his disciples who, as men, would be naturally alarmed and troubled at the idea of his death, by assuring them of his divinity, … “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me,” as if they must believe in him if they believed in God. This would not follow unless Christ were God. … You are in fear for this form of a servant. Let not your heart be troubled. The form of God shall raise it up. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 67.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:321**; CCL 36:495.

BETWEEN HOPE AND FEAR. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: In commanding them not to be troubled, Jesus placed them, as it were, on the threshold between hope and fear. This way, if they fell into weakness and suffering in their human frailty, the hope of his mercy might help them to recover. On the other hand, the fear of stumbling might urge them to fall less often inasmuch as they had not yet been endowed with the power from above, from on high—I mean the grace that comes through the Spirit that always keeps them from failure. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [1]

[1] LF 48:232**.

JESUS CALMS THE DISCIPLES’ FEAR OF DEATH

AUGUSTINE: And as the disciples were afraid for themselves when Peter, the boldest and most zealous of them, had been told, “The rooster will not crow until you have denied me thrice, … ” Jesus adds, “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” … by way of an assurance to them in their trouble that they might with confidence and certainty look forward, after all their trials, to dwelling together with Christ in the presence of God. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 67.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:321**; CCL 36:495.

FAITH MORE POWERFUL THAN ANYTHING

CHRYSOSTOM: He shows the power of the Godhead within him, discerning their inward feelings when he says, “Let not your heart be troubled.” “Believe in God, believe also in me.” … Faith, too, in me, and in the Father who begat me, is more powerful than anything that shall come on you. And it will permit no evil thing to prevail against you. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 73.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:268**.

FAITH AS A WEAPON

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Here, Jesus makes an able soldier out of one who recently was a coward. And while the disciples were suffering with the anxieties of fear, he commands them to cling to the intense power of faith. … Faith is a weapon whose blade is stout and broad; it drives away all cowardice that may spring from the expectation of coming suffering and renders the darts of evildoers utterly void of effect and makes their temptations utterly profitless. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [1]

[1] LF 48:232-33**.

UNITY OF NATURE, DISTINCTION OF PERSONS

HILARY OF POITIERS: Our Lord speaks in words deliberately chosen, so that whatever he claims for the Father, he signifies in modest language to be appropriate to himself. Take for example the command, “Believe in God, and believe in me.” He is identified with God in honor. How, I ask you, can he be separated from his nature? He says, “Believe in me also,” just as he said “Believe in God.” Do not the words “in me” signify his nature? Separate the two natures, but then you must also separate the two beliefs. If it is life that we should believe in God without Christ, strip Christ of the name and qualities of God. But if perfect life is given to those who believe in God only when they believe in Christ also, let the careful reader ponder the meaning of the saying, “Believe in God, and believe in me also,” for these words, uniting faith in him with faith in God, unite his nature to God’s. He enjoins first of all the duty of belief in God but adds to it the command that we should believe in himself also, which implies that he is God, since those who believe in God must also believe in him. Yet he excludes the suggestion of a unity contrary to religion, for the exhortation “Believe in God, believe in me also” forbids us to think of him as alone in solitude. ON THE TRINITY 9.19. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:161*; CCL 62A:389-90.

14:2 | Many Rooms in the Father’s House

SHARES ALLOTTED ACCORDING TO WORTHINESS

IRENAEUS: All things belong to God, who supplies all with a suitable dwelling place, even as his Word says that a share is allotted to all by the Father, according as each person is or shall be worthy. [1] And this is the couch on which the guests shall recline, having been invited to the wedding. [2] AGAINST HERESIES 5.36.2. [3]

[1] Irenaeus alludes to the different degrees of glory and rewards believers will experience in heaven.

[2] Mt 22:10.

[3] ANF 1:567*; SC 153:458. See also Against Heresies 3.19.3.

MANSIONS IN THE REALM OF REWARDS

TERTULLIAN: How will there be many mansions in our Father’s house, if not to match the diversity of what each deserves? How will one star also differ from another star in glory, unless in virtue of disparity in their rays? [1] SCORPIACE 6. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 15:41.

[2] ANF 3:639**; CSEL 20:157.

BETTER LIVING THROUGH RESURRECTION

TERTULLIAN: Owing to the fact that our flesh is undergoing dissolution through its sufferings, we shall be provided with a home in heaven. … Because he had called the flesh a house, he wanted to use the same term elegantly in his comparison of the ultimate reward, promising to the very house that undergoes dissolution through suffering a better house through the resurrection, just as the Lord also promises us many mansions like that of a house in his Father’s home. ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE FLESH 41.1, 3. [1]

[1] ANF 3:575**; CCL 2:975. See also Tertullian On Monogamy 10 (ANF 4:67).

PREPARING THE DWELLERS

AUGUSTINE: But he is in a certain sense preparing the dwellings by preparing for them the dwellers. As, for instance, when he said, “In my Father’s house are many dwellings.” What else can we suppose the house of God to mean but the temple of God? And what that is, ask the apostle, and he will reply, “For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.” [1] This is also the kingdom of God that the Son is yet to deliver up to the Father. … For it is to this kingdom, standing then at the right hand, that it shall be said in the end, “Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom.” [2] In other words, you who were the kingdom but without the power to rule, come and reign so that what you formerly were only in hope, you may now have the power to be in reality. This house of God, therefore, this temple of God, this kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven, is as yet in the process of building, of construction, of preparation, of assembling. There will be dwellings in it even as the Lord is now preparing them. There are in fact such dwellings already even as the Lord has already ordained them. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 68.2. [3]

[1] 1 Cor 3:17.

[2] Mt 25:34.

[3] NPNF 1 7:323*; CCL 36:498. Augustine also uses this passage to “reject those who infer from there being many mansions that there is a place outside the kingdom of heaven, where innocent souls that have departed this life without baptism … remain in bliss,” referring to this as akin to secondary housing. Tractates on the Gospel of John 67.3 (NPNF 1 7:321).

PLENTIFUL MANSIONS

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: Are there many mansions in God’s house, as you have heard, or only one? Of course you will admit that there are many, and not just one. Now, are they all to be filled, or only some, and others not, so that some will be left empty and will have been prepared to no purpose? Of course all will be filled, for nothing can be in vain that has been done by God. AGAINST THE EUNOMIANS, THEOLOGICAL ORATION 1(27).8. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 7:287.

RESERVATIONS ARE ALREADY MADE

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: With my Father there is such an abundance that he can give everyone the delights of eternal happiness. … He tells us that here since the custom among us, when space is scarce, is to reserve a place to stay in advance due to lack of available rooms. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6. 14.2. [1]

[1] CSCO 4 3:265-66.

14:3 | Jesus Prepares a Place for Us with Him

THE MANSIONS ARE ALREADY PREPARED

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: If there were not many mansions in God the Father’s home, he would have said that he was going on before them to prepare beforehand the homes of the saints. But since he already knew that there were many homes already fully prepared and awaiting the arrival of those who love God, he says that he will depart, but not for this purpose. Rather, he leaves in order to secure the way to the mansions above, to prepare a passage of safety for you and to smooth the paths that were formerly impassible. For in times of old, heaven was utterly inaccessible to mortals, and no flesh as yet had ever traveled that pure and all-holy realm of the angels. But Christ was the first who consecrated for us the means of access to himself and granted to flesh a way of entrance into heaven. He did this by presenting himself as an offering to God the Father, the “firstfruits of those who are asleep” [1] and are lying in the tomb, and by presenting himself as the first human being that ever appeared in heaven. … For Christ did not ascend on high in order to present himself before the presence of God the Father. He always was and is and will be continually in the Father, in the sight of him who begat him. For he is the one in whom the Father takes delight. Rather, he who of old was the Word with no part or lot in human nature has now ascended in human form so that he may appear in heaven in a strange and unusual manner. And this he has done on our account and for our sakes in order that he, though “found as a man,” [2] may still in his absolute power as Son—while yet in human form—obey the command, “Sit at my right hand,” [3] and in this way transfer the glory of adoption through himself to the entire human race. For because he has appeared in human form, he is still one of us as he sits at the right hand of God the Father, even though he is far above all creation. He is also consubstantial with his Father due to the fact that he has come forth from him as truly God of God and Light of Light. He has presented himself therefore as man to the Father on our behalf so that he may restore us again, as it were, to behold the Father’s face—we who were removed from the Father’s presence by the ancient transgression… .

“I shall not then,” he says, “depart to prepare mansions for you. There are already enough there. There is no need to make new homes for my creation. But I go to prepare a place for you because of the sin that has mastery over you in order that those of you who are on the earth will be able to be mingled with the holy angels. Otherwise, the holy multitude of those above would never mingle with those [below] who were so defiled. But now, when I shall have accomplished the work of uniting the world below with that above—giving you a way of access to the city on high as well—I will return again at the time of regeneration and ‘receive you with myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.’” COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [4]

[1] 1 Cor 15:20.

[2] Phil 2:8.

[3] Ps 110:1.

[4] LF 48:236-38**. He goes on to cite 1 Thess 4:15-17 as to how this will take place.

HE LEAVES TO ELICIT FAITH

AUGUSTINE: But why has he gone away to prepare it, if it is ourselves that he prepares? If he leaves us, how can he prepare us? The meaning is that in order that those mansions may be prepared, the just must live by faith … and if you see, there is no faith. … Let Christ go away then so that he is not seen. Let him remain concealed that faith may be exercised. Then a place is prepared if you live by faith. Let faith desire so that the place desired may itself be possessed. The longing of love is the preparation of the mansion. In this way, Lord, prepare what you are preparing. For you are preparing us for yourself and yourself for us, inasmuch as you are preparing a place both for yourself in us and for us in you. For you have said, “Abide in me, and I in you.” [1] As far as each one has been a partaker of you, some less, some more, such will be the diversity of rewards in proportion to the diversity of merits. The multitude of mansions will suit the multitude of inequalities among their occupants. But all of them, nonetheless, will live eternally and will be endlessly blessed. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 68.3. [2]

[1] Jn 15:4.

[2] NPNF 1 7:323-24**; CCL 36:498-99.

LIFE HIMSELF

AUGUSTINE: When he says, therefore, “That where I am, there you may be also,” where else were they to be but in himself? In this way he is also in himself, and they, therefore, are just where he is, that is, in himself. Accordingly, he himself is that eternal life that is yet to be ours, when he has received us unto himself. As he is that life eternal, so is it in him, that where he is there shall we be also, that is to say, in himself. “For as the Father has life in himself”—and certainly that life that he has is in no way different from what he is himself as its possessor—“so has he given to the Son to have life in himself.” [1] This is so because he is the very life that he has in himself. But will we then actually be what he is, [namely], the life when we begin our existence in that life, that is, in himself? Certainly not, for he, by his very existence as the life, has life. He is himself what he has. And just as the life is in him, so he is in himself. But we are not that life. We are partakers of his life. And we shall be there in such a way as to be wholly incapable of being in ourselves what he is. But even while we ourselves are not the life, we will be able to have him as our life. And he himself has life because of the very fact that he himself is the life. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 70.1. [2]

[1] Jn 5:26.

[2] NPNF 1 7:326*; CCL 36:502-3.

14:4 | You Know the Way to the Place Where I Am Going

“THE WAY” IS JESUS

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: “I myself,” he seems to say, “am going ahead to prepare the path of entry into the heavens.” But if you wish, and if it is the delight of your heart to rest within those mansions, and if you have devoted everything to reaching that city above and dwelling in the company of the holy spirits—then “you know the way,” which is myself. For assuredly it is through me and no one else that you will ever gain that marvelous blessing. No other will ever open the heavens to you or smooth over the ground that one on earth could ever walk—except myself alone. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [1]

[1] LF 48:238-39**.

14:5 | Thomas’s Question

THE DISCIPLES DO NOT KNOW THEY KNOW

AUGUSTINE: The Lord said they knew the place to which and the way whereby he was going. Thomas declares he does not know either the place or the way. But Thomas does not know he is speaking falsely. They knew, but they did not know that they knew. Jesus, however, will convince them of what they already know even though they themselves imagine that they are ignorant about it. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 69.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:324**; CCL 36:500.

14:6 | The Way, the Truth and the Life

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

LEO THE GREAT: The cross of Christ, which was set up for the salvation of mortals, is both a sacrament and an example: a sacrament whereby the divine power takes effect, an example whereby one’s devotion is excited. For to those who are rescued from the prisoner’s yoke, redemption further procures the power of following the way of the cross by imitation. For if the world’s wisdom so prides itself in its error that everyone follows the opinions and habits and whole manner of life of him whom he has chosen as his leader, how shall we share in the name of Christ except by being inseparably united to him who is, as he himself asserted, “the way, the truth and the life”—the way, that is, of holy living, the truth of divine doctrine and the life of eternal happiness. SERMON 72.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 12:184*; CCL 138A:441-42.

THE PERFECT WAY

BASIL THE GREAT: We understand the “way” to be the road to perfection, advancing in order step by step through the words of righteousness and the illumination of knowledge, always yearning for that which lies ahead and straining toward the last mile, until we reach that blessed end, the knowledge of God, with which the Lord blesses those who believe in him. For truly our Lord is a good way, a straight road with no confusing forks or turns, leading us directly to the Father. For “no one comes to the Father,” he says, “except through me.” Such is our way up to God through his Son. ON THE HOLY SPIRIT 8.18. [1]

[1] OHS 37.

TO GOD THROUGH GOD

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS: “I am the way,” he says, so that the power of demons may not prevail in impeding those coming to the way through the Way, to God through God. It is not possible to attain to God except through God. SERMON 16.4. [1]

[1] FC 109:77; CCL 24:100.

DISCIPLES UNDERSTAND THE WAY BUT NOT THE REST

CHRYSOSTOM: “I am the way.” This is the proof that “No one comes to the Father but by me.” “The truth and the life” prove that these statements will be carried out. “There is, then, no falsehood with me if I am ‘the truth.’ It is also the same if I am ‘life,’ since not even death shall be able to stop you from coming to me. Besides, if I am ‘the way,’ you will need no one to lead you by the hand. And, if I am also ‘the truth,’ my words are not false. If I am also ‘life,’ although you die you shall obtain what I have told you.” His being “the way” they both understood and allowed, but the rest they did not understand. Indeed they did not venture to say what they did not know. Still they gained great consolation from his being “the way.” “If,” he says, “I have sole authority to bring you to the Father, you shall surely come this way. For neither is it possible to come by any other way.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 73.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:269*.

JESUS DOES NOT MISLEAD US

HILARY OF POITIERS: He who is the way does not lead us into by-paths or trackless wastes. He who is the truth does not mock us with lies. He who is the life does not betray us into delusions, which are death. He himself has chosen these winning names to indicate the methods that he has appointed for our salvation. As the way, he will guide us to the truth. As the truth, he will establish us in the life. And therefore it is all-important for us to know what the mysterious mode is that he reveals for attaining this life. “No one comes to the Father except through me.” The way to the Father is through the Son. ON THE TRINITY 7.33. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:132*; CCL 62:300-301.

JESUS’ NAME IS TRUTH

AMBROSE: Christ is not only God but true God indeed—true God of true God [1] —and I approach the true one inasmuch as he himself is the truth. If, then, we inquire his name, it is “the truth.” If we seek to know his natural rank and dignity, he is so truly the very Son of God, that he is indeed God’s own Son. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 1.17.108. [2]

[1] See the Nicene Creed, second article.

[2] NPNF 2 10:219*; CSEL 78:46.

BEING THE TRUTH, THE SON IS EQUAL TO THE FATHER

AMBROSE: If they say that the Father alone is true God, they cannot deny that God the Son alone is the truth. For Christ is the truth. Is the truth then something inferior to him that is true, seeing that according to the use of terms a person is called true from the word truth, as also wise from wisdom, just from justice? We do not consider it so between the Father and the Son. For there is nothing lacking in the Father, because the Father is full of truth. And the Son, because he is the truth, is equal to him who is true. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 5.2.28. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 10:288*; CSEL 78:226-27 (Latin designates this quote 5.2.29). See also Athanasius Against the Arians 1.20 (NPNF 2 4:318).

WALK BY FAITH IN THE TRUTH

AUGUSTINE: Persevere now in walking by faith in the truth, that you may succeed in coming at a definite and due time to the sight of the same truth. For as the apostle says, “While staying here in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we are walking by faith, not by sight.” [1] We are led to the direct sight and vision of the Father by Christian faith. That is why the Lord says, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” SERMON 12.5. [2]

[1] 2 Cor 5:6-7.

[2] WSA 3 1:300; CCL 41:169.

HE WILL RAISE US AGAIN TO WHAT WE WERE INTENDED

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: There are three means by which we shall reach the divine courts that are above and enter the church of the firstborn: [1] by practicing every kind of virtue; by faith in right doctrine; by hope of the life to come. Is there anyone other than our Lord Jesus the Christ who could ever be a leader, a helper or a means for granting us success in these kinds of things? Surely not! Do not even entertain such an idea! For he himself has taught us things beyond the Law. He has pointed out to us the way that anyone might safely take that would lead to a life of incredible virtue and to a highly motivated and unhindered performance of those actions that follow the pattern of Christ. And so he himself is the truth, he is the way, that is, the true boundary of faith and the exact rule and standard of an unerring conception concerning God. For by a true belief in the Son, namely, as begotten of the very essence of God the Father and as bearing the title of Son in its fullest and truest meaning—and not even in any sense a made or created being—we shall then clothe ourselves in the confidence of a true faith. For one who has received the Son as a Son has fully confessed a belief also in him of whose essence the Son is, and that person knows and will immediately accept God as the Father. Therefore he is the truth, he is the life, for no one else will restore to us the life that is within our hopes, namely, that life that is in incorruption, blessedness and sanctification. For it is he that raises us up and who will bring us back again from the death we died under the ancient curse to the state in which we were at the beginning. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [2]

[1] Heb 12:23.

[2] LF 48:242*.

JESUS ENLIVENS THE SOUL WITH LIFE

PETER CHRYSOLOGUS: He himself has said, “I am the life.” What the soul is to the body is what Christ is to the soul. Without the soul, the body does not live. The soul does not live without Christ. As soon as the soul leaves the body, stench, corruption, rottenness, the worm, ashes, horror and everything that is loathsome to the sight take its place. When God leaves, immediately the stench of faithlessness, the corruption of sin, the rottenness of the vices, the worm of guilt, the ashes of vanities and the horror of infidelity enter the soul, and there comes to pass in the living tomb of the body the death of the soul now buried. SERMON 19.5. [1]

[1] FC 109:90*; CCL 24:113-14.

THE SON IS IMMORTALITY

GREGORY OF NYSSA: [Eunomius] speaks of God as “without beginning, eternally without end, alone.” Once more “understand, you simple ones,” as Solomon says, “his subtlety,” [1] in case you might be deceived and fall headlong into the denial of the Godhead of the only-begotten Son. Whatever is devoid of death or decay is that which is without end. That, likewise, is called everlasting that does not exist only for a time. That, therefore, which is neither everlasting nor without end is surely seen in the nature that is perishable and mortal. And so, the one who predicates “unendingness” of the one and only God and does not include the Son in the assertion of “unendingness” and “eternity” maintains by such a proposition that he whom he thus contrasts with the eternal and unending is perishable and temporary. But we, even when we are told that God “alone has immortality,” [2] understand by “immortality” the Son. For life is immortality, and the Lord is that life who said, “I am the Life.” AGAINST EUNOMIUS 2.4 [3]

[1] Prov 8:5 LXX

[2] 1 Tim 6:16.

[3] NPNF 2 5:105*.

CHRIST IS THE WAY TO THE FATHER

AUGUSTINE: The one who is himself the Truth and the Word, by whom all things were made, was made flesh so that he might dwell among us. And yet, the apostle still says, “Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet from now on we know him no more.” [1] For Christ, desiring not only to give the possession to those who had completed the journey but also to be himself the way to those who were just setting out, determined to take a fleshly body. This is the source of that expression, “The Lord created me in the beginning of his way.” [2] Those who desire to come [to the Father] begin their journey in [the Son]. The apostle, therefore, although still on the way … had already passed over the beginning of the way and had now no further need of it. And yet, everyone who wants to attain to the truth and to rest in eternal life has to start the journey by this way. For Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth and the life”; that is, by me men and women come. To me they come, in me they rest. For when we come to him, we come to the Father also, because through an equal an equal is known. CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION 1.34.38. [3]

[1] 2 Cor 5:16.

[2] Prov 8:22.

[3] NPNF 1 2:532**; CCL 32:27-28. See also Cyprian Epistle 72.17 (ANF 5:383).

GOD THE FATHER SHOWS US HIMSELF IN CHRIST

HILARY OF POITIERS: Except through him there is no approach to the Father. But there is also no approach to him unless the Father draws us. Understanding him to be the Son of God, we recognize in him the true nature of the Father. And so, when we learn to know the Son, God the Father calls us. When we believe the Son, God the Father receives us. For our recognition and knowledge of the Father is in the Son who shows us in himself God the Father. The Father draws us by his fatherly love, if we are devout, into a mutual bond with his Son. ON THE TRINITY 11.33. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:212-13*; CCL 62A:561-62.

WE CANNOT PARTAKE OF DIVINE NATURE APART FROM CHRIST

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: We approach the Father in two ways: either by becoming holy, [1] as far as is possible for humanity … or else we arrive, through faith and contemplation, at that knowledge of the Father which is as it were “in a mirror darkly.” [2] But no one would ever be holy and make progress in a life according to the rule of virtue unless Christ were the guide of his footsteps in everything. And no one would ever be united to God the Father except through the mediation of Christ, for he is the mediator between God and humanity, through himself and in himself uniting humanity to God. … No one, therefore, will come to the Father, that is, will appear as a partaker of the divine nature, except through Christ alone. For if he had not become a mediator by taking human form, our condition could never have advanced to such a height of blessedness. But now, if anyone approaches the Father in a spirit of faith and reverent knowledge, he will do so by the help of our Savior Christ himself. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 9. [3]

[1] ESUS IS INFORMED THAT LAZARUS IS SICK | JOHN 11:1-5

[2] 1 Cor 13:12.

[3] LF 48:243*.

OUR STRENGTH, CONFIDENCE AND REWARD

AMBROSE: Lord Jesus, we do follow you, but we can come only at your bidding. No one can make the ascent without you, for you are our way, our truth, our life, our strength, our confidence, our reward. Be the way that receives us, the truth that strengthens us, the life that invigorates us. DEATH AS A GOOD 12.55. [1]

[1] JFA 65; CSEL 32 1:750.