ACC ~ John 14 v29

FAITH IMPAIRED BY DEATH, REPAIRED BY RESURRECTION

AUGUSTINE: If faith is in things that are believed and in things that are not seen, [1] what does our Lord mean when he says, “And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it does happen you might believe”? Shouldn’t he rather have said, And now I have told you before it happens so that you may believe what you shall see when it happens? For even [Thomas], who was told, “Because you have seen, you have believed,” did not believe only what he saw. But he saw one thing and believed another. For he saw [Jesus] as man and believed him to be God. … But though we may be said to believe what we see, just as everyone says that he believes his own eyes, yet that is not to be mistaken for the faith that is built up by God in our souls. Rather, from things that are seen, we are brought to believe in those that are invisible. Wherefore, beloved, in the passage before us, when our Lord says, “And now I have told you before it happens, that when it happens you might believe,” by the words “when it happens” he certainly means that they would yet see him after his death, alive and ascending to his Father. And when they saw this, they would then be compelled to believe that he was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, seeing he could do such a thing even after predicting it and also could predict it before he did it. And this then they would believe, not with a new but with an increased faith—or at least [with a faith] that had been impaired by his death and was now repaired by his resurrection. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 79.1. [2]

[1] Heb 11:1.

[2] NPNF 1 7:342**; CCL 36:525-26.