ACC ~ John 14 v6

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.