ACC ~ John 16 v23 - 28

OVERVIEW:

Christ says that in that day when we see him face to face, we will no longer ask anything of him because all our longings and questions will be answered (AUGUSTINE). But while we are still here, our petitions are important, and one who is scrupulous about prayer will not address prayer to the Father without the Son (ORIGEN). Having Christ as our Advocate with the Father, we can be confident in our prayers (CYPRIAN) because of the power of his name (CHRYSOSTOM). And so, we can ask for “anything” in his name, although “anything” should be understood of those things that have to do with the life of blessedness and salvation (BEDE). Our joy, then, becomes complete when we enjoy God in the Trinity in whose image we were made (AUGUSTINE). We should pray for what can truly satisfy (AUGUSTINE) through the name of the Son, for we can draw near to God the Father in no other way (CYRIL). We can count on God’s provision just as he cares for the halcyon (BASIL).

In saying he will speak to the disciples plainly of the Father, Jesus is either referring to the time when face to face (AUGUSTINE) they will be enlightened through the Spirit (CYRIL), or to that time after the end of the world when we shall clearly behold the glory of God. Jesus is alluding to the manifestation of his equality with the Father (GREGORY THE GREAT) as it is Father and Son who together hear those who ask (AUGUSTINE); although insofar as he is man, Christ is also said to intercede for us and can do so because he is consubstantial with the Father (THEODORE). It is a gift of God that we are able to love him since he would not have created in us something he could love unless he loved us before he created that something (AUGUSTINE). When we pray to him, God places himself as our debtor, placing himself under obligation to hear our requests (CHRYSOSTOM).

Christ says, “I came forth from the Father and am come into the world,” referring first to his oneness with the Father and then to his incarnation (HILARY). His being from the Father was by generative, not creative, means (JOHN OF DAMASCUS). He left his Father and then us, in one sense, but in neither case is he ever far away (CYRIL). He came forth from the Father because he is of the Father, and he returns to him by his ascension when he withdraws his bodily presence from his, but he is still here ruling the world (AUGUSTINE). When he tells them he is leaving the world and going to the Father, he affirms that his disciples’ faith is not in vain and that they would still be under his protection (CHRYSOSTOM). But when Christ returns to his Father, he brings our human nature along with him into heaven (BEDE).

16:23 | In That Day You Will Ask Nothing of Me

ALL OUR LONGINGS AND QUESTIONS WILL BE SATISFIED

AUGUSTINE: The verb “to ask” used here means not only to entreat but also to question. And the Greek Gospel, of which this is a translation, has a word that may also be understood in both senses, so that by it the ambiguity is not removed. [1] Even if we could remove the ambiguity, it still would not remove every difficulty. For we read that the Lord Christ, after he rose again, was both questioned and petitioned. He was asked by the disciples, on the eve of his ascension into heaven, when he would be manifested and when the kingdom of Israel would come. [2] And even when he was already in heaven, he was petitioned [asked] by Stephen to receive his spirit. [3] And who dares either to think or say that Christ ought not to be asked, sitting as he does in heaven, and yet was asked while he lived here on earth? Or that he ought not to be asked in his state of immortality, although it was our duty to ask him while still in his state of subjection to death? …

For by his going to the Father, they soon would not see him. And for this reason, therefore, his words did not mean that he was about to die and to be withdrawn from their view till his resurrection. But [it meant] that he was about to go to the Father, which he did do after his resurrection when … after forty days he ascended into heaven. [4] He therefore addressed the words “a little while, and you shall no more see me” to those who saw him at the time in bodily form because he was about to go to the Father and was never thereafter to be seen in that mortal state wherein they now beheld him when he was addressing them at that moment. But the words that he added, “And again a little while, and you shall see me,” he gave as a promise to the church universal, just as he gave another promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” [5] The Lord is not slow concerning his promises. And so, in a little while, we shall see him, but we will have no further requests to make, no questions to put forward. For nothing shall remain to be desired, nothing will lie hidden that needs to be inquired about. This little while appears long to us, because it is still going on. But when it is over, we shall then feel what a little while it was. So let us not make our joy then be like that of the world. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 101.4, 6. [6]

[1] Gk erōtēsete.

[2] Acts 1:6.

[3] Acts 7:59.

[4] Acts 1:3, 9.

[5] Mt 28:20.

[6] NPNF 1 7:388-89**

ASK THE FATHER THROUGH CHRIST

ORIGEN: And so, when the saints give thanks to God in their prayers, they acknowledge through Christ Jesus the favors he has done. And if it is true that one who is scrupulous about prayer ought not to pray to someone else who prays but rather to the Father whom our Lord Jesus taught us to address in prayers, it is especially true that no prayer should be addressed to the Father without him, who clearly points this out himself when he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Up till now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Now he did not say “ask me” or simply “ask the Father.” On the contrary, he said, “If you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name.” For until Jesus taught this, no one asked the Father in the name of the Son. And what Jesus said was true, “Up till now you have asked nothing in my name.” And also true was his saying, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” ON PRAYER 15.2. [1]

[1] OSW 113*; GCS 3(2):334-35.

ASK, AND HE WILL GIVE

CYPRIAN: Let Christ, who dwells within our heart, also dwell in our voice. And since we have him as an advocate with the Father for our sins, let us, when as sinners we petition on behalf of our sins, put forward the words of our advocate. For since he says that “whatever we shall ask of the Father in his name, he will give us,” how much more effectually shall we obtain what we ask in Christ’s name, if we ask for it in his own prayer! THE LORD’S PRAYER 3. [1]

[1] ANF 5:448**.

THE POWER OF THE NAME

CHRYSOSTOM: He shows the power of his name when—even if it is neither seen nor called on but only named—he even gains our approval with the Father. But when has this taken place? When they said, “Lord, behold their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with boldness and work miracles in your name. And the place was shaken where they were.” [1] HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 79.1. [2]

[1] A reference to Pentecost, see Acts 4:29-31.

[2] NPNF 1 14:292**.

ASK FOR WHAT PERTAINS TO SALVATION

BEDE: It can disturb hearers with weak [faith] that, at the beginning of this reading from the Gospel, the Savior promises his disciples, “If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Not only do people like us not receive many things we seek to ask of the Father in Christ’s name, but even the apostle Paul himself asked the Lord three times that the angel of Satan with which he was tormented might depart from him, and he was not able to obtain what he asked. [1] But the perplexity caused by this question has already been resolved by the old explanation of the Fathers. [2] They understood truthfully that those people alone ask in the name of the Savior who ask for those things that pertain to eternal salvation. They understood, therefore, that the apostle did not ask in the Savior’s name [when he asked] to be relieved of the temptation that he had received as a protection for his humility. If he had been relieved of it, he could not have been saved. … Whenever we are not listened to when we ask, it happens either because we are asking [for something] contrary to what would aid our salvation, and for this reason the grace of his kindness is denied us by our merciful Father because we are unsuitably asking … or [it happens because] we are asking for things that are indeed useful for and connected with true salvation, but we ourselves by our evil lives divert away from us the voice of the just Judge, falling into what was said by Solomon, “The person who turns away his ear from hearing the law, his prayer will be an abomination.” [3] Or [it happens because] when we pray for certain sinners, that they may recover their senses and return to themselves, that although we are asking [for something] pertaining to salvation, and we deserve to be heard for our own merit, yet their obstinacy stands in the way of our obtaining what we ask. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.12. [4]

[1] 2 Cor 12:8.

[2] See Augustine Tractate 73.2-4.

[3] Prov 28:9.

[4] CS 111:108-9*.

16:24 | Ask, That Your Joy May Be Full

ENJOYING GOD IN THE TRINITY

AUGUSTINE: Our fullness of joy—and there is nothing greater than this—is to enjoy God in the Trinity, in the image of whom we are made. ON THE TRINITY 1.8.18. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 3:26**.

ASK FOR WHAT CAN SATISFY

AUGUSTINE: So what should we pray for? “Ask in my name.” And he did not say what for, but in his words we can understand what we ought to ask for. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Ask, and you will receive, in my name. But what? Not nothing. What though? “That your joy may be full,” which means, ask for what can finally satisfy you. Because sometimes you ask for nothing. “Whoever drinks of this water will be thirsty again.” [1] You lower the bucket of greed into the well, you pull up something to drink, and you will again be thirsty. “Ask, so that your joy may be full,” that is, so that you may be permanently satisfied, not just so as to enjoy yourselves for a time. Ask for what can satisfy you. Utter Philip’s words, “Lord, show us the Father, and that suffices us.” The Lord says to you, “Have I been with you such a long time, and you do not know me? Philip, whoever sees me also sees the Father.” [2] So give thanks to Christ who took our humanity to himself for you in your weakness. And get your stomachs ready to be satisfied with Christ’s divinity. SERMON 145.6. [3]

[1] Jn 4:13.

[2] Jn 14:8-9.

[3] WSA 3 4:441.

PRAYER IN CHRIST’S NAME

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He urges the disciples to seek for spiritual gifts and at the same time gives them confidence that, if they ask for them, they will not fail to obtain them. He adds the word Amen, that he might confirm their belief that if they ask the Father for anything they would receive it from him. He would act as their mediator and make known their request and, being one with the Father, grant it. For this is what he means by “in my name.” For we cannot draw near to God the Father in any other way than through the Son. For it is by him that we have access in the one Spirit to the Father. [1] It was because of this that he said, “I am the door. I am the way. No one comes to the Father but by me.” [2] For as the Son is God, he being one with the Father provides good things for his sanctified people and is found to be generous of his wealth to us. … Let us then offer our prayers in Christ’s name. For in this way, the Father will most readily consent to them and grant his graces to those who seek them, that receiving them we may rejoice. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.2. [3]

[1] See Eph 2:8.

[2] Jn 10:7; 14:6.

[3] LF 48:465-66**.

AN EXAMPLE OF PROVISION FOR THE HALCYON

BASIL THE GREAT: We should give thanks to God for the good things he gives us and not bear it with bad grace because he measures his giving. Should he grant us to be in union with him, this we shall receive as a most perfect and joyful gift. Should he delay this, let us suffer the loss in patience since he disposes of our lives more perfectly than we could ever order them.

The halcyon is a sea bird that nests by the shore, laying its eggs in the sand and bringing forth its young in the middle of winter when the sea beats violent and frequent storms. But during the seven days while the halcyon broods—for it takes but seven days to hatch its young—all winds sink to rest and the sea grows calm. And as it then is in need of food for its young ones, the most bountiful God grants this little creature another seven days of calm so that it may feed its young. Since all sailors know of this, they give this time the name of the halcyon days.

These things are ordered by the providence of God for the creatures that are without reason so that you may be led to seek of God the things you need for your salvation. And when for this small bird he holds back the great and fearful sea and bids it be calm in winter, what will he not do for you made in his own image? And if he should so tenderly cherish the halcyon, how much more will he not give you [what you need] when you call on him with your heart? SERMON 9.5, ON PRAYER. [1]

[1] PG 32:1244.

16:25 | I Will Tell You Plainly of the Father

ALL REVEALED IN DUE TIME

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: What the time would be, Jesus did not tell them very clearly. We must surmise that he either meant that time when we are enriched with the knowledge that comes to us through the Spirit, whom Christ himself brought down to us after his resurrection from the dead. Or it may be the time to come after the end of the world, in which we shall clearly behold the glory of God, that God will impart to us directly. … In the darkness of the night the bright beauty of the stars shines forth, each casting abroad its own ray of light, but when the sun rises with its own radiant beams … the luster of the stars waxes feeble and ineffective. In a similar manner I think also that the knowledge we now have will cease, and that which is partial will vanish away at the moment when the perfect light has come on us and sheds forth its radiance, filling us with perfect knowledge of God. Then, when we are enabled to approach God in confidence, Christ will tell us the things that concern his Father. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.2. [1]

[1] LF 48:467*.

HE WILL MANIFEST HIS EQUALITY WITH THE FATHER

GREGORY THE GREAT: When he declares that he will show them plainly of the Father, he alludes to the manifestation about to take place of his own majesty that would show his own equality with the Father and the procession of the co-eternal Spirit from both. For we shall then openly see how what has its existence from something else is not subsequent to him from whom it springs and how he who is produced by procession is not preceded by those from whom he proceeded. We shall then see openly how both the One is divisibly Three and the Three indivisibly One. MORALS ON THE BOOK OF JOB 30.4.17. [1]

[1] LF 31:375**.

BLESSEDNESS IN SEEING GOD FACE TO FACE

AUGUSTINE: Ask in my name so that your joy may be full and you shall receive. For his saints who persevere in asking for such a good thing as this will never be defrauded by the mercy of God. Then he continues, “These things have I spoken to you in proverbs. But the hour is coming when I shall no more speak to you in proverbs, but I shall show you plainly of my Father.” The hour of which he speaks may be understood of that future period of life when we shall see him openly, as the apostle said, “face to face.” Thus, when Jesus says, “These things I have spoken to you in proverbs” agrees with what the apostle said, “Now we see as in a glass darkly.” [1] But “I will show you” that the Father shall be seen through the instrumentality of the Son, which is akin to what Jesus says elsewhere, “For no one knows the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son shall reveal him.” [2] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 102.2-3. [3]

[1] 1 Cor 13:12.

[2] Mt 11:27.

[3] NPNF 1 7:390**.

16:26 | I Do Not Say That I Will Pray the Father for You

FATHER AND SON BOTH INTERCEDE

AUGUSTINE: But this sense seems to be interfered with by what follows: “At that day you shall ask in my name.” In that future world, when we have reached the kingdom where we shall be like him … what will we have to ask for when all our desires will already be satisfied with good things? [1] … Asking implies the lack of something, which can hardly be the case where there will be such an abundance. It remains then that we understand Jesus as having promised to change his disciples from being carnal and natural beings to making them spiritual beings. … The natural person does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God, and so when he hears something about the nature of God, he can conceive of nothing else but some bodily form, however spacious or immense, however lustrous and magnificent, yet still as a body. And so, whatever Wisdom said of the incorporeal, immutable substance are proverbs to him, not that he considers them as proverbs but understands them as if they were proverbs. But when the spiritual person begins to discern all things, … though in this life he see but through a glass and in part, still he perceives—not through his bodily senses or by an idea of the imagination but by the clearest understanding of the mind—that God is not material but spiritual. This is how the Son shows us so plainly of the Father, that [the Son] who shows is seen to be of the same nature with [the Father] who is shown. Then, those who ask, ask in his name, because by the sound of that name they understand nothing else than the reality itself that is expressed by that name. … They are able, to a certain extent, to perceive that our Lord Jesus Christ, in so far as he is human, intercedes with the Father on our behalf. But in so far as he is God, they also recognize that he hears [and answers] us together with the Father. This is what I think he means when he says, “And I say not that I will pray the Father for you.” To understand this, that is, how the Son does not ask the Father but Father and Son together hear those who ask, is beyond the reach of any but the spiritual vision. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 102.3-4. [2]

[1] Ps 103:5 (102:5 LXX, Vg).

[2] NPNF 1 7:390-91**.

THE SON IS CONSUBSTANTIAL WITH THE FATHER

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Knowing that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, they would, therefore, petition from the Son what he was asking from the Father. By saying, “I do not ask,” he indicated that he is God, able also to give “whatever you may ask,” without petitioning the Father. You see, when he said above, “And I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete,” he spoke as a human, according to the divine plan. [1] After all, why would he ask for that which the Father already intended? COMMENTARY ON JOHN, FRAGMENT 132.16.26-27. [2]

[1] Or, “he spoke incarnationally.”

[2] ECS 7:128.

16:27 | The Father Himself Loves You

LOVE FROM LOVE

AUGUSTINE: “For the Father himself,” he says, “loves you because you have loved me.” Is it the case, then, that he loves because we love or, rather, that we love because he loves? Let this same Evangelist give us the answer out of his own epistle: “We love him,” he says, “because he first loved us.” [1] This, then, was the efficient cause of our loving, that we were loved. And certainly to love God is the gift of God. He is the one who gave us the grace to love him, who loved while still unloved. Even when we displeased him, we were loved so that there might be that in us whereby we should become pleasing in his sight. For we could not love the Son unless we also loved the Father. The Father loves us because we love the Son, seeing it is of the Father and Son we have received the power to love both the Father and the Son: for love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit of both, [2] by which Spirit we love both the Father and the Son and whom we love along with the Father and the Son. It was God, therefore, who created this religious love of ours whereby we worship God, and he saw that it is good, and for this reason he himself loved what he had made. But he would not have created in us something he could love if it were not for the fact that he loved us before he brought about that something. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 102.5. [3]

[1] 1 Jn 4:19.

[2] See Rom 5:5.

[3] NPNF 1 7:391**.

GOD AS OUR DEBTOR

CHRYSOSTOM: When we ask God for something, there is no need for intermediaries. And he is no more disposed to help us because he is asked by others than if we ourselves ask. For he wants us to seek things from him often. This pleases him very much. For it is in this alone that he becomes our debtor: Every time we pray to him, he is pleased and freely gives us what we have not loaned him. And should he see someone who is in need fervently praying to him, he will himself pay down for us what he has not received from us. But if we pray in an indifferent manner, he will be indifferent to our request—not because he does not want to give but because our prayer is acceptable only when we pray to him with all our hearts.

Nor does God put off the granting of our prayers because he detests them or because he is against us. But he does clearly wish, by delaying his giving, to keep us close to himself; just as fathers who love their children tenderly will withhold a gift from children who are lazy and indifferent in order to teach them to persevere. And have your prayers been heard? Then give thanks because your prayers have been heard. And have your prayers not been heard? Keep praying so that they may be heard. … For, though you may be helpless and without a protector, if you cry out to God himself you shall most certainly be heard. POEM ON PRAYER, HOMILY 2. [1]

[1] PG 63:580-81.

16:28 | Coming and Going of the Son

FIRST HIS GENERATION FROM THE FATHER, THEN HIS INCARNATION

HILARY OF POITIERS: A perfect faith in the Son, which believes and loves the fact that he has come forth from God, has access to the Father without any need of his intervention. The confession that the Son was born and sent from God entitles such a person to a direct audience with God and to love from him. And so the narrative of Jesus’ birth and coming must be taken in the strictest and most literal sense. He says, “I went forth from God,” [1] conveying the fact that his nature is exactly what was given to him by his birth. For what being other than God could go forth from God, that is, could enter upon existence by being born from him? And then he continues, “And I have come from the Father into this world.” In order that he might assure us that this going forth from God means his birth from the Father, he tells us that he came from the Father into the world, referring here to his incarnation. When he said prior to this that he “went forth from God,” however, there he was referring to his [birth by] nature. Since he put on record first the fact of his going forth from God, and then his coming from the Father, we cannot say that the going and the coming are the same thing. Coming from the Father and going forth from God are not synonymous. Perhaps we might paraphrase them instead as “birth” and “presence,” knowing that they are as different in meaning as these two words. It is one thing to have gone forth from God, entering into a substantial existence [with him] by birth. It is quite another, however, to have come from the Father into this world [by birth] in order to accomplish the mysteries of our salvation. ON THE TRINITY 6.31. [2]

[1] The RSV has “Father” here at the end of verse 27, but the Greek and Latin have “God,” which for Hilary is an important distinction.

[2] NPNF 2 9:109**.

THE FATHER AS CAUSE OF CHRIST’S ORIGIN

JOHN OF DAMASCUS: Some of the things said concerning Christ make known the fact of his origin from the Father as cause. … For from him he derives both his being and all that he has. His being was by generative and not by creative means, as, “I came forth, and I have come,” and “I live because of the Father.” [1] But all that he has is not by free gift or by teaching, but in a causal sense, as “the Son is not able to do anything of himself, unless he sees the Father doing anything.” [2] For if the Father does not exist, neither does the Son. For the Son is of the Father and in the Father and with the Father, and not after the Father. In a similar way also what he does is of him and with him. For there is one and the same—not similar but the same—will and energy and power in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. ORTHODOX FAITH 4.18. [3]

[1] Jn 6:57.

[2] Jn 5:19.

[3] NPNF 2 9:90*.

CHRIST IS NEVER FAR AWAY

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: When Jesus says that he came into this world and again left the world and went to the Father, he does not mean that he either abandoned the Father when he became man or that he abandoned the human race when, in the flesh, he went to the Father. For he is truly God and with his ineffable power fills all things and is not far from anything that exists. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.2. [1]

[1] LF 48:472*.

HE DOES NOT ABANDON HIS FATHER OR US

AUGUSTINE: In coming to the world, he came forth in such a sense from the Father that he did not leave the Father behind. And when he leaves the world, he goes to the Father in such a sense that he does not forsake the world. For he came forth from the Father because he is of the Father. And he came into the world in showing to the world his bodily form that he had received from the Virgin. He left the world by a bodily withdrawal, he proceeded to the Father by his ascension as man, but he did not forsake the world in the ruling activity of his presence. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 102.6. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:391**.

THE DISCIPLES’ FAITH IN CHRIST VALIDATED

CHRYSOSTOM: Since his teaching about his resurrection and how he came from God and went to God did not, at the time, cheer them up, he dwells on these subjects again and again. The first was proof that their faith in him was not vain; the second that they would still be under his protection. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 79.2. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:292**.

CHRIST BRINGS HUMAN NATURE INTO HEAVEN

BEDE: He came forth from the Father and came into the world because he made himself visible to the world in his humanity, who in his divinity was invisible along with the Father. He came forth from the Father, because he appeared not in that form in which he is equal to the Father but in the lesser one of a created being that he took on himself. And he came into the world because, in the form of a servant that he accepted, he offered himself to be seen even by those who love this world. Again, he left the world behind and returned to the Father because he removed from the sight of those who love the world what they had seen, and he taught to those who love him that he should be believed to be equal to the Father. He left the world behind and returned to the Father because by his ascension he brought the humanity that he had put on to the place of invisible realities. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.12. [1]

[1] CS 111:114*. See also Augustine Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.6.