ACC ~ John 17 v20 - 26

OVERVIEW:

In Christ’s prayer for the unity of all who believe, we see not only an exhortation for unity in the church (CYPRIAN) but also look forward to the time when humanity is restored to the unity it once had with God (ORIGEN). This is a unity not of nature, however, but according to grace (JEROME). Jesus speaks here of a unity of will that binds us together (HILARY). The unity of the church is modeled on that of the Trinity (JEROME, AMBROSE). When believers are united in faith and confession, they are enabled by God’s grace to become one even as our Lord is able to bring unity from diversity through participation in the Spirit and his gifts (CYRIL). When there is peace and unity, it is a powerful witness to the world (CHRYSOSTOM).

Christ both received and gave glory as he took on human nature so that it might be exalted, and thus we receive his glory (ATHANASIUS). The Father bestowed his glory on the Son and through the Son onto us (HILARY) by means of the Spirit, who is the glory that binds us together; this glory Christ later bestowed on his disciples so that they might be one (GREGORY OF NYSSA). This glory may also be understood as Christ’s immortality, which human nature would afterward receive from him (AUGUSTINE). He also speaks of the perfect oneness we have with him and the Father, a oneness achieved as he unites himself to us in the sacrament (CYRIL). As we are cleansed from the sin that separates us, we become fused together by the Spirit into our one mediator Jesus Christ (AUGUSTINE). The result is that the Father loves us as he sees in us the likeness of his own Son and so calls us his sons and daughters by adoption (AMBROSE), but loves us like his own Son (CYRIL). When we look on the Son of God, we are glorified by that sight just as those who look on the bright beams of the sun on a clear day rejoice in its rays (CHRYSOSTOM).

Christ prays to his Father that we may be where he is. Our concern should not be about where Christ resides but that we be found where he is (AUGUSTINE). When we are fully united with him in that age that is yet to come, everything we feel, understand, think or do will be wholly of God, since there will no longer be any evil to corrupt these things (ORIGEN). Christ allows us to share in his glory for our benefit, not his (IRENAEUS). It is a glory we look forward to as we struggle under present-day persecution (CYPRIAN). Jesus here expresses his frustration with the world’s ignorance (CHRYSOSTOM) of this future glory that is ours because of his descent to be among us to restore our human nature (CYRIL). Christ made his Father’s name known to the world and is counting on us to continue making his name known through our actions of love (CHRYSOSTOM), which are in us because we are in Christ, even as he is in us (AUGUSTINE).

17:20 | Prayer of Unity for All Who Believe

CALL FOR UNITY

CYPRIAN: The Lord’s loving-kindness, no less than his mercy, is great in respect of our salvation in that, not content to redeem us with his blood, he in addition prayed for us. See now what the desire of his petition was, that just as the Father and Son are one, so also we should abide in absolute unity. From this, it may be evident how greatly someone sins who divides unity and peace, since even the Lord himself petitioned for this same thing. He no doubt desired that his people should in this way be saved and live in peace since he knew that discord cannot come into the kingdom of God. THE LORD’S PRAYER 30. [1]

[1] ANF 5:455*; CCL 3A:108-9.

IN THE FUTURE, THE WORLD RESTORED TO INITIAL UNITY

ORIGEN: I am of the opinion, so far as I can see, that this order of the human race has been appointed in order that in the future world—or in ages to come, when there shall be the new heavens and new earth spoken of by Isaiah [1] —that unity may be restored that was promised by the Lord Jesus in his prayer to God the Father on behalf of his disciples. [2] And this is further confirmed by the language of the apostle Paul: “Until we all come in the unity of the faith to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” [3] And in keeping with this is the declaration of the same apostle when he exhorts us—who even in the present life are placed in the church, which is a form of that kingdom that is to come—to this same similitude of unity, “That you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you. But that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” [4] ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.6.2. [5]

[1] Is 66:22.

[2] He cites Jn 17:22, 23.

[3] Eph 4:13.

[4] 1 Cor 1:10.

[5] ANF 4:261**; GCS 22(5):82.

AS CHRIST IS LOVED, SO WE ARE LOVED AND UNITED

JEROME: He reminds us that the whole Christian people are one in God, and, as his well-beloved children, are “partakers of the divine nature.” [1] We have already said (and the truth must now be inculcated more in detail) that we are not one in the Father and the Son according to nature but according to grace. For the essence of the human soul and the essence of God are not the same, as the Manichaeans constantly assert. But, says our Lord, “You have loved them as you have loved me.” You see, then, that we are privileged to partake of his essence, not in the realm of nature but of grace. And the reason why we are beloved of the Father is that he has loved the Son—and the members of the body are loved. [2] AGAINST JOVINIANUS 2.29. [3]

[1] 2 Pet 1:4.

[2] See Jn 1:12, 13.

[3] NPNF 2 6:410**; PL 23:340.

17:21a | That They May All Be One

UNITY OF WILL MAKES US ONE

HILARY OF POITIERS: [This passage] shows that since human beings cannot, so to speak, be fused back into God or themselves coalesce into one undistinguished mass, this oneness must arise from unity of will, as all perform actions pleasing to God and unite with one another in the harmonious agreement of their thoughts. Therefore, it is not nature that makes them one but will. ON THE TRINITY 8.5. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:139**; CCL 62A:318-19.

THE CHURCH ASSEMBLY IS ONE IN MANY

JEROME: “As we are Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God,” [Jesus might say], “so may they be one people in themselves, that is, like dear children and partakers of the divine nature.” Call the church what you will—bride, sister, mother—its assembly is but one and never lacks husband, brother or son. [The church’s] faith is one, and it is not defiled by variety of doctrine or divided by heresies. [The church] continues a virgin. Wherever the Lamb goes, it follows him. It alone knows the song of Christ. AGAINST JOVINIANUS 2.19. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 6:403**; PL 23:328.

OUR UNITY AND THE GODHEAD’S UNITY COMPARED

AMBROSE: No separation, then, is to be made of the Word from God the Father, no separation in power, no separation in wisdom because of the unity of the divine substance. Again, God the Father is in the Son, as we often times find it written, yet not as sanctifying one who lacks sanctification or as filling a void, for the power of God knows no void. Nor, again, is the power of the one increased by the power of the other, for there are not two powers but one power. Nor does Godhead entertain Godhead, for there are not two Godheads but one Godhead. We … shall be one in Christ through power received [from another] and dwelling in us. The letter [1] [of the unity] is common, but the substance of God and the substance of humanity are different. We shall be one. The Father and the Son [already] are one. We shall be one by grace; the Son is so by substance. Again, unity by conjunction is one thing, unity by nature another. Finally, observe what it is that Scripture has already recorded: “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.” Now notice that he did not say, “You in us, and we in you” but “You in me, and I in you.” In this way he sets himself apart from his creatures. Further, he added “that they also may be in us,” in order to separate here his dignity and his Father’s dignity from us so that our union in the Father and the Son may appear the result not of nature but of grace, while the unity of the Father and the Son is the Son’s, not by grace but by natural right of sonship. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 4.3.36-38. [2]

[1] Lat littera.

[2] NPNF 2 10:266-67**; CSEL 78:169-70 (On the Christian Faith 4.3.35-37).

UNITY FROM DIVERSITY IN GOD

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Our Lord Jesus Christ did not pray for the twelve apostles alone. He prayed for all who were destined in every age to yield to and obey the words that call them to be holy by believing and to be purified through participation in the Holy Spirit. … “May they all be one,” he prayed. “As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us.” … The only Son shines out from the very substance of the Father and possesses the Father completely in his own nature. He became man, according to the Scriptures, blending himself, so to speak, with our nature by an inexplicable union with an earthly body. … In himself he somehow united totally disparate natures to make us sharers in the divine nature.

The communion and abiding presence of the Spirit has passed even to ourselves. This was experienced first through Christ and in Christ when he was seen to have become like us, that is, a human being anointed and sanctified. By nature, however, he was God, for he proceeded from the Father. It was with his own Spirit that he sanctified the temple of his body and also, in a way befitting it, the world of his creation. Through the mystery of Christ, then, sharing in the Holy Spirit and union with God has become possible also for us, for we are all sanctified in him.

By his own wisdom and the Father’s counsel he devised a way of bringing us all together and blending us into a unity with God and one another, even though the differences between us give us each in both body and soul a separate identity. For in Holy Communion he blesses with one body, which is his own, those who believe in him, and he makes them one body with himself and one another. Who could separate those who are united to Christ through that one sacred body or destroy their true union with one another? If “we all share one loaf,” we all become one body, for Christ cannot be divided.

So it is that the church is the body of Christ, and we are its members. For since we are all united to Christ through his sacred body, having received that one indivisible body into our own, our members are not our own but his. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.11. [1]

[1] LF 48:546, 549-50**.

17:21b | The World Will Believe You Sent Me

PEACE IN UNITY IS A WITNESS

CHRYSOSTOM: This is similar to what he said earlier, “By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [1] And how will they believe this? “Because,” he says, “you are a God of peace.” And, if therefore the [disciples] keep that same peace that they have learned [from me], their hearers will know the teacher by the disciples. But if they quarrel, people will deny that they are the disciples of a God of peace and will not allow that I, not being peaceable, have been sent from you. Do you see how he proves his unanimity with the Father to the very end? HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.2. [2]

[1] Jn 13:35.

[2] NPNF 1 14:304*

17:22 | The Glory That Unifies

HE ASKED FOR GLORY BECAUSE OF US

ATHANASIUS: What advantage then was it for the immortal to have assumed the mortal? Or what improvement [1] does the everlasting one get by putting on the temporal? How great can any reward be for the everlasting God and King in the bosom of the Father? Don’t you see that this too was done and written because of us and for us? The Lord became man for us, we who are mortal and temporal, so that he might make us immortal and bring us into the everlasting kingdom of heaven. … It is not the Word then (viewed as the Word) that is improved. For he had all things and has them always. But it is the human race, which has its origin [2] in him and through him, that is the one who receives the improvement. For when he is now said to be anointed according to human terms, it is we who in him are anointed, since also when he is baptized, it is we who in him are baptized. But on all these things the Savior throws significant light when he says to the Father, “And the glory that you gave me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Because of us, then, he asked for glory. And the words “took” and “gave” and “highly exalted” occur so that we might take, and to us might be given and we might be exalted in him. He also sanctifies himself for us so that we might be sanctified in him. DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.12.48. [3]

[1] Gk beltiōsis.

[2] Gk archē.

[3] NPNF 2 4:334-35**; PG 26:112.

ALL ARE ONE IN THE GLORY OF THE FATHER

HILARY OF POITIERS: Now I ask whether glory is identical with will, since will is an emotion of the mind while glory is an ornament or embellishment of nature. So then, it is the glory received from the Father that the Son has given to all who shall believe in him, and certainly not will. Had will been given, faith would carry with it no reward, for a necessity of will attached to us would also impose faith on us. However, he has shown what is effected by the bestowal of the glory received: “that they may be one, even as we are one.” It is then with this object that the received glory was bestowed, that all might be one. So now all are one in glory, because the glory given is none other than that which was received; nor has it been given for any other reason than that all should be one. And since all are one through the glory given to the Son and by the Son bestowed on believers, I ask how the Son can be of a different glory from the Father’s, since the glory of the Son brings all that believe into the unity of the Father’s glory. Now it may be that the utterance of human hope in this case may be somewhat immoderate, yet it will not be contrary to faith. For though to hope for this were presumptuous, yet not to have believed it is sinful, for we have one and the same author both of our hope and of our faith. ON THE TRINITY 8.12. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:140-41**; CCL 62A:324.

THE GLORY THAT UNIFIES IS THE HOLY SPIRIT

GREGORY OF NYSSA: In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,” [1] as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called.

But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” [2] And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples. HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 15. [3]

[1] Eph 4:3.

[2] Jn 20:22.

[3] FGTG 286-87.

THE GLORY OF IMMORTALITY IS GIVEN

AUGUSTINE: “And the glory that you gave me, I have given them.” And what was that glory but immortality, which human nature was afterward to receive in him? For not even he himself had as yet received it, but in his own customary way, because predestination is so absolutely inflexible, he intimates what is future in verbs of the past tense. He does this because he is now on the point of being glorified, or in other words, raised up again by the Father, knowing that he himself is going to raise us up to the same glory in the end. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 110.3. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:409**; CCL 36:623-24.

17:23 | Perfect Oneness Evidences Love to the World

THE SANCTIFICATION OF HUMAN NATURE

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The Son dwells in us in a corporeal sense as man, commingled and united with us by the mystery of the Eucharist. And also [he dwells with us] in a spiritual sense as God, by the effectual working and grace of his own Spirit, building up our spirit into newness of life and making us partakers of his divine nature. Christ, then, is seen to be the bond of union between us and God the Father. He is seen as human, making us, as it were, his branches, [1] and is seen as God because he is by nature inherent in his own Father. For in no other way could that nature which is subject to corruption be elevated to incorruption, except by the coming down to it of that nature that is high above all corruption and changeability. … We have, therefore, been made perfect in unity with God the Father, through the mediation of Christ. For by receiving in ourselves (both in a corporeal and spiritual sense, as I said just now) him who is the Son by nature and who has essential union with the Father, we have been glorified and become partakers in the nature of the Most High. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12. [2]

[1] See Jn 15:1.

[2] LF 48:554-55*. See also Hilary On the Trinity 8.13 (NPNF 2 9:141).

CLEANSED, WE BECOME ONE

AUGUSTINE: He did not say, “I and they are one,” [1] although inasmuch as he is the head of the church and the church is his body, [2] he could not only say, “I and they are one but also one person,” [3] because the head and the body are the one Christ. But when he reveals that his own Godhead is consubstantial with the Father (for which reason he also says in another place, “I and the Father are one” [4] ), then it is rather his will that his own in their own kind, that is to say, in the consubstantial equality of the same nature, should be one, but be one in him. For they could not be one in themselves, since they were separated from one another by conflicting inclinations, desires and unclean sins. They are, therefore, purified through the Mediator, in order that they may be one in him. And indeed [they are one] not only through the same nature in which all mortals become equal to the angels, but also [they are one] by the same will working together most harmoniously toward the same blessedness, and [they are] fused together in some way by the fire of charity into one spirit. ON THE TRINITY 4.9.12. [5]

[1] Lat unum.

[2] Eph 1:22-23.

[3] Lat unus.

[4] Lat unum, Jn 10:30.

[5] FC 45:146*; CCL 50:177.

CAN WE BE LOVED BY GOD AS THE SON IS?

AMBROSE: There are some … who in their desire to deny the unity of the divine substance try to make light of the love of the Father and the Son, because it is written, “You have loved them, as you have loved me.” But when they say this, what else do they do but adopt a likeness of comparison between the Son of God and human beings? Can we indeed be loved by God as the Son is, in whom the Father is well-pleased? [1] The Son is well-pleasing in himself; we are well-pleasing through him. For those in whom God sees his own Son after his own likeness, he admits through his Son into the favor of sons [children]. As we go through likeness unto likeness, in the same way, we are called to adoption through the generation of the Son. The eternal love of God’s nature is one thing; that of grace is another. And if they start a debate on the words that are written, “And you have loved them, as you have loved me,” and think a comparison is intended, they must think that the following also was said by way of comparison, “Be merciful, as your Father who is in heaven is merciful.” [2] It is also elsewhere said, “Be perfect, as my Father who is in heaven is perfect.” [3] But if he is perfect in the fullness of his glory, we are but perfect according to the growth of virtue within us. The Son also is loved by the Father according to the fullness of a love that always remains in him, but in us growth in grace merits the love of God. You see, then, how God has given grace to humankind, and do you want to separate the natural and indivisible love of the Father and the Son? And do you still strive to make nothing of words, where you note the mention of a unity of majesty? ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 5.7.88-91. [4]

[1] Mt 3:17.

[2] Lk 6:36.

[3] Mt 5:48.

[4] NPNF 2 10:295**; CSEL 78:248-50 (On the Christian Faith 5.7.89-92).

17:24a | That They Also Be with Me Where I Am

WE ARE LOVED AS THE SON IS LOVED

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: He shows that to live with him and to be considered worthy to see his glory is something that belongs only to those who have been already united to the Father through him and have obtained his love—a love that he must be conceived to enjoy from the Father. For we are loved by God the Father as children inasmuch as we are like him who is actually the Son of God by nature. For although it is not dealt out to us in equal measure, it still is a complete resemblance of the love the Father has for the Son and, intersecting with it, images forth the glory of the Son. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12. [1]

[1] LF 48:556-57*.

BEHOLDING AND REFLECTING CHRIST’S GLORY

CHRYSOSTOM: This again is a sign of his being of one mind with the Father and of a higher character than those who lived in former times. For he says “before the foundation of the world.” And yet, there is also a certain humility evident when Jesus says, “You have given me.” Now if this is not the case, I would gladly ask those who do not think so a question: The one that gives is considered superior to the one who receives the gift. Did the Father, then, having first begotten the Son, afterward give him glory, having allowed him to be without glory until then? How can this be reasonable? See that the “he gave” really means “he begot”? But why didn’t he say, “That they may share my glory” instead of “that they may behold my glory”? Here he implies that what they are doing is looking on the Son of God. This certainly is what causes them to be glorified, as Paul says, “with open face mirroring the glory of the Lord.” [1] For as they who look on the sunbeams and enjoy a very clear atmosphere draw their enjoyment from their sight, so then also our sight will cause us greater pleasure. At the same time also he shows that what they should behold was not the body then seen but something awesome. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.2-3. [2]

[1] 2 Cor 3:18.

[2] NPNF 1 14:304-5**.

PRESENCE AND VISION

AUGUSTINE: Let us not be making inquiries as to where the Son, the Father’s co-equal, is, since no one has yet found out where he is not. But if anyone would inquire, let him inquire rather how he may be with him—not everywhere, as he is, but wherever he may be. For when he said to the [thief] … “Today you will be with me in paradise,” [1] in respect to his human nature his own soul was on that very day to be in hell, his flesh in the sepulcher. But as respected his Godhead he was certainly also in paradise. And therefore the soul of the thief, absolved from his past crimes and already in the blessed enjoyment of his grace, although his soul could not be everywhere as Christ was, yet could on that very day be also with him in paradise, from which he, who is always everywhere, had not withdrawn. On this account, doubtless, it was not enough for him to say, “I will that they also be where I am,” but he added, “with me.” For to be with him is the chief good. For even the miserable can be where he is, since wherever any are, there is he also. But the blessed are only with him because it is only of him that they can be blessed. Was it not truly said to God, “If I ascend into heaven, you are there. And if I go down into hell, you are present”? [2] Or is not Christ after all that Wisdom of God that “penetrates everywhere because of its purity”? [3] But “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it.” [4] Let us take a similar illustration from what is visible, even if it is only remotely similar. The blind person—even when there is light where he is—does not really experience the light but is, in reality, absent from its presence. In the same way, because someone who is an unbeliever and ungodly (or even a believer who is godly) is not yet competent to gaze on the light of wisdom—although there is nowhere he or she could be where Christ is not—yet that person still cannot experience Christ with actual sight. For there is no doubt that a true believer is with Christ by faith, because in reference to this he says, “He that is not with me is against me.” [5] But when he said to God the Father, “I will that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am,” he spoke exclusively of that sight that will see him as he is. [6] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 111.2. [7]

[1] Lk 23:43.

[2] Ps 139:8 (138:8 LXX).

[3] Wis 7:24.

[4] Jn 1:5.

[5] Mt 12:30.

[6] See 1 Jn 3:2.

[7] NPNF 1 7:413-14**; CCL 36:629-30.

FUTURE IMPLICATIONS OF UNITY IN GOD

ORIGEN: The Lord himself, in the Gospel, not only declares that these same results will occur in the future but that they are to be brought about by his own intercession when he himself decides to obtain them from the Father for his disciples, saying, “Father, I will that where I am, they also may be with me. And as you and I are one, may they also be one in us.” In this, the divine likeness itself already appears to advance (if we may so express it) from being merely similar to becoming the same, because, undoubtedly, in the consummation, or the end, God is “all and in all.” [1] …

I am of the opinion that the expression by which God is said to be “all in all” means that he is “all” in each individual person. Now he will be “all” in each individual when all those with any rational understanding—cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away—either feel, understand or think in terms wholly divine. He will be “all” in each person when that person’s understanding will no longer behold or retain anything else other than God, but God alone will be the measure and standard of all his or her movements. This is when God will be “all,” for there will no longer be any distinction of good and evil, since evil will no longer exist. For God is, then, all things, and no evil can be present where he is. Nor will there be a desire any longer to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on the part of one who is always in the possession of good and to whom God is everything. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.1, 3. [2]

[1] 1 Cor 15:28.

[2] ANF 4:344-45**; GCS 22(5): 280-81, 283-84.

17:24b | Sharing Christ’s Glory

OUR GLORY IS RECEIVED, NOT GIVEN

IRENAEUS: Service [rendered] to God brings no profit to God, nor does God need our obedience. However, he grants life, incorruption and eternal glory to those who follow and serve him, bestowing gifts on those who serve [him] because they do serve him and on his followers because they do follow him. But he does not receive any benefit from them because he is already rich, perfect and in need of nothing. Still, God demands service from men and women so that he can benefit those who continue in his service, since he is so good and merciful. For as much as God lacks nothing, that is how much we stand in need of fellowship with God, because our glory consists in continuing and remaining permanently in God’s service. AGAINST HERESIES 4.14.1. [1]

[1] ANF 1:478**; SC 100:538-40.

LOOKING FORWARD TO FUTURE GLORY

CYPRIAN: When we die, we are passing over to immortality by death; nor can eternal life follow, unless we depart from this life. It is not an ending but a transit, and this journey of time that we are traveling on is a passage to eternity. Who would not want to hurry on to something better? Who would not crave being changed and renewed into the likeness of Christ and to arrive more quickly to the dignity of heavenly glory, since Paul the apostle announces and says, “For our [citizenship] is in heaven, from where also we look for the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change the body of our humiliation, and conform it to the body of his glory”? [1] Christ the Lord also promises that this is how we shall be when—in order that we may be with him and that we may live with him in eternal mansions and rejoice in heavenly kingdoms—he prays to the Father for us, saying, “Father, I will that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am and may see the glory that you have given me before the world was made.” The person who is allowed to go up to the throne of Christ, to the glory of the heavenly kingdoms, should not mourn or lament, but rather, in keeping with the Lord’s promise and his faith in the truth, he should rejoice in this his departure and translation. ON MORTALITY 7.22. [2]

[1] Phil 3:20-21.

[2] ANF 5:474**; CCL 3A:28-29.

17:25 | The World Is Ignorant of the Father

JESUS FRUSTRATED WITH THE UNBELIEF OF THE JEWS

CHRYSOSTOM: What does he mean when he says, “O righteous Father, the world has not known you”? What is the connection with what preceded? Here he shows that no one knows God except those who have come to know the Son. And what he says, then, is like this: “I wanted everyone to know you, and yet they have not known you, although they can find no fault with you.” For this is the meaning of “O righteous Father.” And here he seems to me to speak these words as one who is frustrated that they refused to know someone who is so just and good. For since the Jews had said that they knew God but that Jesus did not, he takes aim at this perception, saying, “For you [the Father] loved me before the foundation of the world.” In this way he put together a defense against the accusations of the Jews. For how could he who had received glory, who was loved before the foundation of the world, who desired to have them as witnesses of that glory—how could he be opposed to the Father? And so, he is in effect saying, “What the Jews say then is not true when they say they know you and I don’t. On the contrary, I know you, and they don’t.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.3. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:305**.

THE WORLD IGNORANT OF CHRIST’S PURPOSE TO RESTORE HUMANITY

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ calls the Father righteous with good reason. For by the Father’s approval and consent the Son became man that he might endow human nature, which was created for good works, [1] with sanctification through the Spirit, and union with God and an abiding place in the mansions above where he will live and reign with him. For God did not create humanity at the beginning to do wickedness. But their nature was perverted into vice by the impious schemes of the devil, and they were led astray from the guidance of old that they had received at the hands of God. They were uprooted, as it were, from its moorings. In truth, it seemed good to the righteous Father to lift up again that human nature that had been cast down through the devil’s malice and to establish in its former position what had been unduly debased. He wanted to rid the human nature of the foulness of sin and, as it were, transform it into its original image as it had been at first created. He also sought to subject the adversary, that is, Satan, who assaulted humanity and impiously dared to make its ruin complete, to the vengeance that was fitting for him. Although I personally think any kind of chastisement was slight for someone who exhibited such madness against God. Therefore he says, “O righteous Father,” “for you are righteous and good, and your judgment is true,” [2] because you have sent me down, your own true Son, to the world to help and renew it. But the world is blind to all this! He says, For though you are exactly as I described you, “the world did not know you.” Otherwise they would have surely seen the loving-kindness of your judgment and your merciful will. In that case, they should have hurried to welcome their Savior and provided him with willing service. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12. [3]

[1] See Eph 2:10.

[2] Ps 119:137 (118:137 LXX).

[3] LF 48:561*.

17:26 | The Name Made Known

OUR ACTIONS OF LOVE MAKE THE NAME KNOWN

CHRYSOSTOM: For, [Jesus says], if they learn who you are, O Father, then they will know that I am not separated from you. They will know that I am one of your most dearly loved, a true Son and someone who is closely knit to you. And those who are rightly persuaded of this will keep their faith focused on me and remain in perfect love. And as long as they exercise their love as they should, I remain in them. Isn’t it great how he finishes off this discourse on the note of love, the mother of all blessings? Let us then believe and love God, that it may not be said of us, “They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny him.” [1] And again, “He has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” [2] For when he helps his workers and family and strangers, while you do not even help those who are related to you by family, what will be your excuse later on when God is blasphemed and insulted because of you? Consider what opportunities of doing good God has given to us. “Have mercy on one,” he says, “as a family member, on another as a friend, on another as a neighbor, on another as a citizen, on another as a fellow human being.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.3-4. [3]

[1] Tit 1:16.

[2] 1 Tim 5:8.

[3] NPNF 1 14:305**.

THE FATHER LOVES US AS MEMBERS OF CHRIST’S BODY

AUGUSTINE: But how else is the love with which the Father has loved the Son in us as well, except because of the fact that we are his members and are loved in him—since he is loved in the totality of his person as both head and members? Therefore he added, “and I in them,” as if he were saying, “Since I am also in them.” For in one sense he is in us as in his temple. But in another sense, he is also in us because we are also [part of] him, since, when he became man and our head, we became his body. And so, the Savior’s prayer is finished, his passion begins. Let us, therefore, also finish the present discourse, that we may treat his passion, as he grants us grace. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 111.6. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:415**; CCL 36:632-33