ACC ~ John 17 v26

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