ACC ~ John 19 v27

NOW THE HOUR HAS COME

GREGORY THE GREAT: The virgin mother, when wine was lacking, wanted Jesus to do a miracle. She was at once answered, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” as if to say plainly, The fact that I can do a miracle comes to me from my Father, not my mother. For it was from the nature of his Father that he could do miracles but from the nature of his mother that he could die. When he was on the cross, then, in dying he acknowledged his mother whom he commended to the disciple, saying, “Behold your mother.” And so, when he says, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come,” [1] he is in effect saying, In the miracle, which I did not from your nature, I do not acknowledge you. When the hour of death shall come, however, I shall acknowledge you as my mother, since it is from you that I can die. LETTER 10.39. [2]

[1] Jn 2:4.

[2] NPNF 2 13:48**. See also Augustine Tractates on the Gospel of John 119.1; On Faith and Creed 4.9.

A DEVOTED SON

AUGUSTINE: The good teacher does what he thereby reminds us ought to be done, and by his own example he instructed his disciples that care for their parents ought to be a matter of concern to pious children, as if that tree to which the members of the dying One were affixed were the very chair of office from which the Master was imparting instruction. From this salutary doctrine it was that the apostle Paul had learned what he taught in turn, when he said, “But if any does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” [1] And what are so much home concerns to anyone, as parents to children or children to parents? Of this most wholesome precept, therefore, the very Master of the saints set the example from himself, when—not as God for the handmaid whom he had created and governed but as a man for the mother of whom he had been created and whom he was now leaving behind—he provided to a certain degree another son in place of himself. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 119.2. [2]

[1] 1 Tim 5:8.

[2] NPNF 1 7:432-33*.

HONORING ONE’S PARENTS

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ here wanted to confirm the commandment that is clearly emphasized in the Law: “Honor your father and mother that it may be well with you.” [1] … Honoring one’s parents is surely a very precious virtue. And how else would we learn the importance of that love—even when we are overwhelmed by a flood of intolerable calamities—except by this primary example that Christ offers us? It is one thing to be mindful of the holy commandments in times of peace and quietness and quite another to fulfill your duty during the storms and troubles of life. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 12. [2]

[1] Ex 20:12.

[2] LF 48:634-35**.

A TRADITION [1] ABOUT MARY LIVING WITH JOHN

THE PASSING OF MARY: Therefore, when the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was hanging on the tree fastened by the nails of the cross for the life of the whole world, he saw about the cross his mother standing, and John the Evangelist, whom he peculiarly loved above the rest of the apostles because he alone of them was a virgin in the body. He gave him, therefore, the charge of holy Mary, saying to him, “Behold your mother!” And he said to her, “Behold your son!” From that hour the holy mother of God remained especially in the care of John, as long as she lived. And when the apostles had divided the world by lot for preaching, she settled in the house of his parents near Mount Olivet. THE PASSING OF MARY 1. [2]

[1] The Passing of Mary is part of the Apocrypha of the New Testament. It is cited here to provide a glimpse of the tradition on Mary. Other tradition places Mary in Ephesus with John. This is inferred from allusions in the records of the Council of Ephesus in 431, where a church is dedicated to Mary and we see Marian piety especially strong in Ephesus.

[2] ANF 8:595**.

JOHN RENOUNCED WEALTH AND RANK TO SERVE

JEROME: For we judge people’s virtue not by their sex but by their character, and we hold those to be worthy of the highest glory who have renounced both rank and wealth. It was for this reason that Jesus loved the Evangelist John more than the other disciples. For John was of noble birth and known to the high priest, yet he was so little intimidated by the plotting of the Jews that he introduced Peter into his court [1] and was the only one of the apostles bold enough to take his stand before the cross. For it was he who took the Savior’s parent to his own home. It was the virgin son [2] who received the virgin mother as a legacy from the Lord. LETTER 127.5. [3]

[1] See Jn 18:15-16.

[2] Tertullian goes so far as to call him a “voluntary celibate” (On Monogamy 17).

[3] NPNF 2 6:255**. See also Against Jovinianus 1.26.