Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on John 14:23-31

Joh 14:22  Judas saith to him, not the Iscariot: Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world?
Joh 14:23  Jesus answered and said to him: If any one love me, he will keep my word. And my Father will love him and we will come to him and will make our abode with him.
Joh 14:24  He that loveth me not keepeth not my words. And the word which you have heard is not mine; but the Father’s who sent me.
Joh 14:25  These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you.
Joh 14:26  But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.
Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled: nor let it be afraid.

AUG. Our Lord having said, A little while, and the world sees Me no more: but you shall see Me: Judas, not the traitor named Iscariot, but he whose Epistle is read among the Canonical Scriptures, asks His meaning: Judas said to Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?

Our Lord in reply explains why He manifests Himself to His own, and not to aliens, viz. because the one love Him, the other do not. Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words.

GREG. If you would prove your love, show your works. The love of God is never idle; whenever it is, it does great things: if it do not work, it is not.

AUG. Love distinguishes the saints from the world: it makes men to be of one mind in an house; in which house the Father and the Son take their abode; who give that love to those, to whom in the end they will manifest themselves. For these is a certain inner manifestation of God, unknown to the ungodly, to whom there is no manifestation made of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and only could be of the Son in the flesh; which latter manifestation is not as the former, being only for a little while, not for ever, for judgment, not for joy, for punishment, not for reward.
And We will come to him: They come to us, in that we go to Them; They come by succoring, we go by obeying; They come by enlightening, we go by contemplating; They come by filling, we go by holding: so Their manifestation to us is not external, but inward; Their abode in us not transitory, but eternal. It follows, And will make Our abode with him.

GREG. Into some hearts He comes, but not to make His abode with them. For some feel compunction for a season and turn to God, but in time of temptation forget that which gave them compunction, and return to their former sins, just as if they had never lamented them. But whoever loves God truly, into his heart the Lord both comes, and also makes His abode therein: for the love of the Godhead so penetrates him, that no temptation withdraws him from it. He truly loves, whose mind no evil pleasure overcomes, through his consent thereto.

AUG. But while the Father and the Son make Their abode with the loving, soul, is the Holy Spirit excluded? What means that which is said of the Holy Spirit above: He dwells with you, and shall be in you, but that the Spirit makes His abode with us? Unless indeed a man be so absurd as to think that when the Father and the Son come, the Holy Spirit departs, as if to give place to His superiors.

Yet even this carnal thought is met by Scripture, in that it says, Abide with you for ever. He will therefore be in the same abode with Them for ever. As He did not come without Them, so neither They without Him. As a consequence of the Trinity, acts are sometimes attributed to single persons in it: but the substance of the same Trinity demands, that in such acts the presence of the other Persons also be implied.

GREG. In proportion as a man’s love rests upon lower things, in that proportion is he removed from heavenly love: He that loves Me not, keeps not My sayings. To the love then of our Maker, let the tongue, mind, life bear witness.

CHRYS. Or thus Judas thought that he should , see Him, as we see the dead in sleep: How is it, that you will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world? meaning, Alas, as you art to die, you will appear to us but as one dead. To correct this mistake, He says, I and My Father will come to him, i.e. I shall manifest Myself, even as My Father manifests Himself. And will make our abode with Him; which is not like a dream. It follows, And the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me; i.e. He that hears not My words, inasmuch as he loves not Me, so loves he not My Father. This He says to show that He spoke nothing which was not the Father’s, nothing beside what seemed good to the Father.

AUG. And perhaps there is a distinction at bottom, since He speaks of His sayings, when they are His own, in the plural number; as when He says, He that loves Me not, keeps not My sayings: when they are not His own, but the Father’s, in the singular, i.e. as the Word, which is Himself. For He is not His own Word, but the Father’s, as He is not His own image, but the Father’s, or His own Son, but the Father’s.

CHRYS. These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you. Some of these things were obscure, and not understood by the disciples.

AUG The abode He promised them hereafter is altogether a different one from this present abode He now speaks of. The one is spiritual and inward, the other outward, and perceptible to the bodily sight and hearing.

CHRYS. To enable them to sustain His bodily departure more cheerfully, He promises that that departure shall be the source of great benefit; for that while He was then in the body, they could never know much, because the Spirit would not have come: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.

GREG. Paraclete is Advocate, or Comforter. The Advocate then intercedes with the Father for sinners, when by His inward power He moves the sinner to pray for himself. The Comforter relieves the sorrow of penitents, and cheers them with the hope of pardon.

CHRYS. He often calls Him the Comforter, in allusion to the affliction in which they then were.

DIDYMUS. The Savior affirms that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father, in His, the Savior’s, name; which name is the Son. Here an agreement of nature and propriety, so to speak, of persons is strewn. The Son can come in the Father’s name only, consistently with the proper relationship of the Son to the Father, and the Father to the Son.

No one else comes in the name of the Father, but in the name of God, of the Lord, of the Almighty, and the like. As servants who come in the name of their Lord, do so as being the servants of that Lord, so the Son who comes in the name of the Father, bears that name as being the acknowledged only-begotten Son of the Father. That the Holy Spirit then is sent in the Son’s name, by the Father, shows that He is in unity with the Son: whence He is said too to be the Spirit of the Son, and to make those sons by adoption, who are willing to receive Him.
The Holy Spirit then, Who comes in the name of the Son from the Father, shall teach them, who are established in the faith of Christ, all things; all things which are spiritual, both the understanding of truth, and the sacrament of wisdom. But He will teach not like those who have acquired an art or knowledge by study and industry, but as being the very art, doctrine, knowledge itself. As being this Himself, the Spirit of truth will impart the knowledge of divine things to the mind.
GREG. Unless the Spirit be present to the mind of the hearer, the word of the teacher is vain. Let none then attribute to the human teacher, the understanding which follows in consequence of his teaching: for unless there be a teacher within, the tongue of the teacher outside will labor in vain. Nay even the Maker Himself does not speak for the instruction of man, unless the Spirit by His unction speaks at the same time.
AUG. So then the Son speaks, the Holy Spirit teaches: when the Son speaks we take in the words, when the Holy Spirit teaches, we understand those words. The whole Trinity indeed both speaks and teaches, but unless each person worked separately as well, the whole would be too much for human infirmity to take in.
GREG. But why is it said of the Spirit, He shall suggest all stings to you: to suggest being the office of an inferior? The word is used here, as it is used sometimes, in the sense of supplying secretly. The invisible Spirit suggests, not because He takes a lower place in teaching, but because He teaches secretly.

AUG. Suggest, i.e. bring to your remembrance. Every wholesome hint to remember that we receive is of the grace of the Spirit.
THEOPHYL. The Holy Spirit then was both to teach and to bring to remembrance: to teach what Christ had forborne to tell His disciples, because they were not able to bear it; to bring to remembrance what Christ had told them but which on account of its difficulty, or their slowness of understanding, they were unable to remember.
CHRYS. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: He says this to console His disciples, who were now troubled at the prospect of the hatred and opposition which awaited them after His departure.

AUG. He left no peace in this world; in which we conquer the enemy, and have love one to another: He will give us peace in the world to come, when we shall reign without an enemy, and where we shall be able to avoid disagreement. This peace is Himself, both when we believe that He is, and when we shall see Him as He is. But why does He say, Peace I leave with you, without the My, whereas He puts in My in, My peace 1 give to you? Are we to understand My in the former; or is it not rather left out with a meaning?

His peace is such peace as He has Himself; the peace which He left us in this world is rather our peace than His. He has nothing to fight against in Himself, because He has no sin: but ours is a peace in which we still say, Forgive us our debts (Matt 6:12). And in like manner we have peace between ourselves, because we mutually trust one another, that we mutually love one another. But neither is that a perfect peace; for we do not see into each other’s minds. I could not deny however that these words of our Lord’s may be understood as a simple repetition.

He adds, Not as the world gives, give I unto you: i.e. not as those men, who love the world, give. They give themselves peace, i.e. free, uninterrupted enjoyment of the world. And even when they allow the righteous peace, so far as not to persecute them, yet there cannot be true peace, where there is no true agreement, no union of heart.

CHRYS. External peace is often even hurtful, rather than profitable to those who enjoy it.

AUG. But there is a peace which is serenity of thought, tranquillity of mind, simplicity of heart, the bond of love, the fellowship of charity. None will be able to come to the inheritance of the Lord who do not observe this testament of peace; none be friends with Christ, who are at enmity with the Christians.

Joh 14:27  Peace I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled: nor let it be afraid.
Joh 14:28  You have heard that I said to you: I go away, and I come unto you. If you loved me you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I.
Joh 14:29  And now I have told you before it come to pass: that when it shall come to pass, you may believe.
Joh 14:30  I will not now speak many things with you. For the prince of this world: cometh: and in me he hath not any thing.
Joh 14:31  But that the world may know that I love the Father: and as the Father hath given me commandments, so do I. Arise, let us go hence.

CHRYS. After saying, Peace I leave with you, which was like taking farewell, He consoles them: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid: the two feelings of love and fear were now the uppermost in them.

AUG. Though He was only going for a time, their hearts would be troubled and afraid for what might happen before He returned; lest in the absence of the Shepherd the wolf might attack the flock: you have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. In that He was man, He went; in that He was God, He stayed.

Why then be troubled and afraid, when He left the eye only, not the heart? To make them understand that it was as man that He said, I go away, and come again to you; He adds, If you loved Me you would rejoice, because I said, I go to My Father; for My Father is greater than I. In that the Son then is unequal with the Father, through that inequality He went to the Father, from Him to come again to judge the quick and dead: in that He is equal to the Father, He never goes from the Father, but is everywhere altogether with Him in that Godhead, which is not confined to place.

Nay, the Son Himself, because that being equal to the Father in the form of God, He emptied Himself, not losing the form of God, but taking that of a servant, is greater even than Himself: the form of God which is not lost, is greater than the form of a servant which was put on. In this form of a servant, the Son of God is inferior not to the Father only, but to the Holy Ghost; in this the Child Christ was inferior even to His parents; to whom we read, He was subject. Let us acknowledge then the twofold substance of Christ, the divine, which is equal to the Father, and the human, which is inferior.

But Christ is both together, not two, but one Christ else the Godhead is a quaternity, not a Trinity. Wherefore He says, If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father; for human nature should exult at being thus taken up by the Only Begotten Word, and made immortal in heaven; at earth being raised to heaven, and dust sitting incorruptible at the right hand of the Father. Who, that loves Christ, will not rejoice at this, seeing, as he does, his own nature immortal in Christ, and hoping that He Himself will be so by Christ.
HILARY. Or thus: If the Father is greater by virtue of giving, is the Son less by confessing the gift? The giver is the greater, but He to whom unity with that giver is given, is not the less.
CHRYS. Or thus: The Apostles did not yet know what the resurrection was of which He spoke when He said, I go, and come again to you: or what they ought to think of it. They only knew the great power of the Father. So He tells them: Though you fear I shall not be able to save Myself, and do not trust to My appearing again after My crucifixion; yet when you hear that I go to My Father, you should rejoice, because I go to one greater, one able to dissolve and change all things. All this is said in accommodation to their weakness: as we see from the next words:   And now I have told you before it comes to pass; that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

AUG. But is not the time for belief before a thing takes place? Is it not the praise of faith, that it believes what it does not see? according to w hat is said below to Thomas: Because you have seen, you has believed. He saw one thing, believed another: what he saw was man, what he believed was God. And if belief can be talked of with reference to things seen, as when we say that we believe our eyes; yet it is not mature faith, but is merely preparatory to our believing what we do not see.

When it has come to pass, then He says, because after His death they would see Him alive again, and ascending to His Father; which sight would convince them that He was the Christ, the Son of God; able as He was to do so great a thing, and to foretell it. Which faith however would not be a new, but only an enlarged faith; or a faith which had failed at His death, and been renewed by His resurrection.

HILARY. He next alludes to the approach of the time when He would resume His glory. Hereafter 1 will not talk much with you.

BEDE. He says this because the time was now approaching for His being taken, and given up to death: For the Prince of this world comes.
AUG. i.e. the devil; the prince of sinners, not of creatures; as the Apostle said, Against the rulers of this world. Or, as He immediately adds by way of explanation, this darkness, meaning, the ungodly. And has nothing in Me. God had no sin as God, nor had His flesh contracted it by a sinful birth, being born of the Virgin. But how, it might be asked, can you die, if you have no sin: He answers,
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. He had been sitting at table with them all this time. Let us go, i.e. to the place, where He, Who had done nothing to deserve death, was to be delivered to death. But He had a commandment from His Father to die.

AUG. That the Son is obedient to the will and commandment of the Father, no more shows a difference in the two, than it would in a human father and son. But over and above this comes the consideration that Christ is not only God, and as such equal to the Father, but also man, and as such inferior to the Father.

CHRYS. Arise, let us go hence, is the beginning of the sentence which l, follows. The time and the place (they were in the midst of a town, and it was night time) had excited the disciples’ fears to such a degree, that they could not attend to any thing that was said, but rolled their eyes about, expecting persons to enter and assault them; especially when they heard our Lord say, Yet a little while I am with you; and, The prince of this world comes. To quiet their alarm then, He takes them to another place, where they imagine themselves safe, and would be able to attend to the great doctrines which He was going to set before them.

Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on John 15:26-27, 16:12-15

Ver 26. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me.27. And you also shall bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

CHRYS. The disciples might say, If they have heard words from Thee, such as none other has spoken, if they have seen works of Him, such as none other has done, and yet have not been convinced, but have hated your Father, and you with Him, why do you send us to preach? How shall we be believed? Such thoughts as these He now answers: But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of Me.

AUG. As if He said, Seeing Me, they hated and killed Me; but the Comforter shall give such testimony concerning Me as shall make them believe, though they see Me not. And because He shall testify, you shall testify also:

And you also shall bear witness; He will inspire your hearts, and you shall proclaim with your voices. And you will preach what you know, Because you have been with Me from the beginning; which now you do not do, because you have not yet the fullness of the Spirit. But the love of God shall then be shed abroad in your hearts by the Spirit which shall be given you, and shall make you confident witnesses to Me. The Holy Spirit by His testimony made others testify, taking away fear from the friends of Christ’s, and converting the hatred of His enemies into love.

DIDYMUS. The Holy Spirit He calls the Comforter, a name taken from His office, which is not only to relieve the sorrows of the faithful, but to fill them with unspeakable joy. Everlasting gladness is in those hearts, in which the Spirit dwells. The Spirit, the Comforter, is sent by the Son, not as Angels, or Prophets, or Apostles, are sent, but as the Spirit must be sent which is of one nature with the Divine wisdom and power that sends Him. The Son when sent by the Father, is not separated from Him, but abides in the Father, and the Father in Him. In the same way the Holy Spirit is not sent by the Son, and proceeds from the Father, in the sense of change of place. For as the Father’s nature, being incorporeal, is not local, so neither has the Spirit of truth, Who is incorporeal also, and superior to all created things, a local nature.

CHRYS. He calls Him not the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit of truth, to show the perfect faith that was due to Him. He knew that He proceeds from the Father, for He knew all things; He knew where He Himself came from, as He says of Himself above, I know whence I came, and whither l go (Joh_8:14).

DIDYMUS. He does not say, from God, or, from the Almighty, but, from the Father, because though the Father and God Almighty are the same, yet the Spirit of truth properly proceeds from God, as the Father, the Begetter. The Father and the Son together send the Spirit of truth: He comes by the will both of the Father and the Son.

THEOPHYL. Elsewhere He says that the Father sends the Spirit; now He says He does: Whom I will send to you, thus declaring the equality of the Father and the Son. That He might not be thought however to be opposed to the Father, and to be another and rival source, as it were, of the Spirit, He adds, From the Father, i.e., the Father agreeing, and taking an equal part in sending Him. When it is said that He proceeds, do not understand His procession to be an external mission, such as is given to ministering spirits, but a certain peculiar, and distinct procession, such as is true of the Holy Spirit alone. To proceed is not the same as being sent, but is the essential nature of the Holy Ghost, as coming from the Father.

AUG. If it be asked here whether the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son also, we may answer thus: The Son is the Son of the Father alone, and the Father is the Father of the Son only; but the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of one, but of both; since Christ Himself said, The Spirit of your Father which speaks in you (Mat_10:20). And the Apostle says, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts (Gal_4:6). This indeed, I think, is the reason why He is called peculiarly the Spirit. For both of the Father and the Son separately we may pronounce, that each is a Spirit. But what each is separately in a general sense, He who is not either one separately, but the union of both, is spiritually. But if the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son, why should we not believe that He proceeds from the Son? Indeed if He did not proceed from the Son, Christ would not after the resurrection have breathed on His disciples, and said, Receive you the Holy Ghost. This too is what is meant by the virtue which went out of Him, and healed all. If the Holy Ghost then proceeds both from the Father and the Son, why does Christ say, Who proceeds from the Father? He says it in accordance with His general way of referring all that He has to Him from whom He is; as where He says, My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If the doctrine was His, which He says was not His own, but the Father’s, much more does the Holy Spirit proceed from Him, consistently with His proceeding from the Father. From whom the Son has His Godhead, from Him He has it that the Holy Ghost proceeds from Him. And this explains why the Holy Ghost is not said to be born, but to proceed. For if He were born, He would be the Son of both Father and Son, an absurd supposition; for if two together have a Son, those two must be father and mother. But to imagine any such relation as this between God the Father, and God the Son, is monstrous. Even the human offspring does not proceed from father or mother at the same time; when it proceeds from the father, it does not proceed from the mother. Whereas the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father into the Son, and from the Son into the creature to be sanctified; but proceeds from Father and Son at once. And if the Father is life, and the Son is life, so the Holy Ghost is life also. Just then as the Father when He had life in Himself, gave also to the Son to have life in Himself; so He gave to the Son also that life should proceed from Him, even as it proceeded from Himself.

Ver  12. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.13. However when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come.14. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and shall show it to you.15. All things that the Father has are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it to you

THEOPHYL. Our Lord having said above, It is expedient for you that I go away, He enlarges now upon it: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

AUG. All heretics, when their fables are rejected for their extravagance by the common sense of mankind, try to defend themselves by this text; as if these were the things which the disciples could not at this time bear, or as if the Holy Spirit could teach things, which even the unclean spirit is ashamed openly to teach and preach.

But bad doctrines such as even natural shame cannot bear are one thing, good doctrines such as our poor natural understanding cannot bear are another. The one are allied to the shameless body, the other lie far beyond the body. But what are these things which they could not bear; I cannot mention them for this very reason; for who of us dare call himself able to receive what they could not? Some one will say indeed that many, now that the Holy Ghost has been sent, can do what Peter could not then, as earn the crown of martyrdom.

But do we therefore know what those things were, which He was unwilling to communicate; for it seems most absurd to suppose that the disciples were not able to bear then the great doctrines, that we find in the Apostolic Epistles, which were written afterwards, which our Lord is not said to have spoken to them. For why could they not bear then what every one now reads and bears in their writings, even though he may not understand? Men of perverse sects indeed cannot bear what is found in Holy Scripture concerning the Catholic faith, as we cannot bear their sacrilegious vanities; for not to bear means not to acquiesce in.

But what believer or even catechumen before he has been baptized and received the Holy Ghost, does not acquiesce in and listen to, even if he does not understand, all that was written after our Lord’s ascension; But some one will say, Do spiritual men never hold doctrines which they do not communicate to carnal men, but do to spiritual?

There is no necessity why any doctrines should be kept secret from the babes and revealed to the grown up believers. Spiritual men ought not altogether to withhold spiritual doctrines from the carnal, seeing the Catholic faith ought to be preached to all; nor at the same time should they lower them in order to accommodate them to the understanding of persons who cannot receive them, and so make their own preaching contemptible, rather than the truth intelligible.

So then we are not to understand these words of our Lord to refer to certain secret doctrines which if the teacher revealed, the disciple would not be able to bear, but to those very things in religious doctrine which are within the apprehension of all of us. If Christ chose to communicate these to us, in the same way in which He does to the Angels, what men, yea what spiritual men, which the Apostles were not now, could bear them? For indeed every thing which can be known of the creature is inferior to the Creator; and yet who is silent about Him?

While in the body we cannot know all the truth, as the Apostle says, We know in part (1 Cor 13); but the Holy Spirit sanctifying us fits us for enjoying that fullness of which the same Apostle says, Then face to face. Our Lord’s promise, But when He the Spirit of truth shall come, He shall teach you all truth, or shall lead you into all truth, does not refer to this life only, but to the life to come, for which this complete fullness is reserved. The Holy Spirit both teaches believers now all the spiritual things which they are capable of receiving, and also kindles in their hearts a desire to know more.

DIDYMUS. Or He means that His hearers had not yet attained to all those things which for His name’s sake they were able to bear; so, revealing lesser things, He puts off the greater for a future time, such things as they could not understand till the Cross itself of their crucified Head had been their instruction. As yet they were slaves to the types, and shadows, and images of the Law, and could not bear the truth of which the Law was the shadow. But when the Holy Ghost came, He would lead them by His teaching and discipline into all truth, transferring them from the dead letter to the quickening Spirit, in Whom alone all Scripture truth resides.

CHRYS. Having said then, you cannot bear them now, but then you shall be able, and, The Holy Spirit shall lead you into all truth; lest this should make them suppose that the Holy Spirit was the superior, He adds, For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.

AUG. This is like what He said of Himself above, i.e., I can of My own Self do nothing; as I hear I judge. But that may be understood of Hi m as man; how must we understand this of the Holy Ghost, Who never became a creature by assuming a creature? As meaning that He is not from Himself: The Son is born of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father. In what the difference consists between proceeding and being born, it would require a long time to discuss, and would be rash to define.

But to hear is with Him to know, to know to be. As then He is not from Himself, but from Him from Whom He proceeds, from Whom His being is, from the same is His knowledge. From the same therefore His hearing. The Holy Ghost then always hears, because He always knows; and He has heard, hears, and will hear from Him from Whom He is.

DIDYMUS. He shall not speak of Himself, i.e., not without Me, and Mine and the Father’s will: because He is not of Himself, but from the Father and Me. That He exists, and that He speaks, He has from the Father and Me. I speak the truth; i.e., I inspire as well as speak by Him, since He is the Spirit of Truth. To say and to speak in the Trinity must not be understood according to our usage, but according to the usage of incorporeal natures, and especially the Trinity, which implants Its will in the hearts of believers, all of those who are worthy to hear It.

For the Father then to speak, and the Son to hear, is a mode of expressing the identity of their nature, and their agreement. Again, the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of wisdom, cannot hear from the Son what He does not know, seeing He is the very thing which is produced from the Son, i.e. truth proceeding from truth, Comforter from Comforter, God from God. Lastly, lest any one should separate Him from the will and society of the Father and the Son, it is written, Whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.

AUG. But it does not follow from hence that the Holy Spirit is inferior; for it is only signified that He proceeds from the Father.

AUG. Nor let the use of the future tense perplex you; that hearing is eternal, because the knowledge is eternal. To that which is eternal, without beginning, and without end, a verb of any tense may be applied. For though an unchangeable nature does not admit of was and shall be, but only is, yet it is allowable to say of It, was and is and shall be: was, because It never began; shall be, because It never shall end; is, because It always is.

DIDYMUS. By the Spirit of truth too the knowledge of future events has been granted to holy men. Prophets filled with this Spirit foretold and saw things to come, as if they were present: And He will show you things to come.

BEDE. It is certain that many filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit have foreknown future events. But as many gifted saints have never had this power, the words, He will show you things to come, may be taken to mean, bring back to your minds the Joys of your heavenly country. He did however inform the Apostles of what was to come, viz. of the evils that they would have to suffer for Christ’s sake, and the good things they would receive in recompense.

CHRYS. In this way then He raised their spirits; for there is nothing for which mankind so long, as the knowledge of the future. He relieves them from all anxiety on this account, by showing that dangers would not fall upon them unawares. Then to show that He could have told them all the truth into which the Holy Spirit would lead them, He adds, He shall glorify Me.

AUG. By pouring love into the hearts of believers, and making them spiritual, and so able to see that the Son Whom they had known before only according to the flesh, and thought a man like themselves, was equal to the Father. Or certainly because that love filling them with boldness, and casting out fear, they proclaimed Christ to men, and so spread His fame throughout the whole world. For what they were going to do in the power of the Holy Ghost, this the Holy Ghost says He does Himself.

CHRYS. And because He had said, You have one Master, even Christ (Mat_23:8), that they might not be prevented by this from admitting the Holy Ghost as well, He adds, For He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it to you.

DIDYMUS. To receive must be taken here in a sense agreeable to the Divine Nature. As the Son in giving is not deprived of what He gives, nor imparts to others with any loss of His own, so too the Holy Ghost does not receive what before He had not; for if He received what before He had not, the gift being transferred to another, the giver would be thereby a loser.

We must understand then that the Holy Ghost receives from the Son that which belonged to His nature, and that there are not two substances implied, one giving and the other receiving, but one substance only. In like manner the Son too is said to receive from the Father that wherein He Himself subsists. For neither is the Son any thing but what is given Him by the Father, nor the Holy Ghost any substance but that which is given Him by the Son.

AUG. But it is not true, as some heretics have thought, that because the Son receives from the Father, the Holy Ghost from the Son, as if by gradation, that therefore the Holy Ghost is inferior to the Son. He Himself solves this difficulty, and explains His own words: All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it to you.

DIDYMUS. As if He said, Although the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, yet all things that the Father has are Mine, and even the Spirit of the Father is Mine, and receives of Mine. But beware, when you hear this, that you think not it is a thing or possession which the Father and the Son have. That which the Father has according to His substance, i.e. His eternity, immutability, goodness, it is this which the Son has also.

Away with the evils of logicians who say, therefore the Father is the Son. Had He said indeed, All that God has are Mine, impiety might have taken occasion to raise its head; but when He said, All things that the Father has are Mine, by using the name of the Father, He declares Himself the Son, and being the Son, He usurps not the Paternity, though by the grace of adoption He is the Father of many saints.

HILARY. Our Lord therefore has not left it uncertain whether the Paraclete be from the Father, or from the Son; for He is sent by the Son, and proceeds from the Father; both these He receives from the Son. You ask whether to receive from the Son and to proceed from the Father be the same thing.

Certainly, to receive from the Son must be thought one and the same thing with receiving from the Father; for when He says, All things that the Father has are Mine, therefore said I, that He shall receive of Mine, He shows herein that the things are received from Him, because all things which the Father has are His, but that they are received from the Father also. This unity has no diversity; nor does it matter from whom the thing is received; since that which is given by the Father is counted also as given by the Son.

St Thomas Aquinas’ Lecture on Psalm 11 (Ps 10 in Latin Vulgate)

This post contains (side by side) both the Latin original, and the English translation of St Thomas’ Lecture on Psalm 11. In the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate the Psalm is number 10.

The post appears here courtesy of the Aquinas Translation Project, and in accordance with their copyright policy: The copyright for these translations are held by the individuals who have translated them. They are offered for public use with the provision that, if copied, they not be altered from their present form, and that the copyright notice remain at the bottom of each translation to ensure that appropriate credit be given to both individual and the Project. Links should be established to this index page. All Biblical translations are taken from the Douay-Rheims version.

Psalm 10 

[In finem psalmus David] In Domino confido, quomodo dicitis animae meae: Transmigra in montem sicut passer. Quoniam ecce peccatores intenderunt arcum; paraverunt sagittas suas in pharetra, ut sagittent in obscuro rectos corde. Quoniam quae perfecisti destruxerunt.	[Unto the end. A psalm for David] In the Lord I put my trust: how then do you say to my soul: Get thee away from hence to the mountain like a sparrow? For, lo, the wicked have bent their bow; they have prepared their arrows in the quiver; to shoot in the dark the upright of heart. For they have destroyed the things which thou hast made:
Iustus autem quid fecit? Dominus in templo sancto suo, Dominus in caelo sedes eius.	But what has the just man done? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven.
Oculi eius in pauperem respiciunt: palpebrae eius interrogant filios hominum. Dominus interrogat iustam et impium.	His eyes look on the poor man: his eyelids examine the sons of men. The Lord trieth the just and the wicked:
Qui autem diligit iniquitatem, odit animam suam. Pluet super peccatores laqueos: ignis, et sulphur, et spiritus procellarum, pars calicis eorum. Quoniam iustus Dominus, et iustitias dilexit: aequitatem vidit vultus eius.	But he that loveth iniquity hateth his own soul. He shall rain snares upon sinners: fire and brimstone and storms of winds shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is just, and hath loved justice: his countenance hath beheld righteousness.
a. In praecedentibus psalmis , posita est gratiarum actio pro liberatione ab hostibus; hic ostendit fiduciam ex hoc conceptam. Et loquitur ex persona hominis desiderantis Dei beneficia, qui consequitur securitatem.	a. In the preceding psalm, the giving of thanks was set forth for (the psalmist’s) liberation from (his) enemies. Here, he shows the confidence brought about by having received (this liberation). And he speaks from the stance of one desiring God’s kindnesses which follows upon freedom from danger.
Titulus, In finem psalmus David: Hieronymus habet, Victor. Hoc supra expositum est.	The title (of this psalm is) Unto the end. A psalm for David. Jerome(‘s version) has Conqueror. This was explained above (in the commentary on Psalm 4).
Hic psalmus potest exponi litteraliter de David: mystice autem de Christo, sive allegorice. Moraliter vero de viro iusto, et haereticis, ut exponit Glossa.	This psalm can be explained literally of David, or mystically of Christ, or allegorically. Morally it concerns the just man, and heretics, as the Gloss explains.
Primo ergo David proponit suam fiduciam, In Domino confido: quasi liberatus per iustum Dei iudicium deprimens peccatores et exaltans pauperes: Hier. 17: Beatus vir qui confidit in Domino, et erit Dominus fiducia eius: Dan. 3: Non est confusio confidentibus in te. Secundo ponit fiduciae eius impugnationem, quae fiebat verbis: Quomodo dicitis etc.	Therefore, David first sets forth his confidence, In the Lord I put my trust: as liberated by God’s righteous judgment, weighing sinners down and lifting up the poor: Jeremiah 17:7: Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence: Daniel 3:40: There is no confusion in those who trust in you. Second, he describes the assault upon his confidence, which was effected through the spoken word (at), How then do you say etc.
David enim fugienti consulebant quidam ut iret ad loca munita et montes; vel ut ibi latitaret ut passer est factus. Quomodo? Ecce peccatores etc. Et exponitur dupliciter. Primo ut sint verba non David, sed aliorum: quasi dicat: ideo Transmigra, quia, Tetenderunt arcum. Vel sint verba David, quasi dicat, In Domino confido: quia tetenderunt arcum, paraverunt peccatores sagittas etc. Et facit tria. Primo ponit eorum pravam solicitudinem. Secundo perversam intentionem, Ut sagittent. Tertio iniustam operationem, Quoniam quae perfecisti.	Some people counseled David when he was fleeing so that he would go to a fortified place and indeed to the mountains; or, so that he would hide there as a sparrow would. For (what reason)? Lo, the wicked have bent their bow, etc. This can be explained in two ways. First, so that these words are not David’s, but (instead are those) of others: and so, Get thee away, because They (the wicked) have bent their bow. Or, (second), these words are David’s, as if he were saying, In the Lord I put my trust:…for they have bent their bow, they have prepared their arrows etc. And (with respect to the second of these), he does three things. First, he sets forth their perverse solicitude, second, their perverse intention, at, To shoot, and third, their unjust activity, at, For they have destroyed the things which thou hast made.
Mystice de Christo sic: ego Christus in Domino confido: Quomodo ergo vos pharisaei dicitis transmigra in montem, idest ad legis observantias datas in monte Sinai: Deut. 33: Dominus de sinai venit, et de seir ortus est nobis; et nisi hoc feceris, Ecce peccatores intenderunt arcum etc., idest paraverunt se ad occidendum te et discipulos tuos; et hoc, Quoniam quae tu perfecisti destruxerunt, idest occiderunt.	(This could can also be said) mystically of Christ. And so, “I, the Christ, In the Lord I put my trust: how, then, do you, the pharisees, say…get thee away…to the mountain, that is, to the observances of the law given on Mount Sinai: Deuteronomy 33:2: The Lord came from Sinai, and from Seir he rose up to us; and unless you do this, Lo, the wicked have bent their bow etc, that is, they have readied themselves to kill you and your disciples; For they have destroyed the things which thou hast made, that is, they have killed.
Vel moraliter dicit fidelis haereticis, secundum Glossam, In Domino confido, tenens eius fidem: Quomodo ergo vos haeretici, Dicitis, transmigra, ad nos, In montem, idest Christum quem crediderunt habere haeretici? Isa. 2: Erit praeparatus mons domus Domini in vertice montium: 2 Reg. 1: Montes gelboe, nec ros nec pluvia veniant super vos, neque sint agri primitiarum quia ibi abiectus est clypeus fortium, idest Iudaeorum, vel magnorum haereticorum: Hier. 51: Ecce ego mons pestifer, qui corrumpo universam terram.	Or, (taking the passage) morally, the faithful are speaking about the heretics, according to the Gloss, In the Lord I put my trust, keeping his faith: How, then, do you heretics, Say, to us, Get thee away…to the mountain, that is, to Christ whom the heretics believed they possessed? Isaiah 2:2: The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains: 2 Kings 1:21: Ye mountains of Gelboe, let neither dew, nor rain come upon you, neither be they fields of firstfruits: for there was cast away the shield of the valiant, that is of the Jews, or of the great heretics: Jeremiah 51:25: Behold I come against thee, thou destroying mountain…which corruptest the whole earth.
Vel mons altitudo intellectus quem fingunt se habere. Sed si hoc facerem, essem passer levis, non mansionarius.	Or, the mountain is the height of the intellect which they suppose themselves to have. But if I had accomplished this, I would be a swift sparrow, and not (a sparrow) belonging to a dwelling (a pet?).
Quoniam ecce peccatores, idest haeretici, Intenderunt arcum, idest ad se traxerunt sacram scripturam, sicut qui tendunt arcum: Paraverunt sagittas, venenosa eloquia, In pharetra, idest memoria vel scientia: Hier. 5: Pharetra eius quasi sepulcrum patens. Hieronymus habet, Sagittas suas super nervum, idest chordam: intentio perversa, Ut sagittent rectos corde, idest iustos, In obscuro, idest dolose: Hier. 9: Sagitta vulnerans lingua eorum. Vel, In obscuro, idest subtilitatibus sacrae scripturae.	For, lo, the wicked, that is the heretics, Have bent their bow, that is, have drawn (or “turned”) sacred scripture towards themselves, just as those who aim a bow: They have prepared their arrows, eloquence full of poison, In the quiver, that is, in memory and knowledge: Jeremiah 5:16: Their quiver is as an open sepulchre. Jerome(‘s version) has, His arrows upon the sinew, that is, the string (of the bow): (with a) perverse intention, To shoot the upright of heart, that is the just, In the dark, that is, deceitfully: Jeremiah 9:8: Their tongue is a piercing arrow. Or, In the dark, that is, with the intricacies of sacred scripture.
Alia littera habet In obscura luna. Luna est ecclesia: Cant. 6: Pulchra ut luna, propter eius claritatem, et propter eius obscurationem. Claritas lunae est a sole; sic claritas ecclesiae est a Christo: Io. 1: Erat lux vera quae illuminat etc. Item medius lunae globus est clarus, et medius obscurus; sic in ecclesia aliqui sunt clari, aliqui obscuri. Obscuratur autem luna, secundum Glossam, quandoque per revolutionem, et sic fit obscura: quandoque per eclypsim, et tunc in sanguinem convertitur: quandoque per interpositionem nubis, et tunc fit nigra. Sic ecclesia fit obscura in novitate, quando non sunt in ea praedicatores et doctores; sanguinea per persecutionem tyrannorum; nigra per nubes, idest per seductionem haereticorum; et tunc vult sagittare.	Another version has In the dark moon. The moon is the Church: Canticle of Canticles 6:9: Fair as the moon, both on account of her brightness, and her darkness. The brightness of the moon is from the sun, just as the brightness of the Church is from Christ: John 1:9: That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man. Again, half of the moon’s sphere is bright and the other half is dark, just as the Church is bright at times, and dark at others. The moon is darkened, according to the Gloss, at times through its revolution, and so it becomes dark: at other times, through an eclipse, and then it is becomes red or bloody; still other times, (it is darkened) through the interposition of clouds, and then it becomes black. So too does the Church become dark when, in her newness, there are no preachers and doctors for her; bloody through the persecution of tyrants; black through clouds, that is, through the seduction of heretics; and then she wishes to discharge her arrows.
Hic ponitur iniusta actio eorum, Quoniam quae perfecisti destruxerunt. Alia littera, Quoniam quem perfecisti (destruxerunt); sed prima melior est, et secundum Hieronymum, Quoniam leges quas perfecisti destruxerunt: Isa. 48: Scio quod praevaricans praevaricatus es, et transgressorem ex utero vocavi te: Hier. 2: A saeculo fregisti iugum, rupisti vincula; dixisti, non serviam: quasi dicat: destruent legem tuam, quam tu praecepisti servari. Exod. 33: Innocentem et iustum non condemnabis; sed isti volunt eum occidere: Psal. 118: Dissipaverunt iniqui legem tuam; et Deus perfecit eam, quia dedit eam: Psal. 147: Non fecit taliter omni nationi: Matth. 5: Non veni solvere legem, sed adimplere.	Their unjust activity is set down here, (at) For they have destroyed the things which thou hast made. Another version has, For (they have destroyed) he whom you have made; but the former is better. According to Jerome(‘s version, we have), For they have destroyed the laws which you have made: Isaiah 48:8: I know that transgressing thou wilt transgress, and I have called thee a transgressor from the womb; Jeremiah 2:20: Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve: as if he were saying: “They destroy your law which you yourself have given to be observed.” Exodus 23:7: The innocent and just person thou shalt not condemn; but they (the unjust and the wicked) wish to kill him (the innocent and just person): Psalm 118:53: The wicked have destroyed thy law; and God completed it (the law), because he gave it: Psalm 147:20: He hath not done in like manner to every nation; Matthew 5:17: I am not come to destroy (the law), but to fulfil (it).
Si dicatur, Quem perfecisti destruxerunt, sic intelligitur de Christo, quem tu perfecisti.	If it were said, They have destroyed (he) whom you have made, then it is understood of Christ, whom you have made.
b. Iustus. Hic ponitur ratio fiduciae. Et primo ponitur quaestio. Secundo solutio, ibi, Dominus in templo etc. Tertio solutionis ratio, Quoniam iustus Dominus, et iustitias dilexit.	b. (But what has) the just (man done?). Here, he sets forth the reason for (his) confidence. First, he puts forth a question, second, a solution, at, The Lord is in his holy temple, and third, the reason for the solution, at, For the Lord is just, and hath loved justice.
Dicit ergo, Sic faciunt isti; sed iustus Dominus auctoritate videns hoc, quid facit? Hier. 33: Hoc est nomen quod vocabunt eum Dominus iustus noster. Solvit quaestionem, et ponit quid facit hic iustus. Et primo eius iudiciariam potestatem, vel conditionem iudicis. Secundo iudicii discussionem, Oculi eius. Tertio condemnationem concussorum, Qui autem diligit.	And so, he says, “These (wicked men) have acted so; but what does the just Lord, seeing this, do in his might?” Jeremiah 33:16: This is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our just one. He answers (his) question, and sets down what the just one does. First, (he sets forth) his judicial power, or the rank of the judge, second, the judge’s examination, at, His eyes, and third, the condemnation of those closely examined, at, He that loveth iniquity.
Iudex si semper punit, crudelis est; si semper parcit, remissus. Deus autem utrumque facit; et ideo locum habet tribunal misericordiae; et hoc est templum: Hebr. 4: Adeamus cum fiducia ad thronum gratiae; et ideo dicit, Dominus in templo sancto suo: 1 Cor. 3: Nescitis quia templum Dei estis, et spiritus sanctus habitat in vobis? Habet etiam locum iustitiae, unde punit, scilicet caelum; et hoc est etiam, Dominus in caelo sedes eius. Ubi enumeratur potestas eius: Isa. ult.: Caelum mihi sedes est.	If a judge always punishes, he is cruel; if he always pardons, he is remiss. God, however, both pardons and punishes; for that reason, the judgment seat of mercy has a place, and this is the temple: Hebrews 4:16: Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace; and thus he says, The Lord is in his holy temple: 1 Corinthians 3:16: Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (The judgment seat) of justice, whence he punishes, also has a place, namely heaven; and this is also (set forth at), The Lord’s throne is in heaven, where his power is recounted: Isaiah 66:1: Heaven is my throne.
Templum dicuntur fideles propter devotionem, caelum propter sapientiam. Item caelum dicitur cuna in qua Deus sedet ut faciat eum caelum, idest secreta scientem.	The faithful are called “a temple” on account of their devotion, and “heaven” because of their wisdom. Again, “heaven” is said to be the cradle in which God sits so that he makes a heaven in him (namely, the faithful), that is, (making him to) know secret things.
Item dicitur anima templum Dei, quia in templo Deus adoratur. Similiter in anima fideli: Matth. 6: Intra in cubiculum tuum, idest secreta animae tuae, Et clauso ostio ora patrem tuum in abscondito. Item ibi offeruntur sacrificia: similiter in anima fideli: Psal. 50: Sacrificium deo spiritus contribulatus. Item in templo funduntur orationes ad Deum, ita in anima operatur Deus: Isa. 26: Omnia opera nostra operatus es in nobis Domine. Item, quia Deus eam sanctificat, et in eam descendit sicut in templum: Sap. 4: Gratia Dei in sanctos eius, et respectus etc.	Again, the soul is called the temple of God, because God is adored in the temple. In like fashion (is God adored) in the soul of the faithful: Matthew 6:6: Enter into thy chamber, that is into the hidden recesses of your soul, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret. Again, sacrifices are offered there (in the temple): in like fashion (are such offered) in the soul of the faithful: Psalm 50:19: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit. Again, as prayers are poured forth to God in the temple, so too does God work in the soul: Isaiah 26:12: Thou hast wrought all our works for us. Again, because God sanctifies her, he descends into her as into his temple: Wisdom 4:15: The grace of God, (and his mercy is with his saints,) and that he hath respect to his chosen.
c. Oculi. Hic agit de discussione iudicii. Et primo ponit divinae cognitionis perfectionem. Secundo diligentem examinationem, ibi, Palpebrae eius interrogant filios hominum. Tertio iudicii aequitatem, ibi, Dominus interrogat iustum et impium.	c. His eyes. Here he treats of the judge’s examination. And first, he sets down the perfection of divine knowledge, second, the careful examination, at, His eyelids examine the sons of men, and third, the judge’s equity, at, The Lord trieth the just and the wicked.
Per primum nullus potest occultari, quia videt affectum pauperis et impii, peccatoris et iusti: Ezech. 23: Oculi Domini lucidiores sunt super solem, circumspicientes super omnes vias hominum, et profundum abyssi, et hominum corda intuentes: Prov. 16: Omnes viae hominum patent oculis eius; spirituum ponderator est Dominus, idest cogitationum, vel animarum secundum glossam; et ideo dicit, Oculi eius in pauperem respiciunt, ad miserandum: Psal. 30: Miserere mei Domine, quoniam tribulor. Item Ps. 27: Dominus protector meus, et in ipso speravit cor meum etc. Ad protegendum etiam probando: Ps. 33: Oculi Domini super iustos. Item Ps. 31: In via hac qua gradieris, firmabo super te oculos meos. Et sic respiciens examinat diligenter.	Because of the first, (namely the perfection of divine knowledge), nothing can be hidden since he sees the condition of the poor man and the wicked, of the sinner and the just: The eyes of the Lord are brighter than the sun, watching carefully over the ways of men and the depth of the abyss, looking into the hearts of men (unknown: possibly a variant on Job 34:21-22); Proverbs 16:2: All the ways of a man are open to his eyes: the Lord is the weigher of spirits, that is, of (men’s) thoughts, or of (their) souls, according to the Gloss; whence he says, His eyes look on the poor man, to have mercy (on him): Psalm 30:10: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted. And again, at Psalm 27:7: The Lord is my helper and my protector: in him hath my heart confided etc. (His eyes look on the poor man) also to protect (him) while examining him: Psalm 33:16: The eyes of the Lord are upon the just. And again, at Psalm 31:8: I will instruct thee in this way, in which thou shalt go: I will fix my eyes upon thee. And so, looking in this way, he examines carefully.
Palpebrae eius interrogant etc. Per palpebras significatur discretio: quia sicut palpebrae oculi dirigunt visum, sic discretio moderatur humanam sapientiam: Prov. 4: Palpebrae tuae praecedant gressus tuos. Ipsa ergo discretio Dei interrogat, idest probat et examinat: Sap. 1: Cogitationibus impii interrogatio erit: sermonum autem illius auditio ad Deum veniet. Et quomodo? Quia quandoque punit, quandoque parcit, quandoque dat beneficia, quandoque aufert: Iob 6: Sagittae Domini etc. Etiam claudit palpebras et aperit: Matth. 17: Misereor super turba etc. Item ibidem 21: Auferetur a vobis regnum Dei: Ps. 146: Dat iumentis escam ipsorum etc.	His eyelids examine the sons of men. By eyelids is signified discernment, for just as the eyelids direct the sight of the eye, so too does discernment regulate human wisdom: Proverbs 4:25: Let thy eyelids go before thy steps. Therefore, God’s very discernment examines, that is, tests and considers: Wisdom 1:9: Inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly: and the hearing of his words shall come to God. And in what manner? Sometimes he punishes, other times he spares, sometimes he gives kindnesses, and at other times he bears (these gifts) away: Job 6:4: The arrows of the Lord (are in me, the rage whereof drinketh up my spirit, and the terrors of the Lord war against me). He also shuts (his) eyelids and opens (them): Matthew 15:32: I have compassion on the multitudes (because they continue with me now three days, and have not what to eat, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way). And again at Matthew 21:43: The kingdom of God shall be taken from you: Psalm 146:9: Who giveth to beasts their food etc.
Interrogat filios hominum, quia efficiuntur quidam ex ipsis meliores, quidam peiores; vel quidam ex scriptura efficiuntur mali, quidam boni: quia quidam eam bene intelligunt et non fatigantur, sed exercentur; mali vero e converso faciunt.	He examines the sons of men, because by these very (examinations), some are made better, while others (are made) worse; or, by the scriptures, some are made better, others worse: for some understand (scriptures) well and are not tired (by the effort), but are engaged busily (by them), while the evil do the contrary.
Iudicii aequitas ponitur: quia, Interrogat iustum et impium, quia immittit flagella iustis et iniustis, et tribuit bona temporalia bonis et malis: Sap. 11: Hos, scilicet bonos, tamquam pater monens probasti; illos autem, scilicet malos, tamquam rex durus interrogans condemnasti.	The equity of (his) judgment is set forth: (The Lord) trieth the just and the wicked, because he sends afflictions upon the just and the unjust, and bestows worldly goods upon the good and the bad: Wisdom 11:11: For thou didst admonish and try them, namely the good, as a father: but the others, namely the evil, as a severe king, thou didst examine and condemn.
Propterea dicit, Dominus interrogat iustum et impium, idest per tribulationes probat. Gregorius: Poena inflicta interrogat, si quis in tribulatione positus Deum veraciter amat. Iustum interrogat, idest examinat Dominus ut praemietur: Sap. 10: Reddidit Deus mercedem laborum sanctorum suorum. Sed impium sive peccatorem interrogat, ut condemnetur: Matth. 23: Ligatis manibus et pedibus proiicite eum in tenebras exteriores.	Therefore, he says, The Lord trieth the just and the wicked, that is, he tries (them) through tribulations. Gregory (says the following): He trieth with punishment, if the one placed in tribulation truly loves God. He trieth the just, that is, the Lord examines so that he may reward: Wisdom 10:17: God rendered (to the just) the wages of their holy labor. But He tries the wicked and the sinner so that he might be condemned: Matthew 22:13: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness.
d. Hic ponitur condemnatio: et circa hoc duo facit: quia primo ponit culpam; secundo poenam, ibi, Pluet super peccatores.	d. Here the sentencing is set forth. Concerning this, he does two things. First, he sets forth blame, and second, the punishment, at, He shall rain…upon sinners.
Ostendit quod quantum est ex parte Dei, non est perditio malorum, sed ex parte nostra; unde dicit, Qui diligit iniquitatem, idest peccatum: Ioan. 3: Omnis qui facit peccatum, et iniquitatem facit, quia peccatum iniquitas est. Odit animam suam: Sap. 16: Homo per malitiam occidit animam suam.	He shows that as much as it is on the part of God, He is not the ruin of wicked (men), but rather (this ruin) is on our part; whence he says, He that loveth iniquity, that is, sin: John 3:20: Every one that doth evil, does iniquity, because sin is iniquity. (Such a person) hates his own soul: Wisdom 16:14: A man through malice hates his own soul.
Sed quaeritur, quomodo quis se odire possit.	But it is asked, how could anyone hate himself?
Dicendum, quod quodammodo odit peccator seipsum; sed simpliciter nullus odit: Ephes. 5: Nemo unquam carnem suam odio habuit.	It is to be said that the sinner after a fashion hates himself; but simply (speaking), no one hates himself: Ephesians 5:29: No man ever hateth his own flesh.
Sed quod mali quodammodo odiunt seipsos, et etiam boni quodammodo se odiunt, declaratur hoc modo. Anima nostra duas habet facies: unam versus Deum secundum rationem, aliam versus carnem secundum naturam sensitivam, quae tantum corporalia comprehendit. Et sicut quaelibet res diligit proprium bonum, ita homo diligit illud quod aestimat animam suam. Peccatores enim aestimant animam suam quod principaliter intendunt: quia quaelibet res est illud quod est praecipuum in ea, sicut rex dicitur regnum. Qui ergo naturam sensitivam habent principale diligunt eam; qui autem intellectivam, eamdem amant. Nullus ergo odit animam quantum ad id quod aestimat principale. Boni ergo odiunt quantum ad naturam sensitivam; mali quantum ad intellectivam.	But that the evil hate themselves in a way, and that even the good hates themselves after a fashion, is made clear in this way: Our soul has two faces (so to speak); one turned to God in accordance with reason, the other turned to flesh in accordance with the sensitive nature, which comprehends things in so far as they are bodily. And as everything delights in its proper good, so too does man delight in that which he considers to be his soul. Sinners consider their soul to be that which they principally aspire after. For everything is (identified with) that which is pre-eminent in it, just as a king is his kingdom, or his rule. Therefore, the former having a sensitive nature delight in it; however, the latter, having an intellectual nature, love it. And so, no one hates his soul insofar as it is that which he principally considers. The good, therefore, hate their souls with respect to its sensitive nature, while the evil hate its intellectual aspect.
Secundo ponit poenam. Et hoc possumus exponere de praesenti, vel de futuro. De praesenti sic, et servat metaphoram. Dixit quod Dominus est in caelo, quia ibi est sedes eius; sed de caelo venit pluvia: ideo eorum poena signatur cum dicitur, Pluet super peccatores. Et quid? Laqueos. Et si exponatur hic in praesenti, notandum est, quod in peccato sunt quatuor. Primum est seductio; unde dicit: Pluet super peccatores laqueos. Quasi iusto iudicio permittit eos illaqueari et seduci: Isa. 8: Et offendentur ex eis plurimi et cadent, et conterentur et irretientur et capientur. Secundum est concupiscentia; et ideo dicit, Ignis concupiscentiae: Psal. 57: Supercecidit ignis, et non viderunt solem, scilicet carnalis concupiscentiae etc. Tertium est foetor infamiae; et ideo dicit, Sulphur. Sic pluit Dominus super Sodomam et Gomorrham igne et sulphure. Potest addi et quartum, scilicet inquietudo mentis; et ideo dicit, Spiritus procellarum: Isa. 57: Cor impii quasi mare fervens. Pars calicis eorum: quia calix est quaedam mensura, et ipsi poenas habent secundum eorum peccata: Isa. 27: In mensura contra mensuram, cum abiecta fuerit iudicabit.	Secondly, he sets forth the penalty. This we can explain either concerning the present or of the future. Concerning the present, it serves as a metaphor. He says that The Lord is in heaven, because that is where his seat is; but from heaven comes the rain: for that reason their penalty is signified when it is said, He shall rain upon sinners. And what (shall he rain upon them)? Snares. And if we explain this according to the present, it should be noted that in a sin there are four things. First, there is seduction; whence he says: He shall rain snares upon sinners. It is as if, by a just judgment, he allows them to be ensnared and seduced: Isaiah 8:15: And very many of them shall stumble and fall, and shall be broken in pieces, and shall be snared, and taken. Second, there is concupiscence or sensual desire; whence he says, the fire of concupiscence: Psalm 57:9: Fire, namely of carnal concupiscence, hath fallen on them, and they shall not see the sun. Third, there is the stench of dishonor; whence he says, Brimstone, just as the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone. A fourth can be added, namely the uneasiness of the mind; when he says, Storms of winds: Isaiah 57:20: The heart of the wicked is like a raging sea (which cannot rest). The portion of their cup: because a cup is a sort of measure, and each of them have penalties according to their sins: Isaiah 27:8: In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it.
Sed si exponatur de futuro, sic punientur ibi motus: quia ligabuntur ut nec mala vitare, nec bona consequi possint; ideo dicit, Pluet super peccatores laqueos, idest colligantes sensus: et sic referuntur ad odoratum sulphur, ad tactum ignis: Isa. 66: Ignis eorum non extinguetur: Apoc. 20: Missi in stagnum ignis.	But if (this passage) is explained with respect to the future, thus they will be punished for (their) action there: for they will be bound so that they can neither escape the evils nor pursue the goods; whence he says, He shall rain snares upon sinners, that is, binding their senses: thus they are brought to the odor of brimstone, to the feeling of fire: Isaiah 66:24: Their fire shall not be quenched: Apocalypse 20:14: They were cast into the pool of fire.
Item affectus, quia non quiescunt: quia, Spiritus procellarum pars calicis eorum, idest daemones inquietantes, molestantes, et affligentes. Quoniam iustus Dominus et iustitias dilexit, ideo non expectandum est ab eo nisi iustitia: Hier. 9: Ego Dominus qui facio misericordiam, iudicium et iustitiam in terra: Psal. 114: Iustus Dominus in omnibus viis suis. Aequitatem vidit vultus eius, vel facies, idest aequitas visa est notitia eius; quasi dicat: illis quibus innotescit et quos diligit, aequitatem ostendit.	In like manner their desires, because they will not rest. For, The storms of winds, that is the demons disturbing, molesting and afflicting (them), shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is just, and hath loved justice; whence nothing is to be expected from him except justice: Jeremiah 9:24: I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth; Psalm 144:17: The Lord is just in all his ways. His countenance, that is, his face, hath beheld righteousness, that is, equity has been seen in his knowledge; as if to say: to those whom he knows and whom he loves, he shows his equity.

© Stephen Loughlin
(sjl1@desales.edu)

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The Aquinas Translation Project
(http://www4.desales.edu/~philtheo/loughlin/ATP/index.html)

Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on John 16:19-23

19. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said to them, Do you enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and you shall not see me; and again, a little while, and you shall see me?20. Verily, verily, I say to you, That you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.21. A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.22. And you now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man takes from you.

ALCUIN.  Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him, and said to them, Do you enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and you shall not see Me; and again, a little while, and you shall see Me? Verily, verily, I say to you, That you shall weep and lament. Their merciful Master, understanding their ignorance and doubts, replied so as to explain what He had said.

AUG. Which must be understood thus: viz. that the disciples sorrowed at their Lord’s death, and then immediately rejoiced at His resurrection. The world (i.e. the enemies of Christ, who put Him to death) rejoiced just when the disciples sorrowed, i.e. at His death: You shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

ALCUIN. But this speech of our Lord’s is applicable to all believers who strive through present tears and afflictions to attain to the joys eternal. While the righteous weep, the world rejoices; for having no hope of the joys to come, all its delight is in the present.

CHRYS. Then He shows that sorrow brings forth joy, short sorrow infinite joy, by an example from nature: A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

AUG This comparison does not seem difficult to understand. It was one which lay near at hand, and He Himself immediately shows its application. And you now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice. The bringing forth is compared to sorrow, the birth to joy, which is especially true in the birth of a boy. And your joy no man takes from you: their joy is Christ. This agrees with what the Apostle said, Christ being risen from the dead dies no more (Rom_6:9).

CHRYS. By this example He also intimates that He loosens the chains of death, and creates men anew. He does not say however that she should not have tribulation, but that she should not remember it; so great is the joy which follows. And so is it with the saints. He said not that a boy is born, but that a man, a tacit allusion to His own resurrection.

AUG. To this joy it is better to refer what was said above: A little while and you shall not see Me, and again, a little while and you shall see Me. For the whole space of time that this world continues is but a little while. Because I go to the Father, refers to the former clause, a little while and you shall not see Me, not to the latter, a little while and you shall see Me. His going to the Father was the reason why they would not see Him. So to them who then saw Him in the body He says, A little while and you shall not see Me; for He was about to go to the Father, and mortals would thenceforth never see Him again, as they saw Him now. The next words, A little while and you shall see Me, are a promise to the whole Church. For this little while appears long to us while it is passing, but when it is finished we shall then see how little a time it has been.

ALCUIN. The woman is the holy Church, who is fruitful in good works, and brings forth spiritual children to God. This woman, while she brings forth, i.e. while she is making her progress in the world, amidst temptations and afflictions, has sorrow because her hour is come; for no one ever hated his own flesh.

AUG. Nor yet in this bringing forth of joy, are we entirely without joy to lighten our sorrow, but, as the Apostle said, we rejoice in hope (Rom_12:12); for even the woman, to whom we are compared, rejoices more for her future offspring, than she sorrows for her present pain.

ALCUIN. But as soon as she is delivered, i.e. when her laborious struggle is over, and she has got the palm, she remembers no more her former anguish, for joy at reaping such a reward, for joy that a man is born into the world. For as a woman rejoices when a man is born into the world, so the Church is filled with exultation when the faithful are born into life eternal.

BEDE. Nor should it appear strange, if one who departs from this life is said to be born. For as a man is said to be born when he comes out of his mother’s womb into the light of day, so may he be said to be born who from out of the prison of the body, is raised to the light eternal. Whence the festivals of the saints, which are the days on which they died, are called their birthdays.

ALCUIN. I will see you again, i.e. I will take you to Myself. Or, I will see you again, i.e. I shall appear again and be seen by you; and your heart shall rejoice.

AUG. This fruit indeed the Church now yearns for in travail, but then will enjoy in her delivery. And it is a male child, because all active duties are for the sake of devotion; for that only is free which is desired for its own sake, not for any thing else, and action is for this end. This is the end which satisfies and is eternal; for nothing can satisfy but what is itself the ultimate end. Wherefore of them it is well said, Your joy no man takes from you.

Ver 23. And in that day you shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say to you, Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you

CHRYS, Again our Lord shows that it is expedient that He should go: And in that day shall you ask Me nothing.

AUG. The word ask here means not only to seek for, but to ask a question: the Greek word from which it is translated has both meanings.

CHRYS. He says, And in that day, i.e. when I shall have risen again, you shall ask Me nothing, i.e. not say to Me, Show us the Father, and, Where do You go? since you will know this by the teaching of the Holy Ghost; or, you shall ask Me nothing, i.e. not want Me for a Mediator to obtain your requests, as My name will be enough, if you only call upon that: Verily, verily, I say to you, whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name, He will give it you. Wherein He shows His power; that neither seen, or asked, but named only to the Father, He will do miracles.

Do not think then, He said, that because for the future I shall not be with you, that you are therefore forsaken; for My name will be a still greater protection to you than My presence: Hitherto have you asked nothing in My Name; ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.

St Thomas Aquinas’ Lecture on Psalm 47 (46)

The following is in both Latin and English side by side. The English translation was done by Stephen Loughlin who holds the copyright. The work appears here courtesy of the Aquinas Translation Project, and in accordance with its copyright policy:

“The copyright for these translations are held by the individuals who have translated them. They are offered for public use with the provision that, if copied, they not be altered from their present form, and that the copyright notice remain at the bottom of each translation to ensure that appropriate credit be given to both individual and the Project. Links should be established to this index page“.

Psalm 46 

a. In finem. Pro filiis core. Omnes gentes plaudite manibus: iubilate Deo in voce exultationis.	[Unto the end, for the sons of Core] All nations, clap your hands: cry out to God in a voice of joy.
b. Quoniam Dominus excelsus terribilis: rex magnus super omnem terram. Subiecit populos nobis: et gentes sub pedibus nostris.	For the Lord is high, terrible: a great king over all the earth. He has subjected the peoples to us, and (placed) the nations under our feet.
c. Elegit nobis haereditatem suam, speciem Iacob quam dilexit. Ascendit Deus in iubilo: et Dominus in voce tubae. Psallite Deo nostro, psallite: psallite regi nostro, psallite.	He has chosen his inheritance for us, the beauty of Jacob which he has loved. God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up with the sound of the trumpet. Sing praises to our God, sing praises. Sing praises of our king, sing praises.
d. Quoniam rex omnis terrae Deus: psallite sapienter. Regnabit Deus super gentes: Deus sedet super sedem sanctam suam. Principes populorum congregati sunt cum Deo Abraham: quoniam dii fortes terrae vehementer elevati sunt.	For God is king of all the earth: sing wisely. God shall reign over the nations: God sits upon his holy throne. The princes of the people are gathered together, with the God of Abraham: for the strong gods of the earth are exceedingly exalted.
a. In praecendentibus Psalmis Psalmista exposuit gloriam regis, et regni; hic autem exhortatur gentes alienigenas, ut convertantur ad Deum. Et primo hortatur ad Dei laudem. Secundo ad spem de Deo habendam. Tertio docet eam cultum divinum. Secundum incipit, ibi, Audite haec. Tertium, ibi, Deus deorum.	In the preceding psalms, the psalmist set forth the glory of the king and (his) realm. Here, he earnestly addresses foreign nations so that they may be converted to God. First, he exhorts them to the praise of God, second, to having hope in God (beginning at Hear these things – Psalm 48), and finally he teaches (them) the worship of God (at The God of gods – Psalm 49).
Titulus est manifestus, quia est oppositus supra, In finem pro filiis Core Psalmus David.	The title is clear, as it is set forth above: Unto the end. For the sons of Core. A psalm of David.
Circa primum duo facit. Primo exhortatur omnes gentes ad laudem Dei. Secundo ponitur materia laudis, ibi, Magnus Dominus. Circa primum tria facit. Primo enim ponit imitationem ad laudem Dei. Secundo causam, ibi, Quoniam dominus excelsus. Tertio manifestat hanc causam, ibi, Ascendit Deus.	Concerning the first (of the psalmist’s three actions above), he does two things. First, he earnestly exhorts all nations to the praise of God, and secondly, sets down the subject matter of praise, at, Great is the Lord (Psalm 47). Concerning the first (of these), he does three things. First, he sets an example for the praise of God, second, the reason (for praise), at, For the Lord is high, and third, he clearly shows this reason, at, God goes up.
Laus Dei procedere debet ex iucunditate cordis, sicut etiam est in patria: Isa. 11. Gaudium et laetitia invenietur in ea. Haec laetitia cordis ostenditur per signum exterius, facti, vel verbi. Primo ergo inducit ad laudem, quantum ad facta. Secundo quantum ad verba.	The praise of God ought to procede from the delight of (one’s) heart, just as it occurs in heaven – Isaiah 51: Joy and gladness shall be found therein. This gladness of the heart is shown through an external sign of deed or word. Thus, he incites (them) to praise, first with respect to deeds, and then with respect to words.
Dicit ergo, Omnes gentes; quasi dicat, Nobis tot bona fecit Deus, ergo laudate eum facto, Plaudite manibus. Plausio manuum fit in signum exultationis: Hier. 5. Sacerdotes applaudebant suis; quasi dicat, Plaudite, idest exultationem cordis ostendite per plausum manuum. Et hoc fit, quando exterius operatur homo servitia Dei cum iucunditate: Ps. 99. Servite Domino in laetitia: Isa. 35. Omnia ligna regionum plaudent manu, idest omnes populi plaudent.	And so, he says, All Nations; it is as if he were saying, God has made so many good things for us. Therefore praise him in deed, Clap your hands. The clapping of the hands is done as a sign of joy – Jeremiah 5: The priests clapped their (hands); it is as if he were saying, Clap, that is, show the joy of (your) heart by the clapping of hands. This happens when a man externally performs the worship of God with delight – Psalm 99: Serve the Lord with gladness; Isaiah 55: All trees of the countries shall clap their hands, that is, all of the people will clap.
Item. Laudate eum in verbo: unde dicit, Iubilate Deo in voce exultationis, idest in voce exteriori demonstrante interiorem affectum.	Also, praise him in word: thus he says, Cry out to God in a voice of joy, that is, in an outward voice showing internal desire.
Glossa, Iubilus est ineffabile gaudium, quod nec taceri potest, sed non potest exprimi, quia excedit comprehensionem. Et talis est bonitas Dei quae non potest exprimi: et si exprimatur, imperfecte tamen exprimitur. Et ideo dicebat Hier. 1. A a a ecce nescio loqui. Et hunc iubilum signat ecclesia, quando in eadem dictione multiplicat notas: Ps. 65. Iubilate Deo omnis terra, Psalmum dicite etc.	The gloss states that Jubiliation is an ineffable joy which cannot be kept silent but cannot be expressed, because it exceeds comprehension. Such is the goodness of God which cannot be expressed. And if it is expressed, it would be done so imperfectly. And it has been said at Jeremiah 1: Ah, ah, ah (Lord God), behold, I cannot speak. The Church signifies this jubilation when in the same speaking, she multiplies what is known as true – Psalm 65: Cry out with joy to God all the earth, sing a psalm to His name.
b. Quoniam Dominus. Hic ponitur causa laudis, et bona quae proveniunt ex magnitudine Dei. Et primo ponitur magnitudo Dei. Secundo magnitudinis signum. Magnitudo Dei commendatur dupliciter. Primo per altitudinem potestatis. Secundo per maiestatem dominationis.	For the Lord. At this point, he determines the cause of praise, and the goods which come forth from the greatness of God. First, he shows God’s greatness, and then a sign of it. The greatness of God is demonstrated in two ways, first, through the heights of his powers, and second, through the majesty of his lordship.
Dicit ergo. Laudandus est Deus propter altitudinem suae naturae, quia Dominus excelsus: Ps. 122. Excelsus super omnes gentes Dominus etc. Et quia excelsa sunt nobis remota, posset aliquis credere quod non esset timendus, nec haberet providentiam de nobis; sicut aliqui stulti dixerunt, in quorum persona dicitur Iob 22. Circa cardines caeli perambulat, nec nostra considerat. Et ideo dicebat: Quantum in te evacuasti timorem. Sed non est ita. Iste est excelsus, quia est terribilis, quia omnia prospicit, omnia punit.	And so, he says, It is fitting to praise God on account of the height of his nature, because the Lord is high – Psalm 112: The Lord is high above all the nations etc. And because the heights are far from us, someone might believe that God is not to be feared, and that He has no care concerning us, as some foolish people have said, in the guise of whom it is said at Job 22: He walks around the extremities of heaven, and does not consider us. Thus he has said: So far as concerns you, you have been found deficient in fear. But He is not (as you have considered Him to be). He is high, because he is terrible, (and this is because) he sees all (and) he punishes all.
Item timendus est propter eius dominium, quia, Rex magnus super omnem terram: Ps. 23. Domini est terra etc.	He is also to be feared on account of his might, because (he is) A great king over all the earth – Psalm 23: The earth is the Lord’s etc.
Magnus est universalitate dominii, quia regnum omnium saeculorum.	He is great in the totality of (his) might, because (his) kingship is of every age.
Item duratione, quia in aeternum.	(He is also great) in his duration, because he is eternal.
Item auctoritate, quia rex omnium regnum.	(He is also great) in his authority, because he is king of every kingdom.
Signum magnitudinis huius regis sumitur ex his, quae nobis fecit, et haec sunt beneficia Dei. Primo in subiectione aliorum. Secundo in collatione bonorum.	A sign of the greatness of this king is taken from these things which he does for us. And these are the kindnesses of God, first, in the subjection of others, and second in the bestowal of goods.
Dicit ergo, Subiecit populos nobis. Haec sunt verba ecclesiae, cui etiam temporaliter sui inimici subiiciuntur.	And so, he says, He has subjected the peoples to us. These are the words of the Church, to which its enemies are subjected also for a time.
Augustinus in glossa: Quanti enim modo currunt ad ecclesiam nondum Christiani, rogant auxilium ecclesiae, subvenire sibi temporaliter volunt, etsi nobiscum in aeternum regnare adhuc nolunt.	In the gloss, Augustine states that “As much as those who are not yet Christians hasten, in some way, to the Church, they ask for her help, they want to submitt themselves for a time, although they still do not want to rule with us forever.”
Item, ut sint verba apostolorum, Subiecit populos nobis, scilicet Iudaeorum, et nationum, Sub pedibus nostris: Isa. 52. Quam pulchri super montes pedes annuntiantis, et praedicatis pacem.	Again, as they are the words of the apostles – He has subjected the peoples, namely the Jews, to us, and (has placed) the nations Under our feet – Isaiah 52: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, and proclaims peace.
Item ibidem 45. Ut subiiciam ante faciem eius gentes.	There is also Isaiah 45: … to subdue nations before his face.
Vel aliter, Subiecit populos nobis. Quidam convertuntur ad fidem, et isti subiiciuntur propria voluntate. Alii non convertuntur, sed gentiliter vivunt; et isti subiiciuntur sub pedibus, quia finaliter erunt oppressi sub nostra iudiciaria potestate.	He has subjected the peoples to us can also be understood in another way. Some are converted to the faith and these are subjected by their own will. Others are not converted to the faith, but live as gentiles. And these are placed under (our) feet, because they will finally be checked by our judicial power.
c. Elegit nobis haereditatem suam. Hic ponitur aliud beneficium collationis bonorum. Ubi hortandum est, quod electio importat acceptionem unius super alterum. Electio autem Dei potest accipi ex duplici parte.	He has chosen his inheritance for us. He treats here of the second benefice, that of the bestowal of goods. It must be urged here that “choice” includes the acceptance of one thing over another. However, the choice of God can be understood in a two-fold way.
Primo ex parte bonorum quae conferuntur. Et sic distingue, quia quaedam horum quae conferuntur sunt temporalia, quaedam spiritualia. Impii autem peccatores accipiunt pro parte eos contingente temporalia: Sap. 2. Haec est pars nostra. Iusti autem accipiunt in parte ipsum Deum: Ps. 22. Dominus pars haereditatis meae. Deus autem elegit sibi bona spiritualia. Elegit ergo nobis haereditatem suam; quasi dicat, Cum sint diversae partes bonorum, elegit nobis dare haereditatem suam.	First, on the part of the goods which are conferred. Distinguish in this way, for some of these conferred goods are temporal, while others are spiritual. Impious sinners take, for the part falling to them, temporal goods – Wisdom 2: This is our part. However, the just take for their part God himself – Psalm 22: The Lord is a part of my inheritance. God, however, choses spiritual goods for himself. Therefore, He has chosen his inheritance for us, as if to say, Although there are different aspects of the goods conferred, he has chosen to give his inheritance to us.
Secundo accipitur electio Dei ex parte illorum quibus datur, et sic fit distributio, quia damnati omnes sunt in peccato originali; tamen quidam salvantur ex Dei electione. Et ideo dicit, Elegit nobis etc. Et quae sit haec haereditas, ostendit, Speciem Iacob quem dilexit.	Secondly, the choice of God is understood on the part of those to whom it is addressed. And in this way distribution occurs, because all are damned in original sin; nevertheless, they are saved by the choice of God. And thus he says, He has chosen etc. And that this is his inheritance, he declares, The beauty of Jacob which he has loved.
Litera Hieronymi habet, Gloriam, vel superbiam Iacob. Et hic accipitur superbia pro excellentia: Is. 60. Ponam te in superbiam, idest in excellentiam, saeculorum. Ibid. Cum gloria, idest specie, vel decore: quia in ipsa haereditate aeterna erunt excellentes, gloriosi, et decori: Hier. 31. Benedicat tibi Dominus pulchritudo iustitiae.	Jerome’s version has, The glory or pride of Jacob. And “pride” here means “prominence” – Isaiah 60: I will make you in everlasting pride, that is, in everlasting prominence. Isaiah 60: With glory, that is, in beauty or elegance, because in the eternal inheritance itself, there will be prominent, glorious and graceful people – Jeremiah 31: The Lord blesses you with the beauty of justice.
Quam dilexit. Vel quem Iacob; quasi dicat, Haec haereditas est gloria Iacob, idest fidelis, quam gloriam Deus dilexit, quia diligit Dominus portas Sion.	Which he has loved. Or whom Jacob has loved; as if he were saying, This inheritance is the glory of Jacob, that is of the faithful, which glory God has loved, because the Lord loves the gates of Sion.
Vel, Speciem Iacob, idest id quod est repraesentatum per Iacob: quia repraesentata sunt ei spiritualia bona ad quae sumus nos electi, quia scalam quam vidit, et alia huiusmodi. Sed prima lectura est melior.	Or, The beauty of Jacob, that is, that which is represented by Jacob, since by him are represented spiritual goods for which we ourselves have been chosen, because of the ladder which he sees, and other such things. However, the first interpretation is the better one.
Ascendit Deus in iubilo. Hic exponit causam et ordinem. Dicit quod est excelsus et rex magnus: et propter hoc est laudandus. Sed numquid est ita excelsus? Ita. Et primo ostendit eius excellentiam. Secundo ostendit amplitudinem regni eius, ibi, Psallite. Circa primum duo facit. Primo ponit excellentiam eius. Secundo concludit exhortationem, ibi, Psallite.	God goes up with shouts of joy. Here he explains the cause and order. He says that he is high and a great king, and because of this, he is to be praised. But is he really high? Yes. First, he shows his excellence, and second the extent of his kingdom, at, Sing praises. Concerning the first, he does two things. First, he describes his excellence, and then concludes with an exhortation, at, Sing praises.
Dicit ergo quod est excelsus, quia ascendit. Sed si excelsus, quomodo ascendit? Quia descendit: Eph. 4. Qui ascendit ipse est etc. Sed quomodo ascendit, In iubilo. Iubilus est gaudium immensum: et hic iubilus signat imperfectam cognitionem.	And so, he says that he is high, because he goes up. But if he is high, in what way does he go up? Because he comes down – Ephesians 4: (He that descended is) the same also that ascended (above all the heavens). But the manner in which he goes up is with shouts of joy. Jubiliation is an immense joy, and signifies imperfect knowledge.
Duo genera psallentium fuerunt in Ascensione Christi, scilicet Apostoli et Angeli. Apostoli autem imperfectam cognitionem habent de divinis: et ideo ad eos pertinet iubilus de gaudio Ascensionis Christi cum gloria.	There were two kinds of songs sung on the Ascension of Christ, namely of the apostles and the angels. But the apostles had an imperfect knowledge of divine things, and thus to these belongs jubilation concerning the joy of the Ascension of Christ with glory.
Item fuerunt ibi Angeli, et claram cognitionem habuerunt; et ad eos non pertinet iubilus, sed manifesta annutiatio; et ideo dicit, Et Dominus in voce tubae. Unde Angeli dicunt Act. 1. Viri Galilaei quid statis etc. Si ergo est excelsus, Psallite Deo nostro, ore, Psallite Deo nostro, corde: 1 Cor. 14. Psallam spiritu, psallam et mente.	The angels also sang at that time, and they had clear knowledge. Jubilation does not belong to these, but a plain announcement. And so he says, The Lord goes up with the sound of trumpet. So, the angels say at Acts 1: Men of Galilee, why do you stand (looking up to heaven)? If therefore he is high, Sing songs to our God, with the mouth, Sing songs to our God, with the heart – 1 Cor. 14: I will sing with the spirit, I will sing with understanding.
d. Quoniam rex. Consequenter ostendit, quod est rex magnus: et ostendit hoc ordine converso. Quia primo inducit eos ad psallendum regi. Secundo assignat causam. Tertio manifestat eam.	For God is king over all the earth. Subsequently, he shows that the king is great, but he does this in a reversed order. For he first incites them to sing praises of the king, second, assigns the cause, and third, clarifies it.
Dico ergo, Psallite Deo; sed iterum, Psallite regi, quia est magnus. Et dicit bis, Psallite, psallite, quia eodem honore honoramus humanitatem et divinitatem in Christo: quia idem suppositum est: Io. 5. Omnes honorificent Filium sicut honorificant Patrem. Et quod sit psallendum ostendit, quia est, Rex omnis terrae Deus. Et ideo vos habitatores terrae psallatis ei. Et dicit, Omnis terrae, non Iudaeae tantum, vel Graeciae, sed totius orbis: sed, Psallite sapienter, idest discrete. Et psallite non solum ore, sed corde renovati interius: quia, Non est speciosa laus in ore peccatoris, sicut dicitur Eccl. 15.	I say, therefore, Sing praises to God; but again I say, Sing praises of the king, because he is great. And he says this twice, Sing praises, sing praises, because by the same honour we worship the humanity and the divinity in Christ; for it is the same suppositum – John 5: That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father. And that he is to be sung praises he explains, for God is king of all the earth. And so you who are inhabitants of the earth sing praises to him. He says Of all the earth, not only of the Jews, or the Greeks, but of the whole world. But Sing wisely, that is with circumspection. And sing, not only with the mouth, but with a heart renewed within, because, Splendid praise is not in the mouth of the sinner, as is said at Eccl. 15.
Item non cum mente turbata: Iac. 5. Oret aequo animo.	It is also not with a turbulent mind – James 5: Let him pray with a cheerful mind.
Item continue: Is. 23. Bene cane, frequenta canticum.	And it is also continuous – Isaiah 23: Sing well, sing many a song.
Consequenter manifestat, quomodo sit rex omnis terrae. Et primo praedicit regnum Christi super omnes gentes. Secundo super omnes principes gentium; quasi dicat, Dico quod est rex omnis terrae: quia licet nunc in Iudaea tantum, regnabit tamen super omnes gentes, quia omnes gentes convertentur ad Deum: Ps. 118. Laudate Dominum omnes gentes. Et huius ratio est: quia Christus Deus est, et iam ascendens ad dexteram Patris, Sedet super sedem sanctam, idest a dextris Dei; et sic nihil restat nisi ut omnes subiiciantur ei: Dan. 7. Datum est ei regnum. Nec solum gentes subiiciuntur ei, sed etiam eorum principes; unde dicit, Principes populorum, scilicet omnium congregati sunt per fidem et amorem, Cum Deo Abraham.	Subsequently, he makes quite clear how he is king of all the earth. First, he foretells the kingship of Christ over all the nations, and second, over all the princes of nations. It is as if he were saying, I say that he is king of all the earth, because although he is now only king in Judea, he will reign over all the nations, for all the nations will be converted to God – Psalm 116: O praise the Lord, all you nations. The reason for this is that because Christ is God, and is now ascending to the right hand of the Father, He sits upon his holy throne, that is, by the right hand of God. It only remains that everything be subject to him – Daniel 7: The kingdom was given to him. Not only the nations, but even their princes are subjected to him. Thus he says, The princes of the peoples, namely, of everyone gathered together through faith and love, With the God of Abraham.
Et dicit, Abraham, quia ipse fuit principium credendi et Patrem, et Filium: Matt. 2. Potens est suscitare de lapidibus istis filios Abrahae: Ps. 17. Reges Arabum etc. Et ratio quare congregati sunt, Quia dii fortes terrae vehementer elevati sunt. Et hoc potest dupliciter intelligi.	And he says, Abraham, because he himself was the prince of those believing the Father and the Son – Matthew 3: (God is) able to to raise up children to Abraham from these stones; Psalm 71: The kings of the Arabians etc. The reason why they are gathered together is Because the strong gods of the earth are exceedingly exalted. And this can be understood in two ways.
Uno modo de Iudaeis: quia ipsi fuerunt dii, quia instructi de Deo: Io. 10. Illos dixit Deos ad quos sermo Dei factus est.	In one way, of the Jews, because they themselves were gods, having been instructed concerning God – John 10: He called them gods to whom the word of God was spoken.
Item fuerunt fortes, quia constantes in fide unius Dei, sed, Terrae, quia oculi eorum et affectus eorum erant semper ad terrena. Isti, Sunt elevati, per superbiam, Vehementer, intantum quod noluerunt Christi doctrinam. Et ideo Apostoli iverunt ad gentes.	Again, they were made strong, because they were firm in the faith of the one God, however, (they were) Of the earth, because their eyes and desires were always towards earthly things. These very people, Were exalted, through pride, Exceedingly, insofar as they did not desire the teaching of Christ. And thus the apostles went to the gentiles.
Alio modo, Quia dii fortes, idest Apostoli. Et dicuntur dii propter iudiciariam potestatem. Et iudices in veteri testamento dii vocabantur: Ex. 22. Diis non detrahes. Applica ad Deos, idest ad iudices. Et dicuntur fortes, propter constantiam in passione: Ro. 8. Quis nos separabit a charitate Christi? Terrae, idest adhuc in terrenis existentes: 2. Cor. 4. Habentes thesaurum istum in vasis fictilibus. Et Elevati sunt vehementer, per praedicationem: Matt. ult. Illi autem profecti praedicaverunt ubique.	In another way, Because the strong gods, that is, the apostles. They are called gods on account of their judicial power, and judges, in the Old Testament, are called gods – Exodus 22: You shall not speak ill of the gods. Conform to the gods, that is, to the judges. They are called strong on account of their constancy in suffering – Romans 8: What will separate us from the love of Christ? They are Of the earth, that is, still existing in an earthly manner – 2 Cor. 4: We have this treasure in earthen vessels. And they Are exceedingly exalted through proclamation – Mark 16: But they, going forth, preached everywhere.
Item per miraculorum operationem.	Also, through the working of miracles.
Item per gloriae adeptionem: Hieronymus habet, Quoniam dii scuta terrae, quia Apostoli fuerunt protectores omnium populorum.	Also, through the attainment of glory: Jerome has, For the gods are a shield of the earth, because the apostles were the protectors of all the peoples.

© Stephen Loughlin
(sjl1@desales.edu)

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The Aquinas Translation Project
(http://www4.desales.edu/~philtheo/loughlin/ATP/index.html)

St Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on John 15:8-17

Ver 8. Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples.9. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you: continue in my love.10. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love–even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.11. These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

CHRYS. Our Lord showed above, that those who plotted against them should be burned, inasmuch as they abode not in Christ: now He shows that they themselves would be invincible, bringing forth much fruit; Herein is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit: as if He said, If it appertains to My Father’s glory that you bring forth fruit, He will not despise His own glory. And he that brings forth fruit is Christ’s disciple: So shall you be My disciples.

THEOPHYL. The fruit of the Apostles are the Gentiles, who through their teaching were converted to the faith, and brought into subjection to the glory of God.

AUG. Made bright or glorified; the Greek word may be translated in either way. In Greek it signifies glory; not our own glory, we must remember, as if we had it of ourselves: it is of His grace that we have it; and therefore it is not our own but His glory. For from whom shall we derive our fruitfulness, but from His mercy preventing us.

Wherefore He adds, As My Father has loved Me, even so love I you. This then is the source of our good works. Our good works proceed from faith which works by love: but we could not love unless we were loved first: As My Father has loved Me, even so love I you. This does not prove that our nature is equal to His, as His is to the Father’s, but the grace, whereby He is the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The Father loves us, but in Him.

CHRYS. If then I love you, be of good cheer; if it is the Father’s glory that you bring forth good fruit, bear no evil. Then to rouse them to exertion, He adds, Continue you in My love; and then shows how this is to be done: If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love.

AUG. Who doubts that love precedes the observance of the commandments? For who loves not, has not that whereby to keep the commandments. These words then do not declare whence love arises, but how it is shown, that no one might deceive himself into thinking that he loved our Lord, when he did not keep His commandments. Though the words, Continue you in My love, do not of themselves make it evident which love He means, ours to Him, or His to us, yet the preceding words do: I love you, He says: and then immediately after, Continue you in My love.

Continue you in My love, then, is, continue in My grace; and, If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, is, Your keeping of My commandments will be evidence to you that you abide in My love. It is not that we keep His commandments first, and that then He loves; but that He loves us, and then we keep His commandments. This is that grace, which is revealed to the humble, but hidden from the proud. But what means the next words, Even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love: i.e., the Father’s love, wherewith He loves the Son.

Must this grace, wherewith the Father loves the Son, be understood to be like the grace wherewith the Son loves us? No; for whereas we are sons not by nature, but by grace, the Only Begotten is Son not by grace, but by nature. We must understand this then to refer to the manhood in the Son, even as the words themselves imply: As My Father has loved Me, even so love I you.

The grace of a Mediator is expressed here; and Christ is Mediator between God and man, not as God, but as man. This then we may say, that since human nature does not pertain to the nature of God, but does by grace pertain to the Person of the Son, grace also pertains to that Person: such grace as has nothing superior, nothing equal to it. For no merits on man’s part preceded the assumption of that nature.

ALCUIN. Even as 1 have kept My Father’s commandments. The Apostle explains what these commandments were: Christ became obedient to death, even the death of the cross (Phi_2:8).

CHRYS. Then because the Passion was now approaching to interrupt their joy, He adds, These things have I spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you: as if He said, And if sorrow fall upon you, I will take it away, so that you shall rejoice in the end.

AUG. And what is Christ’s joy in us, but that He deigns to rejoice on our account? And what is our joy, which He says shall be full, but to have fellowship with Him? He had perfect joy on our account, when He rejoiced in foreknowing, and predestinating us; but that joy was not in us, because then we did not exist: it began to be in us, when He called us. And this joy we rightly call our own, this joy wherewith we shall be blessed; which is begun in the faith of them who are born again, and shall be fulfilled in the reward of them who rise again.

Ver 12. This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.13. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.14. You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.15. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knows not what his Lord does; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known to you.16. You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it you.

THEOPHYL. Having said, If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love, He shows what commandments they are to keep: This is My commandment, That you love one another.

GREG. But when all our Lord’s sacred discourses are full of His commandments, why does He give this special commandment respecting love, if it is not that every commandment teaches love, and all precepts are one? Love and love only is the fulfillment of every thing that is enjoined. As all the boughs of a tree proceed from one root, so all the virtues are produced form one love: nor has the branch, i.e. the good work, any life, except it abide in the root of love.

AUG. Where then love is, what can be wanting? Where it is not, what can profit? But this love is distinguished from men’s love to each other as men, by adding, As I have loved you. To what end did Christ love us, but that we should reign with Him? Let us therefore so love one another, as that our love be different from that of other men; who do not love one another, to the end that God may be loved, because they do not really love at all. They who love one another for the sake of having God within them, they truly love one another.

GREG. The highest, the only proof of love, is to love our adversary; as did the Truth Himself, who while He suffered on the cross, showed His love for His persecutors: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do

(Luk_23:34). Of which love the consummation is given in the next words:Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Our Lord came to die for His enemies, but He says that He is going to lay down His life for His friends, to show us that by loving, we are able to gain over our enemies, so that they who persecute us are by anticipation our friends.

AUG. Having said, This is My commandment: that you love one another, even as I have loved you (1 Jn 3); it follows, as John said in his Epistle, that as Christ laid down His life for us, so we should lay down our lives for the brethren. This the martyrs have done with ardent love And therefore in commemorating them at Christ’s table, we do not pray for them, as we do for others, but we rather pray that we may follow their steps. For they have shown the same love for their brother, that has been shown them at the Lord’s table.

GREG. But whoever in time of tranquillity will not give up his time to God, how in persecution will he give up his soul? Let the virtue of love then, that it may be victorious in tribulation, be nourished in tranquillity by deeds of mercy.

AUG From one and the same love, we love God and our neighbor, but God for His own sake, our neighbor for God’s. So that, there being two precepts of love, on which hang all the Law and the Prophets, to love God, and to love our neighbor, Scripture often unites them into one precept. For if a man love God, it follows s that he does what God commands, and if so, that he loves his neighbor, God having commanded this. Wherefore He proceeds: You are My friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.

GREG. A friend is as it were a keeper of the soul. He who keeps God’s commandments, is rightly called His friend.

AUG. Great condescension! Though to keep his Lord’s commandments is only what a good servant is obliged to do, yet, if they do so, He calls them His friends. The good servant is both the servant and the friend. But how is this? He tells us: Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his Lord does. Shall we therefore cease to be servants, as soon as ever we are good servants? And is not a good and tried servant sometimes entrusted with his master’s secrets, still remaining a servant? We must understand then that there are two kinds of servitude, as there are two kinds of fear. There is a fear which perfect love casts out; which also has in it a servitude, which will be cast out together with the fear. And there is another, a pure fear, which remains forever.

It is the former state of servitude, which our Lord refers to, when He says, Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knows not what his Lord does; not the state of that servant to whom it is said, Well done, you good servant, enter you into the joy of your Lord (Mat_25:21), but of him of whom it was said below, The servant abides not in the house for ever, but the Son abides ever. Forasmuch then as God has given us power to become the sons of God, so that in a wonderful way, we are servants, and yet not servants, we know that it is the Lord who does this. This that servant is ignorant of, who knows not what his Lord does, and when he does any good thing, is exalted in his own conceit, as if he himself did it, and not his Lord; and boasts of himself, not of his Lord.  But I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known to you.

THEOPHYL. As if He said, The servant knows not the counsels of his lord; but since I esteem you friends, I have communicated my secrets to you.

AUG. But how did He make known to His disciples all things that He had heard from the Father, when He forebore saying many things, because He knew they as yet could not bear them? He made all things known to His disciples, i.e., He knew that He should make them known to them in that fullness of which the Apostle said, Then we shall know, even as we are known (1Co_13:12). For as we look for the death of the flesh, and the salvation of the soul, so should we look for that knowledge of all things, which the Only-Begotten heard from the Father.

GREG. Or all things which He heard from the Father, which He wished to be made known to His servants: the joys of spiritual love, the pleasures of our heavenly country, which He impresses daily on our minds by the inspiration of His love. For while we love the heavenly things we hear, we know them by loving, because love is itself knowledge. He had made all things known to them then, because being withdrawn from earthly desires, they burned with the fire of divine love.

CHRYS. All things, i.e., all things that they ought to hear. I have heard, shows that what He had taught was no strange doctrine, but received from the Father.

GREG. But let no one who has attained to this dignity of being called the friend of God, attribute this superhuman gift to his own merits:You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.

AUG. Ineffable grace! For what were we before Christ had chosen us, but wicked, and lost? We did not believe in Him, so as to be chosen by Him: for had He chosen us believing, He would have chosen us choosing. This passage refutes the vain opinion of those who say that we were chosen before the foundation of the world, because God foreknew that we should be good, not that He Himself would make us good.

For had He chosen us, because He foreknew that we should be good, He would have foreknown also that we should first choose Him, for without choosing Him we cannot be good; unless indeed he can be called good, who has not chosen good. What then has He chosen in them who are not good? you can not say, I am chosen because I believed; for had you believed in Him, you had chosen Him. Nor can you say, Before I believed I did good works, and therefore was chosen. For what good work is there before faith? What is there for us to say then, but that we were wicked, and were chosen, that by the grace of the chosen we might become good?

AUG. They are chosen then before the foundation of the world, according to that predestination by which God foreknew His future acts. They are chosen out of the world by that call whereby God fulfills what He has predestined: whom He did predestine, them He also called (Rom_8:30).

AUG. Observe, He does not choose the good; but those, whom He has chosen, He makes good: And I have ordained you that you should go, and bring forth fruit. This is the fruit which He meant, when He said, Without Me you can do nothing. He Himself is the way in which He has set us to go.

GREG. I have set you, i.e., have planted you by grace, that you should go by will: to will being to go in mind, and bring forth fruit, by works. What kind of fruit they should bring forth He then shows: And that your fruit may remain; for worldly labor hardly produces fruit to last our life; and if it does, death comes at last, and deprives us of it all. But the fruit of our spiritual labors endures even after death; and begins to be seen at the very time that the results of our carnal labor begin to disappear. Let us then produce such fruits as may remain, and of which death, which destroys every thing, will be the commencement.

AUG. Love then is one fruit, now existing in desire only, not yet in fullness. Yet even with this desire whatever we ask in the name of the Only-Begotten Son, the Father gives us: That whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, He may give it you. We ask in the Savior’s name, whatever we ask, that will be profitable to our salvation.

Ver 17. These things I command you, that you love one another.

AUG. Our Lord had said, I have ordained that you should walk and bring forth fruit. Love is this fruit. Wherefore, He proceeds: These things I command you, that you love one another. Hence the Apostle said, The fruit of the Spirit is love(Gal_5:22), and enumerates all other graces as springing from this source. Well then does our Lord commend love, as if it were the only thing commanded: seeing that without it nothing can profit, with it nothing be wanting, whereby a man is made good.

CHRYS. Or thus: I have said that I lay down My life for you, and that I first chose you. I have said this not by way of reproach, but to induce you to love one another.

Then (in the next verse) as they were about to suffer persecution and reproach, He bids them not to grieve, but rejoice on that account: If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you: as if to say, I know it is a hard trial, but you will endure it for My sake.

Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on Matthew 25:14-23

Ver 14. “For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.15. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.16. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.17. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.18. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.19. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.20. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.21. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.22. He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.23. His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.

Gloss.: In the foregoing parable is set forth the condemnation of such as have not prepared sufficient oil for themselves, whether by oil is meant the brightness of good works, or inward joy of conscience, or alms paid in money.

Chrys.: This parable is delivered against those who will not assist their neighbours either with money, or words, or in any other way, but hide all that they have.

Greg., Hom. in Ev., ix, i: The man in travelling into a far country is our Redeemer, who ascended into heaven in that flesh which He had taken upon Him. For the proper home of the flesh is the earth, and it, as it were, travels into a foreign country, when it is placed by the Redeemer in heaven.

Origen: He travels, not according to His divine nature, but according to the dispensation of the flesh which He took upon Him. For He who says to His disciples, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world,” [Mat_28:20] is the Only-Begotten God, who is not circumscribed by bodily form. By saying this, we do not disunite Jesus, but attribute its proper qualities to each constituent substance.

We may also explain thus, that the Lord travels in a far country with all those who walk by faith and not by sight. And when we are absent from the body with the Lord, then will He also he with us. Observe that the turn of expression is not thus, I am like, or The Son of Man is like, “a man travelling into a far country,” because He is represented in the parable as travelling, not as the Son of God, but as man.

Jerome: Calling together the Apostles, He gave them the Gospel doctrine, to one more, to another less, not as of His own bounty or scanting, but as meeting the capacity of the receivers, as the Apostle says [marg. note 1Co_3:2], that he fed with milk those that were unable to take solid food. In the five, two, and one talent, we recognise the diversity of gifts wherewith we have been entrusted.

Origen: Whenever you see of those who have received from Christ a dispensation of the oracles of God that some have more and some less; that some have not in comparison of the better sort half an understanding of things; that others have still less; you will perceive the difference of those who have all of them received from Christ oracles of God. They to whom five talents were given, and they to whom two, and they to whom one, have divers degrees of capacity, and one could not hold the measure of another; he who received but one having received no mean endowment, for one talent of such a master is a great thing.

His proper servants are three, as there are three sorts of those that bear fruit. He that received five talents, is he that is able to raise all the meanings of the Scriptures to their more divine significations; he that has two is he that has been taught carnal doctrine, (for two seems to be a carnal number,) and to the less strong the Master of the household has given one talent.

Greg.: Otherwise; The five talents denote the gift of the five senses, that is, the knowledge of things without; the two signify understanding and action, the one talent understanding only.

Gloss., ord.: “And straightway took his journey,” not changing his place, but leaving them to their own freewill and choice of action.

Jerome: “He that had received five talents,” that is, having received his bodily senses, he doubled his knowledge of heavenly things, from the creature understanding the Creator, from earthly unearthly, from temporal the eternal.

Greg.: There are also some who though they cannot pierce to things inward and mystical, yet for their measure of view of their heavenly country they teach rightly such things as they can, what they have gathered from things without, and while they keep themselves from wantonness of the flesh, and from ambition of earthly things, and from the delights of the things that are seen, they restrain others also from the same by their admonitions.

Origen: Or, They that have their senses exercised by healthy conversation, both raising themselves to higher knowledge and zealous in teaching others, these have gained other five; because no one can easily have increase of any virtues that are not his own, and without he teaches others what he himself knows, and no more.

Hilary: Or, That servant who received five talents is the people of believers under the Law, who beginning with that, doubled their merit by the right obedience of an evangelic faith.

Greg.: Again, there are some who by their understanding and their actions preach to others, and thence gain as it were a twofold profit in such merchandize. This their preaching bestowed upon both sexes is thus a talent doubled.

Origen: Or, “gained other two,” that is, carnal instruction, and another yet a little higher.

Hilary: Or, the servant to whom two talents were committed is the people of the Gentiles justified by the faith and confession of the Son and of the Father, confessing our Lord Jesus Christ, to be both God and Man, both Spirit and Flesh. These are the two talents committed to this servant. But as the Jewish people doubled by its belief in the Gospel every Sacrament which it had learned in the Law, (i.e. its five talents,) so this people by its use of its two talents merited understanding and working.

Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on John 16:5-15

Ver 5. But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asks me, Where do you go?6. But because I have said these things to you sorrow has filled your heart.7. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send him to you.8. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:9. Of sin, because they believe not on me;10. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you see me no more;11. Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

CHRYS. The disciples, not as yet perfected, being overcome by sorrow, our Lord blames and corrects them, saying, But now I go My way to Him that sent Me; and none of you asks Me, Where do you go? They were so struck down at hearing that whoever killed them would think that he was doing God service, that they could say nothing.

Wherefore He adds, But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. It was no small consolation to them to know that the Lord knew their superabundant sorrow, because of His leaving them, and because of the evils which they heard they were to suffer, but knew not whether they should suffer manfully.

AUG. Or whereas they had asked Him above, where He was going, and He had replied that He was going where they would not come; now He promises that He will go in such a way that no one will ask Him where He goes: and none of you asks Me, Where do you go? Going up to heaven, they questioned Him not in words, but followed with their eyes. But our Lord saw what effect His words would produce upon their minds.

Not having yet that inward consolation which the Holy Ghost was to impart, they were afraid to lose the outward presence of Christ, and so, when they could no longer doubt from His own words that they were going to lose Him, their human affections were saddened, for the loss of their visible object. Wherefore it follows; But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.

But He knew that it would be for their good, forasmuch as that inward sight wherewith the Holy Ghost would console them was the better one: Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away.

CHRYS. As if He said, Though your grief be ever so great, you must hear how that it is profitable for you that I go away. What the profit is He then shows: For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you.

AUG. This He says not on account of any inequality between the Word of God and the Holy Ghost, but because the presence of the Son of man amongst them would impede the coming of the latter. For the Holy Ghost did not humble Himself as did the Son, by taking upon Him the form of a servant. It was necessary therefore that the form of the servant should be removed from their eyes; for so long as they looked upon that, they thought that Christ was no more than what they saw Him to be. So it follows: But if I depart, I will send Him unto you.

AUG. But could He not send Him while here: Him Who, we know, came and abode on Him at His baptism, yea Him from Whom we know He never could be separated? What means then, If I go not away, the Comforter will not come to you, but, you cannot receive the Spirit, so long as you know Christ according to the flesh? Christ departing in the body, not the Holy Ghost only, but the Father, and the Son also came spiritually.

GREG. As if He said plainly, If I withdraw not My body from your eyes, I cannot lead you to the understanding of the Invisible, through the Comforting Spirit.

AUG. The Holy Ghost the Comforter brought this, that the form of a servant which our Lord had received in the womb of the Virgin, being removed from the fleshly eye, He was manifested to the purified mental vision in the very form of God in which He remained equal to the Father, even while He deigned to appear in the flesh.

CHRYS. What say they here, who entertain unworthy notions of the Spirit? Is it expedient for the master to go away, and a servant to come? He then shows the good that the Spirit will do: And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

AUG. But how is it that Christ did not reprove the world? Is it because Christ spoke among the Jews only, whereas the Holy Spirit, poured into His disciples throughout the whole world, reproved not one nation only, but the world? But who would dare to say that the Holy Ghost reproved the world by Christ’s disciples, and that Christ did not when the Apostle exclaims, Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking in Me? (2 Cor 13:3) Those then whom the Holy Ghost reproves, Christ reproves also. He shall reprove the world, means, He shall pour love into your hearts, insomuch, that fear being cast out, you shall be free to reprove.

He then explains what He has said: Of sin, because they believed not in Me. He mentions this as the sin above all others, because while it remains, the others are retained; when it departs, the others are remitted.

AUG. But it makes a great difference whether one believes in Christ, or only that He is Christ. For that He was Christ, even the devils believed; but he believes in Christ who both hopes in Christ and loves Christ.

AUG. The world is reproved of sin, because it believes not in Christ, and reproved of righteousness, the righteousness of those that believe. The very contrast of the believing, is the censure of the unbelieving.

Of righteousness because I go to the Father: as it is the common objection of unbelievers, How can we believe what we do not see? So the righteousness of believers lies in this: Because I go to the Father, and you see Me no more. For blessed are they which see not, and believe. The faith even of those who saw Christ is praised, not because they believed what they saw, i.e., the Son of man, but because they believed what they saw not, i.e., the Son of God. And when the form of the servant was withdrawn from their sight altogether, then only was fulfilled in completeness the text, The just live by faith (Heb 10:38). It will be your righteousness then, of which the world will be reproved, that you shall believe in Me, not seeing Me. And when you shall see Me, you shall see Me as I shall be, not as I am now with you, i.e., you shall not see Me mortal, but everlasting. For in saying, you see Me no more, He means that they should see Him no more forever.

AUG. Or thus: They believed not, He went to the Father. Theirs therefore was the sin, His the righteousness. But that He came from the Father to us was mercy; that He went to the Father was righteousness; according to the saying of the Apostle, Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him (Phil 2:9). But if He went to the Father alone, what profit is it to us? Is He not alone rather in the sense of being one with all His members, as the head is with the body? So then the world is reproved of sin, in those who believe not in Christ; and of righteousness, in those who rise again in the members of Christ.

It follows, Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged–i.e., the devil, the prince of the wicked–who in heart dwell only in this world which they love. He is judged in that he is cast out; and the world is reproved of this judgment; for it is vain for one who does not believe in Christ to complain of the devil, whom judged, i.e., cast out, and permitted to attack us from without, only for our trial, not men only but women, boys and girls, have by martyrdom overcome.

AUG. Or, judged, i.e., is destined irrevocably for the punishment of eternal fire. And of this judgment is the world reproved, in that it is judged with its prince, the proud and ungodly one whom it imitates. Let men therefore believe in Christ, lest they be reproved of the sin of unbelief, by which all sins are retained; pass over to the number of the believing, lest they be reproved of the righteousness of those whom justified they do not imitate; beware of the judgment to come, lest with the prince of this world whom they imitate, they too be judged.

CHRYS. Or thus: Shall reprove the world of sin, i.e., cut off all excuse and show that they have sinned unpardonably in not believing in Me, when they see the ineffable gift of the Holy Ghost obtained by calling upon Me.

parAUG. In this way too the Holy Ghost reproved the world of sin, i.e. by the mighty works He did in the name of the Savior, Who was condemned by the world. The Savior, His righteousness retained, feared not to return to Him Who sent Him, and in that He returned, proved that He had come from Him: Of righteousness, because I go to the Father.

CHRYS. i.e. My going to tile Father will be a proof that I have led an irreproachable life, so that they will not be able to say, This man is a sinner; this man is not from God. Again inasmuch as I conquered the devil (which no one who was a sinner could do), they cannot say that I have a devil and am a deceiver. But as he has been condemned by Me they shall be assured that they shall trample upon him afterwards; and My resurrection will show that he was not able to detain Me.

AUG. The devils seeing souls go from hell to heaven, knew that the prince of this world was judged and, being brought to trial in the Savior’s cause, had lost all right to what he held. This was seen on our Savior’s ascension, but was declared plainly and openly in the descent of the Holy Ghost on the disciples.

Ver  12. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.13. However when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come.14. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and shall show it to you.15. All things that the Father has are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it to you

THEOPHYL. Our Lord having said above, It is expedient for you that I go away, He enlarges now upon it: I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

AUG. All heretics, when their fables are rejected for their extravagance by the common sense of mankind, try to defend themselves by this text; as if these were the things which the disciples could not at this time bear, or as if the Holy Spirit could teach things, which even the unclean spirit is ashamed openly to teach and preach.

But bad doctrines such as even natural shame cannot bear are one thing, good doctrines such as our poor natural understanding cannot bear are another. The one are allied to the shameless body, the other lie far beyond the body. But what are these things which they could not bear; I cannot mention them for this very reason; for who of us dare call himself able to receive what they could not? Some one will say indeed that many, now that the Holy Ghost has been sent, can do what Peter could not then, as earn the crown of martyrdom.

But do we therefore know what those things were, which He was unwilling to communicate; for it seems most absurd to suppose that the disciples were not able to bear then the great doctrines, that we find in the Apostolic Epistles, which were written afterwards, which our Lord is not said to have spoken to them. For why could they not bear then what every one now reads and bears in their writings, even though he may not understand? Men of perverse sects indeed cannot bear what is found in Holy Scripture concerning the Catholic faith, as we cannot bear their sacrilegious vanities; for not to bear means not to acquiesce in.

But what believer or even catechumen before he has been baptized and received the Holy Ghost, does not acquiesce in and listen to, even if he does not understand, all that was written after our Lord’s ascension; But some one will say, Do spiritual men never hold doctrines which they do not communicate to carnal men, but do to spiritual?

There is no necessity why any doctrines should be kept secret from the babes and revealed to the grown up believers. Spiritual men ought not altogether to withhold spiritual doctrines from the carnal, seeing the Catholic faith ought to be preached to all; nor at the same time should they lower them in order to accommodate them to the understanding of persons who cannot receive them, and so make their own preaching contemptible, rather than the truth intelligible.

So then we are not to understand these words of our Lord to refer to certain secret doctrines which if the teacher revealed, the disciple would not be able to bear, but to those very things in religious doctrine which are within the apprehension of all of us. If Christ chose to communicate these to us, in the same way in which He does to the Angels, what men, yea what spiritual men, which the Apostles were not now, could bear them? For indeed every thing which can be known of the creature is inferior to the Creator; and yet who is silent about Him?

While in the body we cannot know all the truth, as the Apostle says, We know in part (1 Cor 13); but the Holy Spirit sanctifying us fits us for enjoying that fullness of which the same Apostle says, Then face to face. Our Lord’s promise, But when He the Spirit of truth shall come, He shall teach you all truth, or shall lead you into all truth, does not refer to this life only, but to the life to come, for which this complete fullness is reserved. The Holy Spirit both teaches believers now all the spiritual things which they are capable of receiving, and also kindles in their hearts a desire to know more.

DIDYMUS. Or He means that His hearers had not yet attained to all those things which for His name’s sake they were able to bear; so, revealing lesser things, He puts off the greater for a future time, such things as they could not understand till the Cross itself of their crucified Head had been their instruction. As yet they were slaves to the types, and shadows, and images of the Law, and could not bear the truth of which the Law was the shadow. But when the Holy Ghost came, He would lead them by His teaching and discipline into all truth, transferring them from the dead letter to the quickening Spirit, in Whom alone all Scripture truth resides.

CHRYS. Having said then, you cannot bear them now, but then you shall be able, and, The Holy Spirit shall lead you into all truth; lest this should make them suppose that the Holy Spirit was the superior, He adds, For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.

AUG. This is like what He said of Himself above, i.e., I can of My own Self do nothing; as I hear I judge. But that may be understood of Hi m as man; how must we understand this of the Holy Ghost, Who never became a creature by assuming a creature? As meaning that He is not from Himself: The Son is born of the Father, and the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father. In what the difference consists between proceeding and being born, it would require a long time to discuss, and would be rash to define.

But to hear is with Him to know, to know to be. As then He is not from Himself, but from Him from Whom He proceeds, from Whom His being is, from the same is His knowledge. From the same therefore His hearing. The Holy Ghost then always hears, because He always knows; and He has heard, hears, and will hear from Him from Whom He is.

DIDYMUS. He shall not speak of Himself, i.e., not without Me, and Mine and the Father’s will: because He is not of Himself, but from the Father and Me. That He exists, and that He speaks, He has from the Father and Me. I speak the truth; i.e., I inspire as well as speak by Him, since He is the Spirit of Truth. To say and to speak in the Trinity must not be understood according to our usage, but according to the usage of incorporeal natures, and especially the Trinity, which implants Its will in the hearts of believers, all of those who are worthy to hear It.

For the Father then to speak, and the Son to hear, is a mode of expressing the identity of their nature, and their agreement. Again, the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of truth, and the Spirit of wisdom, cannot hear from the Son what He does not know, seeing He is the very thing which is produced from the Son, i.e. truth proceeding from truth, Comforter from Comforter, God from God. Lastly, lest any one should separate Him from the will and society of the Father and the Son, it is written, Whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak.

AUG. But it does not follow from hence that the Holy Spirit is inferior; for it is only signified that He proceeds from the Father.

AUG. Nor let the use of the future tense perplex you; that hearing is eternal, because the knowledge is eternal. To that which is eternal, without beginning, and without end, a verb of any tense may be applied. For though an unchangeable nature does not admit of was and shall be, but only is, yet it is allowable to say of It, was and is and shall be: was, because It never began; shall be, because It never shall end; is, because It always is.

DIDYMUS. By the Spirit of truth too the knowledge of future events has been granted to holy men. Prophets filled with this Spirit foretold and saw things to come, as if they were present: And He will show you things to come.

BEDE. It is certain that many filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit have foreknown future events. But as many gifted saints have never had this power, the words, He will show you things to come, may be taken to mean, bring back to your minds the Joys of your heavenly country. He did however inform the Apostles of what was to come, viz. of the evils that they would have to suffer for Christ’s sake, and the good things they would receive in recompense.

CHRYS. In this way then He raised their spirits; for there is nothing for which mankind so long, as the knowledge of the future. He relieves them from all anxiety on this account, by showing that dangers would not fall upon them unawares. Then to show that He could have told them all the truth into which the Holy Spirit would lead them, He adds, He shall glorify Me.

AUG. By pouring love into the hearts of believers, and making them spiritual, and so able to see that the Son Whom they had known before only according to the flesh, and thought a man like themselves, was equal to the Father. Or certainly because that love filling them with boldness, and casting out fear, they proclaimed Christ to men, and so spread His fame throughout the whole world. For what they were going to do in the power of the Holy Ghost, this the Holy Ghost says He does Himself.

CHRYS. And because He had said, You have one Master, even Christ (Matt 23:8), that they might not be prevented by this from admitting the Holy Ghost as well, He adds, For He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it to you.

DIDYMUS. To receive must be taken here in a sense agreeable to the Divine Nature. As the Son in giving is not deprived of what He gives, nor imparts to others with any loss of His own, so too the Holy Ghost does not receive what before He had not; for if He received what before He had not, the gift being transferred to another, the giver would be thereby a loser.

We must understand then that the Holy Ghost receives from the Son that which belonged to His nature, and that there are not two substances implied, one giving and the other receiving, but one substance only. In like manner the Son too is said to receive from the Father that wherein He Himself subsists. For neither is the Son any thing but what is given Him by the Father, nor the Holy Ghost any substance but that which is given Him by the Son.

AUG. But it is not true, as some heretics have thought, that because the Son receives from the Father, the Holy Ghost from the Son, as if by gradation, that therefore the Holy Ghost is inferior to the Son. He Himself solves this difficulty, and explains His own words: All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it to you.

DIDYMUS. As if He said, Although the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father, yet all things that the Father has are Mine, and even the Spirit of the Father is Mine, and receives of Mine. But beware, when you hear this, that you think not it is a thing or possession which the Father and the Son have. That which the Father has according to His substance, i.e. His eternity, immutability, goodness, it is this which the Son has also.

Away with the evils of logicians who say, therefore the Father is the Son. Had He said indeed, All that God has are Mine, impiety might have taken occasion to raise its head; but when He said, All things that the Father has are Mine, by using the name of the Father, He declares Himself the Son, and being the Son, He usurps not the Paternity, though by the grace of adoption He is the Father of many saints.

HILARY. Our Lord therefore has not left it uncertain whether the Paraclete be from the Father, or from the Son; for He is sent by the Son, and proceeds from the Father; both these He receives from the Son. You ask whether to receive from the Son and to proceed from the Father be the same thing.

Certainly, to receive from the Son must be thought one and the same thing with receiving from the Father; for when He says, All things that the Father has are Mine, therefore said I, that He shall receive of Mine, He shows herein that the things are received from Him, because all things which the Father has are His, but that they are received from the Father also. This unity has no diversity; nor does it matter from whom the thing is received; since that which is given by the Father is counted also as given by the Son.

Aquas’ Catena Aurea on John 14:27-31

27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you.

CHRYS. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: He says this to console His disciples, who were now troubled at the prospect of the hatred and opposition which awaited them after His departure.

AUG. He left no peace in this world; in which we conquer the enemy, and have love one to another: He will give us peace in the world to come, when we shall reign without an enemy, and where we shall be able to avoid disagreement. This peace is Himself, both when we believe that He is, and when we shall see Him as He is. But why does He say, Peace I leave with you, without the My, whereas He puts in My in, My peace 1 give to you? Are we to understand My in the former; or is it not rather left out with a meaning?

His peace is such peace as He has Himself; the peace which He left us in this world is rather our peace than His. He has nothing to fight against in Himself, because He has no sin: but ours is a peace in which we still say, Forgive us our debts (Mat_6:12). And in like manner we have peace between ourselves, because we mutually trust one another, that we mutually love one another. But neither is that a perfect peace; for we do not see into each other’s minds. I could not deny however that these words of our Lord’s may be understood as a simple repetition.

He adds, Not as the world gives, give I unto you: i.e. not as those men, who love the world, give. They give themselves peace, i.e. free, uninterrupted enjoyment of the world. And even when they allow the righteous peace, so far as not to persecute them, yet there cannot be true peace, where there is no true agreement, no union of heart.

CHRYS. External peace is often even hurtful, rather than profitable to those who enjoy it.

AUG. But there is a peace which is serenity of thought, tranquillity of mind, simplicity of heart, the bond of love, the fellowship of charity. None will be able to come to the inheritance of the Lord who do not observe this testament of peace; none be friends with Christ, who are at enmity with the Christians.

Ver 27. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.28. You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father: for my Father is greater than I.29. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that, when it is come to pass, you might believe.30. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me.31. But that the world may know that I love the Father: and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

CHRYS. After saying, Peace I leave with you, which was like taking farewell, He consoles them: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid: the two feelings of love and fear were now the uppermost in them.

AUG. Though He was only going for a time, their hearts would be troubled and afraid for what might happen before He returned; lest in the absence of the Shepherd the wolf might attack the flock: you have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. In that He was man, He went; in that He was God, He stayed.

Why then be troubled and afraid, when He left the eye only, not the heart? To make them understand that it was as man that He said, I go away, and come again to you; He adds, If you loved Me you would rejoice, because I said, I go to My Father; for My Father is greater than I. In that the Son then is unequal with the Father, through that inequality He went to the Father, from Him to come again to judge the quick and dead: in that He is equal to the Father, He never goes from the Father, but is everywhere altogether with Him in that Godhead, which is not confined to place.

Nay, the Son Himself, because that being equal to the Father in the form of God, He emptied Himself, not losing the form of God, but taking that of a servant, is greater even than Himself: the form of God which is not lost, is greater than the form of a servant which was put on. In this form of a servant, the Son of God is inferior not to the Father only, but to the Holy Ghost; in this the Child Christ was inferior even to His parents; to whom we read, He was subject. Let us acknowledge then the twofold substance of Christ, the divine, which is equal to the Father, and the human, which is inferior.

But Christ is both together, not two, but one Christ else the Godhead is a quaternity, not a Trinity. Wherefore He says, If you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father; for human nature should exult at being thus taken up by the Only Begotten Word, and made immortal in heaven; at earth being raised to heaven, and dust sitting incorruptible at the right hand of the Father. Who, that loves Christ, will not rejoice at this, seeing, as he does, his own nature immortal in Christ, and hoping that He Himself will be so by Christ.

HILARY. Or thus: If the Father is greater by virtue of giving, is the Son less by confessing the gift? The giver is the greater, but He to whom unity with that giver is given, is not the less.

CHRYS. Or thus: The Apostles did not yet know what the resurrection was of which He spoke when He said, I go, and come again to you: or what they ought to think of it. They only knew the great power of the Father. So He tells them: Though you fear I shall not be able to save Myself, and do not trust to My appearing again after My crucifixion; yet when you hear that I go to My Father, you should rejoice, because I go to one greater, one able to dissolve and change all things. All this is said in accommodation to their weakness: as we see from the next words:   And now I have told you before it comes to pass; that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

AUG. But is not the time for belief before a thing takes place? Is it not the praise of faith, that it believes what it does not see? according to w hat is said below to Thomas: Because you have seen, you has believed. He saw one thing, believed another: what he saw was man, what he believed was God. And if belief can be talked of with reference to things seen, as when we say that we believe our eyes; yet it is not mature faith, but is merely preparatory to our believing what we do not see.

When it has come to pass, then He says, because after His death they would see Him alive again, and ascending to His Father; which sight would convince them that He was the Christ, the Son of God; able as He was to do so great a thing, and to foretell it. Which faith however would not be a new, but only an enlarged faith; or a faith which had failed at His death, and been renewed by His resurrection.

HILARY. He next alludes to the approach of the time when He would resume His glory. Hereafter 1 will not talk much with you.

BEDE. He says this because the time was now approaching for His being taken, and given up to death: For the Prince of this world comes.
AUG. i.e. the devil; the prince of sinners, not of creatures; as the Apostle said, Against the rulers of this world. Or, as He immediately adds by way of explanation, this darkness, meaning, the ungodly. And has nothing in Me. God had no sin as God, nor had His flesh contracted it by a sinful birth, being born of the Virgin. But how, it might be asked, can you die, if you have no sin: He answers,
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. He had been sitting at table with them all this time. Let us go, i.e. to the place, where He, Who had done nothing to deserve death, was to be delivered to death. But He had a commandment from His Father to die.

AUG. That the Son is obedient to the will and commandment of the Father, no more shows a difference in the two, than it would in a human father and son. But over and above this comes the consideration that Christ is not only God, and as such equal to the Father, but also man, and as such inferior to the Father.

CHRYS. Arise, let us go hence, is the beginning of the sentence which l, follows. The time and the place (they were in the midst of a town, and it was night time) had excited the disciples’ fears to such a degree, that they could not attend to any thing that was said, but rolled their eyes about, expecting persons to enter and assault them; especially when they heard our Lord say, Yet a little while I am with you; and, The prince of this world comes. To quiet their alarm then, He takes them to another place, where they imagine themselves safe, and would be able to attend to the great doctrines which He was going to set before them.

Aquinas’ Catena Aurea on John 14:18-27

Ver 18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.19. Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more: but you see me; because I live, you shall live also.20. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.21. He that has my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

AUG. That no one might think, because our Lord was about to give the Holy Spirit, that He would therefore not be present Himself in Him, He adds, I will not leave you comfortless. The Greek word signifies “wards.” Although then the Son of God has made us the adopted sons of the Father, yet here He Himself shows the affection of a Father towards us.

CHRYS. At the first He said, Where I go you shall come; but as this was a long time off, He promises them the Spirit in the interval. And as they knew not what that was, He promises them that they most desired, His own presence, I will come to you, but intimates at the same time that they are not to look for the same kind of presence over again:

Yet a little while, and the world sees Me no more: as if He said, I will come to you, but not to live with you every day as I did before. And, I will come to you alone, He says, thus preventing any inconsistency with what He had said to the Jews: Henceforth you shall not see Me.

AUG. For the world saw Him then with the carnal eye, manifest in the flesh, though it did not see the Word hidden under the flesh. But after the resurrection He was unwilling to show even His flesh, except to His own followers, whom He allowed to see and to handle it: Yet a little while, and the world sees Me no more; but you shall see Me.

But, inasmuch as the world, by which are meant all who are aliens from His kingdom, will see Him at the last judgment, it is better perhaps to understand Him here as pointing to that time, when He will be taken for ever from the eyes of the wicked, to be seen thenceforth by those who love Him. A little while, He says, for that which seems a long lime to men, is but a moment in the eyes of God.Because 1 live, you shall live also.

THEOPHYL. As if He said, Though I shall die, I shall rise again. And you shall live also, i.e. when you see Me risen again, you will rejoice, and be as dead men brought to life again.

CHRYS. To me however he seems to refer not only to the present life, but to the future; as if He said, The death of the cross shall not separate you from Me for ever, but only hide Me from you for a moment.

AUG. But why does He speak of life as present to Him, future to them? Because His resurrection preceded, theirs was to follow. His resurrection was about so soon to take place, that He speaks of it as present; theirs being deferred till the end of the world, He does not say you live, but you shall live. Because He lives, therefore we shall live: As by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead (1Co_15:21).

It follows: In that day (the day of which He said, you shall live also) you shall know, i.e. whereas now you believe, then you shall see, that I am in the Father, and you in Me, and I in you. For when we shall have attained to that life in which death is swallowed up, then shall be finished that which is now begun by Him, that He should be in us, and we in Him.

CHRYS. Or, in that day, on which I shall rise again, you shall know. For His resurrection it was that established their faith. Then the powerful teaching of the Holy Spirit began. His saying, I am in the Father, expresses His humility; the next, And you in Me, and I in you, His humanity and God’s assistance to Him. Scripture often uses the same words in different senses, as applied to God and to men.

HILARY. Or He means by this, that whereas He was in the Father by the nature of His divinity, and we in Him by means of His birth in the flesh; He on the other hand should be believed to be in us by the mystery of the Sacrament: as He Himself testified above: Whosoever eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in Him.

ALCUIN. By love, and the observance of His commandments, that will be perfected in us which He has begun, viz. that we should be in Him, and He in us. And that this blessedness may be understood to be promised to all, not to the Apostles only, He adds, He that has My commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves Me.

AUG. He that has them in , and keeps them in life; he that has them in words, and keeps them in works; he that has them by hearing, and keeps them by doing; he that has them by doing, and keeps them by persevering, he it is that loves Me. Love must be strewn by works, or it is a mere barren name.

THEOPHYL. As if He said, You think that by sorrowing, as you do, for my death you prove your affection; but I esteem the keeping of My commandments the evidence of love. And then He shows the privileged state of one who loves: And he that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him.

AUG. I will love him, as if now He did not love him. What means this? He explains it in what follows: And will manifest Myself to him, i.e. I love him so far as to manifest Myself to him; so that, as the reward of his faith, he will have sight. Now He only loves us so that we believe; then He will love us so that we see. And whereas we love now by believing that which we shall see, then we shall love by seeing that which we have believed.

AUG. He promises to show Himself to them that love Him as God with the Father, not in that body which He bore upon earth, and which the wicked saw.

THEOPHYL. For, as after the resurrection He was to appear to them in a body more assimilated to His divinity, that they might not take Him then for a spirit, or a phantom, He tells them now beforehand not to have misgivings upon seeing Him, but to remember that He shows Himself to them as a reward for their keeping His commandments; and that therefore they are bound ever to keep them, that they may ever enjoy the sight of Him.

Ver 22. Judas said to him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?23. Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.24. He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.25. These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you.26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said to you.27. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you: not as the world gives, give I to you.

AUG. Our Lord having said, A little while, and the world sees Me no more: but you shall see Me: Judas, not the traitor named Iscariot, but he whose Epistle is read among the Canonical Scriptures, asks His meaning: Judas said to Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that you will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?

Our Lord in reply explains why He manifests Himself to His own, and not to aliens, viz. because the one love Him, the other do not. Jesus answered and said to him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words.

GREG. If you would prove your love, show your works. The love of God is never idle; whenever it is, it does great things: if it do not work, it is not.

AUG. Love distinguishes the saints from the world: it makes men to be of one mind in an house; in which house the Father and the Son take their abode; who give that love to those, to whom in the end they will manifest themselves. For these is a certain inner manifestation of God, unknown to the ungodly, to whom there is no manifestation made of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and only could be of the Son in the flesh; which latter manifestation is not as the former, being only for a little while, not for ever, for judgment, not for joy, for punishment, not for reward.
And We will come to him: They come to us, in that we go to Them; They come by succoring, we go by obeying; They come by enlightening, we go by contemplating; They come by filling, we go by holding: so Their manifestation to us is not external, but inward; Their abode in us not transitory, but eternal. It follows, And will make Our abode with him.

GREG. Into some hearts He comes, but not to make His abode with them. For some feel compunction for a season and turn to God, but in time of temptation forget that which gave them compunction, and return to their former sins, just as if they had never lamented them. But whoever loves God truly, into his heart the Lord both comes, and also makes His abode therein: for the love of the Godhead so penetrates him, that no temptation withdraws him from it. He truly loves, whose mind no evil pleasure overcomes, through his consent thereto.

AUG. But while the Father and the Son make Their abode with the loving, soul, is the Holy Spirit excluded? What means that which is said of the Holy Spirit above: He dwells with you, and shall be in you, but that the Spirit makes His abode with us? Unless indeed a man be so absurd as to think that when the Father and the Son come, the Holy Spirit departs, as if to give place to His superiors.

Yet even this carnal thought is met by Scripture, in that it says, Abide with you for ever. He will therefore be in the same abode with Them for ever. As He did not come without Them, so neither They without Him. As a consequence of the Trinity, acts are sometimes attributed to single persons in it: but the substance of the same Trinity demands, that in such acts the presence of the other Persons also be implied.

GREG. In proportion as a man’s love rests upon lower things, in that proportion is he removed from heavenly love: He that loves Me not, keeps not My sayings. To the love then of our Maker, let the tongue, mind, life bear witness.

CHRYS. Or thus Judas thought that he should , see Him, as we see the dead in sleep: How is it, that you will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world? meaning, Alas, as you art to die, you will appear to us but as one dead. To correct this mistake, He says, I and My Father will come to him, i.e. I shall manifest Myself, even as My Father manifests Himself. And will make our abode with Him; which is not like a dream. It follows, And the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s which sent Me; i.e. He that hears not My words, inasmuch as he loves not Me, so loves he not My Father. This He says to show that He spoke nothing which was not the Father’s, nothing beside what seemed good to the Father.

AUG. And perhaps there is a distinction at bottom, since He speaks of His sayings, when they are His own, in the plural number; as when He says, He that loves Me not, keeps not My sayings: when they are not His own, but the Father’s, in the singular, i.e. as the Word, which is Himself. For He is not His own Word, but the Father’s, as He is not His own image, but the Father’s, or His own Son, but the Father’s.

CHRYS. These things have I spoken to you, being yet present with you. Some of these things were obscure, and not understood by the disciples.

AUG The abode He promised them hereafter is altogether a different one from this present abode He now speaks of. The one is spiritual and inward, the other outward, and perceptible to the bodily sight and hearing.

CHRYS. To enable them to sustain His bodily departure more cheerfully, He promises that that departure shall be the source of great benefit; for that while He was then in the body, they could never know much, because the Spirit would not have come: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.

GREG. Paraclete is Advocate, or Comforter. The Advocate then intercedes with the Father for sinners, when by His inward power He moves the sinner to pray for himself. The Comforter relieves the sorrow of penitents, and cheers them with the hope of pardon.

CHRYS. He often calls Him the Comforter, in allusion to the affliction in which they then were.

DIDYMUS. The Savior affirms that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father, in His, the Savior’s, name; which name is the Son. Here an agreement of nature and propriety, so to speak, of persons is strewn. The Son can come in the Father’s name only, consistently with the proper relationship of the Son to the Father, and the Father to the Son.

No one else comes in the name of the Father, but in the name of God, of the Lord, of the Almighty, and the like. As servants who come in the name of their Lord, do so as being the servants of that Lord, so the Son who comes in the name of the Father, bears that name as being the acknowledged only-begotten Son of the Father. That the Holy Spirit then is sent in the Son’s name, by the Father, shows that He is in unity with the Son: whence He is said too to be the Spirit of the Son, and to make those sons by adoption, who are willing to receive Him.
The Holy Spirit then, Who comes in the name of the Son from the Father, shall teach them, who are established in the faith of Christ, all things; all things which are spiritual, both the understanding of truth, and the sacrament of wisdom. But He will teach not like those who have acquired an art or knowledge by study and industry, but as being the very art, doctrine, knowledge itself. As being this Himself, the Spirit of truth will impart the knowledge of divine things to the mind.
GREG. Unless the Spirit be present to the mind of the hearer, the word of the teacher is vain. Let none then attribute to the human teacher, the understanding which follows in consequence of his teaching: for unless there be a teacher within, the tongue of the teacher outside will labor in vain. Nay even the Maker Himself does not speak for the instruction of man, unless the Spirit by His unction speaks at the same time.
AUG. So then the Son speaks, the Holy Spirit teaches: when the Son speaks we take in the words, when the Holy Spirit teaches, we understand those words. The whole Trinity indeed both speaks and teaches, but unless each person worked separately as well, the whole would be too much for human infirmity to take in.
GREG. But why is it said of the Spirit, He shall suggest all stings to you: to suggest being the office of an inferior? The word is used here, as it is used sometimes, in the sense of supplying secretly. The invisible Spirit suggests, not because He takes a lower place in teaching, but because He teaches secretly.

AUG. Suggest, i.e. bring to your remembrance. Every wholesome hint to remember that we receive is of the grace of the Spirit.
THEOPHYL. The Holy Spirit then was both to teach and to bring to remembrance: to teach what Christ had forborne to tell His disciples, because they were not able to bear it; to bring to remembrance what Christ had told them but which on account of its difficulty, or their slowness of understanding, they were unable to remember.
CHRYS. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: He says this to console His disciples, who were now troubled at the prospect of the hatred and opposition which awaited them after His departure.

AUG. He left no peace in this world; in which we conquer the enemy, and have love one to another: He will give us peace in the world to come, when we shall reign without an enemy, and where we shall be able to avoid disagreement. This peace is Himself, both when we believe that He is, and when we shall see Him as He is. But why does He say, Peace I leave with you, without the My, whereas He puts in My in, My peace 1 give to you? Are we to understand My in the former; or is it not rather left out with a meaning?

His peace is such peace as He has Himself; the peace which He left us in this world is rather our peace than His. He has nothing to fight against in Himself, because He has no sin: but ours is a peace in which we still say, Forgive us our debts (Mat_6:12). And in like manner we have peace between ourselves, because we mutually trust one another, that we mutually love one another. But neither is that a perfect peace; for we do not see into each other’s minds. I could not deny however that these words of our Lord’s may be understood as a simple repetition.

He adds, Not as the world gives, give I unto you: i.e. not as those men, who love the world, give. They give themselves peace, i.e. free, uninterrupted enjoyment of the world. And even when they allow the righteous peace, so far as not to persecute them, yet there cannot be true peace, where there is no true agreement, no union of heart.

CHRYS. External peace is often even hurtful, rather than profitable to those who enjoy it.

AUG. But there is a peace which is serenity of thought, tranquillity of mind, simplicity of heart, the bond of love, the fellowship of charity. None will be able to come to the inheritance of the Lord who do not observe this testament of peace; none be friends with Christ, who are at enmity with the Christians.