Cornelius a Lapide’s Commentary on John 16:29-33

Joh 16:29  His disciples say to him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly and speakest no proverb.

We now clearly understand that which we did not comprehend before. For Thou spakest obscurely, “A little while, and you shall not see Me,” &c. But now thou explainest it clearly.

Joh 16:30  Now we know that thou knowest all things and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

Now we know that Thou knowest all things. “From our seeing and hearing that Thou understandest our secret thoughts, our doubts, and our desires to understand the meaning of Thy words, for Thou hast anticipated our questionings, and hast of Thine own accord cleared up our doubts. And for this cause we believe the more firmly that Thou art in truth the Son of God, and 183begotten by Him, because Thou knowest all things, and seest the secrets of hearts; which is the property of God.” So Cyril; or as Toletus says, “This alone is sufficient to make us believe that Thou camest forth from God, because Thou discoverest our secret thoughts, and makest answer to, them. And if other arguments (many as they are) were wanting, this alone would suffice to make us believe in Thee.”

Joh 16:31  Jesus answered them: Do you now believe?
Joh 16:32  Behold, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

This first clause of the Lord’s response is read either as a question (as with the above translation, and with Theophylact, Euthymius, Jansenius, and others) or as an affirmation. The meaning is the same in either case. Do ye believe? But ye will soon show how little and feeble is your faith. Or else, Ye now have faith in Me, but much feebler than you think, for you will flee away, and leave Me. Each of you hasting away to the place which is nearest, and none of you waiting for any others.

And yet I am not alone. I say not this for My own sake, but for your sake. I need not your protection, as I have the Almighty Father with Me.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world.

These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. The things I said before (ver. 5, and John 16:18-19). That ye might trust confidently in Me, with a mind calm and tranquil, unmoved, and unterrified by the waves of persecution.

In the world you shall have distress. But have confidence. I have overcome the world. I have begun to overcome it, by My holy Life and heavenly doctrines, but I will now fully and completely overcome it by My Passion and Death. Be confident then, that as I have overcome it, so will ye overcome it if ye persevere in faith and love. If therefore ye abide in Me, ye also, by My example, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which I will give you, will overcome the world; i.e., all the hatred, persecutions, &c., of the Jews (see 1 John 5.). Understand by the world, the prince of the world, and all other adversaries of Christ. So Toletus, Ribera, and others. Be assured then, under every worldly trial, that I have overcome the world, not for Myself but for your sakes I have overcome, that ye might overcome, that I might give you a rule and pattern, that I might obtain from God the grace of victory for you. Contend therefore resolutely, because I will contend in you, and overcome in you, by making you conquerors. For, as S. Augustine says here, He would not have overcome the world, if the world were to conquer His members.

Montanus, and his fellow-martyrs, the disciples of S. Cyprian, trusting in these words were strengthened by them, and exulted in their dark and gloomy prison; for they said, “Where the temptation is great, there is He, the Greater One, who overcomes it in us, and there is no contest in which, by the protection of the Lord, there is not victory.” See their Acts in Surius, Feb. 24. And S. Cyprian himself (Ep. ad. Fortunatum) says, “If any one, keeping the commands of the Lord, and boldly cleaving to Christ, has stood against the adversary, he must needs be conqueror, for Christ is unconquerable.” Also in Epist. to Donatus, “He can seek for nothing from the world who is above the world.” And again (Epist. to people of Thibaris), e.g. “The Christian soldier, instructed by His precepts and warnings, trembles not at the battle, but is ready for the Crown.” And just before, “The Lord wished we should rejoice in persecutions, because when they come, then the crowns of faith are given, the soldiers of God are proved, the heavens are opened to martyrs.” And again, “He is not alone, whose companion in flight is Christ, who keeping the temple of God, wherever he may be, is not without God. And should a robber assault him when flying in solitude, or on the mountains, or a wild beast attack, or hunger, or thirst, or cold afflict, or when hastening over the sea storm and tempest overwhelm him, Christ everywhere beholdeth His soldier, and if he dies in persecution for the honour of His name, He gives Him the reward He has promised He will give in the resurrection.” And also in the Treatise de Mortal., “He who is a soldier of God, who, stationed in the heavenly camp, is already hoping for things above, should recognise what He is, in order that there may not be any trepidation or faltering in us at the storms and tempests of the world. For the Lord foretold that these things should come to pass, instructing and teaching us beforehand by His word of encouragement, and preparing and strengthening us to meet them.” And he says (Epist. i. ad Cornelium): “That the soldiers of Christ cannot be conquered, though they can die, and that they are unconquered because they are not afraid to die.” And the Confessors, too, who were in prison and destined to martyrdom, wrote thus touchingly to S. Cyprian, as the encourager of Martyrs:-“What more glorious or what more happy can be granted to any man by Divine favour, than fearlessly to confess the Lord God in the midst of his murderers, and that while the various and exquisite torments of the secular power are raging, even with a racked, tortured, and mangled body, to confess Christ the Son of God with his departing but still free spirit? having broken through all worldly hindrances, to present himself before God freed from them all,—than to win the heavenly kingdom without delay, than to become a fellow-sufferer with Christ by suffering in His Name?” And so too S. Chrysostom, when his banishment was in debate, addressed to his people eleven discourses, beginning thus:- “Many are the floods, and huge the waves, but I fear not drowning, for I stand on the rock. But what think they? Lest I should fear death, to whom to live is Christ and to die is gain? lest I should be afraid of exile, though I know that the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof? or the proscription of my goods, though I know that I brought nothing into the world, neither can I take anything out? The terrors of the world—I despise them; its pleasures—I deride them. I desire not riches, I dread not poverty, I fear not death.”

Father Callan’s Commentary on Acts 19:1-8

1. And it came to pass, while Apollo was at Corinth, that Paul having passed through the upper coasts, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples.

The upper coasts; i.e., the mountainous parts of Galatia and Phrygia (Acts 18:23). Certain disciples, who, like Apollo, had been insufficiently instructed by John the Baptist, or some one of his disciples, and who, consequently, knew that Jesus was the Messiah, but little more than that.

2. And he said to them: Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? But they said to him: We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost.

We have not . . . heard whether, etc. This cannot mean that John’s disciples were ignorant of the existence of the Spirit of God, of whom John himself had spoken (John 1:33), and of whom the Old Testament often spoke (Gen 1:2; Ps 104:30; Isa 32:15; Isa 11:2-3; 2 Sam 23:2, etc.); but only that they had not yet received the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation, or did not know that it was possible so to receive Him. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that these disciples of John’s were most probably Jews, familiar with the Old Testament, and not pagans, as some have thought; we have no trace of any disciples belonging to John among the pagans.

3. And he said: In what then were you baptized? Who said: In John’s baptism.
4. Then Paul said: John baptized the people with the baptism of penance, saying: that they should believe in him who was to come after him, that is to say, in Jesus.

Since it was customary to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation immediately after Baptism, and since the disciples seemed to know nothing about Confirmation, St. Paul was moved to ask what baptism they had received. The baptism of John was only a preparation for the Baptism of Christ.

5. Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

They were baptized; i.e., they received the Sacrament of Baptism.

6. And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

Imposed his hands; i.e., administered the Sacrament of Confirmation.

They spoke with tongues, etc. See on Acts 2:17; Acts 8:16; Acts 10:46;
Acts 13:1.

7. And all the men were about twelve.
8. And entering into the synagogue, he spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and exhorting concerning the kingdom of God.