Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Christ says that He is the vine, we the branches, and that we therefore ought to abide in Him as branches in the vine, that we may bring forth grapes and spiritual wine. Secondly, verse 10, He inculcates love of God and of neighbor. Thirdly, verse 20, He foretells the persecutions of the world which after His death will rush upon the Apostles, and, verse 26, against them He sets the Paraclete whom He Himself will send.
Vulgate Text: John 15:1-27
1. I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. 2. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He will take away; and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3. Now you are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you. 4. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine; so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5. I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. 6. If any one abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither; and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. 7. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you: you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. 8. In this is My Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit, and become My disciples. 9. As the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love. 10. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love; as I also have kept My Father's commandments, and do abide in His love. 11. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and your joy may be filled. 12. This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. 13. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14. You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you. 15. I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of My Father, I have made known to you. 16. You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you; and have appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you. 17. These things I command you, that you love one another. 18. If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. 19. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20. Remember My word that I said to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake: because they know not Him that sent Me. 22. If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23. He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. 24. If I had not done among them the works that no other man hath done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father. 25. But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law: They hated Me without cause. 26. But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of Me: 27. And you shall give testimony, because you are with Me from the beginning.
Verse 1: I Am the True Vine, and My Father Is the Husbandman
1. I AM THE TRUE VINE. — In Greek there is a double article, ἡ ἄμπελος ἡ ἀληθινή, that is, that vine, that true one; the Syriac: I am that vine of truth. Here Christ proposes the parable of the vine and the branches, with this aim and end: that from it He may teach the Apostles that they must remain in His faith and love, and not depart from it on account of His impending Passion and death: for thus they would bring forth the fruit of eternal life for themselves and for others. That this is the aim and fruit of the parable is clear from what precedes and follows, especially from that verse 9: "Abide in My love."
Christ compares Himself to the vine, not inasmuch as He is God, as Arius wanted, thence proving the Son to be less than the Father, as husbandman — but inasmuch as He is man: for thus men are engrafted into Him as branches; for these are of the same and homogeneous nature with the vine. Hence St. Hilary, book IX De Trinitate: "Therefore, he says, Christ assumed flesh, that we fleshly men might be engrafted into Him as into a vine, as branches." Yet nevertheless the flesh of Christ would not have that power of producing branches — that is, faithful and saints of every kind — unless divinity were joined to it; and therefore Cyril, book X, chap. xiii, says that Christ is the vine by reason of His divinity. And St. Augustine, tract. 81: "Although Christ would not be the vine unless He were man; yet He would not bestow that grace upon the branches unless He were God."
You will ask, why does Christ compare Himself to the vine rather than to an apple, a pear, a walnut, or some other tree? St. Athanasius replies, in Disputation against Arius, and from him Ribera, Toletus and others: on account of the many gifts of the vine, by which it excels other trees, and which very fittingly apply to Christ, namely: First, on account of the abundance of its fruit; for it is the most fruitful among all plants: which David also signified in Psalm cxxvii, saying: "Thy wife as a fruitful vine." Secondly, on account of the sweetness of its fruit, for it is the most sweet and pleasant. Thirdly, on account of the wine which is made from its fruit, which gladdens the heart, and produces many effects similar to the fruits of Christ's coming. Fourthly also, because among all plants it most diffuses and spreads its branches, so that considering the size of its trunk, it extends its shoots in a wondrous manner, by which is signified the extension of the Church, of which Psalm lxxx, in figure of that people, says: "It stretched forth its branches unto the sea, and its boughs unto the river."
Fifthly, the vine has fragrant flowers and very broad leaves, with which it gives shade; hence with them we are accustomed to cover pears, apples, cherries, plums and other fruits and bring them to the table. The leaves of Christ are the external graces of speaking, preaching, conversing, etc.
Sixthly, the preeminence of the vine belongs peculiarly to Italy, so that by it she seems to have surpassed the goods of all nations, says Pliny, book XIV, in the preface. So likewise Rome holds the primacy and Pontificate of the vine, that is, of the Church.
Seventhly, wines are felt to be so much more potent, the closer the grape has been to the earth, says Pliny, book XVII, chap. xxii; so we felt the power of Christ, when He descended to the earth, and assumed flesh from it.
Eighthly, wine from older vines is better; from younger ones, more abundant, says Pliny, book XVI, chap. xxvii. Again, certain wines last two hundred years, and then have the taste of tart honey, says Pliny, book XIV, chap. iv. At Würzburg, the Most Reverend Lord Godfrey the Bishop gave me to taste a wine of a hundred years. Hence that saying: "Use old wine." For wisdom belongs to the aged.
Ninthly, the radish and the laurel injure the vine by their smell or the mixture of their juice, says Pliny, book XVII, chap. xxiv. The same, book XX, chap. ix, teaches that cabbage is an enemy to the vine. The vine, he says, flees cabbage, or if it cannot flee, it dies: on the contrary, the poplar is a most welcome tree to the vine, to which it binds itself and as it were marries itself.
Tenthly, there is no wood of longer-lasting material than the vine, says Pliny, book XIV, chap. i.
Eleventhly, the vine alone bears twice: first when it puts forth the grape, again when it digests it, says Pliny, book XVI, chap. xxv. Again, some vines are two-bearing, others three-bearing.
Twelfthly, Cato prescribes thus concerning the culture of vines: "Make your vineyard as tall as possible, and bind it properly, yet without constricting it too much, etc.," which Pliny recites at length, book XVII, chap. xxii.
Finally, vines need manifold, great, and assiduous cultivation; for they must be dug, planted, propped up, bound, trenched, uncovered at the roots, manured, pruned, stripped of leaves, and so on. So the Church and the holy soul, which is engrafted into Christ as into a vine, needs much, great, and continual care. I have enumerated more gifts and analogies of the vine at Ezek. xv, 2.
Moreover, the proper and chief reasons are two, why Christ here compared Himself to the vine rather than to a pear, a walnut, or some other tree. The first is, that Christ had recently instituted the Eucharist, and under the species of wine had given His blood to the Apostles to drink, and had left it to be drunk by all the faithful throughout all ages, so that by it, as by must, they might burn with His love and overcome all temptations. Therefore, since a little before Christ had admonished the Apostles to persevere in His love, even if they should see Him betrayed by Judas, seized, crucified and slain; now He urges the same thing here through the parable of the vine, q. d. As the branch always cleaves to the vine, and does not allow itself to be torn away from it by any cold, wind, or thunderbolt, so that it may bear fruit; so also you, O Apostles, persevere in My love, and do not fall away from My faith and love on account of My Passion and death: for thus you will bring forth remarkable and abundant fruit.
The later reason is that Christ was now going to His Passion, cross and death, which the vine through its grapes very aptly represents: for as from the trodden grape is pressed forth wine excellent and savory; so from the trodden Christ in the winepress of the cross was pressed forth the blood by which the world was redeemed. Christ therefore alludes to that in Gen. xlix, 11, foretold by Jacob concerning Him: "Tying his foal to the vineyard, and his ass, O my son, to the vine. He shall wash his robe in wine, and his garment in the blood of the grape. His eyes are more beautiful than wine." See what is said there. Hence St. Hilary, book IX De Trinitate: "Rising up, he says, to consummate the mysteries of the Passion, He unfolds the mystery of the bodily assumption, through which we also are as branches in a vine." The Gloss likewise explains it thus, q. d.: "You ought to follow Me as I go before to the Passion, because I am the vine, that is, your head, of the same nature with you."
See St. Bernard (if however he is the author: for the style is dissonant), tract on the Passion, with this title: I am the true vine, who is entirely on this subject, where among other things, in chap. i, he says: The vine is wont to be planted in the ground, not sown, transplanted from its own vine: so the vine first born of the vine is Christ, as it were God begotten of God, the Son of the Father, but in order that He might bear more fruit, He was planted in the earth, that is, conceived in the Virgin Mary. Then he applies all the conditions of the vine to Christ. Hence, in chap. II, treating of the pruning of the vine: "How, he says, was glory cut off in Christ? By the knife of ignominy; power? By the knife of abjection; pleasure? By the knife of pain; riches? By the knife of poverty." In chap. III, he treats of the digging around the vine and teaches similarly that the Jews dug pits of ambush for Christ, to take Him in His word, but He remaining unharmed, they themselves fell into their own pits. In chap. IV, he treats of the bindings of the vine, and applies them to the cords with which Christ was bound, when He was taken, and when He was bound to the column and scourged; likewise to the crown of thorns, with which the Jews bound His head; likewise to the iron nails with which He was fastened to the cross. In chap. V, he treats of the cultivation of the vine. In chap. VI, of the leaves of the vine, which are very broad, and he takes them as the words of Christ, especially the last seven which He uttered on the cross: for these, as it were a shade, console, protect and defend us in every temptation.
You will ask secondly, why is Christ called "the true vine?" Ribera answers first, because He is most similar to the vine and all the properties of the vine most truly belong to Him. Secondly, Euthymius: "True," he says, that is, that which brings forth the fruit of truth. Thirdly, the same Euthymius: "True," that is, excellent, he says, spiritual and incorruptible. But I say Christ is called "the true vine," because He truly has the nature, character, properties and gifts of the vine. For as the true vine produces true branches and true grapes, so Christ begets true faithful and true virtues by His grace, which He instills in them as wine-bearing sap. So therefore He is called "the true vine," not corporeal, but spiritual. Therefore the true vine is opposed to the false and deceptive vine, which has the appearance of a vine, but not the nature, and which brings forth not grapes but wild grapes, not wine but verjuice: such are the vines of Sodom, which outwardly bring forth grapes beautiful in appearance, but when you touch them, they dissolve into ashes and go up in smoke and vanish, as Josephus testifies, book II De Bello, chap. v. Such vines also were the Jews, falling away from God to idols and vices, of whom Deut. xxxii, 32, says: "Their vines are of the vineyard of Sodom, and of the suburbs of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters most bitter: their wine is the gall of dragons, and the venom of asps, which is incurable."
Secondly, Christ is "the true vine," in Greek ἀληθινή, that is, that true one, that is, most true, singular, perfect, excellent, compared with whom all other vines are not true vines, but shadows of vines. So Christ is called the true light, the true life, the true bread, because He enlightens, vivifies, nourishes more than any corporeal light, life, and bread. See what is said at chap. i, verse 9.
Christ therefore is the choice vine — in Hebrew sorec — that is, the singular and most excellent one, of which Isaiah speaks in chap. v, verse 2; which has propagated the branches of its faith and of the Church through the whole world, and everywhere produces grapes — that is, ranks of Martyrs, Virgins, Confessors and all Saints — according to that text, Zech. ix, 17: "For what is the good thing of Him, and what is His beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?"
Christ alludes to that foretold of Him 250 years before by Sirach: "I as a vine have brought forth a pleasant odor: and My flowers are the fruit of honor and riches," Ecclus. xxiv, 23; see what is said there. And to that of David, Psalm lxxix, 21: "Thou hast planted its roots, and it filled the land: its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God: it stretched forth its branches unto the sea."
AND MY FATHER IS THE HUSBANDMAN (that is, a vinedresser). — He, namely, who has planted Me as it were a vine in the earth, and tends My branches — that is, the Apostles and the other faithful — by cutting off the useless and pruning the useful, so that they may bring forth greater fruit, as follows. The field therefore here includes not only the field of seed, but also the vineyard, garden, meadow, and whatever belongs to the fields. Hear St. Augustine, De Verbis Domini secundum Joan., sermon 59: "We worship God by adoring, not by plowing; and God tills us by making us better: for by His word He roots out evil seeds from our hearts; He opens our heart as with the plow of His discourse; He plants the seeds of His precepts, and awaits the fruit of piety."
The Arians objected: The Vine and the Husbandman are of different natures; therefore since the Husbandman is God the Father, and the Vine is Christ, Christ cannot be God. Athanasius, Basil and Ambrose answer: Christ is the vine with respect to the human nature assumed by Him, and thus is of a different nature from the Husbandman, that is, God the Father. Again, even if we grant that Christ is the vine even as He is God, the argument concludes nothing. For in the comparison of likenesses, it is not the identity or similarity of nature, but that in which the similarity is placed, which is to be considered. For likenesses are commonly of a different and dissimilar nature, but they are compared in some property in which they agree, and are likened to the vine and the husbandman, not in identity of nature, but in the similarity of branches and fruits, namely grapes, which they produce. Moreover the Son also and the Holy Spirit is the husbandman of this vine, but Christ, according to His custom, attributes this to the Father alone, because the Father is the origin of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the principle of divinity, as Dionysius says, De Divinis nominibus. So St. Augustine.
Verse 2: Every Branch in Me That Beareth Not Fruit, He Will Take Away; and Every One That Beareth Fruit, He Will Purge It, That It May Bring Forth More Fruit
2. EVERY BRANCH. — Christ says nothing of the vine, but of the branches, because Christ who is the vine is sufficient to Himself, whereas the disciples need much help and God's cultivation, says Chrysostom. Yet also God was cultivating the mind of Christ by assiduous illuminations and impulses, and urging it on to heroic works.
EVERY BRANCH IN ME THAT BEARETH NOT FRUIT, HE WILL TAKE AWAY; AND EVERY ONE THAT BEARETH FRUIT, HE WILL PURGE IT, THAT IT MAY BRING FORTH MORE FRUIT. — q. d. Every faithful one, or Christian, who through faith and baptism has been engrafted into Me as a branch into a vine, if he does not bear the fruit of good works, God the Father will take away, that is, will cut off from the vine as an unfruitful and useless branch, both by secretly separating him from the communion of Christ's Spirit and grace, and also publicly by separating him from Christ through excommunication or by permitting him to fall into heresy; and in death by separating him from the fellowship of Christ and the Saints: but him who does bear fruit, He will cleanse from the luxuriance of foliage, from worms and every harm, that is, from the love of the vanities and filth of this world, so that he may bring forth more fruit. Christ speaks first and most immediately to the Apostles, then to the other faithful. For so God the Father a little before separated the traitor Judas from Christ and the Apostles, compelling him to go out of their house and company: but Peter and the other Apostles He cleansed from too great a love of this life and fear of the Jews, by which, roused up, they either denied Christ as He was being seized, or fled, when at Pentecost He sent upon them the Holy Spirit, who cut off all that love and fear, so that, full of the love of God, they feared neither the hands nor threats of the Jews. So St. Augustine, Chrysostom, Cyril. Cyril adds another exposition, that the unfruitful branch is the people of the Jews, who on account of their unbelief have been cut off, but the fruitful branches are the faithful, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, whom the Father cleanses, but in different ways: for from the Jews the rudeness of the Mosaic law is taken away, from the Gentiles the impurity of morals and the willingness to idolatry.
But this sense does not agree with Christ's purpose. For He speaks only of the faithful: wherefore the Jews cannot be called branches abiding in Christ.
Moreover, the sickle or knife with which God cleanses the branches, that is, the faithful, is first the word of God. Whence concerning it He adds in verse 3: "Now you are clean, by reason of the word which I have spoken to you." For the word of God teaches and incites us to purge our mind from its filth. Secondly, there are tribulations, afflictions, persecutions, poverty, hunger, etc., for these call us away from the love of the world and compel us to take refuge in God. So Cyril. Hear St. Gregory, book VII, epistle 32: "A fruitful branch is said to be cleansed, because by discipline it is cut back, so that it may be led to more abundant grace. For so the grains of ears, rubbed on the threshing floor, are stripped of husks and chaff. So olives, pressed in the press, flow forth into the richness of oil. So clusters of the vineyards, trodden by feet, liquefy into wine."
Thirdly, there are illuminations, terrors, rebukes, which God sends into the minds of the faithful, in order to purge and cut off the shoots of vices. So by God St. Jerome was rebuked, indeed he was scourged, because he read Cicero more eagerly than Holy Scripture. Hear him, epistle 22 to Eustochium: "Caught up in spirit I was dragged to the tribunal of the judge: where there was such light, and such brightness from the splendor of those standing around, that cast upon the ground I did not dare to look up. Being asked about my condition, I answered that I was a Christian. And He who presided said: Thou liest; thou art a Ciceronian, not a Christian. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. At once I became silent, and amid the blows (for He had ordered me to be beaten) I was tormented more by the fire of conscience, pondering within myself that verse: But in hell, who shall confess to Thee? I began to cry out, and wailing to say: Have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me. This voice resounded amid the scourges," etc. And soon after: "I confess that my shoulders were bruised, that I felt the blows after waking, and that from then on I read divine things with as great zeal as I had never before read mortal ones." So St. Catherine of Siena, for a slight distraction in prayer, was sharply rebuked by Christ, and so blushed that she said she would rather be confounded before the whole world than again undergo a like chastisement and confusion. Something similar about Christ concerning herself is reported by St. Bridget in her Revelations. Hence the necessity, force and integrity of good works is clear, and that faith alone does not suffice for salvation, as heretics maintain. For Christ here requires this fruit, which if He does not find, He threatens every branch — that is, every faithful one — with cutting off from the vine, that is, eternal damnation. Wherefore the Beghards and Beguines erred, saying that perfect men were not obliged to good works, whom accordingly Clement V condemns in the Council of Vienne, as is clear in Clement. Ad nostrum, de haeret. And against them Christ presses "in Me," q. d. It is unworthy that any faithful one abiding in Me should bear no fruit of charity and virtues, but be dead and idle; since I, who am the Holy of Holies and the Son of God, constantly produce so many, and indeed My whole life is nothing other than labor in preaching the gospel, and cross and martyrdom in suffering.
It is clear secondly, that Luther errs when he says that all the works of the faithful are sins, because they proceed from innate concupiscence, and are not done in perfect charity: for if this were true, Christ would not require them, nor would He call them fruit, but rather would condemn them as poison. See the Council of Trent, session VI, canon 25.
It is clear thirdly, that Luther likewise errs when he says that by any mortal sin faith is lost: which the Council of Trent condemns, ibid., canon 28. For Christ here speaks of a faithful one who abides in Him through faith, but does not have the fruit of charity. Such a one, therefore, has faith, but not charity.
Verse 3: Now You Are Clean by Reason of the Word Which I Have Spoken to You
3. NOW YOU ARE CLEAN, BY REASON OF THE WORD WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU. — Behold, this is the sickle with which God the Father ἐκάθαιρε, that is, prunes and cleanses His Apostles, that they may be καθαροί, that is, pure and clean, namely, the word of Christ. For, as Paul says, Heb. IV: "For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow." The sense therefore is, q. d. My word, that is, My doctrine, which I have taught you and persuaded you to believe and obey, this is the sickle which has cleansed you from error and vices, and has made you clean, holy, and pleasing to God. Christ speaks properly of the discourse after the Last Supper, which immediately preceded chap. xiii and xiv; for, as Toletus rightly notes, this discourse kindled the hearts of the disciples, which were already bearing fruit in Christ, and having been united by grace and love and faith, it cleansed them so that they might bring forth more fruit; but it cleansed them from many imperfections, both by illuminating and teaching, by rebuking and admonishing, by instructing, and finally by afflicting: for He affected them with sorrow and fear, by which their faith was increased, their love made more fervent, and their hope more robust.
For by this discourse of Christ the Apostles were cleansed from a certain ignorance: for Peter did not know where Jesus was going, Thomas was ignorant of the way, the other Judas sought to see the Father: these ignorances the Lord cut off. They were cleansed also from a certain vain confidence; for to Peter, first among them, it was said: "Thou shalt deny Me thrice." They were cleansed from a certain carnal affection; for they were indeed intent on and addicted to the sensible presence of Christ, always desiring to enjoy it: but now they hear the Lord depart to the Father and themselves remain behind. They are cleansed from faint-heartedness, by which, on Christ's departure, they were already almost despairing of their own salvation. There were many other imperfections which the Lord cut off from His disciples on this night of the Supper.
Moreover St. Augustine asks, tract. 80: "Why does He not say: Now you are clean on account of the baptism by which you have been washed; but: On account of the word?" And he answers: "Because also in the water of baptism there is the word of God, which cleanses: take away the word, and what is water but water? The word is added to the element, and it becomes a Sacrament."
But, according to what I have said, this response is not needed. For Christ is not speaking of the cleanness received through baptism or the Eucharist, but of that which Christ's discourse, already spoken, conferred upon the Apostles: for that discourse cleansed and took away the slight imperfections remaining in the Apostles after Baptism and the Eucharist. Hence St. Augustine notes and says: "Now you are clean — clean, that is to say, and to be cleansed; for unless they were clean, they could not bear fruit, and yet every one who bears fruit the husbandman prunes, that he may bring forth more fruit."
Verse 4: Abide in Me, and I in You. As the Branch Cannot Bear Fruit of Itself, Unless It Abide in the Vine; So Neither Can You, Unless You Abide in Me
4. ABIDE IN ME (as branches in the vine, not dry and unfruitful through faith alone, but as fruitful and living through charity and the pursuit of good works), AND I IN YOU. — This clause is partly a promise of Christ, q. d. If you abide in Me through faith formed by charity, I promise you that I in turn will abide in you, as the vine abides in the branches through a continual influx, so that it may furnish them vital nourishment and juice for producing grapes. For in like manner I will furnish you the Spirit of grace, for producing good works of charity and the virtues. So St. Augustine, Bede, and Euthymius. It is partly a precept, q. d. Take care that you abide in Me, and I in turn will abide in you, because without Me you can do nothing. And you will take care of this, if you abide in My love: for thus you will bring it about that I in turn abide in you through My grace, and constantly send forth and pour My Spirit into you, by which you may be quickened and grow in spiritual life, and may go on to bring forth spiritual works. So Toletus, Ribera, and others. Hear St. Gregory, in Opusc., in his exposition of the sixth Penitential Psalm, on the words: "My soul hath stayed in His word," thus he says: "Where must we abide, if not in Christ? houses shall fail, palaces shall fall, cities shall be destroyed from their lowest foundations, towers shall be torn down, heaven and earth shall pass away, but the word of the Lord abideth forever: let us therefore abide in Him who abideth forever."
This is Christ's conclusion, by which He exhorts the disciples to persevere in Himself and in His doctrine and love, which He then proves by seven reasons. The first reason is, that without Him they can do nothing good and salutary. The second, verse 3, that if they abide in Him, they will bring forth much fruit. The third, verse 6, from punishment, because if they do not abide in Him, they will wither and be cast into the fire of hell. The fourth, verse 7, because if they abide in Him, they will obtain from God whatever they ask. The fifth, verse 8, that in this way they will greatly glorify God and promote His glory throughout the whole world. The sixth, verse 9, because He has continually and marvelously loved them: it is therefore fitting that they in turn love Him and persevere in His love. The seventh, verse 11, that through this they will be in perpetual joy. Hear the first:
AS THE BRANCH CANNOT BEAR FRUIT OF ITSELF, UNLESS IT ABIDE IN THE VINE: SO NEITHER CAN YOU, UNLESS YOU ABIDE IN ME. — As if He said: As the branch draws life and sap from the vine for producing grapes, so also you draw from Me the life of grace and the Spirit for producing good works which may merit eternal life. From this passage then it is clear that man, not from himself and his own natural powers, nor even externally from a man teaching or persuading him, but from the internal grace of Christ, partly by actual prevenient grace, partly by habitual grace, draws the power of producing good works, especially supernatural ones, and the power through them of meriting an increase of grace and glory: because the branch has nothing of itself; but draws all juice, efficacy, and power of producing grapes from the vine. So defines, and thus explains this passage, the Council of Trent, session vi, chapter xvi, adding the cause: "For since Christ Jesus Himself, as the head into the members, and as the vine into the branches, continually pours forth His power into those who are justified: which power always precedes, accompanies, and follows their good works, and without which in no way could they be pleasing and meritorious to God; it must be believed that nothing more is lacking to the justified themselves, so that they may be held truly to have satisfied the divine law, by those works which are done in God, as regards the state of this life, and truly to have merited to obtain eternal life, in its own time, if nevertheless they depart in grace."
Calvin objects: Therefore man has no free will, nor does he cooperate with grace through it, but grace alone does the whole work: for just as the branch draws all the juice of its grapes from the vine, and has no juice of itself, so man draws all power of doing good from grace, and consequently has nothing of himself by which he might cooperate with grace, or which he might contribute to the work done by grace. I answer first, by denying the consequence: for in a simile not all things are alike, such that they must or can be applied to the thing compared, but only in that in which the similitude itself is placed. Christ therefore here places His similitude only in this, that just as the branch draws and sucks from the vine all its vigor and juice for producing grapes, so also the faithful draws from the grace of Christ all juice, power, and vigor for producing supernatural works; but the dissimilitude lies in this, that man, being rational, cooperates with grace, and that freely: which the branch does not do in the vine, since it is an irrational stalk; for from the free cooperation of man the good work has that it is free and human, as from the influx of grace it has that it is a supernatural work, worthy of God and pleasing to Him.
Secondly, I deny the antecedent: for that the branch, besides the vigor and juice which it receives from the vine, also cooperates by its own nature in some way to the producing of the grapes, is clear from this, that if another branch not vine-bearing, or fruit-bearing of another fruit, e.g. a branch of an apple, pear, or cherry, were grafted onto a vine, it would either produce nothing, or would certainly produce apples, pears, cherries, not grapes; so that its producing grapes comes from its being a vine-branch.
I confess, however, that the cooperation itself of free will is also from grace, in this sense, that unless free will were prevented, elevated, strengthened, and incited to cooperation by grace, and unless it had helping and cooperating grace, it could not cooperate with it, nor do anything: of which more shortly. And this is the second reason by which Christ urges the Apostles to remain in Him.
Verse 5: I Am the Vine: You the Branches: He That Abideth in Me, and I in Him, the Same Beareth Much Fruit: For Without Me You Can Do Nothing
5. I AM THE VINE, YOU THE BRANCHES: HE THAT ABIDETH IN ME, AND I IN HIM (that is, he who so abides in Me, that I also abide in him, that is, who abides in Me, not by faith alone, but by faith formed by charity, so that I in turn love him back and imbue him with My Spirit), THE SAME BEARETH MUCH FRUIT — of good works and merits, by which he continually merits an increase of grace and glory. Hence the Councils of Milevis and Orange condemn the Pelagians saying: From God we have that we are men, but from ourselves that we are just.
St. Augustine, tract. 81, calls them not assertors, but underminers of free will, and against them thus concludes: "He who thinks that he bears fruit of himself, is not in the vine; he who is not in the vine, is not in Christ; he who is not in Christ, is not a Christian."
BECAUSE WITHOUT ME (not only without general and natural, but also without special and supernatural prevenient and concurrent help of grace) YOU CAN DO NOTHING; — nothing, namely, of fruit which is fruit of the vine, that is of Christ or of grace, as above, that is nothing worthy of and meritorious of eternal life or grace (which grapes and wine, which is an excellent liquor, represent), as the Pelagians wished, who thought that good and meritorious works could absolutely be done by free will, though more easily through grace. But Christ did not say: With difficulty, but, "nothing" you can do without Me. Hear the Council of Orange, chapter 7: "Whoever shall say that we can, by the vigor of nature, think or choose anything good which pertains to the salvation of eternal life, or believe the preaching of the Gospel without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all sweetness in consenting to and believing the truth, is deceived by a heretical spirit, not understanding the voice of God in the Gospel saying: Without Me you can do nothing." And how it understands this, it seems to explain in chapter ix, saying: "It is of the divine gift, that we both think rightly and keep our feet from falsehood and injustice: for as often as we do good, God in us and with us works that we may work." For Christ did not say: Without Me you can do nothing easily, or nothing great, but simply nothing, neither great nor small, nor easy nor difficult, can you do, as St. Augustine rightly notes here, tract. 81, and book I De Gratia Christi, chap. xxix.
Moreover, Calvin ineptly thinks that by the "nothing" the cooperation of free will is taken away, whereas the "nothing" rather establishes it. For if we can do nothing of supernatural good without Christ and His grace; therefore with it we can do something. Hence the Apostle: "I have labored more abundantly than all they, yet not I (alone by my own powers), but the grace of God with me," 1 Cor. xv, 10. So without God's general and natural concurrence we can do nothing, yet with it we can do many things, like walk, speak, build, etc.
Finally, some Catholics wrongly infer from this maxim of Christ: "Without Me you can do nothing," the following: Therefore all the works of unbelievers (who lack the faith and grace of Christ) are sins; for the "nothing" refers to the works of Christ's grace, not of nature: therefore unbelievers can do these natural works, such as honoring parents, feeding the hungry, doing good to neighbors; but not those which are works of Christ's grace, or which are fruitful for meriting eternal life. For between grace and sin, nature is a middle, that is, a naturally upright work, which is neither sin nor a work of grace.
YOU THE BRANCHES. — Cyril notes that we are joined and adhere to Christ as branches to a vine, both spiritually through faith, hope, and charity; and bodily, so that the vine is Christ's humanity, whose branches we are on account of the identity of human nature, especially in the Eucharist, in which we are joined and mixed with Christ not only as branches of a vine, but also as melted wax with other melted wax. Hence as Christ said about the Eucharist in chapter vi: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, you shall not have life in you:" so here about the vine and branch He says in verse 6: "If any man abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth." And Jer. chap. ii: "I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed; how then art thou turned unto Me into a degenerate plant of a strange vineyard?" Christ therefore is called "the true vine," Heb. נאמן neeman, that is faithful, true, sincere, because He never deserts His branches, nor deprives them of His influx, but continually instills in them the winy juice, so that they may produce true grapes and the wine of charity, grace, and glory.
For Christ says this to the Apostles, who were timid and distrustful because of His imminent death, as if to say: Though I now suffer and die; yet I shall soon rise again, nor shall I desert you, O Apostles, but like a vine I shall preserve, cherish, and vivify you as My branches, that you may produce the grapes of the virtues. Do not therefore fear, nor flee and fall away from Me, for thus you will take away from yourselves My grace and spiritual life, which you will preserve and increase, if you remain constant in My faith and love. For just as a branch cannot live or grow without the influx of the vine which furnishes it all vital juice; so neither can the just man live and grow in grace without the influx of Christ's merits.
Verse 6: If Any One Abide Not in Me, He Shall Be Cast Forth as a Branch, and Shall Wither; and They Shall Gather Him Up, and Cast Him Into the Fire, and He Burneth
6. IF ANY MAN ABIDE NOT IN ME (by faith formed by charity), HE SHALL BE CAST FORTH AS A BRANCH (useless and unfruitful), AND SHALL WITHER, AND THEY SHALL GATHER HIM UP, AND CAST HIM INTO THE FIRE, AND HE BURNETH, — that is, he shall burn, as the Arabic renders, as if to say: Just as a useless branch is cut off from the vine and thrown out outside the vineyard, where it entirely withers and is gathered into bundles, and cast into the fire and at once burns; so likewise the faithful who does not abide in Me through faith and charity, after death shall be cast out, that is, he shall be separated from the Church and the faithful people, who are members of Christ, where he shall completely wither, that is, he shall be deprived of every good juice of grace, and shall be gathered by the demons with other reprobates, and as it were bound into bundles, that he may be cast into the fire of hell and there at once burn forever. Now each word contains its own punishment, and therefore they must be weighed separately.
The first punishment then is that "he shall be cast out," that is, he shall be separated from Christ, from God, from heaven, from the fellowship of the angels and Saints.
The second, that "he shall wither:" for sinners in this life often retain faith and hope, often the illuminations of grace and divine impulses toward repentance when they feel them, are frequently admonished by preachers, teachers, companions, etc., to amend their life, and often do morally good works. For they remain in Christ as in a vine, from which they suck some moisture of goodness. And after this life, being separated from Christ, they can suck no moisture, no grace from Christ, but all God's gifts shall be taken away from them, Luke chap. xix, 26, so that they are fit for nothing, except to become bellows and fuel for hell.
The third, "they shall gather him up," by which is signified that the reprobate will be bound in bundles, to be cast into the fire from which they can never free themselves, according to the parable of Matt. xiii, 41. At the same time it signifies that their will, reason, and freedom of choice shall be bound in them, so that thenceforth they can neither will nor do anything good.
The fourth, "they shall cast into the fire," namely into hell burning with fire and brimstone, where the smoke of their torments ascends forever and ever, as John says from Isaiah, Apoc. xiv, 11.
The fifth, "he burneth," that is, he shall burn immediately and continually forever. Hence St. Augustine, tract. 81: "The wood of a pruned vine, he says, is of no use to farmers, nor is it assigned to any smith's work. One of two things befits a branch, either the vine or the fire: if it is not in the vine, it will be in the fire." This is Christ's third argument, by which He exhorts the disciples to abide in Him. Next follows the fourth, drawn from reward.
Verse 7: If You Abide in Me, and My Words Abide in You: You Shall Ask Whatever You Will, and It Shall Be Done Unto You
7. IF YOU ABIDE IN ME (that is, if you persevere in My love and grace), AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU (in your memory, so that you constantly remember them; in your will, so that you love them; and in your action, so that you perpetually carry out My commands): YOU SHALL ASK WHATEVER YOU WILL, AND IT SHALL BE DONE UNTO YOU, — because you will ask nothing except according to My will and according to the formula of asking prescribed by Me in Matt. vi, 9; indeed you will ask nothing except what you know will be pleasing to God and will pertain to God's glory and your salvation and your neighbors', because those abiding in Jesus (that is, the Savior) cannot will anything except what belongs to salvation, says St. Augustine. For a branch existing in the vine, if it could ask anything, would ask for nothing except to be preserved in the vine and by its influx to produce grapes; so the just ask to be preserved in Christ's grace and to accomplish good works, and they obtain this. For if they were to ask anything carnal, vicious, dishonest, harmful, or useless and superfluous, they would ask what is displeasing to Christ and forbidden by Him, and therefore would offend Him, wherefore they would neither remain in Him nor obtain what they ask. Hence St. Augustine: To His words, he says, pertains the prayer which He taught us (Matt. vi, 9); let us not depart from His words and meanings in our petitions, and whatever we ask shall be done unto us.
Verse 8: In This Is My Father Glorified; That You Bring Forth Very Much Fruit, and Become My Disciples
8. IN THIS IS MY FATHER GLORIFIED (that is, soon after My death and the coming of the Holy Spirit He shall be clarified, that is, glorified), THAT YOU BRING FORTH VERY MUCH FRUIT, AND BECOME MY DISCIPLES. — This is Christ's fifth argument, by which He moves the disciples to abide in Himself and in His love, namely that this will tend to the great glory of God, as if He said: Abide in Me and in My love, because through this the Father God will be glorified, that is, so that, i.e. if (thus, in chapter xvii, verse 3, He says: "This is eternal life, that," i.e. if, "they know Thee the only true God") by abiding in Me "you bring forth much fruit," namely a vast harvest of souls and the conversion of the whole world, and so "become My disciples," namely perfect and exceptional ones; for they were already Christ's disciples, but novices and imperfect, as if to say: You will glorify God the Father, if abiding in Me you preach My faith throughout the whole world; which you will do, if you persist in My doctrine and discipline, and grow and are perfected; for thus you will remove the idolatry of all nations, and everywhere introduce the worship of the one God through true holiness, which will be a great disgrace to the devil and glory to God, both because God will be adored, not the devil; and because the conversion of the Gentiles will be a work not of yours, but of God, who by His grace will bring it about. For from whom shall we bring forth fruit, except from Him whose mercy prevents us? says St. Augustine.
Again, "and become My disciples," that is, My imitators, in zeal and in preaching the Gospel and in the conversion of souls throughout the whole world. It is a catachresis: for "disciple" is put for "imitator," because it belongs to a disciple to imitate his master: so perfectly did the Apostles imitate Christ preaching, even unto death, while for the Gospel they laid down their lives, even unto death and martyrdom.
Verse 9: As the Father Hath Loved Me, I Also Have Loved You. Abide in My Love
9. AS THE FATHER HATH LOVED ME, I ALSO HAVE LOVED YOU. ABIDE IN MY LOVE. — This is the sixth reason by which Christ incites the disciples to persist in Him and in His faith and charity. The "as" does not signify equality of love, but likeness. For the Father loves Christ far more than Christ loves us. The sense therefore is, as if He said: As God the Father, without any merits of Mine, freely loved Me, a man, before all others, and raised Me to the hypostasis of the Word, that I might become the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and therefore a vine not wine-bearing but salvation-bearing; so in like manner I have loved you before other men freely, without your merits, and raised you to the apostolate, that you may be joined most closely to Me as branches to the vine, and that through you I may work out the salvation not only of yourselves, but of many, indeed of all nations. Take care therefore to abide in this My love, and this you will do by loving Me and keeping My commandments; for thus you will deserve in turn to be loved by Me in the customary way, and to be continually increased by Me with the blessings already mentioned. So St. Augustine, Chrysostom, and Cyril.
Cyril also offers another sense, as if to say: As the Father loved Me, giving Me power to cast out demons and to work miracles; so also I have loved you by communicating to you the same power. This is true, but partial, not total, nor adequate to the love of God and Christ. And Euthymius, as if to say: As the Father loved Me doing His will, so also I have loved you doing My will.
Note here that Christ's predestination, election, love, and grace are the means, end, and exemplar of our predestination, love, election, and grace. Hence St. Augustine, De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, chap. xv: "By that grace, he says, any man becomes a Christian from the beginning of his faith, by which grace that Man became Christ from His own beginning; of the same Spirit and by these things reborn, of whom He was born; by the same Spirit remission of sins is wrought in us, by which Spirit it was brought about that He had no sin." See what is said on Rom. 1, 4.
ABIDE IN MY LOVE. — "My," active, namely by which I love you, q. d. Take care that I may always love you. For it is a great thing to be loved by Christ, and the origin and cause of great graces. Rupertus, however, here takes the love of Christ as passive, q. d. Abide in My love, continue to love Me. This too is added, not properly and directly, but consequently, q. d. Take care that I may love you; and this you will do, if you continue to love Me, for I love those who love Me; wherefore as the Father continually loves Me, and therefore through Me works so many miracles and the salvation of the world, and causes Me to be worshipped and adored as God: so also I continually love you, and therefore go on adorning and heaping upon you so many benefits, gifts, and apostolic graces; take care therefore to be preserved in this My love and grace; for thus you will daily receive from Me an increase of the aforesaid gifts. Show therefore to Me your modest love, and so you will experience My much greater love toward you. See here how excellent, outstanding, and divine a virtue love and charity is. "Faith, says Climacus, step 30, I contemplate as a ray of the sun, hope as a light, charity as a full orb or circle." And below: "Charity, he says, by the nature of its quality is a likeness of God, as much as mortals can attain; according to its efficacy, however, it is a certain drunkenness of the soul; according to its property, finally, it is the fountain of faith, the depth of an equable and patient mind, the sea of humility."
Verse 10: If You Keep My Commandments, You Shall Abide in My Love; as I Also Have Kept My Father's Commandments, and Do Abide in His Love
10. IF YOU KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS, YOU SHALL ABIDE IN MY LOVE. — q. d. If you go on loving Me and keeping My commands, you shall abide in My grace, favor, and love, so that I in turn may go on loving you and heaping you with My graces.
AS I ALSO HAVE KEPT MY FATHER'S COMMANDMENTS, AND DO ABIDE IN HIS LOVE. — q. d. As I go on obeying the Father's commands, and so preserve His grace and love toward Me. Hear St. Augustine: "Love precedes the keeping of commandments; for he who does not love has nothing by which he may keep the commandments; what He therefore says here, shows not whence love is generated, but whence it is shown, so that no one may deceive himself by saying that he loves Him, if he does not keep His commandments; although this must be referred to the love by which He loves us, so that the sense may be: By this you will know that you abide in the love by which I love you, if you keep My commandments; for we do not first keep the commandments in order that He may love us, but unless He loves us, we cannot keep them; this is the grace which is open to the humble, hidden from the proud."
Therefore God's love is prior, which causes in us love and the keeping of the commandments, which in turn brings it about that God's love toward us is preserved and endures, just as fire ignites and kindles wood, and by their kindling is preserved and lasts.
Verse 11: These Things I Have Spoken to You, That My Joy May Be in You, and Your Joy May Be Filled
11. THESE THINGS I HAVE SPOKEN TO YOU, THAT MY JOY MAY BE IN YOU, AND YOUR JOY MAY BE FILLED. — This is the seventh and final reason of Christ, by which He persuades them to abide in His faith and charity; for if they do so, they will fill both Christ and themselves with the greatest joy.
You will ask, what is this joy? Firstly, Jansenius, chap. cxxxi of his Concordia, thus expounds it, q. d. These things I have said to you, that there may always be in you a joy similar to the joy which is in Me, who rejoice that I am loved by the Father: so keep My commandments, that you may always be loved by My Father and rejoice, and that this your joy may be filled through My resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit, and thereafter when you see greater signs of God's love toward you, which will be fully filled in eternal happiness. For in like manner Christ says, chap. xvii: "These things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy filled in themselves."
Secondly, St. Cyril, book X, chap. xxi, and after him Ribera thus expound it, q. d. These things I have spoken to you, that you may rejoice in those things in which I rejoice, namely in the labors and dangers undertaken for the salvation of men.
Thirdly, Chrysostom, homily 76: "These things, he says, I have spoken, that you may not depart from Me and fall from the joy which you had, because you were My disciples, that you may not desist from the course, but that this gladness may endure even to the end;" q. d. Even though sadness may come, I will take it away, so that at the end joy may come.
Fourthly, St. Augustine, tract. 83, expounds it of the joy which God had from eternity concerning our grace and salvation, q. d.: "These things I have spoken to you, that that wherein I have rejoiced from eternity may be in you, namely grace and salvation; but your joy, which you have from My fellowship, may be filled, by gradually advancing unto eternal beatitude." Hear St. Augustine: "What is our joy, which He says is to be filled, except to have His fellowship? He indeed had perfect joy concerning us, when He rejoiced in foreknowing and predestining us, but that joy was not in us, because we did not even exist; but began to be, when He called us; it is begun in the faith of those being reborn, it will be filled in the faith of those rising again."
Fifthly, others think it is the same My joy which I have begun to communicate to you and have made your own. For it is the joy of the disciples subjectively, because it was in them as in subjects, q. d. These things I have spoken to you, that I may bring and effect in you spiritual and heavenly joy, which is Mine, and consists in the love and following of Me; it is likewise yours, because you will rejoice, and it will be filled gradually in this life and fully in the future life.
Sixthly and most plainly, Christ here brings two joys to the disciples as a reward; the first is His own; the second is the disciples', q. d. These things I have spoken to you, that you doing them may fill Me with joy; for parents and teachers rejoice when they see their children and disciples behaving well, obedient to their words, and this is signified by the "that My joy may be in you," that is, concerning you, namely that I may rejoice on your account, you being obedient to Me. Hence St. Augustine: "What, he says, is Christ's joy in us, except that by which He deigns to rejoice concerning us?" The second joy is the disciples', of which He says: "And that your joy may be filled;" this was the joy by which the disciples rejoiced in Christ, because they were His disciples and followers. For just as Christ rejoiced in them as good disciples, so in turn they rejoiced in Christ as in a heavenly and best parent and master. For Christ looks back to the parable of the vine and the branches, to which He adds an explanation, as it were after the parable, saying in verse 4: "Abide in Me, and I in you," q. d. Just as the vine, if it could rejoice, would rejoice in the branches adhering to it and producing grapes, and in turn the branches would rejoice because, adhering to the vine, they would suck juice from it for producing grapes; so in like manner if you, O disciples, shall remain in Me as in a vine through love, and I in turn shall remain in you through the constant influx of grace and the Spirit, for producing good works, I shall rejoice in you adhering to Me, and you shall rejoice in Me, because you draw from Me grace and Spirit for converting all nations, which joy will be gradually filled here, but will be fully consummated in eternal glory, both yours and that of the Gentiles converted by you. So Maldonatus, Toletus, and others.
Finally, the "in you" could be taken simply as it sounds, q. d. These things I have spoken to you, that I might transfuse into you, as My Apostles and co-workers, My joy which I rejoice in concerning the glory of God and the salvation of the whole world to be accomplished through Me, and that this joy may grow equally with your growing labor and fruit, until it be filled both in this life, and still more in the future; for thus My joy becomes yours: for My good is yours, just as the good of the vine is the good of the branches. This sense seems the simplest, and therefore the genuine; for "that My joy may be in you," is as if He were saying: That My joy may be derived into you, communicated to you, and so become yours. Hence perfecting this, He adds: "And your joy may be filled," q. d. That My joy, which I have begun to communicate to you and to make yours, may be completed and made full and perfect: for it cannot be filled, unless it be that very same thing which has been begun. And thus Christ explains Himself in chapter xvii: "That they may have My joy filled in themselves."
Beautifully St. Bernard, epistle 114: "And truly, he says, that is the true and only joy which is conceived not from the creature, but from the Creator; and which, when you have possessed it, no one shall take from you. Compared with which, all enjoyment from elsewhere is sorrow; all sweetness, pain; all sweet, bitter; all seemly, ugly; everything, in short, whatever else can delight, is troublesome." The same elsewhere: "A certain sign, he says, of the Holy Spirit inhabiting the soul, is spiritual gladness," and a continual joy of the mind in its God. For the mind exulting and rejoicing in God, exults and rejoices from God who inhabits it.
Verse 12: This Is My Commandment, That You Love One Another, as I Have Loved You
12. THIS IS MY COMMANDMENT, THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER (Arabic, that each one of you love another) AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. — In Greek there is a double article for emphasis, ἡ ἐντολή ἡ ἐμή, that is, this commandment, this My own. Refer this partly to "if you keep My commandments," and partly to "in My love," which is the scope of the whole parable from the beginning of the chapter to this point. The sense therefore is, q. d. I have commanded you to keep My commandments, among which know that this is the chief: "that you love one another as I have loved you." Again I commanded, saying: "Abide in My love," that is, go on loving Me and persevere in it: and this you will do, if you love one another, and confer upon your neighbors the benefits and offices of charity. For to Me you can confer nothing, but what you shall have conferred on your neighbors, I shall consider conferred on Me as the Parent of all. Hence He calls this "My commandment:" for He alludes to that in chap. xiii, 14: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, as I have loved you," where I explained it at length. For what He here calls "Mine," there He calls "new." For He gives this commandment to Christians: for the Apostles represented these: for Christ willed through the Apostles and their successors to convert the whole world, for this was His office as Savior, for which He had been sent by the Father into the world. He commands then that from love of Him they may love and procure the salvation of all nations, and expend on it all their gifts and labors, undergo all dangers, endure all persecutions, and finally pour forth their blood and suffer death. For thus He Himself loved them and other men, so that for them He laid down His life and endured the death of the cross. Moreover this commandment concerns chiefly the Apostles, because to them Christ commands that they love one another with singular love and mutually help each other: both because they themselves were most closely joined among themselves and with Christ, being Christ's Apostles; and because Christ was to undertake and perfect the office of His legation and preaching throughout the whole world through them. Wherefore for this each had to cooperate with and help the other; for this union, and the mutual cooperation of many, is most effective for overcoming all difficulties and for converting any nations however barbarous, as today we experience in Religious orders and Religious men and Apostolic men united among themselves, according to that of Prov. xviii, 19: "A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city." And that of Eccles. iv, 12: "A threefold cord is not easily broken." See the things said there.
Following this example of Christ, St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon, dying in the year of Christ 665, as Sigebert testifies in his Chronicle, gave this last admonition to his own: "If you return to me love's reward, keep the commandments of the Almighty God; always sigh for Jesus, fix His commandments in your minds, love His name as I do; have before your eyes perpetually the uncertain end of slippery life; never cease to fear God's awesome judgments. I now enter upon the way of all flesh. Therefore you will no longer have me here after this. But I certainly desire to be dissolved, and, if it so please the Lord, to go to my rest." So Audoenus, Bishop of Rouen, book II of his Life, chap. xxxii.
Verse 13: Greater Love Than This No Man Hath, That a Man Lay Down His Life for His Friends
13. GREATER LOVE THAN THIS NO MAN HATH, THAT A MAN LAY DOWN HIS LIFE FOR HIS FRIENDS. — Thus it must be read with the Greeks, Romans, Arabic and Syriac, which clearly renders, "there is no charity greater than this, by which one lays down his life for his friends." Wrongly therefore some, inserting "than," read, "than that a man lay down his life for his friends." For this reading, retaining the "this," overturns the sense and signifies the contrary, q. d. Than this My love none is greater, except that by which one lays down his life for his friends; which is most false: for what greater love is there than Christ's? Therefore Christ intends to say the contrary, as will soon be evident. Christ therefore here proposes the manner and limit or peak of His love, by which namely He has loved us and in turn wills us to love one another, q. d. I have loved you supremely, and from you therefore I require and justly demand the same, namely that you supremely love one another. For the greatest and highest love is that by which one lays down not only wealth and fame, but also his soul, that is, life itself, that is, freely offers and expends it for his friends; this I lay down, that is, shortly I will lay down and expend for you; you therefore likewise lay down yours for your friends and neighbors, so that for their salvation you may refuse no labor, no danger, no persecution, no death, no torment, but rather willingly seek them.
You will say: Greater is charity, if one lays down his life for enemies, than that which lays down life for friends. Some answer first that the sense is, q. d. Among men there can be no greater love than to die for a friend; but Mine toward you is still greater, because I die for enemies. But to say "for enemies" was not necessary, since that never happens among men. Hence the friendship of Pylades and Orestes, as a thing quite rare, has been commended in the writings and speech of all, because each was willing to die for the other; and this is Paul's argument, Rom. v: "For scarcely for a just man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man some one would even dare to die. But God commendeth His charity toward us." Hence St. Bernard, in his sermon On the Fourth Feria of Holy Week, says: "Thou didst have a greater love, O Lord, laying it down for Thy enemies."
Secondly, and more genuinely, Ribera and Toletus answer that here friends are not being compared with enemies, but the acts of friendship among themselves, q. d. Among all the acts and offices of friendship, none is greater than that by which one lays down his life for his friend, which I am about to do for you, who are My friends, provided that you keep My commandments. For he is not called a friend who does not love, although he is loved: "For friendship is mutual benevolence which is not hidden," says Aristotle, VIII Ethics, chap. ii.
Thirdly, and most fully, "friends" are here called not those who love, but those who are loved, such as even enemies can be, q. d. There can be no greater love than that of him who lays down his life and meets death for friends, that is, for those whom he loves and holds in the place of friends, even if they in fact are not his friends; but foes and enemies; as Christ laid down His life and died on the cross for all men, who at first were sinners, and therefore His enemies, but of them many through His death, and through the grace flowing from it, were made just, and therefore His friends and disciples. The Apostles did the same, and the Apostolic men who followed Christ. Every Christian ought to do the same, namely, when the salvation of a neighbor's soul, though an enemy, is in danger, to lay down his life for it.
You will press further: Why then does Christ call them friends, not enemies? I answer: Firstly, because He is speaking to the Apostles, who already through His calling and grace were His friends, although they had previously been sinners and enemies. Secondly, Rupertus answers, "that by the suavity of His speech He might gradually diffuse in His hearers the sweetness of that same love which He was commanding them." Thirdly, that He might teach that on Christ's part and on ours all men are to be loved as friends, even if they on their part are hostile and enemies toward us. For the charity of Christ extends itself to all, and loves enemies as well as friends; wherefore He holds enemies as friends and beloved, and by this reasoning He befriends to Himself even any enemies, and makes them out of foes into friends, both of God and of Himself. For love is the magnet of love, nor is anything more powerful than love: for this compels enemies to love back the one loving them.
Verse 14: You Are My Friends if You Do the Things Which I Command You
14. You are my friends (or: you will be) if you do (Greek: if you are doing, that is, if you do; so Euthymius) the things which I command you. — This saying pertains to what preceded: "That he lay down his life for his friends," as if to say: I will lay down my soul, that is, my life, for you as my friends; do you in turn return love for love, and love Me back who so love you, so that to Me as your friend you may be friends. And this you will do if you keep My precepts, among which the foremost and the one embracing all the rest is that you love one another, which I inculcated upon you a little before.
Verse 15: I Will Not Now Call You Servants, But Friends
15. I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth (that is, what He is resolved to do, what He is considering, what He intends, what His secret counsels are). But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of My Father, I have made known to you. — St. Augustine, in Tractate 85, asks how this is true; for the Apostles truly remained servants of Christ, and Christ was going to say to them along with others on the day of judgment: "Well done, good and faithful servant," etc. He replies that there is a twofold servitude: one servile, by which slaves serve their masters out of fear; the other liberal and filial, by which sons serve their parents out of love. The Apostles, therefore, were not servants of Christ in the first sense, but in the second; for in this way even servants are also friends. To this Rupertus adds: "I will not call you servants," that is, he says, sinners and enemies, because I have already through baptism and My grace made you just men and My friends.
Secondly, others press upon the word "now," as if to say: "Now I will not call you servants," but at another time I have called and will call you servants. But this response is more subtle than solid. For Christ means to say that from now on He will not call them servants.
Thirdly, Toletus: "I will not now call you servants," namely, he says, in the manner in which I called the Jews servants, because I made them serve a hard servitude under the old law, from which I free you through My Gospel. But this is too general and far-fetched.
Fourthly then, the genuine sense is, as if to say: I, although by nature and condition you are nothing but servants, nevertheless I deem you worthy of this honor: to make and to name you my most faithful friends and my most intimate ones, inasmuch as I have communicated to you alone — not to crowds, not to Scribes — all the things which I have heard from My Father and which, as His ambassador, were to be communicated to men. He says, moreover, "now," because now as He is departing He has revealed many things to them which He had previously kept silent; and other things too, which He had before spoken obscurely in parables, He now laid out for them plainly and clearly. "Now," therefore, as He is departing, He has shown them greater confidence and friendship, in that He has opened up plainly to them alone absolutely everything concerning which He had been sent by the Father. For this reason He here bestows upon them a nobler dignity, condition, and name, namely that of friends. Christ Himself here gives this reason. He does not therefore deny that they remain servants, but asserts that He elevates them — though servants — into special friends, and deems them worthy of this name and prerogative, so that servants become friends. So Maldonatus, Ribera, Jansenius and others, and before all others St. Irenaeus, book IV, chapter XXVII.
The servant knoweth not — that is, commonly and for the most part; for sometimes masters have prudent and faithful servants, to whom they entrust and impart their plans and secrets, and then they hold them in place of friends; but rarely does it happen that they reveal all their secrets to them. Christ, however, is speaking of what commonly takes place among men.
All things which I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you. — You will say: this seems to contradict what Christ says shortly after, in the next chapter, verse 12: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Leontius and Euthymius reply that Christ revealed to the Apostles all the things which the Father then wished to be revealed to them, namely all that they were able to grasp. Secondly, St. Augustine and Bede better respond that the phrase "I have made known" is to be taken for "I will shortly make known," namely after fifty days at Pentecost; for Christ made known to them all that they were able to grasp, while the rest which they were unable to grasp He was soon to make known through the Holy Spirit. For this reason He was departing, that He might send Him to them to reveal all things.
Maldonatus interprets it differently: "I have made known," that is, he says, I have decreed to make known, namely through the Holy Spirit whom I am about to send.
Verse 16: You Have Not Chosen Me, But I Have Chosen You
16. You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you. — St. Augustine here, and in book I On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter XVII and elsewhere, and after him Bede here, and Prosper against Cassian, understand by this election God's predestination, as if to say: I predestined and chose you, without any merits of your own, unto glory. But this does not properly answer the phrase "you have not chosen Me," for the Apostles could not have chosen Christ unto heavenly glory; nor does it seem that Christ here wished to reveal to the Apostles His predestination of them, for He is accustomed to attribute this to the Father: for to the Father is attributed providence, of which predestination is a part.
More literally, therefore, the sense is, as if to say: You did not first choose Me as master and lord, but I first chose and called you, and by My calling and grace made you to be My friends, disciples, and Apostles. So St. Cyril, Chrysostom, Leontius, Theophylactus, Euthymius, Maldonatus, Toletus, and others. Hence Chrysostom, Leontius, and Theophylactus think that Christ is here still continuing the parable of the vine and branches, of which He spoke at verse 1, as if to say: Just as the farmer chooses the best vines and branches to plant in his vineyard, so I have chosen you, O Apostles, that I might plant you in the vineyard of My Church, as it were the best of vines made such by My grace, to produce grapes — that is, very many and most excellent faithful. Rupertus adds, explaining thus: You did not choose Me, as a people chooses and makes for itself a king to whom they attribute royal right; but I created you as Apostles, and conferred upon you the power and authority of so great an office and dignity, namely the Apostolate.
Moreover Christ says this, first, to show His exceptional love for the Apostles, in that He first chose them — before all other men who were nobler, more learned, more eloquent — alone to be Apostles, that is, to be His special friends and princes of His Church: wherefore He tacitly admonishes them to love Christ back in their turn, and to be constant in love and obedience toward Him. So Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius.
Secondly, that they themselves, considering the loftiness of their dignity and apostolate to which they have been called by Christ, might strive to satisfy Him and imitate Christ: so that, just as He first called them to His faith and apostolate, so they too might go first before all nations, to bring them to Christ by their preaching. So Cyril and Leontius.
Some add that Christ wished to give the Apostles a spur of humility, as if to say: Granted that I have called you friends and confidants of My secrets, yet do not on that account be proud; for you have not merited this, but I have freely chosen and exalted you to it.
And I have appointed you, that you should go (to evangelize throughout all nations) and bring forth fruit; and your fruit should remain. — St. Chrysostom with his followers, thinking that Christ is here alluding to the parable of the vine, explains "I have appointed" as "I have planted," as it were fruitful vines in the vineyard of My Church. Maldonatus more simply explains "I have appointed" as "I have declared." For when someone is chosen as a magistrate, he is first chosen, that is, designated; then he is declared, and finally set in the office itself: this is "I have appointed you." Christ first chose the Apostles (Matt. X, 1; Mark III, 14; Luke VI, 3); then He set them as it were in the possession of the apostolate, sending them to preach the Gospel (Mark VI, 7; Luke IX, 2). Most simply, you may explain posui as "I have set, established, placed," so that by this word Christ signifies the authority of the Apostles as well as their firmness and fruitfulness — namely, that they have been authorized by Christ and therefore so firmly established that no one can strip them of this dignity nor prevent them from bringing forth fruit and a harvest of souls throughout the whole wide world.
And your fruit should remain. — Cyril refers this to the Gospel, which remains, whereas the old law has not remained but has been abrogated through Christ. More plainly and fully, you may refer the word "remain" both to the conversion of all nations wrought by the Apostles, which remained even after their death and shall remain successively until the end of the world; and partly to the eternal glory and blessedness which the Apostles, by their preaching, obtained for themselves and their faithful — for this remains as it were their heavenly fruit and reward, and will remain forever. All these things Christ says with this end, to testify His exceptional love toward the Apostles, and to rouse them to contemplate the loftiness of the apostolate, and to stir them up to the diligent and fervent execution of so great an office, since their labor and the fruit and reward of their labor shall endure unto every age.
That whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you. — The word "that" signifies not so much the intended end as the consequence or effect, as if to say: If you bring forth the fruit to which I have chosen you, it will follow and come to pass that the Father will give you whatever you ask, in the sense which I gave at chapter XIV, 13. "He may give," in Greek is δῷ, which may secondly be translated "I may give," in the first person, as Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius render it. Whence Theophylactus gathers from this passage against the Arians that the Son is God, consubstantial (ὁμοούσιος) with the Father, inasmuch as He bestows what is asked equally as the Father. "In My name," that is, through My merits. Moreover St. Augustine: "This," he says, "we ask in the name of the Savior which pertains to the reason of salvation."
Verse 17: These Things I Command You, That You Love One Another
17. These things I command you, that you love one another. — First, Jansenius, Maldonatus and others explain it thus: "these things," that is, this (as the Arabic renders it) I command you, that you love one another.
Yet He says "these things" in the plural, to signify that there are indeed many particular precepts commanded by Him, but that all these are summed up in the one common and easy precept of charity, so that, if you have and fulfill this, you have and fulfill all: as if to say, These are the things I command you, these are all My commandments, that you love one another; which has great force and energy, as well as grace of charm and persuasion. Hence Christ again and again repeats and drives home this precept.
Secondly, more plainly, with St. Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius, and Ribera you may explain it so that the conjunction ut signifies an end, and the sense is: These things which I have recounted about My love I have not said in order to reproach you, nor for any other cause, than that you might love one another, and thus endure anything with an even mind for the salvation of men. Here pertains the exposition of St. Augustine, Tractate 87: "Because He had said, 'I have appointed you to go and bring forth fruit,' He now says, 'These things I command you'; wishing to teach that the fruit we are to bear is the love of our neighbors." And again: "'The fruit of the Spirit,' says the Apostle, 'is charity'; therefore He commands this; and rightly does He often commend love, as though it alone were to be commanded, since without it the other goods cannot profit anything, and since it cannot be possessed without the other goods by which a man is made good."
Thirdly, Theodore of Heraclea refers this to what follows, as if to say: I command you mutual love, that through it you may, being united together, firmly resist the hatreds and persecutions of the world which threaten you.
Verse 18: If the World Hate You, Know Ye That It Hated Me Before You
18. If the world hate you, know ye (in Greek γινώσκετε, which can be rendered either "know ye" or "you know") that it hath hated Me before you. — In Greek it is πρῶτον ὑμῶν, which can be rendered "first," as a noun, as if to say "your first" — that is, They have hated Me, who am your first, that is, more excellent and worthy (as was said at chapter I, verse 15), yea indeed the first of all. Secondly, and better, it may be taken as an adverb, as if to say: before you, as the Syriac and Arabic translate, that is, "before you the world hated Me"; I first trod the way of hatred, paved and leveled it for you, so that you, following Me in the same way, might go forward easily, joyfully, and gloriously: for I offer Myself to you in persecutions not only as a companion, but also as a standard-bearer, leader, and guide. By "the world" He means worldly men: first, the Jews; secondly, the Gentiles who are given over to the vices of the world and therefore adversaries of the doctrine and spirit of Christ and the Apostles. Moreover, St. Augustine: "Sometimes," he says, "the Church is called by the name of 'world,' as there: God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; therefore the world hates the world — the enemy hates the reconciled, the damned hates the saved, the filthy hates the cleansed."
Christ forearms the Apostles against the impending hatred and persecutions of Jews and Gentiles: for darts foreseen wound less, so that they may overcome them nobly — indeed scorn them, and as though glorying in the tokens of Christ, rejoice and exult in them. As if to say (so Ribera): Do not marvel or be troubled when the world hates you; it hated Me before it hated you: rejoice that you will be imitators of Me; and yet its hatred will do you no harm, just as it did Me no harm. The world persecutes you because you are not of it — that is, because you do not favor its works but oppose them as I do; and when He says this, He leaves it to be understood: but I will still love you, because you are Mine, and chosen by Me to condemn the works of the world. And My love will profit you far more than the world's hatred will hurt you.
From this St. Augustine infers and says: "Why then does a member exalt itself above the head? You refuse to be in the body, if you are unwilling to endure the hatred of the world. Together with the Head we ought, for love of Christ, to endure also the hatred of the world. For it must needs hate us whom it sees to be unwilling to love what it loves." Great, therefore, is this consolation of the member drawn from the Head, says the Interlinear Gloss. Hear St. Cyprian, book IV, epistle 6, On the Exhortation to Martyrdom: "The Son of God suffered to make us sons of God; and shall the son of man be unwilling to suffer, that he may remain a son of God? If we labor under the hatred of the world, Christ first endured the hatred of the world. If we bear insults in this world, flight, tortures — the maker and lord of the world endured heavier things, and He admonishes us saying: 'If the world hate you, know ye that it hated Me before you.'"
Hear finally St. Bernard, Homily 47 on the Canticle: "You are both to me, Lord Jesus, the mirror of suffering and the reward of the sufferer"; or, as he had said shortly before: "the form of the combatant, and the glory of the one triumphing. You teach my hands to battle by the example of Your power: You crown my head after victory with the presence of Your majesty — whether because I watch You as You fight, or because I await You not only as the crowner but even as the crown itself. In both You marvelously draw me to Yourself; each is a most forceful cord for drawing me."
Verse 19: Because You Are Not of the World, Therefore the World Hateth You
19. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. — He adds another cause, says Chrysostom, showing that to be hated by the world is an argument of virtue, and to be loved by it an argument of malice. The sense is, as if to say: If you loved riches, honors, delights, lusts, etc., as the world loves them, it would love you as like itself. But when it sees that you love things contrary to its cravings, and teach such things to be loved — namely, contempt of earthly things, of wealth, honors, delights, lusts, and earthly desires — therefore the world hates you. For likeness of manners and loves is the cause of love, while unlikeness is the cause of aversion and hatred, as Aristotle teaches in the Ethics, and St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and others.
St. Augustine raises an objection: Even the wicked persecute the wicked — impious kings and judges punish murderers and adulterers — and he answers: The world does indeed hate what is its own, on the side on which wicked men cause harm; yet it loves what is its own on the side on which they favor it. Whence Jansenius: "Although the world," he says, "in some part of itself hates the wicked in some kind of wickedness, yet there are no wicked men whom the world does not in large part love: but on the contrary, it is not a part of the world but the whole world that hates the just." To me it seems we must answer otherwise: Worldly men love their own, that is, those who favor and share in their plans; and whenever they hate other worldly men, the cause is that those oppose their plans; and so they are now strangers and adversaries. And therefore they hated Christ, because He rebuked their works and made them known to men, as is said in Wisdom II, and for the same reason they would hate the Apostles. So Ribera.
Verse 20: Remember My Word; the Servant Is Not Greater Than His Lord
20. Remember My word that I said to you (chapter XIII, verse 16): the servant is not greater than his lord, — so as to be able to refuse to do or suffer what the Lord has done and suffered. If therefore I have come sent by the Father, and have spoken those things which He wished Me to speak: then in despising and hating Me, they despise and pursue with hatred God the Father — just as whoever despises an ambassador despises the king by whom he was sent. Therefore the Jews are fighting against God, who will sharply avenge this insult of Himself.
If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you: if they have kept My word, they will keep yours also. — "My word," that is, My doctrine, law, precepts, as if to say: Just as they have persecuted Me, so will they persecute you; and just as they neither received nor kept the doctrine of My preaching but scorned and mocked it, so neither will they receive yours, but will scorn and mock it. I am speaking of the rebellious and unbelieving, who persecuted the Apostles with insults, blows, beatings, tortures, death: for those who believed the Apostles attended upon them with every honor and reverence.
Verse 21: All These Things They Will Do to You for My Name's Sake
21. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake: because they know not Him that sent Me. — "For My name's sake," that is, on account of Me (for "name" signifies the thing named, by metonymy), because you are called by My name and are Mine, as if to say: Rejoice in persecutions, because you will endure them for My sake, who am your God and Lord, for whose sake it is glorious to suffer, and who will strengthen you that you may overcome all and triumph over all.
Because they know not Him that sent Me. — That is: because they do not know that God the Father has sent Me, and they say that I feign to be the Son of God and the Messiah sent by Him into the world. For if they knew and believed this, they would not persecute Me nor dare to fight against God. As if to say: This will be glorious to you, that not only for My sake but also for God the Father who sent Me you endure persecutions; but to your persecutors this very thing will be disgraceful as well as ruinous — that by persecuting Me they persecute God the Father who sent Me, and therefore they themselves will be sharply punished in this life by destruction at the hands of Titus and the Romans, and afterwards most bitterly tormented forever, burning in Gehenna. For although they do not know that God is My Father, yet they ought to know it from so many reasons and miracles by which I have proved that very thing; therefore they do not know because they are unwilling to know.
Verse 22: If I Had Not Come, They Would Not Have Sin
22. If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin. — "Sin," namely of unbelief and hatred, by which they calumniate and assail Me, My doctrine, and My life. Note: the Scribes and Pharisees, before Christ came, had true faith, not only in God but also in Christ as the one to come. But when He came, they refused to acknowledge Him, because they saw Him poor and humble, and because He reproved their vices. Therefore they then became unbelievers and lost their faith by their own obstinacy: for Jesus abundantly proved to them that He was the Messiah or Christ; wherefore they are inexcusable that they did not believe Him.
Verse 23: He That Hateth Me Hateth My Father Also
23. He that hateth Me hateth My Father also, — because I have endured the hatreds of the Jews, nay indeed the cross and death; you ought not to flee the same. For, as St. Peter says, 1 epistle, chapter II, verse 21: "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow His steps."
Verse 25: They Hated Me Without Cause
25. But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law (in the Old Testament, namely Psalm LXVIII, 5, and Psalm XXXIV, 19: "And they have hated me with an unjust hatred"): they hated Me without cause. — "Without cause," that is, without cause, without any fault of Mine, and therefore unjustly and iniquitously: for I offered them no cause, but the highest love. These are the words of Isaiah and David, as a type of Christ, or representing in themselves the hatred of the Jews against Christ. Note: The word ut again signifies not the end intended, but that which followed from the unbelief and obstinacy of the Jews, as if to say: And so it came to pass as Isaiah and David had foretold: namely, that the Jews would hate Christ without cause, and thus would become Christ-killers and God-killers, and therefore would be reproved and exterminated by God.
Verse 26: When the Paraclete Cometh, He Shall Give Testimony of Me
26. But when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of Me: 27. and you shall give testimony, because you are with Me from the beginning. — As if to say: Although I have abundantly shown My divinity to the Jews, so that they are already without excuse, yet I shall still further show it through the coming of the Holy Spirit, who will bear witness of Me, coming from heaven solely upon you who have believed in Me, and then upon those who will believe through your preaching; so that His coming will be made known to all, when they see you speak with tongues, expound the Scriptures, and work miracles. You also, by preaching the Gospel, shall bear testimony to all concerning Me and My doctrine and works, since you have been with Me from the beginning, when I began to teach men and to dwell among them.
The Paraclete, — that is, consoler and exhorter. Hear Didymus, in the book On the Holy Spirit: "He imposes a name from His operation: for He renders men free from disturbance and bestows incredible joy; for eternal gladness dwells in the hearts of those of whom the Holy Spirit is the inhabitant."
Whom I will send you from the Father. — From this passage the more recent Greeks contend that the Holy Spirit proceeds and is breathed only from the Father and not from the Son. On this account they made a public schism from the Latin Church in the year of the Lord 1054, when Michael, Patriarch of Constantinople, dared to excommunicate the Roman Pontiff and the Latins over this matter. And for this cause, in the year of the Lord 1452, on the very feast of the Holy Spirit, namely on Pentecost, Constantinople was captured by the Turks, the emperor slain, and the Empire of the Greeks extinguished. This then is the error of the Greeks: for, as St. Hilary rightly observes in book VIII On the Trinity, and Augustine in book IV On the Trinity, chapter XX, in this very passage the contrary is signified, namely that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. For this is what the phrase "whom I will send" means. For in the Holy Trinity no Person is sent by another, except the one which proceeds from the one who sends. Hence the Father is never said to be sent, because He proceeds from none. The Son is said to be sent by the Father, not by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is said to be sent by the Father and by the Son, because He proceeds from both as from one principle of spiration. Thus both the Latin Fathers and the older Greek Fathers cited in the Council of Florence, sessions 18 and 25, understood this passage — where the union of the Greeks with the Latins was made, and the Greeks admitted that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and from the Son. See Cardinal Bessarion, in his Oration on the Union, chapter VII. Wherefore, since in the Creed of the Council of Nicaea only this was said: "I believe in [I believe in] the Holy Spirit"; the Council of Constantinople added: "proceeding from the Father"; but when a dispute arose concerning the Son, the Church added: "and from the Son," as the Council of Florence teaches, session 7. This same thing is clearly evident from the words of Christ, chapter XVI: "All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine; therefore I said: He shall receive of Mine, and will declare it to you." For if all that the Father has is the Son's, then He Himself also breathes forth the Holy Spirit. Thus all the Fathers of that same Council understood this passage. Hence in the letters of the union the whole Synod says: "And because all that the Father has, the Father Himself has given to His only-begotten Son, save to be Father, this very thing — that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son — the Son Himself has eternally from the Father, by whom also He has been eternally begotten." See Bellarmine, book II On Christ, chapter XX and following, treating these things fully and accurately.
An a priori reason is given by St. Thomas, Suarez, Vasquez, Valentia, and others, I part, Question XXXVI, article 2: because if the Holy Spirit did not proceed from the Son, He would not be distinguished from the Son. For in divine things there is no distinction except on account of the procession of one from another and the opposition of relations.
The Spirit of truth. — Why He is so called I have said at chapter XIV, 17.
Who proceedeth from the Father. — Christ speaks thus and passes over Himself in silence: first, because the Father is the first principle of the spiration of the Holy Spirit, as I have said; secondly, because Christ, for the sake of humility and reverence, to give us an example of Himself, is accustomed to refer all His authoritative things to the Father; thirdly, because had He said, "Who proceeds from Me," He could not fittingly add, "He shall bear witness of Me"; for a witness who proceeds from someone, if he testifies concerning him before men, is wont to be suspect as to credibility.
Jansenius, chapter CXXXV, and Arias Montanus say that these words are to be understood of procession not divine and eternal, but temporal and human, by which the Holy Spirit is sent to the Apostles and other faithful. But it is clear that the divine procession is here in question. First, because the words plainly signify this very thing when He says, "Who proceedeth from the Father"; for when the temporal is meant, something is added to indicate it, as when in chapter XVI He says: "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world." Secondly, because He had immediately before spoken of the temporal procession: "Whom I will send you from the Father"; therefore here He means not the temporal but the eternal. Thirdly, because thus the Fathers in the Council of Florence, sessions 18 and 23, understood it. Fourthly, because a temporal procession or mission includes and presupposes an eternal one. For, as I said a little before, in divine matters one Person is not said to be sent by another unless it is one which proceeds from the other.
He shall give testimony (Syriac: He shall bear witness) of Me, — that I am the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. And He will do this both by inward inspiration and illumination, and by outward miracles. Moreover, three things are required in a witness: first, wisdom, that he may know the truth; secondly, goodness, that he may report it sincerely, and neither deceive nor mislead; thirdly, power and authority, that he may be regarded as such by all and be greater than every exception. These three things most perfectly agree with the Holy Spirit: He therefore is the most perfect witness of Christ.
Verse 27: You Shall Give Testimony, Because You Are With Me From the Beginning
You are with Me. — In Greek ἐστε, which is either of the indicative mood, so that it means "you bear witness," or of the imperative, so that it means "bear witness." Hence the Syriac translates: "but you also bear witness, inasmuch as from the beginning you have been with Me." So also Cyril. What therefore our version renders "you shall bear witness" is the same as "bear witness." For He commands that, by preaching, they bear witness that Christ is the Son of God; for often the future is used for the imperative. The Apostles did so: for, as it is said in Acts IV, "With great power did the Apostles give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord."
From this passage learn who, of what sort, and how great the Holy Spirit is: namely, first, that He is the third Person in the Holy Trinity, distinct from the Father and the Son; for He proceeds and is sent from both, and one proceeding and sent is distinguished from the one sending. Secondly, that the Holy Spirit is truly God, consubstantial (ὁμοούσιος) with God the Father, because He proceeds from Him as God from God. Thirdly, that He proceeds not from the Father alone, nor from the Son alone, but jointly from both, as from one principle of spiration. Fourthly, that He does not proceed from the Father by generation, so as to be Son, but by spiration, so as to be Holy Spirit: whence St. Athanasius, Basil, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Augustine and others everywhere refute the heretic Macedonius, who said that, since the Holy Spirit does not proceed from the Father by generation as the Son does, therefore He is not consubstantial with Him nor is He God. Fifthly, that He is the Paraclete, that is, the consoler and exhorter to every good. Sixthly, that He is the Spirit of truth, because He teaches all truth and true faith, doctrine, and prudence. Seventhly, that He is the witness of Christ and His doctrine — a witness, I say, greater than every exception and divine, nay, God Himself. Hence many refer to the Holy Spirit that enigma of Hermes Trismegistus: "The monad begot the monad, and reflected its ardor back upon itself," as if to say: the one Father begot the one Son, and embracing Him with divine love produced the Holy Spirit, who is as it were the love of the Father and the Son: whence He proceeds from both, as the reflected and notional love of the Father and the Son. Though others more genuinely explain the saying of Trismegistus as referring to the creation of the world, as if to say: the one God created the one world, not by any necessity of action but out of the pure ardor of love, namely so that He might communicate His goods to the angels, to men, and to the other creatures of the world.