Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Here Christ, in the manner of a most loving Father who in dying bids farewell to His sons, after the lengthy exhortation and consolation of the disciples drawn out from chapter XIII up to this point, now concludes His discourse with a prayer by which He commends and surrenders them to God. He therefore prays here: first, for His own and the Father's glorification. Secondly, in verse 9, for the keeping and salvation of His disciples. Thirdly, in verse 20, for those who through the preaching of the Apostles are to believe in Him, that God may keep them from evil, and that they may all be one, and that the world may know that He was sent by the Father for the salvation of men.
Vulgate Text: John 17:1-26
1. These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said: Father, the hour has come, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee: 2. As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He may give eternal life to all whom Thou hast given Him. 3. Now this is eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. 4. I have glorified Thee upon the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do: 5. and now glorify Me, Thou Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. 6. I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world. They were Thine, and Thou gavest them to Me; and they have kept Thy word. 7. Now they have known that all things which Thou hast given Me are from Thee: 8. because the words which Thou gavest Me, I have given them; and they have received them, and have known in truth that I came forth from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me. 9. I pray for them: I do not pray for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me, because they are Thine: 10. and all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine: and I am glorified in them. 11. And I am now no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as We also are. 12. When I was with them, I kept them in Thy name. Those whom Thou gavest Me I have guarded; and none of them has perished, except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13. But now I come to Thee; and I speak these things in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14. I have given them Thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I also am not of the world. 15. I do not pray that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from evil. 16. They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world. 17. Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. 18. As Thou hast sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19. And for them do I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. 20. And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in Me: 21. that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. 22. And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to them: that they may be one, as We also are one. 23. I in them, and Thou in Me: that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, as Thou hast also loved Me. 24. Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me; that they may see My glory which Thou hast given Me: because Thou hast loved Me before the creation of the world. 25. Just Father, the world hath not known Thee; but I have known Thee: and these have known that Thou hast sent Me. 26. And I have made known Thy name to them, and will make it known: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.
Verse 1: These Things Jesus Spoke; and Lifting Up His Eyes to Heaven, He Said: Father, the Hour Has Come, Glorify Thy Son, That Thy Son May Glorify Thee
1. THESE THINGS JESUS SPOKE; AND LIFTING UP HIS EYES TO HEAVEN, HE SAID: FATHER, THE HOUR IS COME, GLORIFY (Syriac and Arabic: glorify) THY SON, THAT THY SON MAY GLORIFY (Syriac and Arabic: glorify) THEE.
This is Christ's last and, as it were, swan-song prayer as He is about to go to the Passion, and therefore full of sweetness, love, and fervor, by which He teaches us: first, that when tribulation is at hand, we should take refuge in prayer and seek strength from God to overcome it; second, that fathers, both bodily and spiritual, when they depart or die, ought to commend their children to God by prayer; third, that preachers must devote themselves to prayer, that through it they may obtain both the power of speaking and of moving the minds of their hearers, and grace for their hearers, that they may grasp, love, and carry out in deed what they hear, "lest empty verbosity take its place," as Cyril says, book XI, chapter 14.
Lifting up His eyes, that by a similar gesture He might teach us in prayer to raise our mind from earth to heaven, to God. So Chrysostom.
Singular emphasis attaches to each word. "Father:" Christ prays as man, but a man who is God, or hypostatically united to God. Therefore He calls God Father, because He Himself begot the Son, inasmuch as He is God, and united to Him hypostatically the assumed human nature. The name of Father is an allurement of trust and love: for what does a father deny to a son? It is also an indication of majesty and power; for, as Cyril says in book I of the Thesaurus, chapter 6, in God it is greater to be Father than Lord, because as Father He begot a Son consubstantial (ὁμοούσιον) with Himself, while as Lord He created creatures, which are infinitely less than the Son.
VENIT (Greek ἐλήλυθεν, that is, "has come" in the past tense) HORA, that is, the opportune time, namely the almost last hour of My liberty and life; now imminent upon Me are captivity, passion, cross, and death, when I most of all need Thy grace and help, O Father: for then My divinity will be most of all hidden, when as a seditious one and one who aspires to the Jewish kingdom, I shall be fastened with robbers to an infamous cross; therefore I pray that Thou wouldst wipe away this infamy, show My deity, and glorify Me. Hear now St. Augustine: "He shows all time, and what He would do when, or permit to be done, to have been disposed by Him who is not subject to time. The hour has come, not by fate urging, but by God ordaining: far be it that the stars should compel the Maker of the stars to die."
GLORIFY THY SON. The Syriac and Arabic: "glorify." You will ask, what glory and glorification does Christ here ask? First, some take it as His passion, cross, and death; for this was the immense glory of Christ, because through it He reconciled men to God, abolished sin, conquered the devil, destroyed death, and procured life and glory for us. So Origen, homily 6 on Exodus; St. Ambrose, book IV of the Hexameron, chapter 11; and St. Hilary, book III On the Trinity, whom hear: "He was to be spat upon, scourged, crucified; but the Father glorifies Him, with the sun failing, the earth trembling, the centurion proclaiming." The Cross therefore, in itself inglorious for Christ, was in its fruit glorious for Him. See Origen.
Second, St. Augustine, in tract 104, and Ribera hold that this glory of Christ is the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, the sitting at the right hand of God, and the sending of the Holy Spirit, as if to say: I, for Thy glory and for the salvation of men whom Thou from eternity hast chosen, offer Myself to an ignominious death; do Thou glorify Me, that in the Passion I may appear as Thy true Son, and afterwards rise and ascend into heaven; that thus I may be believed to be true God by the men for whom I die, and Thy divinity, power, and goodness may be known, and Thou mayest be adored by all. Hear St. Augustine: "If He is said to be glorified by the Passion, how much more by the Resurrection? Therefore He says: Glorify Me, as if to say: The hour of sowing humility has come, do not delay the fruit of glory."
Third, more precisely and genuinely, this glory was the manifestation of Christ, that the world might recognize Him to be the Christ, the Son of God, and believing in Him might be justified and saved. For this was the end and goal of the Incarnation and of the whole economy of Christ, and thus Christ explains it in verses 2 and following, where He calls this glory the manifestation of Himself and of God. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Behold, Thou, O Father, hast sent Me, Thy Son, into the flesh and the world, that by My passion and death I may redeem it when lost and save it; imminent upon Me are passion and an infamous death on the cross, on account of which many will suffer scandal in Me and fall away from the salvation gained through Me: I ask Thee, O Father, to make Me known to the world and glorify Me, lest men despise Me as vile, wicked, and infamous because of the death of the cross, but acknowledge Me as Thy Son and true God, and so obtain grace, justice, and salvation. Christ therefore asks that the counsel of God concerning Himself — His becoming incarnate, being crucified, and dying for the salvation of men — be made manifest to the world, so that such a great work of God may attain its end and aim, which is the salvation of men. He says therefore: "Glorify," that is, glorify Me, crucified and dying, by miracles, namely the earthquake, the eclipse of the sun, the rending of the veil in the temple, the splitting of the rocks, the opening of the tombs; likewise by a swift resurrection and the glory of My body; further, by the ascension into heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit, and the conversion of all nations to My faith, so that from these all nations may believe Me to be God and the Messiah, the Savior of the world, and through this faith may be sanctified and made blessed.
Hence it is clear that all these three expositions come down to the same thing and terminate in the same thing. And this is what glory properly signifies, which is nothing other than the brightness of a name. Hence Quintilian: "The agreeing praise of good men, he says, is called glory." And Cicero, in his oration pro Marcello: "Glory is the illustrious and widely spread reputation of great merits, displayed toward one's own fellow citizens, or toward one's country, or toward all mankind." The same, in book II of the Offices: "Perfect glory, he says, consists in these three things: if the multitude loves one, if it trusts one, if with a certain admiration it judges one worthy of honor." Hence Isidore, in book X of the Etymologies, under the letter G: "Gloriosus," he says, "is so called from frequency of brightness (claritas), with the letter c changed to g. Gloriosus is named from the laurel (laurea), which is given to victors." So St. Cyril explains this glory of Christ in book XI; Cyprian, in his book On Double Martyrdom; Hilary, in book III On the Trinity; Basil, in book IV Against Eunomius, near the end; and others. Euthymius adds, as if to say: "Glorify" — that is, make known to the world that I, out of pure and supreme love, freely underwent the death of the cross for them; for this will compel all nations to worship Me and love Me in return. Hence it is clear that this glorification properly belongs to the humanity of Christ, so that it may be known to be united to God; consequently, however, it also belongs to the divinity of Christ, because this follows from the former. For from the fact that it was made known to the world that the humanity of Christ was united to God, it was also made known that God, out of His immense mercy, lowered Himself to flesh and to undergo the cross for us, out of the highest love for us.
Arius objected: the Son asks to be glorified by the Father, therefore the Father is greater and more glorious than the Son. St. Basil turns this back upon him; for Christ adds: "That the Son also may glorify Thee." Therefore the Son glorifies the Father just as much as the Father glorifies the Son.
Morally, Christ here teaches that God turns the ignominy undertaken for His name into glory, and the greater the ignominy, the greater the glory; and that therefore the true path to glory is ignominy, the cross, and death, according to that in Philippians II: "He became obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross; therefore also God hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth."
Thus Saints Peter and Paul, held in mockery by Nero at Rome, and as if superstitious and enemies of the empire, punished by cross and sword, attained to the highest glory, so that now they reign not only over Rome, but over the whole Roman Empire; and St. Peter has cast down the emperor Trajan, and St. Paul the emperor Antoninus, by his triumphal column, and has occupied his place.
The Gentiles saw this in shadow. Hence Agesilaus, king of Sparta, when asked "by what means he might procure perpetual glory for himself?" replied: "If you despise death. For nothing glorious can be done by one whose mind is possessed by the fear of death." So Plutarch, in the Laconian Sayings. Thus Alexander, Julius Caesar, Scipio, Marcellus, Hannibal, and others procured martial glory for themselves by the contempt of death; of whom Horace thus sings in book I of his Odes, ode 12:
Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo / Fama Marcelli, micat inter omnes / Julium sidus, velut inter ignes / Luna minores.
The fame of Marcellus grows like a tree in its hidden life; the Julian star shines amid all, like the moon amid lesser fires.
Hence the Spaniards even now have this axiom: "A war leader who is eager for glory must despise death, in order to purchase glory by prodigality of his life." The same, and more, may Apostolic men say:
Ardua per præceps gloria vadit iter.
Lofty glory goes its way by a steep path.
For what is earthly glory compared to heavenly, human to divine, temporal to eternal? Hence Paul, in 2 Corinthians IV: "The sufferings of this time, he says, are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us." Whence he soon calls the same an "eternal weight of glory," because the Holy Trinity will glorify the heroes of virtue, together with all the myriads of angels, and all the hosts of the blessed Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, for all eternity.
THAT THY SON MAY GLORIFY THEE. As if to say: I pray, O Father, that Thou wouldst glorify, that is, make Me known and manifest to the whole world, by showing that I am not a mere man, but a man who is God, and Thy Son sent by Thee into the flesh for the salvation of men; but I ask this not for Myself, as if I were eager for this manifestation and glory, but that the manifestation and glory may return to Thee, as to the fount and author of all My glory, so that I, being manifested and glorified by Thee, with greater weight may in turn glorify Thee, that is, make Thee known and manifest to the whole world. Christ did this, first, because while the Son is glorified, the Father is also glorified, says Cyril. So also St. Hilary, in book III of On the Trinity: "He shows, he says, the same power of divinity in each; for the manifestation of the Son is the manifestation of the Father." Second, because when this great sacrament of piety was made known to the world, namely the Incarnation of the Word, and through it the salvation and redemption of men, all who heard and believed it praised the immense mercy, wisdom, and omnipotence of God the Father, which He showed in this His work. Third and most of all, Christ glorified the Father by the living voice of His teaching and preaching. For Christ preached the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and everywhere here in John extols His Father, saying that He was sent by Him, and that He referred to Him as the source of all that He had. Hear St. Augustine: "How did the Son glorify the Father? God was known only in Judea; but it came to pass through the Gospel of Christ that the Father was made known to the Gentiles; so He says: Glorify, etc., as if to say: Raise Me up, that Thou mayest become known to the whole world through Me."
Note the phrase "Thy Son;" for, as St. Hilary says in book III of On the Trinity: "There are many sons, but He is proper and true: by origin, not by adoption; by truth, not by appellation; by birth, not by creation."
Verse 2: As Thou Hast Given Him Power Over All Flesh, That He May Give Eternal Life to All Whom Thou Hast Given Him
2. AS THOU HAST GIVEN HIM POWER OVER ALL FLESH, that is, of every man. The word "as" signifies first, similitude; second, cause, according to Euthymius and Ribera; third, proportion and equality, according to Toletus — as if to say: Because Thou hast given Me, O Father, power over all men, give likewise also the manifestation necessary for this power and proportioned to it, namely equal and matching; so that, as My power is most ample, being over all men, so also My manifestation may be most ample and spread through all nations. So a viceroy says to a king: Since Thou hast given me vicarious power, O king, give also the ministers and the means necessary for sustaining this power and dignity.
Now the power of Christ is the authority, right, and dominion of Christ, not only as He is God, but also as He is man, over all men. For the Father subjected all men to Christ the man, as to their prince and savior, and committed all to Christ's care and government, so that, as far as in Him lies, He might strive to save all. Therefore He placed in the hand of Christ the salvation of all men. The phrase "of all flesh," that is, of every man, shows that the preaching of the Gospel is to be extended not only to the Jews, but to the whole earth, says Chrysostom.
THAT HE MAY GIVE ETERNAL LIFE TO ALL WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN HIM. This is a Hebraism. "All" signifies every man; but He says "all" in order to emphasize the universality more. Again, He changes the singular number into the plural, saying "them," to indicate that in this universality there is not one, or a few, but very many. Add that the "them" is redundant by a pleonasm common among the Hebrews. The sense is, as if to say: Glorify Me and make Me known to the world, that I may duly perform the office and power delivered to Me by Thee, namely that I may, as far as in Me lies, lead all men to eternal life; for this manifestation, which is faith in Me, is necessary that they may obtain salvation. You will say, Christ does not give eternal life to all men, for few are saved and more are damned. Chrysostom and Toletus reply that Christ, as far as is in His part, gives eternal life to all, because He gives to all His merits, His doctrine, His Sacraments, His grace, and the other means of salvation, by which if they use them rightly, they will attain to eternal life; but because many are unwilling to use them, hence more are damned by their own fault and laziness than are saved. Jansenius adds that Christ speaks properly only of the predestined and the elect; for these are properly they whom the Father has given to the Son, as will appear in verse 16. Christ therefore gives eternal life to the elect efficaciously, but to the reprobate only sufficiently, because He gives to these sufficient grace, but to those efficacious grace: whence these can be saved, but only the others are actually saved.
Verse 3: Now This Is Eternal Life: That They May Know Thee, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou Hast Sent
3. NOW THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE: THAT THEY MAY KNOW THEE, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, AND JESUS CHRIST WHOM THOU HAST SENT. This maxim aptly coheres with the preceding, for Christ gives the reason why He asks to be glorified; namely because this manifestation is the knowledge of God and of Christ, which is the only way to eternal life. This therefore is the whole course of Christ's argument: Glorify Me, Thy Son, O Father, that the Son may glorify Thee, that through this glorification and manifestation, by which the faithful will acknowledge Thee as true God and Me as true Son, redeemer of the world, they may obtain eternal life; for eternal life consists in this, that they may know Thee as true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, that those believing in Him may be saved; for no one can be saved except through faith, by which he believes in Christ.
NOW THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE. First, St. Thomas, in I part, Question XII, articles 4 and 6; and I II, Question III, article 4; and in book III Against the Gentiles, chapter 61 and elsewhere, takes these words in a formal sense, and from them proves that the essence of beatitude consists in an act of the intellect, not of the will, namely in the vision of God. Thus therefore he expounds: as if to say, Glorify Me, that through this manifestation the faithful may obtain in Me eternal life, which consists in the knowledge, that is, the vision, of God, that is, of the Father and the Son.
Second, Cajetan, Titelmann, and Jansenius hold that knowledge is here taken as common to the knowledge of the way (viatores) and of the fatherland (patria); and therefore it is not said, "that they may see Thee," which is the portion of the blessed, but "that they may know Thee," which also fits wayfarers — as if to say: I am about to give them eternal life; now eternal life is begun here through faith, and afterwards will be consummated in vision: therefore men cannot attain it without faith, and so I ask that Thou glorify Me.
Third, and genuinely, these words are to be explained in a sense not formal, but causal, as if to say: "This is eternal life," that is, this is the cause of eternal life, or this is the way to eternal life; namely, that through faith men may know and believe Thee to be the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent for their salvation. For faith in God and in Christ is the right way that leads us to eternal life, according to John III: "That whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting." And chapter VI: "He who believeth in Me, hath everlasting life." It is a metonymy, because the effect is put for the cause, namely eternal life for faith. Similar is John XI: "I am the resurrection and the life," that is, I am the cause, or author and effector of resurrection and life. And chapter XII: "I know that His commandment is life everlasting," that is, the cause of eternal life. And 1 John V: "This is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith," as if to say: Faith is the cause of our victory. So Cyril, in book XI, chapter 16: "He affirms, he says, that faith and the virtue of true piety are the root and origin of eternal life." For faith is, as it were, the beginning of the beatific vision, in which eternal life and beatitude consist: for faith gives birth to hope, hope to charity, charity to good works, by which we merit eternal life.
Finally, hear St. Augustine embracing and connecting these three senses: "If the knowledge of God is eternal life, then we shall be the more in eternal life, the more we advance in this knowledge; but it will be perfect when there will be no death: then the highest glorification, because the highest glory; and glory is defined as: Frequent report with praise concerning someone. But if a man is praised when his fame is believed, how shall God be praised when He is seen? Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord; they shall praise Thee for ever and ever."
THAT THEY MAY KNOW THEE, THE ONLY TRUE GOD. Therefore the Father alone is the true God; therefore the Son is not the true God, the Arians infer. This is their Achilles. They reply first — St. Augustine, tract 105, Bede, St. Thomas, and others here — that the conjunction "and" joins Jesus Christ with God the Father under one deity, as if to say: "That they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent;" supply and repeat: "to be likewise the only true God." St. Hilary, in book IX On the Trinity, proves this by reason, for otherwise this proposition would be gaping, hanging, and imperfect: for if it must be believed of the Father that He alone is the true God, nothing would be said to be believed about Jesus Christ, unless we understand Him also to be true God, just as the Father is. Therefore the sentence is to be ordered thus: "That they may know Thee, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, to be the only true God," namely, that the Son as well as the Father is true God. Hence the Fathers from this passage prove the divinity of Christ, as St. Cyprian, in book I Against the Jews; St. Ambrose, in book V On the Faith, chapter 2; St. Hilary, book IX On the Trinity, in the middle; St. Basil, in book IV Against Eunomius, at the end; Chrysostom, Cyril, Theophylact, and others.
Secondly, Sts. Chrysostom, Cyril, Leontius, Toletus, Ribera, and others reply more fully, saying that the exclusive word "only" here does not exclude the Son and the Holy Spirit, but only idols and false gods, which have a different nature and deity from the true deity, which is one in the Holy Trinity, and therefore numerically the same in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For which note that "only" here is not the subject, but the predicate; for the sense is not, as if to say: That they may know Thee, O Father, who alone art the true God; but as if to say: That they may know Thee, who art that God who alone is true God; such also is the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is more clearly signified in the Greek: ἵνα γινώσκωσί σε τὸν μόνον ἀληθινὸν θεόν, that is, "that they may know Thee, who art the only true God;" and the Syriac: "that they may know Thee to be the God of truth alone;" and the Arabic: "that they may know Thee to be the only true God." The same is suggested by the comma, which the Roman and Complutensian editions place after "that they may know Thee." For He sufficiently hints that the Son also is God, when He asserts that eternal life consists in the knowledge of Him as well as of the Father. For eternal life necessarily consists in the highest good and in true God, as St. Ambrose notes in book V On the Faith, chapter 2. Christ therefore, for modesty's sake, does not expressly call Himself God, but sent by the Father — that is, Messiah and redeemer of the world. For such was He insofar as He was incarnate and made man.
From this gather that for salvation and eternal life there is required knowledge, that is, faith, both of the incarnation of Jesus Christ and of the Trinity; for the Father cannot be fully known without the Son and the Holy Spirit; for paternity in the Father requires the spiration of the Holy Spirit.
AND JESUS CHRIST WHOM THOU HAST SENT. For the name of the Messiah, or Christ, is "sent" or "to be sent," as I have said above. You will say: The Holy Spirit is omitted here, therefore He is not God, inasmuch as our beatitude does not consist in the knowledge and vision of Him. I have already answered. "Only" excludes merely the gods of the Gentiles, who have a different nature from the true God, but not the Holy Spirit, who has the same nature.
But why is only the Son named here, and not the Holy Spirit? Euthymius replies first: "Because it was not yet time to teach about Him; for first the knowledge of the Son had to be instilled into the minds of the disciples, and then also the things that are of the Holy Spirit had to be revealed to them." But this is countered by the fact that Christ had already promised the Holy Spirit to the disciples and had said many things about Him.
Secondly, Ribera thinks this is done for the sake of the authority of origin; whence, just as the Son is wont to attribute all things to the Father, because He proceeds from Him, so now eternal life is attributed to the knowledge of the Father and of the Son; and although the Holy Spirit is also understood, He is nevertheless not named, because the Father and the Son are His principle, while He is the principle of no divine person, but has from the Father and the Son whatever He has, as I explained in chapter XV, on those words: "Who proceedeth from the Father."
Thirdly, you may more plainly say that Christ here does not mention the Holy Spirit, because He was wholly intent on inculcating faith in Himself — namely, that He Himself should be believed to be true God and Son of God and man. For this was the thing then most needing to be inculcated, both because it was new and difficult to believe, and because it was the basis of all the other things to be believed, and because, once this was believed, the Holy Spirit was believed as well: for Christ had already said that the Spirit proceeds from Him and is sent by Him. Therefore the Holy Spirit is here understood, because, as St. Augustine says, He is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, as the consubstantial love of both.
Verse 4: I Have Glorified Thee Upon the Earth: I Have Finished the Work Which Thou Gavest Me to Do
4. I HAVE GLORIFIED THEE (ἐδόξασά σε, that is, as the Syriac and Arabic render it, I have glorified) UPON THE EARTH: I HAVE FINISHED (Syriac, completed) THE WORK WHICH THOU GAVEST ME TO DO. — As if to say: The work of preaching and redemption, for which Thou didst send Me into the world as Thy envoy, I will now consummate within a few hours, in My Passion and death, and I shall finish and bring to completion the preaching of the Gospel throughout all the Gentiles, which by Thy decree is about to be committed to the Apostles. Hear St. Augustine: "I have glorified Thee to those whom Thou hast given Me, making Thee known. God is glorified when, being announced, He becomes known to men and is preached through faith to those who believe." For, as St. Chrysostom says, in heaven He had already been glorified and adored by the angels; He therefore speaks of that glory which pertains to the worship of men.
Verse 5: And Now Glorify Me, Thou Father, With Thyself, With the Glory Which I Had With Thee Before the World Was
5. AND (that is, therefore, since I have now consummated the work of My legation, and have humbled Myself out of love for Thee, and abased Myself even unto the death of the Cross) NOW GLORIFY ME, THOU FATHER, WITH THYSELF, WITH THE GLORY WHICH I HAD, BEFORE THE WORLD WAS, WITH THEE. — St. Augustine, and after him St. Thomas, understand this of the glory which Christ as man had from eternity, not in actuality but in the decree and predestination of God. He asks, says Augustine, that the glory which He possessed in predestination, He may now possess in its perfection and full bestowal, namely at the right hand of the Father; for He saw that the time of the predestined glorification had arrived. So also Suarez: Glorify Me, He says, with the glory of the resurrection, to which Thou didst predestine Me before the world.
Others take it more simply of the brightness, that is the glory of the Godhead, which Christ from eternity possessed with the Father as Son, sitting at His right hand — that is, equal and alike to Him in dignity and glory, being very God of very God. The sense therefore is: "Glorify" — that is, make Me glorious, O Father, with that brightness and glory which I had with Thee from eternity; that is, O Father, grant that I who am about to die may soon rise again and ascend into heaven and sit at Thy right hand as Thy Son; and so may be glorified and acknowledged by men to be not only man but also God. Because, on account of the divine nature joined to the humanity, My humanity has been most gloriously exalted to Thy right hand, and the divine nature has communicated to My humanity the glory of divinity, which it had from eternity. He therefore asks that His divinity, hidden in His humanity, be acknowledged, and that both natures be made bright and glorified. "Glorify Me, therefore, Thou Father, with Thyself," that is, by taking Me up to Thyself that I may sit at Thy right hand — so say Chrysostom, Cyril, Theophylact, Euthymius, St. Thomas; "with the glory which I had with Thee," as if to say: set Me at Thy right hand, that all may understand Me to have that glory which in truth I had with Thee from eternity, namely that I am Thy natural Son equal to Thee. Thus Cyril and Hilary, De Trinitate, book III; and likewise St. Augustine, Leontius, Toletus, Ribera, Jansenius, Maldonatus and others here.
A threefold brightness of Christ, therefore, is here signified and implied. The first is an uncreated and infinite brightness — namely the glory of the divinity and of the divine filiation: that He is truly God and the Son of God; for this glory He had with the Father before the creation of the world. The second is a created and finite brightness — namely the glory of His humanity, which it attained in the Resurrection and its glorious endowments, and presently in its ascent to heaven and its seat at the right hand of God: for Christ, not only as God but also as man, sits at the right hand of God after His ascension into heaven, as I have explained at length in Colossians III, 1. And this second brightness of Christ manifests the first; for from the fact that Christ as man, ascending to heaven, sits at the right hand of God, it was made known that Christ is God and the Son of God, and as such sits at the right hand of God — that is, is equal and like to Him in divinity, glory, and adoration. The sense therefore is: Grant, O Father, that the glory which I had as God before the world, I may now possess and share as man; that is, grant that I, who from eternity as God sat at Thy right hand, may now sit at the same right hand as man. For this is what "with Thyself" signifies, namely in time, after the Ascension into heaven. The third brightness is that by which both aforesaid glories are manifested to the Apostles and the other faithful. For when they saw Christ gloriously ascending into heaven, and the angels applauding Him, and Christ sending forth the Holy Spirit from heaven with the working of so many signs and miracles — by which they converted the whole world to Christ — from all these, I say, they themselves came to know that Christ was not a mere man but also God and the Son of God, and as such sits at the right hand of God in the highest majesty and glory; and this they preached through all nations.
Christ therefore asks that His first brightness and glory be disclosed through the second, namely through the ascent of His humanity into heaven; and the second through the third, namely that the second may be manifested to the Apostles and the other faithful. In sum, Christ asks that His divinity — like a pearl hidden in the mud and shell of His humanity and Passion — may flash forth when that shell is broken by His death, and may pour its glorious rays everywhere: just as the sun, veiled by a cloud, when by its splendor it breaks through and scatters the cloud, and sends forth its flashing rays in every direction; and then the brightness of Christ, that is His glory, shines forth throughout the whole world. This came to pass in Christ's Resurrection, His Ascension into heaven, the sending of the Holy Spirit, and the conversion of the Gentiles. Hence St. Chrysostom takes "brightness" to mean His Passion.
Hear St. Chrysostom in address: "What sayest thou? Thou art to be led to the cross with robbers and brigands, to undergo the death of malefactors, then to be spat upon and scourged with rods and beaten with blows — and dost Thou call these things glory? Yes indeed, He says; for I shall suffer these things for My beloved ones. If to Him it was counted as glory — not to sit on the ancestral throne, but to endure contumely — how much more ought I to count such things as glory." And a little before: "If Christ, he says, did not esteem it so much to be in glory as to undergo the cross for my sake — what, pray, ought I not to bear for His name?"
Note: the expressions "with Thyself" and "with Thee." First, they are equivalent to "from Thee"; for the Son receives His deity and all His glory from the Father. Secondly, they are equivalent to "in Thy presence"; for even if there were no angel or man to glorify Christ, He would still have infinite praise and glory in the presence of the Father, since by this the Father praises and glorifies the Son, and in turn the Son praises the Father. I say the same of the Holy Spirit. This is what we sing at the end of every Psalm: "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen" — as if to say: I wish for God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, that immense and divine glory which He had from the beginning (that is from eternity), and has now, and will have for ever — which is the glory by which one divine Person glorifies the others that are joined with It in immense praise, and is in turn glorified by them. For the Father immensely glorifies the Son and the Holy Spirit, and They in turn immensely glorify the Father and each other. Thirdly, "with Thyself" properly means the same as "with Thee," namely, as God sitting upon the throne of divinity at Thy right hand, as it were ὁμοούσιος (consubstantial) to Thee, equal and alike, according to that passage in chapter I, verse 1: "And the Word was with God" — see what is said there; but as man, exalted above all angels and creatures, sitting next to God.
Wrongly, therefore, do certain heretics, as St. Augustine testifies in tract 103, suppose that this glorification was effected in such a way that the humanity was converted in heaven into the divinity; for this is impossible, and if it were so, the humanity of Christ which suffered would not be glorified — inasmuch as it would no longer exist, being converted into divinity — but only the divinity alone would be glorified. The humanity therefore shared in the glory of the divinity above all the blessed angels and men, inasmuch as it is hypostatically united to it, just as the air shares in the light of the sun, and the Blessed share in the glory of God. So St. Chrysostom, Cyril, Hilary, Ambrose, and Athanasius, writing against the Arians.
And do not be surprised that some have thought this concerning Christ; for the same was thought of all the Blessed, namely that they were really to be transformed into God in heaven — on the strength of what the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians XV, 28: "That God may be all in all." This was the error of the Contemplatives, but of the fanatical kind, as I said in the place cited.
Verse 6: I Have Manifested Thy Name to the Men Whom Thou Hast Given Me Out of the World
6. I HAVE MANIFESTED THY NAME TO THE MEN WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME OUT OF THE WORLD. — He explains "I have glorified Thee, I have finished the work" by "I have manifested Thy name to men." For this was the work committed to Him by the Father — so Chrysostom. "Thy name" — not that by which Thou art God, but that by which Thou art and art called Father, and by which Thou hast begotten Me as Son consubstantial with Thyself, says Cyril. Hear the Interlinear: "Thy name — not that by which Thou art called God, which was known to the Jews, but that by which Thou art called My Father, which is not known apart from the Son." And St. Augustine: "For the fact that He is called God was not unknown even to the Gentiles: inasmuch as He made the world, He is known in all things as God; inasmuch as He is not to be worshipped together with false gods, He is known in Judea as God; inasmuch as He is the Father of Christ, He is now made known through Christ." And Chrysostom: "He had already manifested Himself to be the Son of God the Father both in word and in deed."
WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME OUT OF THE WORLD. — Those, namely, whom "Thou hast given Me" by calling and grace, not only sufficient but also efficacious; or, those whom "Thou hast given Me" perfectly and completely — both as far as on Thy part, by calling them through prevenient grace, fitted to their free will, which actually persuaded them to faith in Thee, love, and discipleship; and as far as on their own part, since being so called by Thee, they freely through Thy grace obeyed Thy call, and consented to Thee, giving themselves to Me and to My faith, and so separating themselves from the world — that is, from the number of the unfaithful and of sinners who seek after the pleasures and vanities of the world. Hence St. Caecilia said "she wished to have no friendship with the world." He is speaking properly of the Apostles and His other disciples; and by this phrase He signifies: first, that His dominion and power, which He had as man over His disciples and other men, flow and are derived from the divinity; second, that God the Father by His grace had gone before them and moved them to the faith and following of Christ; third, that the Father had separated them from the world, and handed them over to Christ, that through Him they might be saved; fourth, that He Himself has a human will conformed to the Father's will and in all things subject to it; fifth, that God the Father chose those whom He willed to hand over to Christ to be Apostles and disciples, and proposed them to Christ, and Christ, obeying the Father, accepted them.
THEY WERE THINE, AND THOU GAVEST THEM TO ME: AND THEY HAVE KEPT THY WORD. — Christ, about to take His farewell of the Apostles, blesses them and entreats from God every good for them. Here therefore He begins to commend them to God by prayer, and adds the reason, saying: "They are Thine," etc., because surely from eternity Thou hast loved them, chosen them, and taken them to Thyself, that out of the number of the worldly they might be separated and saved by Thy grace; namely, Thou didst bring them to Me, that they might believe in Me and keep My word — that is, My doctrine and law — and so attain the eternal glory to which Thou hast chosen them. For, as He said in chapter VI: "No man can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draw him." Those therefore who are Thine — that is, loved and chosen by Thee — care for them, preserve and protect them as Thine own: this I pray, because as they are Thine, so also they are Mine; for Thou "hast given them to Me." Therefore love them as Thine own and as Mine, govern them, and direct them in straight paths to everlasting life.
Verse 7: Now They Have Known That All Things Which Thou Hast Given Me Are From Thee
7. NOW THEY HAVE KNOWN, THAT ALL THINGS WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME ARE FROM THEE, — namely, that all My words and deeds have not issued from Me first, but from Thee, and that therefore My doctrine and My law have been given and dictated to Me by Thee.
Verse 8: Because the Words Which Thou Gavest Me, I Have Given Them; and They Have Received Them, and Have Known in Truth That I Came Forth From Thee, and They Have Believed That Thou Didst Send Me
8. BECAUSE THE WORDS WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME, I HAVE GIVEN TO THEM: AND THEY HAVE RECEIVED THEM, AND HAVE KNOWN IN TRUTH THAT I CAME FORTH FROM THEE (that is, I have proceeded from Thee and been begotten as it were a Son, as I said in chapter XVI, verse 30), AND THEY HAVE BELIEVED THAT THOU DIDST SEND ME. — As if to say: Care for them, because I have cared for them and taught them, and they of their own accord have received Me and My doctrine and have believed Me to be Thy Son, sent by Thee into the world for its salvation — namely, that I am the Messiah, or Christ the Savior of the world.
Verse 9: I Pray for Them: I Do Not Pray for the World, but for Those Whom Thou Hast Given Me, Because They Are Thine
9. I PRAY FOR THEM (that Thou mayest preserve them and make them grow in the knowledge and love of Thee and of Me): I PRAY NOT FOR THE WORLD, BUT FOR THOSE WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME, BECAUSE THEY ARE THINE. — From this passage the heretics called Predestinationists, in the time of St. Augustine (abusing St. Augustine's writings On Predestination and Grace), taught that Christ had prayed, been born, and suffered only for the predestined: therefore no crimes whatsoever could harm the predestined, and no good works whatsoever could profit the reprobate. This heresy has in these centuries been renewed by John Hus and Martin Luther. So Prateolus, citing Sigebert, in his Catalog of Heretics.
But Holy Scripture teaches that Christ was born and suffered for all men, even the reprobate — or rather for those reprobated or to be reprobated on account of their own crimes, as is clear from Luke XXIII, 34; 2 Corinthians V, 14 and 15; John I, 9; 1 Timothy II, 4, where it is said: "Who (God) will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth," namely through Christ. For Christ, as far as on His part, provides all men with the means necessary for salvation: He instituted the Sacraments for all, sent the Apostles to all the Gentiles, and offers His doctrine and grace to all. He has therefore done, as far as depends on Him, sufficient that all might be saved. Nevertheless He prays here in a special manner for His own faithful ones, with an efficacious prayer, that God may keep them in the faith and grace bestowed. So St. Augustine, who also elsewhere says: "I pray not for the world" — that is, He says, for those who are going to remain the world unto the end of their lives, namely the unbelievers and the impious.
Secondly, and better and more exactly: Christ here prays only for His Apostles and disciples (because it is them He is taking leave of with this prayer of benediction), that they may be preserved by God the Father in that faith, grace, and concord in which they already were. This is clear from verses 11 and 20, where, after the prayer made for the Apostles, He prays for the other faithful who will come to believe through their preaching. Therefore He did not pray for them here. Furthermore, "for the world" means for the lovers of the world and for unbelievers: for Christ prayed elsewhere even for those who crucified Him — especially on the Cross, that they might be converted, do penance, and so obtain pardon, grace, and salvation, saying: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," Luke chapter XXIII, verse 34. By the power of that prayer, many of them were shortly afterwards converted through the preaching of St. Peter, as is clear from Acts II. Here, however, He did not pray for them (for all things are not to be asked for all, nor always and everywhere); but only for the Apostles, because He is taking leave of them here and blessing them by prayer, as I said: for the Apostles were to be the future propagators of the Gospel and the princes of the Church.
Verse 10: And All Mine Are Thine, and Thine Are Mine: and I Am Glorified in Them
10. AND ALL MY THINGS ARE THINE, AND THINE ARE MINE: AND I AM GLORIFIED IN THEM. — He proves what He had said: "because they are Thine," and given to Me by Thee; for "all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine," as if to say: As I depart to Thee, O Father, I commend My disciples to Thee as though they were sons, because they are Thine — chosen by Thee unto eternal life, and committed and given to My faith by Thee; they are Thine, I say, even now, although they have been given to Me, because all things that are Mine are Thine; and though I have said they were given to Me by Thee, they have always also been Mine, because all things which Thou hast are Mine by reason of the unity of essence. So Cyril and Chrysostom.
AND I AM GLORIFIED IN THEM. — Because they themselves believe in Me, love Me, worship, adore, and proclaim Me as the Messiah and Son of God. So Cyril and Chrysostom. Morally, learn here that God and Christ are glorified in us when we act well, and especially when we preach His faith and convert the unbelieving or the impious to Him.
Otherwise St. Augustine, tract 107, who takes the past tense for the future by reason of its certainty — as if to say: I pray for the Apostles, because through them I am to be glorified in the world, when, after My death, they shall preach My divinity everywhere among the Gentiles.
Verse 11: And Now I Am No Longer in the World, and These Are in the World, and I Come to Thee. Holy Father, Keep Them in Thy Name, Whom Thou Hast Given Me, That They May Be One, as We Also Are
11. AND NOW I AM NOT IN THE WORLD (that is, soon I shall not be in this life and this earth, because after a few hours I shall be slain), AND THESE ARE IN THE WORLD, AND (that is, because) I COME TO THEE. — As if to say: I depart from them and return to Thee; but they remain in the world, that they may preach My Gospel and Thine throughout the whole earth, and therefore they will be exposed to the hatreds of the devil, and equally of the Jews and the Gentiles, to persecutions, and to a thousand dangers. Do Thou therefore, O Father, keep them; for there is no other, in My absence, who may guard them.
HOLY FATHER, KEEP THEM IN THY NAME, WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME: THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, AS WE ALSO ARE. — He gives the Father the epithet "holy," because He is treating of holiness, and asks that the holy Father may preserve the Apostles in holiness and promote them therein. So in verse 25 He says: "Just Father, the world hath not known Thee," as if to say: Thou art just, in that Thou hidest the mysteries of My humility and redemption from the unjust and proud world. So when God consoled Paul in tribulation, He is called by him "Father of mercies, and God of all consolation," 2 Corinthians I. And again, when strengthening David in battle and making him victor, He is addressed by him thus: "I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament, and my refuge."
KEEP THEM IN THY NAME, — that is, by Thy power, Thy aid, Thy omnipotence, that they may always persevere in Me and in Mine and Thine love and worship. From this it is clear that the Apostles, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, did not lose the grace of God nor sin mortally; for this is what Christ here prays, and His prayer, being ardent and efficacious, was heard by the Father. So Ribera.
THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, AS WE ALSO ARE, — namely, in consent, will, and spirit, just as We are one in nature and in the same essence of divinity; so that, joined together by one spirit of charity, they may always follow Me, nor be divided from one another by discord; but may have a unity of spirit through concord, as We have through the same essence. So St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, De Fide, book IV, chapter II. Whence St. Cyril here, and St. Athanasius in sermon 4 Against the Arians, note that "as" signifies a certain similitude and imitation, not identity — as if to say: that they may imitate Our unity by the consent of minds, as We have it by one and the same numerical essence and will.
Note: St. Cyril and St. Hilary, De Trinitate, book VIII, refer the words "that they may be one" to the holy Synaxis, namely to the Eucharist, as though Christ wishes that the Apostles, by receiving His body in the Eucharist, may become one with Himself and among themselves — and that truly, bodily, and substantially, just as He Himself is truly one substantially with the Father. For just as the Father is united to the Son in the same essence of divinity, so the Apostles and all the faithful are united to one another in the same substance of the humanity and divinity of Christ which they take in the Eucharist.
Verses 15-16: I Pray Not That Thou Shouldest Take Them Out of the World
Otherwise St. Augustine: What this joy is, he says, He has expressed above when He said: "That they may be one, as We also are one;" this is the peace and beatitude of the age to come.
15. I PRAY NOT THAT THOU SHOULDEST TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD, BUT THAT THOU SHOULDEST KEEP THEM FROM EVIL. 16. THEY ARE NOT OF THE WORLD, AS I ALSO AM NOT OF THE WORLD. — "That Thou mayest keep them from evil": first, from the evil of sin, which alone is truly evil; second, from the evil of punishment — as if to say: That Thou mayest keep them in every tribulation and adversity, so that either Thou mayest protect them from it, or strengthen them in it, that they may gloriously bear and overcome it; third, "from evil," that is, from the devil and his snares and temptations: for in Greek it is with the article, ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ.
THEY ARE NOT OF THE WORLD. — He repeats this; for He said it a little earlier to give the reason why the world hated them — namely, because they were unlike, nay contrary, to the world in morals, affections, and life. But here He repeats it to show why the Father ought to hold them dear and care for and preserve them: namely, because they themselves, having left the world, have wholly given themselves to the worship and care of God and Christ. Hence He adds:
Verse 17: Sanctify Them in Truth
17. SANCTIFY THEM IN TRUTH. — The word "sanctify" here does not signify an act that is begun (for the Apostles were already holy and had just shortly before received the sacred Synaxis), but one that is advancing and being perfected, according to that saying of Apocalypse XXII: "He that is holy, let him be sanctified still," as if to say: Confirm, advance, and perfect them in holiness; that is, through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost pour forth on them the perfect Gospel truth, that they may be filled with both interior and exterior wisdom and holiness; and so in life as well as in word they may be true teachers of the world, priests and princes of the Churches, breathing and inspiring their holiness into all men like a divine fire. Whence it follows) THY WORD IS TRUTH. — That is, Thy doctrine, handed to them through Me, is truth — as if to say: Not Moses, not the philosophers, but Thy word teaches this Gospel truth. The holiness therefore of Moses and of the Jews was ceremonial and shadowy; that of the philosophers either feigned, or merely moral and natural; but that of Christ is supernatural, heavenly, and divine. Others take "sanctify them in truth" to mean: sanctify them truly — that is, wholly and perfectly — which the Apostle calls "the holiness of truth," that is, true, sincere, and entire (Ephesians IV, 24). For a great and entire holiness is required in an Apostle: to preach assiduously, to resist tyrants, to labor night and day, to undergo death and martyrdom. See 2 Corinthians, chapter XI.
Secondly, it can be explained thus: "sanctify them in truth," that is, sanctify them in Me, who am "the way, the truth, and the life" (chapter XIV, verse 6) — as if to say: Make them partakers of My goodness and holiness. So St. Augustine, tract 108; Cyril, Rupert, St. Thomas.
A third exposition, with Maldonatus, is possible: "sanctify them in truth" — as if to say: Set them apart, designate, and consecrate them as holy ministers and heralds of the Gospel; but "in truth," not in shadows, as of old Aaron with his sons, in Leviticus IX, was sanctified in shadow and type — that is, consecrated priest and pontiff. Whence Chrysostom on "sanctify them in truth": that is, he says, set them apart for speech and preaching. So Jeremiah in chapter I, verse 5, is said to have been sanctified in the womb, that is, designated and as it were consecrated a prophet.
A fourth interpretation is possible: "sanctify them in truth" — as if to say: Make them holy victims, that through martyrdom they may be sanctified and immolated to Thee. For it becomes the Apostles to be made martyrs, that they may confirm and seal the holiness of their doctrine with the holiness of their own martyrdom. And indeed in fact all the Apostles were martyrs, after the example of Christ, who says in verse 19: "For them I sanctify Myself," that is, I offer and immolate Myself. For so in Leviticus victims are everywhere said to be sanctified when they are immolated to God — of which again at verse 19.
Note: Christ as man had a threefold holiness, which He communicated to the Apostles and the faithful. The first was infused holiness — namely grace, charity, and the other virtues — bestowed upon the soul of Christ by God in the very first instant of His conception, just as God infuses the same into us through the merits of Christ. The second was divine holiness: that by which the Deity itself is most holy, and is the fount of all holiness of men and angels. For this He had as man by the communication of idioms; for by this the attributes of the Deity — of which one is holiness — are truly attributed to Christ the man, inasmuch as He subsists in the same person of the Word together with the Deity. The third, the holiness of Christ as man, was effected precisely by His hypostatic union with the Word; for by this alone the humanity of Christ was sanctified and made most holy. For even if Christ as man had no infused grace, His very hypostatic union with the Word would have been His supreme sanctification and holiness. Hence the humanity of Christ, because united to the Word, could not sin and was utterly impeccable, most pleasing and most acceptable to God; nay rather, Christ as man was the Son of God — not adoptive as we are, but His proper and natural Son.
THY WORD IS TRUTH. — As if to say: The Gospel which I received from Thee and preach is not a shadow, as was the Old Law, but consists in spirit and in truth, as He said in chapter IV, 24. See what is said at chapter XV, 3, on the words: "Now you are clean, because of the word which I have spoken to you." For, as was said at chapter I, 17: "The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
Morally: learn here how holy a Christian ought to be, especially a religious and an apostolic man who wishes to sanctify others: namely that he should be like the Apostles — nay, like Christ — and should strive to imitate their most holy habits and actions. See Gregory of Nyssa, in the tract What the Name of Christian Demands: "Christianity, he says, is the imitation of the divine nature;" for a Christian ought to imitate the holiness of God and of Christ as much as he possibly can, so that Christ may continually shine forth in his speech, bearing, and conduct — so that whoever sees or hears him may think himself to see and hear Christ. This is what God sanctions in Leviticus XX, 26: "You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other peoples, that you should be Mine." Holiness therefore is aversion from the world, and conversion and union with God and Christ. For this reason the Apostles converted the world more by their holiness and burning charity than by their preaching; indeed they thundered with their mouth because they flashed in their life, according to what Nazianzen says of St. Basil: "His speech was thunder, because his life was lightning." For this reason Christ here asks of God for the Apostles not wisdom, as Solomon did, but holiness. See the portrait of St. Paul, or of the apostolic man, which I have placed at the beginning of my commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. St. Gregory rightly says, in book VI on 1 Kings, chapter II: "Sanctification of the body is chastity; sanctification of the mind is charity and humility."
Verse 18: As Thou Hast Sent Me Into the World, I Also Have Sent Them Into the World
18. AS THOU HAST SENT ME INTO THE WORLD, I ALSO HAVE SENT THEM INTO THE WORLD. — It is a new reason why Christ commends the Apostles to the Father, that He ought to keep and sanctify them — as if to say: As Thou hast sent Me into the world, that I may repair and sanctify it when ruined by sin, so I also send My Apostles through all the Gentiles, that they may sanctify them. Hence they need great holiness: both that they may not be captured by the allurements of those peoples, or cast down by their persecutions, and that they may sanctify them when they are utterly corrupted by vices. Therefore it is fitting, O Father, that Thou shouldst more and more each day sanctify them, that they themselves may be able to sanctify many others.
Verse 19: And for Them I Sanctify Myself
19. AND FOR THEM I SANCTIFY MYSELF, THAT THEY ALSO MAY BE SANCTIFIED IN TRUTH. — First, St. Augustine takes "I sanctify" in its proper sense — as if to say: I, as the Son of God, sanctify the man assumed by Me, that through Him I may sanctify the Apostles. Hear St. Augustine: "When the Word was made flesh, then He sanctified Himself in Himself, that is, the man in the Word Himself, because Christ is one, Word and man. But with regard to His members He says: And for them I sanctify Myself — that is, them in Me, because in Me they also are and I in them. That they also may be sanctified in truth. What is meant by And they, if not 'as I am,' and in truth, which is what I am?"
Secondly, and in its genuine sense: "I sanctify," that is, I offer and immolate Myself to Thee as a holy victim; that is, after a few hours I shall offer and immolate Myself on the Cross, that through it they may "be sanctified in truth," that is, that they themselves may be sanctified through Thy word — which is truth and not shadow — that they may be truly Thine and dedicate themselves to Thee for apostolic labors, that they may convert all nations to Thee, and therefore bear for Thee all persecutions, hardships, and afflictions with unconquered spirit, and undergo death and martyrdom itself, as men sanctifying themselves to Thee just as I do — that is, offering and immolating themselves. So St. Chrysostom, homily 81, and at length Cyril, Rupert, St. Thomas, Jansenius, Maldonatus, Toletus, Ribera, and others.
Verse 20: Not for Them Only Do I Pray, But for Those Also Who Through Their Word Shall Believe
20. AND NOT FOR THEM ONLY DO I PRAY, BUT FOR THEM ALSO WHO THROUGH THEIR WORD SHALL BELIEVE IN ME. — Thus far Christ has prayed for the Apostles, under whom He includes the others immediately converted by Him, such as the seventy-two disciples. Now He prays for the other faithful who, through the preaching of the Apostles, are in every successive age to come to believe in Him, down to the end of the world. He therefore prays for the whole Church and for all Christians of every age to come. Of these He Himself is Father and Patriarch, King and Prince, Pontiff and Hierarch. All these, and each one, Christ as man (for as man He is here praying for them) distinctly and perfectly saw — as though they had already existed and were present — in the divine essence, says Toletus; or rather through infused knowledge, for this belonged to Christ as man insofar as He was a wayfarer, since the vision of the divine essence belonged to Him, not as a wayfarer but as one already blessed — so says Suarez. He therefore saw in it both me and you, and any other of the faithful to be born a thousand years later, and for all and each He was asking God and obtaining a grace proper to each. Therefore, by the power of this prayer of Christ, each of the faithful who is to be born in his own time will obtain faith, grace, salvation, and all his goods and gifts of God — but each one his own, those which Christ asked and demanded for him. Then therefore Christ prayed for St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and the other martyrs, that they might obtain the laurel of martyrdom; for St. Athanasius, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and others, that they might become Doctors of the Church; for St. Agnes, Caecilia, Catherine, and others, that they might immolate their virginity to God as a victim and dye it purple with their own blood. Say the same of the other Christians. Then therefore, equally as on the Cross, Christ praying for all and each, brought forth all and each as His own — as His Benonis, nay His Benjamins. Let every one of the faithful ponder and weigh this, and give immense thanks to Christ his parent for so great a bringing-forth of himself.
Verse 21: That They All May Be One
21. THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE, — through one faith, hope, charity, and concord. See what was said at verse 11. Note that Christ here prays only for the faithful, for He is bidding them farewell; not for unbelievers, for whom He prayed elsewhere, and especially upon the cross. Learn again here how united and harmonious Christians ought to be among themselves, and how far removed from the Spirit of Christ are those who are at variance and who sow strife.
SICUT TU, PATER, IN ME, ET EGO IN TE, UT ET IPSI IN NOBIS UNUM SINT. — For "God is charity, and he that abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him," 1 John IV, 16. Through faith and charity, therefore, we are united first to God and Christ, then to one another as members of the one mystical body of Christ, which is the Church. The word "as" signifies not identity, as the Arians wished, but only likeness. For the Father and the Son are one through the same numerical essence and Deity; whereas we are one through the same quality, namely charity and concord. Yet through this we are so united to God that we possess Him and in turn are possessed by Him. Hear St. Augustine (or whoever is the author), in the book On Salutary Instructions, chapter IX: "If we delight in possessing anything in this age, it is expedient that we possess with our mind God who possesses all things and who created all things, and that in Him we have whatever we happily and holily desire. But since no one possesses God except one who is possessed by Him, let us ourselves be made God's possession, and let God be our possession. And what can be more delightful than for one whose emperor and redeemer becomes his estate, and whose inheritance is worthy to be divinity itself? For from Him we receive all fruits, if we always live in Him and from Him. What, I ask, suffices a man whom even his Creator does not suffice? What more does he seek, to whom his Redeemer ought to be every joy and all things?"
Through love, therefore, we are so united with God that with Him we become as it were one spirit, so that whatever earthly desire there is may be absorbed in us, and the whole mind may pass through affection into God, and thus be as it were deified; just as if a drop of water be poured into noble wine, it immediately passes wholly into the wine, and as iron, if it be made red-hot, passes into fire, though the nature of iron remains; and as air illuminated by the sun passes into light, so that it seems to be nothing but the light of the sun. Hence St. Bernard, Sermon 74 on Canticles: "Who, he says, is he who perfectly cleaves to God, except one who, abiding in God as one beloved of God, has nevertheless in turn drawn God into himself by loving? Therefore, since man and God cleave to each other on every side, and cleave on every side made intimately and mutually inward to each other by love, through this I should not hesitate to say that God is in man and man in God."
This union those experience and savor who, like Magdalen, lead the contemplative life. For in such a life the loving soul flows out from herself, and as though reduced to nothing, is absorbed, fallen into the abyss of eternal love, and utterly dead to herself, lives to God alone, knowing nothing, feeling nothing but Him. For she loses herself in the vast solitude and darkness of the divinity, yet so to lose oneself is more profitable and more delightful than to find oneself; for there, stripping off whatever is human and putting on whatever is divine, she is transformed and transmuted into God. O truly blessed soul, which, laying aside every operation of her own, in her memorative power is stripped of all images; in her intellect she feels and cherishes the dazzling illuminations of the Sun of justice; in her concupiscible power she feels a certain glow of tranquil love, or the touch of the Holy Spirit, like a true fountain overflowing with streams of eternal sweetness. For when, free and set apart from all things, she exists simple and clean as a polished mirror, the Lord is wont to illuminate her assiduously with the rays of His divine brightness. For since God Himself is the agent, man is the patient. For while the powers of the soul are silent and quiet from their own action, and at last free from every outward image, God Himself speaks, and disposes and affects those powers of the mind at His pleasure, carrying out in her a most noble work. Therefore, O most generous soul, O most noble, keep thyself pure and free; do not run out to the variety of the senses, but with the senses held in check dwell within, and turn fervently to God, plunged a thousand times a day into the abyss of the divinity; there see that thou swim to and fro. Pant after that supernatural union of the spirit with God; fly back into God from whom thou drawest thine origin, who is uncreated light, and at the same time the light of eternity. Wherefore with good reason St. Bernard exclaims in his treatise On Divine Love, chapter IV: "O happy, nay most happy soul, which deserves to be so affected by God through God, that by the unity of spirit in God alone she loves God, not any private good of her own, nor does she love herself except in God, and God in her loves or approves what God ought to love or approve, that is, Himself — nay, what alone ought to be loved by God the creator and by the creature of God. For neither the name nor the affection of love belongs or is due to any except to Thee alone, O Lord, truly worthy to be loved." Whence, adding, he thus concludes with St. John: "And this is in us the will of Thy Son, this is His prayer for us to Thee, God His Father: I will that as I and Thou are one, so they also in us may be one. This is the end, this is the consummation, this is the perfection, this is the peace, this is the joy in the Holy Spirit, this is silence in heaven."
UT CREDAT MUNDUS, QUIA TU ME MISISTI. — "That it may believe," not only through the unity and conformity of doctrine, as Euthymius would have it, but rather through unity and union with God and Christ; as if to say: Or "by this alone will the world believe Christ to be the Son of God, namely, by seeing Christians so joined and united to God and Christ, and likewise to one another in love; for it will see that such a union cannot come about except from Christ and God, and therefore through this it will be drawn, so that even the unbelieving one may lay aside his unbelief and believe in me." "World," then, is here taken in a good sense, just as in John III: "For the Son of man came not to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him." And 2 Corinthians V: "For God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." Less rightly, therefore, does Jansenius here take "world" to mean the reprobate, as if to say: That the world may believe, namely, compelled by the evidence of the miracles and holiness of the disciples, and that worldly men, albeit unwillingly, may confess me to be God, as James says in chapter II: "The devils also believe and tremble."
Verse 22: And the Glory Which Thou Hast Given Me, I Have Given Them
22. AND THE GLORY WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME, I HAVE GIVEN THEM: THAT THEY MAY BE ONE, AS WE ALSO ARE ONE. — For the Father and the Son are one God, not two Gods. By "glory," first, understand the glory of divine filiation; for this Christ has as God by nature, and as man by the hypostatic union, and He gives and communicates it to the holy faithful, so that they may have it not by nature but by adoption, and may be sons of God, not natural, as Christ is, but adoptive. So Jansenius, and before him St. Ambrose, book V On the Faith, chapter IV.
Secondly, Maldonatus takes "glory" as the love by which the Father had glorified Him, showing at the baptism and on other occasions that He was His beloved Son.
Thirdly, by "glory" Leontius and Ribera understand the Eucharist; for in it the Deity and humanity of Christ are given to us, and this is the highest glory; "for we, being many, are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread and one chalice," 1 Corinthians X.
So too Cyril, book XI, chapter XXVI, and Hilary, book VIII On the Trinity, explain this glory as the divinity itself of the Word united to the flesh, which Christ as man receives from the Father when the Word was made flesh. This God and Christ gave to us when He made His flesh our food, and was really united with us through the wondrous Sacrament.
To this Toletus adds, who so expounds, as if to say: I have already made them one through my glory which I received from Thee; do Thou, O Father, give the Holy Spirit, that through Him also they may be made one. This glory is the divinity of the Son Himself, which as man He says He has received from the Father by the hypostatic union; this divinity united to His flesh Christ gave to us in the Sacrament, which by then, when He was speaking these words, He had already instituted.
Symbolically, St. Chrysostom and Euthymius take "glory" to mean both the power of miracles which Christ gave to the disciples, and the unity of concord, concerning which it is said: "That they may be one"; for these two were an efficacious argument for confirming the truth of the faith, namely miracles and so wonderful a concord among them.
Anagogically, St. Augustine, tract 110: This glory, he says, is the glory of the body, as if to say: the immortality and glory which I will give to my flesh and humanity after three days in the resurrection, "I have given," that is, I shall most certainly give to the faithful in the common resurrection of all.
Verse 23: I in Them, and Thou in Me: That They May Be Made Perfect in One
23. I IN THEM, AND THOU IN ME: THAT THEY MAY BE MADE PERFECT IN ONE; AND THAT THE WORLD MAY KNOW THAT THOU HAST SENT ME, AND HAST LOVED THEM, AS THOU HAST LOVED ME. — "That they may be made perfect in one," namely, that their union may be consummated and perfect, like that of many members in one body and head. For as many members make one body, so many faithful piece together one mystical body of Christ, which is the Church. Again, all the members are united and consummated in one head: so all Christians in one Christ and God. Hear Toletus aptly expounding these things of the Eucharist: He explains the manner in which this union of glory and divinity is accomplished: I, he says, am in them through my flesh given to them as true and real food; but Thou art in me, because Thy divinity is united to my flesh. If therefore the divinity is in the flesh, and the flesh is in those who believe, it comes about that in those who believe divinity also exists through the assumed flesh of Christ. Therefore believers have in themselves both the flesh of Christ and through it divinity in themselves, and they are made one, and have a certain unity through Christ by reason of His flesh, and thus are consummated in one, that is, are made perfectly one, since they are united not only among themselves and with God in regard to their souls, which is done through the Holy Spirit, but also in regard to their bodies themselves.
Hence St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter IV, teaches that divine love moves in an orbit and is a circle; namely, because it proceeds from the Father into the Son, thence into the Holy Spirit, and from Him returns to the Father and the Son; for the Holy Spirit is the rational love of the Father and the Son. Again, the love of God is a circle, because from God it reaches out into creatures, especially men and angels, and turns them back to loving God in return and enjoying Him; for God, as He is the efficient cause of love, is likewise its end. For love transfers the lover into the beloved; for the soul is more where it loves than where it animates. "Therefore Paul," says St. Dionysius, "that great one, already captivated by divine love and endowed with its power, which displaces a man from his own state, with divine mouth said: Yet I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me: as a true lover, and, as he himself says, displaced from the state of his mind, he lives to God, not his own life, but that of the Beloved, as one to be greatly loved." And with some things interposed he thus defines love: "that it is a force bringing motion, and leading and bringing things to itself, etc., which first is in the good, and from the good flows forth to the things that exist, and again returns to the good. In this divine love excellently declares itself to be without end and without beginning, as it were a certain perpetual circle, which, with the good as cause, out of the good, in the good, and toward the good, by a conversion free from all error, rolls itself around, and in the same place and in the same respect always both advances and abides and is restored."
Then he proves the same by the authority of St. Hierotheus his master, who says: "Let us understand love — whether divine, angelic, spiritual, or, so to say, animal, or natural — as a certain joining and mingling force, which impels the higher beings to look upon and care for the lower; the equal, to be joined to one another in fellowship; and the lower, to turn themselves to the higher."
Hence the Egyptians also painted God as a kind of circle, but in another respect, namely to signify that He is eternal and without beginning and end, and likewise immense. Whence that saying: "God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and circumference nowhere." The Persians too called Jove the circle of heaven. The Saracens also call God a circle, to represent by it His eternity, as Pierius testifies in his Hieroglyphics, book XXXIX, chapter VII.
But to return to the earlier passage of St. Dionysius, which is proper to this place: the same St. Dionysius, in the same chapter farther on after the beginning, speaking of the sun, which is the express image of God, says: So this one, that is, the sun, is said ἀολλῆ ποιεῖν all things, that is, to gather and bind together what is scattered. And he adds that the beautiful and the good, which is the object and cause of love, is called in Greek καλόν, because it καλεῖ to itself, that is, calls, all things, and gathers them wholly in the whole into itself — which is what Christ here says: "That they may be one as we also are one. I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." For, as the Apostle says, Ephesians IV: "One body and one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling: one God, one faith, one baptism: one God and Father of all." See what is said there. For there Paul warmly commends this union and unity of the faithful.
Tropologically: holy souls strive after perfect union with God and Christ, so that, as it were forgetting other things, they may always have Him before their eyes and busy themselves to please Him in all things and to converse continually with Him in mind; wherefore, as far as is allowed, they withdraw themselves from outward things and inwardly act and converse with Christ. Of this inward union the Reverend Father Bartholomew of the Martyrs, Archbishop of Braga, in his golden Compendium of Spiritual Doctrine, chapter XV, near the end, gives three signs — a work which, after his death, Louis of Granada published, and by whose reading he professes himself to have made great spiritual progress, as I too profess concerning myself.
The first sign is, if the intellect now of itself produces no other thoughts except those which the light of faith stirs up, and the will, exercised by long practice, produces no acts of love except toward God, or in reference to God. The second is, if, as soon as he has left the external occupation on which he was engaged, the intellect and will most easily turn themselves to God, just as a stone, with the obstacle removed, hastens to descend to the center of its rest. The third is, if, when prayer is ended, he so forgets all outward things as if he had never seen or handled them, and so bears himself toward external things as if he were entering the world anew, and dreads afresh to engage with outward business, naturally shrinking from them unless charity compels him: such a soul, free from all external things, easily enters into itself, where it sees God alone and itself in God, and frequently insists upon fervent unitive acts of love.
Now this fervent love begets six effects, as the saints declare. The first is called illumination, that is, a certain savory and experiential thought and knowledge of God and of one's own nothingness; the second, inflammation; the third, sweetness or delight; the fourth, a most ardent desire of possessing divine goods; the fifth, satiety — for the soul is so satisfied by that coming of God that it wills and desires nothing else; the sixth, rapture or a wondrous elevation of the soul into God, in which it cannot be expressed what the soul then feels concerning God. These effects are followed by two others, namely security, by which the soul fears to suffer nothing for God and by which it trusts most firmly that it will never be separated from Him, and full repose, since there is nothing that can strike it with fear — and this is called "the peace that passeth all understanding." This is the Lord's paradise, to which we can ascend while still existing on earth, though we dwell in body among men.
Next he assigns from St. Thomas three means for attaining this union with God and Christ, namely strenuousness of mind, severity, and benignity. Now strenuousness is a certain fortitude of mind which expels all negligence, by which a man is disposed to carry out all good works confidently, vigilantly, and gracefully. Severity is fortitude of mind against concupiscences, restraining them, and bringing along with it an ardent love of austerity, usefulness, and poverty. Benignity is that sweetness of mind which expels all rancor, wrath, envy, austerity, bitterness, and hardness toward one's neighbor. For the soul must first be purged from the dregs of earthly affections before it can tend simply and purely to God. For as it is peculiar and proper to fire, when impediments are removed, to ascend upward and to seek its own place, so souls, released from the weight of evil affections, are wont to be raised up into God, who is their proper place.
ET COGNOSCAT MUNDUS (fideles in mundo) QUIA TU ME MISISTI. — By what shall it know? First, St. Augustine, tract 110, replies that the faithful shall know this in heaven through the beatific vision. But here the literal meaning concerns the knowledge of this life through faith.
Secondly, others reply that they will know this from the glory which, at verse 22, Christ says He has received from the Father and given to the faithful. Hence St. Ambrose, in the passage there cited, understanding by "glory" the filiation of God, thus explains it: The faithful shall know that Thou hast sent me, Thy Son, in the flesh, by reason of the filiation which I communicated to them, adopting them as sons of God; and thence also they shall know that Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved me — me as the natural Son, but them as adoptive.
Thirdly, Cyril, book XI, chapter XXVII, and Hilary, book VIII On the Trinity, and after them Toletus, taking "glory" as the Eucharist, explain it thus, as if to say: From the Eucharist the faithful will know these two things — namely, that I am Thy Son sent by Thee, because they could not otherwise be united with us, except I had divinity in that flesh which I gave them in the Eucharist; and secondly, that Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved me, because the divinity which Thou hast implanted in my flesh, Thou hast given to them, by giving them my flesh in the Eucharist.
Fourthly, more simply Ribera: The world knows this from the holiness and mutual charity of the Apostles, by which it will come to pass that "they may be made perfect in one," as was said before; for, as Chrysostom rightly says in homily 81, the Lord judges concord to be more persuasive than miracles; "and hast loved them," adopting them as sons and making them Apostles, "as Thou hast loved me," when Thou didst beget me as Thy Son and sent me as legate into the world. Christ raises up the spirits of the Apostles to undertake every hardship for Christ's sake, since they see themselves to be most dear to God and like to Christ.
Verse 24: Father, I Will That Where I Am, They Also May Be With Me
24. FATHER, I WILL THAT WHERE I AM, THEY ALSO WHOM THOU HAST GIVEN ME MAY BE WITH ME: THAT THEY MAY SEE MY GLORY WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME: BECAUSE THOU HAST LOVED ME BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. — Christ shows the Apostles, says Chrysostom, what rewards await them after death, so that they may more fully recognize Christ's love toward them and be made stronger; and at the same time, as Cyril says, He wishes to teach that none shall see His glory except those for whom He prayed and who through Him are joined to the Father, and therefore He says: "Whom Thou hast given me."
He therefore says: "I will," that is, I supremely desire and long for, O Father, that the faithful whom Thou hast chosen and given to me may be with me in heaven and there behold the glory, that is the glory, not only of my humanity raised to the right hand of the Father, as St. Augustine and Cyril explain, but also of my divinity; for in the vision of the latter consists our essential beatitude. But then the "because," when He adds, "Because Thou hast loved me," signifies not the cause but the sign of love, as if to say: From the fact that Thou hast loved me from eternity with an infinite love, as from a manifest sign it is gathered that in begetting me Thou hast given me my glory and divinity; for this the Father gave to the Son when He begot Him — begot Him, I say, not out of a free love but out of the natural fecundity of His divinity. Therefore the Father first begot the Son, and then loved Him now begotten of Himself, because He had begotten Him like Himself in all things. So Jansenius.
ANTE CONSTITUTIONEM (id est, ut Arabicus, productionem) MUNDI. — The Syriac: before the foundations of the world were laid; for this is the meaning of the Greek πρὸ καταβολῆς τοῦ κόσμου, for καταβάλλειν is to lay the foundations of a house or building. So St. Jerome, on Ephesians VI. This phrase means that the world is in no part of itself eternal, but — both as to matter and as to form and its other endowments and qualities — was created by God at the beginning of time; for then were the first beginnings of the world.
Verse 25: O Just Father, the World Hath Not Known Thee
25. O JUST FATHER, THE WORLD HATH NOT KNOWN THEE: BUT I HAVE KNOWN THEE: AND THESE HAVE KNOWN THAT THOU HAST SENT ME. — Why does He give the Father the epithet "just"? First, St. Augustine, tract 111, answers that the Father is called just because He has justly deprived the world and unbelievers of the knowledge of Himself; for that God's truth is not revealed to some is His justice, on account of their sins; that it is manifested to others is mercy.
Secondly, Cyril, book XI, chapter 29, thinks the Father is called just because He condemned the devil — who held the world captive, lest it could attain to the immortality for which it was created — and stripped him of his dominion, as was said above. The sense therefore is: "O just Father, the world has not known" this justice of Thine which Thou hast exercised for the world against the devil; had it known it, all would have hastened to Thee.
Thirdly, Toletus holds that the Father is called just because for the Apostles who followed Christ He prepared glory, that is, heavenly glory, which Christ here asked for them, and from which He excluded the unbelieving world. For this recompense of glory is an act of justice, according to 2 Timothy IV: "Which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me."
Fourthly, more plainly and genuinely Ribera refers the word "justly" to what follows: "The world hath not known Thee," etc. For after Christ had asked of the Father sanctification and glory, that is heavenly glory, for the Apostles, now as though exulting in spirit because the Father had predestined such great gifts for the Apostles who follow Christ — gifts which He denied to unbelievers, for example to the Scribes and Pharisees, who blinded by pride refused to follow Christ — He says: "O just Father," as if to say: It is indeed just, O Father, that the proud should be cast off, and that these goods should be given to these little ones. The proud have not known Thee nor worshipped Thee; I have known Thee and loved Thee, and my disciples imitating me have known and loved Thee and have believed in me; to these, because they were not proud, I have given a great knowledge of Thee, and I will give a greater after I shall have risen and sent the Holy Spirit. So from the same cause Christ exulted in spirit, Matthew XI, 25, saying: "I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones."
Verse 26: And I Have Made Known Thy Name to Them
26. AND I HAVE MADE KNOWN THY NAME TO THEM, AND WILL MAKE IT KNOWN (post resurrectionem et missum Spiritum Sanctum, ut dixi): UT DILECTIO, QUA DILEXISTI ME, IN IPSIS SIT, ET EGO IN IPSIS, — namely that the love which Thou hast shown to me and to them for my sake, Thou mayest continue toward them, and show them ever a greater one in very deed, and do them more good day by day, and heap upon them Thy graces and benefits, so that every day they may advance with great strides in holiness and in the apostolic work; and that in this way I may persevere together with Thee in them and cleave to them more closely through Thy grace and charity ever increasing in them. For when God loves rational creatures, He infuses into them the most precious and most divine gift of grace and love, or charity, which He does not do for irrational ones, like the sky, the sun, and the stars, when He loves them — that is, when out of love He creates, adorns, and governs them. This is the meaning of "that the love may be in them"; for, as Paul says: "The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us," Romans V.
Somewhat differently Rupert: That the Holy Spirit, he says, who is Thy love whereby Thou lovest me, may ever be in them and firmly abide. But this comes to the same thing. For the Holy Spirit cannot be separated from charity, any more than fire from heat. Therefore to him to whom charity is given, the Holy Spirit is also given; and so long as charity abides in a man, so long does the Holy Spirit also abide, nay, the whole Holy Trinity, as I said on chapter XIV, verse 23.