Sf. m. Iulian din Tars (sec. III). Încheierea sărb. Înălțării Domnului.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- 27:1-8 PAUL EMBARKS FOR ITALY
OVERVIEW: The general remarks of the moderns usually concern the tale of a shipwreck, a common theme in antiquity most often portraying how an evil person is destroyed by the forces of the sea. Luke’s story of Paul’s single-handed triumph over these forces for his own sake and the sake of all his companions is a counterpoint to this, easily understood by his contemporaries. The dangers of the sea also provide tales of great adventure in which the sea is often the primary tool of a vengeful deity’s opposition to the hero’s accomplishment of a desired or fated end.1 Luke makes use of this genre to call attention to Paul the prophet as well as to his faith and the role he plays in bringing about the saving of all who travel with him. Luke thus portrays the role of the Christian in the world. They also ask questions about Luke’s sources of information, usually answered by pointing to the “we sections” of the narrative and to Luke’s memory even after the most probable loss of his notes. The present passage begins the note of foreboding since the winter winds have begun. It also begins a most detailed account of the events on this journey. In contrast to all the lessons derived from this chapter by the ancients, the moderns are quite matter of fact, concentrating on Luke’s portrayal of the role of Paul. Here, our best commentator at this point is Chrysostom. His attention is on the spreading of the gospel in the very situation and circumstances that Paul finds himself. Although Chrysostom never directly notes that now the narrative of Acts has shifted from “the things concerning Jesus the Christ” to “the things concerning Paul,” his own attention is clearly on how Paul is, as it were, a node in an ever-expanding web of connections spreading across the Mediterranean precisely because those who encounter Paul tell Paul’s story. Throughout this chapter it becomes clear that, for Chrysostom at least, the telling of a saint’s life is the telling of the work of Christ’s in the world. Eusebius recounts the martyrdom of James as an event that occurred in consequence. In this first section, we have a passage from Eusebius who gives, as it were, a footnote to the events of Acts 27. Chrysostom will constantly be drawing our attention to some of the minor characters of this chapter, and here, the first is Aristarchus, who will become for Paul what Paul has become for Christ. For Chrysostom, all of this incident of the voyage serves to spread the gospel; he further points out that the ordinary course is the most usual not just for humans but for God as well, as even Paul’s tumultuous journey demonstrates.
27:9-12 PAUL PREDICTS A SHIPWRECK
OVERVIEW: Paul’s first prophetic message is set aside under pressure from those who have most to gain financially from a continued voyage. Chrysostom’s remarks begin to focus on three things. First he is attentive to the circumstances, that Paul being a prisoner will not be trusted immediately and that he must little by little earn their trust. Second, he pays attention to the course of events as laying a foundation for the trust of Julius the centurion. Third, he sees God working through the authorities in control, namely, Julius, who must be won over to Paul in order for the events to fall out properly. Here, Ammonius enters with a matter that was of no small concern to early Christian teachers by countering the idea that our lives are determined by fate and that there is no such thing as free will.
27:13-20 THE SHIP CAUGHT IN A STORM
OVERVIEW: After a detailed and nautically exact account of the storm, Luke notes that “all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned,” thereby seemingly including himself. This remark is meant to set the stage for Paul’s words which follow. The banks of Syrtis were notoriously dangerous. Hence Bede attempts to explain how an anchor could prevent a ship from capsizing in a storm at sea. Chrysostom brings us back to the course of the narrative, the role the events play in turning the minds of Paul’s fellow passengers.
27:21-26 PAUL COMFORTS THOSE ON BOARD
OVERVIEW: Paul the prophet now speaks quoting the words of an angel who refers to Paul’s commission from Jesus, which will not be set aside (note the “must”) and states the fact that all who sail with Paul have been given to him, that is, put under his spiritual protection. Paul concludes with his declaration of faith and a final detail of his prophecy. Here the Fathers speak of how God uses the instrumentality of creatures to establish Christ’s grace in the world. Bede sees the noisy waters of the sea as signifying the grace that is in Paul. Origen’s comment, somewhat tangential, nonetheless draws our attention to those above humans, the angels, whose ordering corresponds to the ordering of human souls “according to the dispensation of Christ.”
Jerome, Chrysostom and Ammonius all bring out a similar concern, but they also give closer attention to the events of the narrative. Jerome points to the unequal merit of those saved as analogous to the difference between Lot and Zoar, reminding us that God hears the prayers of a righteous person. Chrysostom turns Jerome’s external perspective to an internal one. Chrysostom is aware of Paul’s certainty as portrayed in the text, and so he reflects on the course of events through Paul’s awareness of his responsibility to his fellow travelers, as a realization that he has a duty not just to appear in Rome but also to bring them to trust in him for their own safety and salvation. Ammonius’s comments bear resemblance to those of Chrysostom and Jerome. They begin with a quotation and refutation of a line from Homer’s Iliad. His refutation focuses, somewhat like Jerome, on how the impious are spared for the sake of the just one. By the end, however, Ammonius has given a hint that the events of Acts 27 can be read as a type of the holy man’s role who, like the father of the possessed boy in Mark, as mother/midwife brings nonbelievers to a new birth, through the stormy waters (of baptism) in Christ. He does this in the last lines that allude to the words of the distraught father in Mark 9 and to Elizabeth’s words to Mary that blessed is the one who believed that what had been foretold would come to pass. Ammonius suggests that merit is the burden of being pregnant with faith that must bear fruit in the transformed lives of others, a merit lost should faith be betrayed by not being passed on. So what Chrysostom portrays as being the consciousness of Paul, Ammonius suggests is to be the consciousness of all Christians.
27:27-32 THEY NEAR LAND
OVERVIEW: Paul learns of the sailors’ treachery and once again, in his prophetic authority, he warns the centurion of the consequences of letting the sailors abandon the ship. His authority has grown so that now the centurion listens to him. The Fathers here are concerned to explain the differing motives of the various characters in this episode. Bede sees in the soldiers’ obedience a sign of division on the ship: the sailors with more experience than the soldiers can see no way out of the predicament. Chrysostom sees the differing actions as evidence of belief or disbelief in what Paul has said. As will become clear later,1 this disbelief is taken as evidence of diabolical action, and so Paul’s efforts to prevent their attempted escape are in fact a battle against the devil’s attempts to foil Paul’s prophecy and thus his credibility. Ammonius continues with his argument against fate; his interpretation of how the soldiers acted, which is almost that of Chrysostom’s, sees their motive as flowing from the realization that their predicament was their own responsibility and that Paul’s words, which the outcome confirmed, had made this evident to them.
27:33-38 PAUL ENCOURAGES ALL TO EAT
OVERVIEW: Another prophetic message and gesture was Paul’s effort to take care of those who were “given to” him. Because of certain terms in the account of the meal, some commentators wonder if Luke intends this to be a eucharistic sharing. This is most unlikely. As one commentator says, this is not a meal of thanksgiving but one of hope. For the Fathers, however, the ecclesial parallel is in some ways inevitable. First, because some of these comments emerge within the church, in homilies or in commentaries designed to aid in the preparation of homilies. Second, Ammonius has already hinted at the baptismal nature of their journey, which was the doorway to full participation in the communion of the body of Christ.1 Chrysostom does not go so far as to see the meal as a Eucharist, and yet he is explicit that Paul’s role mirrors the lessons of the church, where we enter to be taught, through participation in Christ, true knowledge of the world around us as a hopeful place of passing and beneficial hardship. This knowledge comes through the testing even of the one who bestows it. The irony is that the centurion who was free needed his prisoner who was in chains, and the pilot needed one who was not a pilot. Bede draws the parallel that no one escapes the tempests of this world except those nourished by the bread of life.
Arator makes an explicit connection between the Passover of Exodus, celebrated on the fourteenth day of the first month of the Jewish calendar, Christ’s final meal and crucifixion and Paul’s meal here. Ammonius, however, keeps the event narrated a simple meal that Paul uses to initiate his companions into piety but that opens up to what is done in church.
27:39-44 THE SHIP IS LOST
OVERVIEW: The last act in the shipwreck drama is here recorded. Julius, the centurion, now wishes to save Paul and stops the soldiers, who wish to protect themselves from the charge of losing the prisoners, from killing them. The last line of the passage points out the fulfillment of Paul’s prophetic words. In this final event of Acts 27, Bede carries on his concern to illustrate truths of the life of the soul in its struggle here against the trials and temptations of the world. Chrysostom, as usual, respects the course of the narrative and completes his analysis of the transformation of Paul from condemned prisoner to savior of the group of travelers. Chrysostom frames this transformation in terms of revelation, a coming to knowledge of the identity of Paul.
Comment to the Gosspel according to St John:
17:20-26 PRAYER FOR ALL BELIEVERS: UNITY
OVERVIEW: In Christ’s prayer for the unity of all who believe, we see not only an exhortation for unity in the church (CYPRIAN) but also look forward to the time when humanity is restored to the unity it once had with God (ORIGEN). This is a unity not of nature, however, but according to grace (JEROME). Jesus speaks here of a unity of will that binds us together (HILARY). The unity of the church is modeled on that of the Trinity (JEROME, AMBROSE). When believers are united in faith and confession, they are enabled by God’s grace to become one even as our Lord is able to bring unity from diversity through participation in the Spirit and his gifts (CYRIL). When there is peace and unity, it is a powerful witness to the world (CHRYSOSTOM).
Christ both received and gave glory as he took on human nature so that it might be exalted, and thus we receive his glory (ATHANASIUS). The Father bestowed his glory on the Son and through the Son onto us (HILARY) by means of the Spirit, who is the glory that binds us together; this glory Christ later bestowed on his disciples so that they might be one (GREGORY OF NYSSA). This glory may also be understood as Christ’s immortality, which human nature would afterward receive from him (AUGUSTINE). He also speaks of the perfect oneness we have with him and the Father, a oneness achieved as he unites himself to us in the sacrament (CYRIL). As we are cleansed from the sin that separates us, we become fused together by the Spirit into our one mediator Jesus Christ (AUGUSTINE). The result is that the Father loves us as he sees in us the likeness of his own Son and so calls us his sons and daughters by adoption (AMBROSE), but loves us like his own Son (CYRIL). When we look on the Son of God, we are glorified by that sight just as those who look on the bright beams of the sun on a clear day rejoice in its rays (CHRYSOSTOM).
Christ prays to his Father that we may be where he is. Our concern should not be about where Christ resides but that we be found where he is (AUGUSTINE). When we are fully united with him in that age that is yet to come, everything we feel, understand, think or do will be wholly of God, since there will no longer be any evil to corrupt these things (ORIGEN). Christ allows us to share in his glory for our benefit, not his (IRENAEUS). It is a glory we look forward to as we struggle under present-day persecution (CYPRIAN). Jesus here expresses his frustration with the world’s ignorance (CHRYSOSTOM) of this future glory that is ours because of his descent to be among us to restore our human nature (CYRIL). Christ made his Father’s name known to the world and is counting on us to continue making his name known through our actions of love (CHRYSOSTOM), which are in us because we are in Christ, even as he is in us (AUGUSTINE).
17:18 I Send Them into the World
SANCTIFIED FROM SIN, NOW SENT. AUGUSTINE: But now he still goes on to speak of the apostles, for he proceeds to add, “As you have sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” Whom did he send in this way but his apostles? For even the very name of apostles, which is a Greek word, signifies in Latin nothing more than, those that are sent. God, therefore, sent his Son, not in sinful flesh but in the likeness of sinful flesh.36 And his Son sent those who (born themselves in sinful flesh) were sanctified by him from the defilement of sin. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.4.37
THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT FOR MISSION. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The participation in the Spirit will not only give them the power to be freed from evil but will make them so strong that they will travel throughout the world and preach as I have preached. COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.17.18.38
17:19 For Their Sakes, I Sanctify Myself
DISCIPLES EMPOWERED THROUGH CHRIST’S PASSION. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: [Christ says], “The reason I bring myself to the passion is so that through me they may obtain the sanctification that comes through the Spirit, and be sanctified and be empowered to preach the truth, being certain of the hope of the resurrection.” He says that he sanctifies himself because, after the passion, he would hurry to heaven along with his own body and be in holiness.39 COMMENTARY ON JOHN 6.17.19.40
CHRIST OFFERS HIMSELF OR HIS DISCIPLES AS A SACRIFICE. CHRYSOSTOM: What does he mean by “I sanctify myself”? He means, “I offer to you a sacrifice.” Now all sacrifices are called “holy.” But those that are specially called “holy” are reserved for God. In [Old Testament times], sanctification was typologically indicated by the sheep. But now it is not in type but in truth itself. Therefore he says, “That they may be sanctified in your truth.” “For I both dedicate them to you and make them an offering.” He says this either because the disciples’ Head was being made so, or because they too would be sacrificed. For it says elsewhere, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy,”41 and “We were counted as sheep for the slaughter.”42 And he makes them a sacrifice and offering apart from death. For it is clear from what follows that he was alluding to his own sacrifice when he said, “I sanctify.” HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.1.43
HIS CONSECRATION MEANS OUR CONSECRATION. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Christ called down on us the ancient gift of humanity,44 that is, sanctification through the Spirit and communion with the divine nature, his disciples being the first to receive it. For the saying is true that the hard-working farmer ought to have the first share of the crops.45 But, in order for him to have preeminence46 in this-for it is fitting that … he is seen as the beginning and the gate and the way of every good thing for us-he is inspired to add what follows, namely, the words “for their sake I consecrate myself.” COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.10.47
THE MEMBERS SANCTIFIED IN THE HEAD. AUGUSTINE: But since, on the ground that the Mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus, has become head of the church, they are his members. Therefore he says in the words that follow, “And for their sakes I sanctify myself.” For what does he mean by the words “and for their sakes I sanctify myself” but I sanctify them in myself, since they also are myself? For those of whom he speaks in this way are, as I have said, his members. And the head and body are one Christ.48 … And to be assured of the certainty of this in the present passage, listen to what follows. For after saying, “and for their sakes I sanctify myself”-to let us understand that he thereby meant that he would sanctify them in himself-he immediately added, “that they also may be sanctified in the truth.” And what else is this but in me, in accordance with the fact that the truth is that Word in the beginning that is God? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 108.5.49
CHRIST IS SANCTIFIED AND SANCTIFIES. AMBROSE: Let us pay attention to the distinction of the Godhead from the flesh. In each there speaks one and the same Son of God, for each nature is present in him. And yet, while it is the same person who speaks, he does not always speak in the same way. At one time you see in him the glory of God, at another time human characteristics. As God he speaks the things of God because he is the Word. As man he speaks in a human way because he speaks in my nature.… Even the letter itself [here] teaches us that it is not the Godhead but the flesh that needed sanctification. For the Lord himself said, “And I sanctify myself for them,” in order that you may acknowledge that he is both sanctified in the flesh for us and sanctifies by virtue of his divinity. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 2.9.77-78.
17:20 Prayer of Unity for All Who Believe
CALL FOR UNITY. CYPRIAN: The Lord’s loving-kindness, no less than his mercy, is great in respect of our salvation in that, not content to redeem us with his blood, he in addition prayed for us. See now what the desire of his petition was, that just as the Father and Son are one, so also we should abide in absolute unity. From this, it may be evident how greatly someone sins who divides unity and peace, since even the Lord himself petitioned for this same thing. He no doubt desired that his people should in this way be saved and live in peace since he knew that discord cannot come into the kingdom of God. THE LORD’S PRAYER 30.1
IN THE FUTURE, THE WORLD RESTORED TO INITIAL UNITY. ORIGEN: I am of the opinion, so far as I can see, that this order of the human race has been appointed in order that in the future world-or in ages to come, when there shall be the new heavens and new earth spoken of by Isaiah2-that unity may be restored that was promised by the Lord Jesus in his prayer to God the Father on behalf of his disciples.3 And this is further confirmed by the language of the apostle Paul: “Until we all come in the unity of the faith to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”4 And in keeping with this is the declaration of the same apostle when he exhorts us-who even in the present life are placed in the church, which is a form of that kingdom that is to come-to this same similitude of unity, “That you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you. But that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”5 ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.6.2.6
AS CHRIST IS LOVED, SO WE ARE LOVED AND UNITED. JEROME: He reminds us that the whole Christian people are one in God, and, as his well-beloved children, are “partakers of the divine nature.”7 We have already said (and the truth must now be inculcated more in detail) that we are not one in the Father and the Son according to nature but according to grace. For the essence of the human soul and the essence of God are not the same, as the Manichaeans constantly assert. But, says our Lord, “You have loved them as you have loved me.” You see, then, that we are privileged to partake of his essence, not in the realm of nature but of grace. And the reason why we are beloved of the Father is that he has loved the Son-and the members of the body are loved.8 AGAINST JOVINIANUS 2.29.9
17:21a That They May All Be One
UNITY OF WILL MAKES US ONE. HILARY OF POITIERS: [This passage] shows that since human beings cannot, so to speak, be fused back into God or themselves coalesce into one undistinguished mass, this oneness must arise from unity of will, as all perform actions pleasing to God and unite with one another in the harmonious agreement of their thoughts. Therefore, it is not nature that makes them one but will. ON THE TRINITY 8.5.10
THE CHURCH ASSEMBLY IS ONE IN MANY. JEROME: “As we are Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God,” [Jesus might say], “so may they be one people in themselves, that is, like dear children and partakers of the divine nature.” Call the church what you will-bride, sister, mother-its assembly is but one and never lacks husband, brother or son. [The church’s] faith is one, and it is not defiled by variety of doctrine or divided by heresies. [The church] continues a virgin. Wherever the Lamb goes, it follows him. It alone knows the song of Christ. AGAINST JOVINIANUS 2.19.11
OUR UNITY AND THE GODHEAD’S UNITY COMPARED. AMBROSE: No separation, then, is to be made of the Word from God the Father, no separation in power, no separation in wisdom because of the unity of the divine substance. Again, God the Father is in the Son, as we often times find it written, yet not as sanctifying one who lacks sanctification or as filling a void, for the power of God knows no void. Nor, again, is the power of the one increased by the power of the other, for there are not two powers but one power. Nor does Godhead entertain Godhead, for there are not two Godheads but one Godhead. We … shall be one in Christ through power received [from another] and dwelling in us. The letter12 [of the unity] is common, but the substance of God and the substance of humanity are different. We shall be one. The Father and the Son [already] are one. We shall be one by grace; the Son is so by substance. Again, unity by conjunction is one thing, unity by nature another. Finally, observe what it is that Scripture has already recorded: “That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.” Now notice that he did not say, “You in us, and we in you” but “You in me, and I in you.” In this way he sets himself apart from his creatures. Further, he added “that they also may be in us,” in order to separate here his dignity and his Father’s dignity from us so that our union in the Father and the Son may appear the result not of nature but of grace, while the unity of the Father and the Son is the Son’s, not by grace but by natural right of sonship. ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 4.3.36-38.13
UNITY FROM DIVERSITY IN GOD. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Our Lord Jesus Christ did not pray for the twelve apostles alone. He prayed for all who were destined in every age to yield to and obey the words that call them to be holy by believing and to be purified through participation in the Holy Spirit.… “May they all be one,” he prayed. “As you Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us.” … The only Son shines out from the very substance of the Father and possesses the Father completely in his own nature. He became man, according to the Scriptures, blending himself, so to speak, with our nature by an inexplicable union with an earthly body.… In himself he somehow united totally disparate natures to make us sharers in the divine nature.
The communion and abiding presence of the Spirit has passed even to ourselves. This was experienced first through Christ and in Christ when he was seen to have become like us, that is, a human being anointed and sanctified. By nature, however, he was God, for he proceeded from the Father. It was with his own Spirit that he sanctified the temple of his body and also, in a way befitting it, the world of his creation. Through the mystery of Christ, then, sharing in the Holy Spirit and union with God has become possible also for us, for we are all sanctified in him.
By his own wisdom and the Father’s counsel he devised a way of bringing us all together and blending us into a unity with God and one another, even though the differences between us give us each in both body and soul a separate identity. For in Holy Communion he blesses with one body, which is his own, those who believe in him, and he makes them one body with himself and one another. Who could separate those who are united to Christ through that one sacred body or destroy their true union with one another? If “we all share one loaf,” we all become one body, for Christ cannot be divided.
So it is that the church is the body of Christ, and we are its members. For since we are all united to Christ through his sacred body, having received that one indivisible body into our own, our members are not our own but his. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.11.14
17:21b The World Will Believe You Sent Me
PEACE IN UNITY IS A WITNESS. CHRYSOSTOM: This is similar to what he said earlier, “By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”15 And how will they believe this? “Because,” he says, “you are a God of peace.” And, if therefore the [disciples] keep that same peace that they have learned [from me], their hearers will know the teacher by the disciples. But if they quarrel, people will deny that they are the disciples of a God of peace and will not allow that I, not being peaceable, have been sent from you. Do you see how he proves his unanimity with the Father to the very end? HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.2.16
17:22 The Glory That Unifies
HE ASKED FOR GLORY BECAUSE OF US. ATHANASIUS: What advantage then was it for the immortal to have assumed the mortal? Or what improvement17 does the everlasting one get by putting on the temporal? How great can any reward be for the everlasting God and King in the bosom of the Father? Don’t you see that this too was done and written because of us and for us? The Lord became man for us, we who are mortal and temporal, so that he might make us immortal and bring us into the everlasting kingdom of heaven.… It is not the Word then (viewed as the Word) that is improved. For he had all things and has them always. But it is the human race, which has its origin18 in him and through him, that is the one who receives the improvement. For when he is now said to be anointed according to human terms, it is we who in him are anointed, since also when he is baptized, it is we who in him are baptized. But on all these things the Savior throws significant light when he says to the Father, “And the glory that you gave me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one.” Because of us, then, he asked for glory. And the words “took” and “gave” and “highly exalted” occur so that we might take, and to us might be given and we might be exalted in him. He also sanctifies himself for us so that we might be sanctified in him. DISCOURSES AGAINST THE ARIANS 1.12.48.19
ALL ARE ONE IN THE GLORY OF THE FATHER. HILARY OF POITIERS: Now I ask whether glory is identical with will, since will is an emotion of the mind while glory is an ornament or embellishment of nature. So then, it is the glory received from the Father that the Son has given to all who shall believe in him, and certainly not will. Had will been given, faith would carry with it no reward, for a necessity of will attached to us would also impose faith on us. However, he has shown what is effected by the bestowal of the glory received: “that they may be one, even as we are one.” It is then with this object that the received glory was bestowed, that all might be one. So now all are one in glory, because the glory given is none other than that which was received; nor has it been given for any other reason than that all should be one. And since all are one through the glory given to the Son and by the Son bestowed on believers, I ask how the Son can be of a different glory from the Father’s, since the glory of the Son brings all that believe into the unity of the Father’s glory. Now it may be that the utterance of human hope in this case may be somewhat immoderate, yet it will not be contrary to faith. For though to hope for this were presumptuous, yet not to have believed it is sinful, for we have one and the same author both of our hope and of our faith. ON THE TRINITY 8.12.20
THE GLORY THAT UNIFIES IS THE HOLY SPIRIT. GREGORY OF NYSSA: In giving “all power” to his disciples by his blessing, in his prayer here to the Father he grants many other favors to those who are holy. And he adds this, which is the crown of all blessings, that in all the diversity of life’s decisions they should never be divided greatly in their choice of the good. And so he prays that all “may be one,” united in a single good so that linked “in the bond of peace,”21 as the apostle says, through “the unity of the [Holy] Spirit,” all might become “one body and one spirit,” through the “one hope” to which they have all been called.
But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”22 And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples. HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 15.23
THE GLORY OF IMMORTALITY IS GIVEN. AUGUSTINE: “And the glory that you gave me, I have given them.” And what was that glory but immortality, which human nature was afterward to receive in him? For not even he himself had as yet received it, but in his own customary way, because predestination is so absolutely inflexible, he intimates what is future in verbs of the past tense. He does this because he is now on the point of being glorified, or in other words, raised up again by the Father, knowing that he himself is going to raise us up to the same glory in the end. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 110.3.24
17:23 Perfect Oneness Evidences Love to the World
THE SANCTIFICATION OF HUMAN NATURE. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The Son dwells in us in a corporeal sense as man, commingled and united with us by the mystery of the Eucharist. And also [he dwells with us] in a spiritual sense as God, by the effectual working and grace of his own Spirit, building up our spirit into newness of life and making us partakers of his divine nature. Christ, then, is seen to be the bond of union between us and God the Father. He is seen as human, making us, as it were, his branches,25 and is seen as God because he is by nature inherent in his own Father. For in no other way could that nature which is subject to corruption be elevated to incorruption, except by the coming down to it of that nature that is high above all corruption and changeability.… We have, therefore, been made perfect in unity with God the Father, through the mediation of Christ. For by receiving in ourselves (both in a corporeal and spiritual sense, as I said just now) him who is the Son by nature and who has essential union with the Father, we have been glorified and become partakers in the nature of the Most High. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 11.12.26
CLEANSED, WE BECOME ONE. AUGUSTINE: He did not say, “I and they are one,”27 although inasmuch as he is the head of the church and the church is his body,28 he could not only say, “I and they are one but also one person,”29 because the head and the body are the one Christ. But when he reveals that his own Godhead is consubstantial with the Father (for which reason he also says in another place, “I and the Father are one”30), then it is rather his will that his own in their own kind, that is to say, in the consubstantial equality of the same nature, should be one, but be one in him. For they could not be one in themselves, since they were separated from one another by conflicting inclinations, desires and unclean sins. They are, therefore, purified through the Mediator, in order that they may be one in him. And indeed [they are one] not only through the same nature in which all mortals become equal to the angels, but also [they are one] by the same will working together most harmoniously toward the same blessedness, and [they are] fused together in some way by the fire of charity into one spirit. ON THE TRINITY 4.9.12.31
CAN WE BE LOVED BY GOD AS THE SON IS? AMBROSE: There are some … who in their desire to deny the unity of the divine substance try to make light of the love of the Father and the Son, because it is written, “You have loved them, as you have loved me.” But when they say this, what else do they do but adopt a likeness of comparison between the Son of God and human beings? Can we indeed be loved by God as the Son is, in whom the Father is well-pleased?32 The Son is well-pleasing in himself; we are well-pleasing through him. For those in whom God sees his own Son after his own likeness, he admits through his Son into the favor of sons [children]. As we go through likeness unto likeness, in the same way, we are called to adoption through the generation of the Son. The eternal love of God’s nature is one thing; that of grace is another. And if they start a debate on the words that are written, “And you have loved them, as you have loved me,” and think a comparison is intended, they must think that the following also was said by way of comparison, “Be merciful, as your Father who is in heaven is merciful.”33 It is also elsewhere said, “Be perfect, as my Father who is in heaven is perfect.”34 But if he is perfect in the fullness of his glory, we are but perfect according to the growth of virtue within us. The Son also is loved by the Father according to the fullness of a love that always remains in him, but in us growth in grace merits the love of God. You see, then, how God has given grace to humankind, and do you want to separate the natural and indivisible love of the Father and the Son? And do you still strive to make nothing of words, where you note the mention of a unity of majesty? ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 5.7.88-91.35