Homily 81 — John 17, verses 6 to 13

“I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” [a]

The Son of God is called “Messenger of great counsel” (Isaiah 9, verse 6, in the Greek Old Testament) because of the other things he taught, and above all because he announced the Father to people. So now too he says, “I have made your name known to the men.” For after saying, “I have finished your work,” he next explains it in detail and tells what kind of work it was. Now the name was certainly well known already. For Isaiah said, “You will swear by the true God” (Isaiah 65, verse 16). But what I have often told you, I tell you now: though it was known, it was known only to the Jews, and not to all of them either. But now he is speaking about the Gentiles. And he declares not only this, but also that they came to know him as the Father. For it is not the same thing to learn that he is Creator and to learn that he has a Son. And he “made his name known” both by words and by actions.

“Whom you gave me out of the world.” Just as he says above, “No one comes to me unless it is given him” (John 6, verse 65), and, “unless my Father draws him” (John 6, verse 44), so here too he says, “whom you gave me.” Now he calls himself “the Way” (John 14, verse 6). From this it is clear that by what he says here he establishes two things: that he is not opposed to the Father, and that it is the Father’s will to entrust them to the Son.

“They were yours, and you gave them to me.” Here he wants to teach that he is greatly loved by the Father. That he had no need to receive them is clear from this: he made them, and he cares for them continually. How, then, did he receive them? As I said before, this shows his oneness of mind with the Father. Now if someone chooses to look into the matter in a human way, taking the words just as they are spoken, the disciples will no longer belong to the Father. For if the Son did not have them while the Father had them, it is plain that when the Father gave them to the Son, he gave up his rule over them. And there is a still more unfitting conclusion: they will turn out to have been imperfect while they were still with the Father, and to have become perfect when they came to the Son. But it is ridiculous even to talk like this. What, then, does he declare by this? That the Father too was pleased that they should believe in the Son.

“And they have kept your word.” Verse 7: “Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you.”

How did they “keep your word”? “By believing in me, and paying no attention to the Jews.” For whoever believes in him, it says, “has set his seal to this, that God is true” (John 3, verse 33).

Some read, “Now I know that everything you have given me is from you.” But that would make no sense, for how could the Son not know the things of the Father? No, the words are spoken about the disciples. He means: “From the time I told them these things, they have learned that everything you have given me is from you. With you nothing is foreign to me, and nothing is mine alone.” (For whatever belongs to one alone puts most things in the position of being foreign.) “So they have come to know that everything I teach is your doctrine and your teaching.” “And where did they learn this?” “From my words, for that is how I taught them. And I have taught them not only this, but also that ‘I came out from you.’” For he was eager to prove this all through the Gospel.

Verse 9: “I pray for them.” “What are you saying? Are you teaching the Father, as though he did not know? Are you speaking to him as to a man who does not know? What, then, does this distinction mean?” Do you see that the prayer is for nothing else than that they may understand the love he has for them? For one who not only gives what he has of his own, but also calls on another to do the same, shows greater love. What, then, does “I pray for them” mean? “Not for the whole world,” he says, but “for those whom you have given me.” He keeps putting in “you have given,” so that they might learn that this is the Father’s pleasure. Then, because he had kept saying, “they are yours,” and, “you gave them to me,” he wanted to remove any bad suspicion, so that no one would think his authority over them was new, or that he had only just received them. What does he say?

Verse 10: “All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I am glorified in them.” [g]

Do you see the equality of honor? When you heard, “You have given them to me,” you might have thought that they had been taken out from under the Father’s authority, or before that, from the Son’s. So that you would not think so, he removed both difficulties by speaking as he did. It was as though he said: “When you hear, ‘You have given them to me,’ do not think that they have been taken away from the Father, for what is mine is his. And when you hear, ‘They were yours,’ do not think that they were strangers to me, for what is his is mine.” So the words “you have given” are said only as a way of stooping down to meet them; for what the Father has is the Son’s, and what the Son has is the Father’s. This cannot be said even of a son among human beings; it is said because they stand on a higher equality of honor. Everyone knows that what belongs to the lesser belongs also to the greater, but not the other way around. Here, though, he turns the terms around, and turning them around declares equality. In another place too, declaring this, he said, “All that the Father has is mine,” speaking of knowledge. And “you have given me” and expressions like it are there to show that he did not come as a stranger and draw them to himself, but received them as his own.

Then he gives the cause and the proof, saying, “And I am glorified in them.” That is, either “I have power over them,” or “they will glorify me, believing in you and in me, and will glorify us alike.” But if he is not glorified equally in them, what is the Father’s is no longer his, for no one is glorified in those over whom he has no authority. Yet how is he glorified equally? All die for him just as they do for the Father; they preach him as they preach the Father; and as they say that all things are done in the Father’s name, so they say it of the name of the Son.

Verse 11: “And now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world.”

That is, “Though I am no longer seen in the flesh, yet I am glorified by these.” But why does he keep saying, “I am not in the world,” and, “because I am leaving them I entrust them to you,” and, “when I was in the world I kept them”? If someone took these words in their plain sense, many absurdities would follow. How could it be reasonable to say that he is no longer in the world, and that when he departs he entrusts them to another? These are the words of a mere man parting from them forever. Do you see how for the most part he speaks like a man, in a way suited to their state of mind, because they thought they were safer while he was with them? That is why he says, “While I was with them, I kept them.” Yet he tells them, “I am coming to you” (John 14, verse 28), and, “I am with you to the end” (Matthew 28, verse 20).

How, then, does he say these words, as though he were about to be parted from them? As I said before, he is speaking to their thoughts, so that they might breathe again a little when they heard him speaking this way and handing them over to the Father’s care. They had heard many words of encouragement from him and still were not persuaded, so he now talks with the Father and shows his affection for them. It is as though he said, “Since you are calling me to yourself, keep these safe, for I am coming to you.” “What are you saying? Are you not able to keep them?” “Yes, I am able.” “Then why do you speak like this?” “So that they may have my joy fulfilled” (verse 13). That is, so that they would not be thrown into confusion, being still imperfect. By these words he showed that he had said all these things in this way to give them rest and joy. For the saying seems contradictory: “Now I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world.” This was what they were suspecting. So for a while he stoops down to meet them, because if he had said, “I keep them,” they would not have believed so readily. That is why he says, “Holy Father, keep them through your own name,” that is, “by your help.”

Verse 12: “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name.” Again he speaks as a man and as a prophet, since nowhere does he appear to have done anything by the name of God.

“Those whom you gave me I have kept, and none of them is lost except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” In another place he says, “Of all that you have given me, I will surely lose nothing” (John 6, verse 39). Yet not only was he lost, but many others afterward. How, then, does he say, “I will by no means lose”? He means: “For my part, I will not lose them.” So in another place, stating the matter more clearly, he said, “I will never cast out” (John 6, verse 37). “Not through any fault of mine, and not because I either push them to it or abandon them. But if they break away of their own accord, I do not draw them by force.”

Verse 13: “But now I am coming to you.” Do you see that the discourse is framed more in a human way? So if anyone wants to use these words to lower the Son, he will lower the Father too. As proof of this, notice how from the beginning he speaks partly as though informing him and explaining, and partly as though giving him a charge. Informing, as when he says, “I do not pray for the world”; giving a charge, as in “I have kept them until now,” and “none of them is lost,” and “so now you keep them,” he says. And again, “They were yours, and you have given them to me,” and “While I was in the world I kept them.” But the answer to it all is that the words were spoken to suit their weakness.

But after saying that “none of them was lost except the son of destruction,” he added, “so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” What Scripture does he mean? The one that foretells many things about him. Not that he perished for that reason, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled. We have spoken at length about this before: it is Scripture’s own way of speaking to present things that turn out as it said as though they happened because of it. So we need to look carefully into everything — the manner of the speaker, his line of argument, and the laws of Scripture — if we mean not to draw wrong conclusions. For, “Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking” (First Corinthians 14, verse 20).

We need to think this over well, not only for understanding the Scriptures but also for being earnest in our way of life. Little children do not desire great things; they are used to admiring things worth nothing. They love to look at chariots and horses, the mule driver and wheels, all made of clay; but if they see a king sitting in a chariot, with a pair of white mules and great splendor, they do not even turn their heads. They dress up dolls made of the same clay as brides, but real brides, actual and beautiful, they do not even notice. It is the same with them in many other things. [k]

Many people go through the same thing now. When they hear about heavenly things, they pay no attention to them at all, but they are as eager as children for everything made of clay. They foolishly admire the wealth of the earth and honor the glory and luxury of the present life. Yet these are toys just as much as those are, while the others are the causes of life and glory and rest. And just as children cry when their toys are taken away, and do not even know how to desire the real things, so too are many of those who seem to be grown men. That is why it says, “Do not be children in your thinking” (First Corinthians 14, verse 20).

Tell me: you desire riches, and yet you do not desire the wealth that lasts, but childish toys? If you saw a man admiring a lead coin and stooping to pick it up, you would say his poverty was extreme. And do you, who collect things more worthless than this, count yourself among the rich? How can that be reasonable? We will call him rich who despises all present things. For no one — no one — will choose to laugh at these little things, silver and gold and the other things of show, unless he desires greater things; just as a man would not despise a lead coin unless he had gold coins. So when you see a man running past all the things of this world, judge that he does it for no other reason than that he looks to a greater world. That is how a farmer despises a few grains of wheat when he expects a larger harvest. But if we despise the things we have when the hope is uncertain, how much more ought we to do so when the expectation is sure?

So I pray and beg you not to bring loss on yourselves, and not to keep hold of mud and so rob yourselves of the treasures above, bringing your ship into port loaded with straw and chaff. Let anyone say what he likes about us; let him be angry at our constant warnings; let him call us silly, tedious, tiresome. Still we will not stop urging you about these things continually, and continually repeating to you the prophet’s words, “Break off your sins by almsgiving, and your wrongdoings by showing mercy to the poor” (Daniel 4, verse 27), and “bind them around your neck.” Do not do this today and give it up tomorrow. Even this body needs daily food; so does the soul, or rather it needs it much more, and if it does not get it, it grows weaker and baser. So let us not neglect it when it is perishing and choking. It receives many wounds every day, from being lustful, angry, lazy, abusive, vengeful, envious. So we must prepare remedies for it as well, and no small remedy is almsgiving, which can be laid on every wound.

For it says, “Give alms of what you have, and look, everything is clean for you” (Luke 11, verse 41). Alms, not greed: what comes from greed does not last, even if you give it to those in need. For almsgiving is what is free of all injustice; this is what makes everything clean. It is better even than fasting or lying on the ground. Those may be more painful and laborious, but this is more profitable. It lights up the soul and makes it sleek, beautiful and strong. The fruit of the olive does not hold athletes up as well as this oil restores those who compete in godliness. So let us anoint our hands, so that we can lift them up well against our adversary.

Whoever practices showing mercy to those in need will soon stop being greedy; whoever keeps on giving to the poor will soon stop being angry, and will never even be proud. A physician who is constantly tending the wounded is easily brought to a sober mind, seeing human nature in the misfortunes of others. In the same way, if we take up the work of helping the poor, we will easily become truly wise. We will not admire riches or think present things anything great, but will despise them all; and soaring up to heaven, we will easily gain the eternal blessings, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be glory forever and ever. Amen.