Homily 8 — John 1, verses 9 and 10

“That was the true Light, which gives light to every person who comes into the world.” [a]

Nothing prevents us from taking up the same words again today, since last time the setting out of doctrine kept us from considering everything that was read. Where now are those who deny that he is true God? For here he is called “the true Light,” and elsewhere “the Truth” itself and “the Life” itself (John 14, verse 6). We will discuss that saying more clearly when we come to the place. For the present we must speak to your love for a while about that other matter.

If he “gives light to every person who comes into the world,” how is it that so many remain without light? For not everyone has known the majesty of Christ. How, then, does he “give light to every person”? He gives light to all, as far as it depends on him. But if some deliberately close the eyes of their mind and will not receive the rays of that Light, their darkness does not come from the nature of the Light. It comes from their own wickedness, since they deliberately deprive themselves of the gift.

For grace is poured out on all. It turns back from no one — not Jew, not Greek, not barbarian, not Scythian, not free, not slave, not male, not female, not old, not young. It admits all alike and invites all with equal regard. Those who are not willing to enjoy this gift have only themselves to blame for their blindness, and that is just. For if the gate is opened to all and no one stands in the way, and someone out of deliberate wickedness stays outside, he perishes through no one else, but only through his own wickedness.

Verse 10: “He was in the world.”

But not as though he were no older than the world. Perish the thought! That is why he adds, “And the world was made by him,” leading you up once again to the eternal existence of the only Son. For anyone who has heard that this universe is his work — however dull he may be, however much he hates the glory of God and sets himself against it — will certainly be forced to admit, willing or not, that the maker comes before his works.

That is why I never stop being amazed at the madness of Paul of Samosata, who dared to stare so plain a truth in the face and then threw himself over the cliff of his own accord. For he did not go wrong out of ignorance but with full knowledge, in the same position as the Jews. They had their eyes on people and gave up sound faith: they knew that he was the only Son of God, but would not confess him because of their rulers, for fear of being put out of the synagogue. In the same way, it is said, Paul sold his own salvation to please a certain woman.

A powerful thing, powerful indeed, is the tyranny of empty glory. It can blind the eyes even of the wise, unless they keep sober. If taking gifts can do this, how much more will this passion, which is more violent still! That is why Jesus said to the Jews, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from God alone?” (John 5, verse 44).

“And the world did not know him.” By “the world” he here means the crowd — corrupt, clinging to earthly things, the common people, restless and foolish. For the friends of God, the ones he favored, all knew him, even before his coming in the flesh. Of the patriarch Christ himself speaks by name: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8, verse 56). And of David, refuting the Jews, he said, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand’?” (Matthew 22, verse 43; Mark 12, verse 36; Luke 20, verse 42).

In many places, too, when he argues with them, he mentions Moses; and the apostle speaks of the rest of the prophets. For Peter declares that all the prophets from Samuel on knew him and proclaimed his coming long beforehand, when he says, “All the prophets from Samuel and those who came after, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days” (Acts 3, verse 24). As for Jacob, and his father, and his grandfather too, he appeared to them and talked with them, and promised to give them many great blessings, which he also brought to pass.

Someone says: “How, then, did he himself say, ‘Many prophets have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them’? (Luke 10, verse 24). Did they not share, then, in the knowledge of him?” Of course they did. And I will try to make this plain from this very saying, which some think deprives them of it. “For many,” he says, “have desired to see the things that you see.” So they knew that he would come to men from heaven, and would live and teach as he did live and teach. If they had not known it, they could not have desired it, since no one can feel desire for things he has no idea of. So they knew the Son of Man, and that he would come among men.

What, then, are the things they did not hear? What are the things they did not know? The things you now see and hear. For even if they heard his voice and saw him, it was not in the flesh, not among men, not while he was living with them so familiarly and talking with them so openly. And to show this, he did not simply say “to see me,” but what? “The things that you see.” Nor did he say “to hear me,” but what? “The things that you hear.” So even if they did not see his coming in the flesh, they still knew that it would happen. They desired it, and they believed in him without having seen him in the flesh.

So when the Greeks bring charges like these against us, and say, “What was Christ doing in earlier times, that he did not look after the human race? And for what possible reason did he come only at the last to help with our salvation, after neglecting us for so long?” we will answer that before this he was in the world, and cared for his works, and was known to all who were worthy. But suppose you say that because not everyone knew him then — because he was known only to those noble and excellent people — he was therefore not acknowledged at all. By that reasoning you will not allow that he is worshiped even now, since even now not everyone knows him. But just as today no one refuses to believe those who know him because of those who do not, so with the times before, we must not doubt that he was known to many — or rather, to all of those noble and admirable people.

And if anyone says, “Why did not everyone pay attention to him? Why did not everyone worship him, but only the righteous?” I too will ask: why does not everyone know him even now? But why do I speak of Christ, when not everyone knew his Father then, or knows him now? Some say that everything is carried along by chance, while others hand over the governing of the universe to demons. Others invent another God besides him. And some blasphemously claim that he is a hostile power, and think that his laws are the laws of an evil demon. [h]

What then? Will we say that he is not God because there are some who say so? And will we confess that he is evil, because there are some who blaspheme him that way too? Away with such wandering of mind, such utter insanity! If we were to draw up our doctrines by the judgment of madmen, nothing would stop us from going mad ourselves with the worst madness of all.

No one looks at people with weak eyes and declares that the sun is harmful to the eyes. He says that it is made to give light, and he draws his judgment from people who are healthy. And no one calls honey bitter because it tastes that way to the sick. Will anyone, then, decide from the fancies of people sick in mind that God either does not exist, or is evil, or that he sometimes exercises his care over the world and sometimes does not at all? Who could say that such people are in their right mind? Who could deny that they are out of their senses, raving, utterly mad?

“The world,” he says, “did not know him”; but those of whom the world was not worthy did know him. And having spoken of those who did not know him, he briefly gives the reason for their ignorance. For he does not say outright that no one knew him, but that “the world did not know him” — that is, those who are, so to speak, nailed to the world alone, and whose minds are on the things of the world. That is how Christ used to speak of them, as when he says, “Holy Father, the world has not known you” (John 17, verse 25). So the world did not know him, nor his Father either, as we have said. For nothing darkens the mind so much as clinging to the things of the present.

Knowing this, then, take yourselves out of the world, and tear yourselves away from the things of the flesh as far as you can. For the loss you suffer from them is not in ordinary matters, but in the chief of all goods. The man who clings tightly to the things of this present life cannot really lay hold of the things in heaven; whoever is eager for the one must lose the other. “You cannot,” he says, “serve God and Mammon” (Matthew 6, verse 24), for you must hold to the one and hate the other.

Experience itself proclaims this loudly. Those who laugh at the lust for money, for example, are above all the ones who love God as they ought; just as those who bow to the rule of Mammon are, more than anyone, the ones whose love for him is slackest. For once greed has made a soul its captive, that soul will not easily or readily refuse to do or say anything that angers God, since it is the slave of another master — one whose every command is the direct opposite of God’s.

Come back to your senses at last, then, and rouse yourselves. Let us remember whose servants we are, and love his kingdom alone. Let us weep, let us wail over the times past when we were servants of Mammon. Let us throw off his unbearable, heavy yoke once and for all, and go on carrying the light and easy yoke of Christ. For Christ lays no commands on us like Mammon’s. Mammon tells us to be enemies to everyone; Christ, on the contrary, tells us to embrace and love everyone.

The one nails us to the clay and the brickmaking — for that is what gold is — and does not let us catch our breath even at night. The other sets us free from this excessive and senseless worry, and tells us to gather treasures in heaven, not by wronging others, but by our own righteousness. The one, after all our toil and suffering, cannot help us when we are punished in that place and suffer because of his laws; no, he makes the flame fiercer. The other, though he commands us to give no more than a cup of cold water, never lets us lose our reward and recompense even for that, but repays us in great abundance.

How, then, is it not the height of folly to despise a rule so gentle and so full of every good thing, and to serve a thankless, ungrateful tyrant, who can help those who obey and listen to him neither in this world nor in the world to come? And this is not the only dreadful thing, nor the only penalty — that he does not defend them when they are being punished. Besides this, as I said before, he surrounds those who obey him with countless evils. For among those who are punished in that place, you can see that most are punished for this reason: they were slaves to money, they loved gold, and they would not help those in need.

So that we may not be in that state, let us scatter, let us give to the poor. Let us set our souls free from harmful worries in this world, and from the punishment appointed for us in that place because of them. Let us store up righteousness in the heavens. Instead of riches on earth, let us gather treasures that cannot be plundered — treasures that can go with us on our journey to heaven, stand by us in our danger, and make the Judge favorable to us in that hour. May we all find him gracious to us, both now and on that day, and enjoy with great confidence the good things prepared in the heavens for those who love him as they ought, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be glory to the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.