Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews

NPNF (V1-14)St. Chrysostom268I am, no man can come,” He addeth, “In My Father’s house are many mansions”; and again, “Noman cometh to the Father but by Me.” This He would not tell them at first, in order not to throwthem into greater despondency, but, now that He hath soothed them, He telleth them. For by Peter’srebuke He cast out 2109 much of their despondency; and dreading lest they should be addressed inthe same way, they were the more restrained. “I am the Way.” This is the proof of the, “No mancometh to the Father but by Me”; 2110 and, “the Truth, and the Life,” of this, “that these things shallsurely be.” “There is then no falsehood with Me, if I am ‘the Truth’; if I am ‘Life’ also, not evendeath shall be able to hinder you from coming to Me. Besides; if I am ‘the Way,’ ye will need noneto lead you by the hand; if I am also ‘the Truth,’ My words are no falsehoods; if I am also ‘Life,’though ye die ye shall obtain what I have told you.” Now His being “the Way,” they both understoodand allowed, but the rest they knew not. They did not indeed venture to say what they knew not.Still they gained great consolation from His being “the Way.” “If,” saith He, “I have sole authorityto bring 2111 to the Father, ye shall surely come thither; for neither is it possible to come by any otherway.” But by saying before, “No man can come to Me except the Father draw him”; and again, “IfI be lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men unto Me” ( c. xii. 32 ); and again, “No mancometh to the Father but by Me” ( c. xiv. 6 ); He showeth Himself equal to Him who begat Him.But how after saying, “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know,” hath He added,Ver. 7 . “If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also; and from henceforth yeknow Him, and have seen Him”?He doth not contradict Himself; they knew Him indeed, but not so as they ought. God theyknew, but the Father not yet. For afterwards, the Spirit having come upon them wrought 2112 in themall knowledge. What He saith is of this kind. “Had ye known My Essence and My Dignity, yewould have known that of the Father also; and henceforth ye shall know Him, and have seen Him,”(the one belonging to the future, the other to the present,) that is, “by Me.” By “sight,” He meanethknowledge by intellectual perception. For those who are seen we may see and not know; but thosewho are known we cannot know and not know. Wherefore He saith, “and ye have seen Him”; justas it saith, “was seen also of Angels.” ( 1 Tim. iii. 16 .) Yet the very Essence was not seen; yet itsaith that He “was seen,” that is, as far as it was possible for them to see. These words are used,that thou mayest learn that 2113 the man who hath seen Him 2114 knoweth Him who begat Him. Butthey beheld Him not in His unveiled Essence, but clothed with flesh. He is wont elsewhere to put“sight” for “knowledge”; as when He saith, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”( Matt. v. 8 .) By “pure,” He meaneth not those who are free from fornication only, but from allsins. For every sin brings filth upon the soul.[3.] Let us then use every means to wipe off the filthiness. But first the font cleanseth, afterwardsother ways also, many and of all kinds. For God, being merciful, hath even after this 2115 given tous various ways of 2116 reconciliation, of all which the first is that by alms-doing. “By alms-deeds,”2109al. “ cast off. ”2110al. “ that is, that ye come by Me. ”2111Κύριος εἰμὶ τοῦ ἄγειν2112κατεσκεύασεν2113al. “ showing that. ”2114the Son.2115after baptism.2116Ben. “ ways of various. ”404