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JOHN i. 11.
"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
1. BELOVED, God being loving towards man and beneficent,
does and contrives all things in order that we may shine in virtue, and
as desiring that we be well approved by Him. And to this end He
draws no one by force or compulsion: but by persuasion and benefits He
draws all that will, and wins them to Himself. Wherefore when He
came, some received Him, and others received Him not. For He will
have no unwilling, no forced domestic, but all of their own will and
choice, and grateful to Him for their service. Men, as needing the
ministry of servants, keep many in that state even against their will,
by the law of ownership; but God, being without wants, and not
standing in need of anything of ours, but doing all only for our
salvation makes us absolute in this matter, and therefore lays neither
force nor compulsion on any of those who are unwilling. For He looks
only to our advantage: and to be drawn unwilling to a service like this
is the same as not serving at all.
"Why then," says one, "does He punish those who will not listen
to Him, and why hath He threatened hell to those who endure not His
commands?" Because, being Good exceedingly, He cares even for
those who obey Him not, and withdraws not from them who start back and
flee from Him. But when we had rejected the first way of His
beneficence, and had refused to come by the path of persuasion and kind
treatment, then He brought in upon us the other way, that of
correction and punishments; most bitter indeed, but still necessary,
when the former is disregarded. Now lawgivers also appoint many and
grievous penalties against offenders, and yet we feel no aversion to
them for this; we even honor them the more on account of the
punishments they have enacted, and because though not needing a single
thing that we have, and often not knowing who they should be that
should enjoy the help afforded by their written laws, they still took
care for the good ordering of our lives, rewarding those who live
virtuously, and checking by punishments the intemperate, and those who
would mar the repose of others. And if we admire and love these men,
ought we not much more to marvel at and love God on account of His so
great care? For the difference between their and His forethought
regarding us is infinite. Unspeakable of a truth are the riches of the
goodness of God, and passing all excess? Consider; "He came to
His own," not for His personal need, (for, as I said, the
Divinity is without wants,) but to do good unto His own people.
Yet not even so did His own receive Him, when He came to His own
for their advantage, but repelled Him, and not this only, but they
even cast Him out of the vineyard, and slew Him. Yet not for this
even did He shut them out from repentance, but granted them, if they
had been willing, after such wickedness as this, to wash off all their
transgressions by faith in Him, and to be made equal to those who had
done no such thing, but are His especial friends. And that I say
not this at random, or for persuasion's sake, all the history of the
blessed Paul loudly declares.
For when he, who after the Cross persecuted Christ, and had stoned
His martyr Stephen by those many hands, repented, and condemned his
former sins, and ran to Him whom he had persecuted, He immediately
enrolled him among His friends, and the chiefest of them, having
appointed him a herald and teacher of all the world, who had been "a
blasphemer, and persecutor, and injurious." (1 Tim. i. 13.)
Even as he rejoicing at the lovingkindness of God, has proclaimed
aloud, and has not been ashamed, but having recorded in his writings,
as on a pillar, the deeds formerly dared by him, has exhibited them to
all; thinking it better that his former life should be placarded in
sight of all, so that the greatness of the free gift of God might
appear, than that he should obscure His ineffable and indescribable
lovingkindness by hesitating to parade before all men his own error.
Wherefore continually he treats of his persecution, his plottings,
his wars against the Church, at one time saying, "I am not meet to
be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God" (1
Cor. xv. 9); at another, "Jesus came into the world to save
sinners, of whom I am chief." (1 Tim. i. 15.) And again,
"Ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews'
religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God,
and wasted it." (Gal. i. 13.)
2. For making as it were a kind of return to Christ for His
longsuffering towards him, by showing who it was, what a hater and
enemy that He saved, he declared with much openness the warfare which
at the first with all zeal he warred against Christ; and with this he
holds forth good hopes to those who despaired of their condition. For
he says, that Christ accepted him, in order that in him first He
"might show forth all longsuffering" (Tim. i. 16), and the
abundant riches of His goodness, "for a pattern to them that should
hereafter believe in Him to life everlasting." Because the things
which they had dared were too great for any pardon which the Evangelist
declaring, said, "He came to His own, and His own received Him
not." Whence came He, who filleth all things, and who is
everywhere present? What place did He empty of His presence, who
holdeth and graspeth all things in His hand? He exchanged not one
place for another; how should He? But by His coming down to us He
effected this. For since, though being in the world, He did not
seem to be there, because He was not yet known, but afterwards
manifested Himself by deigning to take upon Him our flesh he (St.
John) calls this manifestation and descent "a coming." One might
wonder at the disciple who is not ashamed of the dishonor of his
Teacher, but even records the insolence which was used towards Him:
yet this is no small proof of his truth-loving disposition. And
besides, he who feels shame should feel it for those who have offered
an insult, not for the person outraged. Indeed He by this very thing
shone the brighter, as taking, even after the insult, so much care
for those who had offered it; while they appeared ungrateful and
accursed in the eyes of all men, for having rejected Him who came to
bring them so great goods, as hateful to them, and an enemy. And not
only in this were they hurt, but also in not obtaining what they
obtained who received Him. What did these obtain?
Ver. 12. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God," says the Evangelist. "Why then, O
blessed one, dost thou not also tell us the punishment of them who
received Him not? Thou hast said that they were 'His own,' and
that when 'He came to His own, they received Him not'; but what
they shall suffer for this, what punishment they shall undergo, thou
hast not gone on to add. Yet so thou wouldest the more have terrified
them, and have softened the hardness of their insanity by threatening.
Wherefore then hast thou been silent?" "And what other
punishment," he would say, "can be greater than this, that when
power is offered them to become sons of God, they do not become so,
but willingly deprive themselves of such nobility and honor as this?"
Although their punishment shall not even stop at this point, that they
gain no good, but moreover the unquenchable fire shall receive them,
as in going on he has more plainly revealed. But for the present he
speaks of the unutterable goods of those who received Him, and sets
these words in brief before us, saying, "As many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become sons of God." Whether bond or
free, whether Greeks or barbarians or Scythians, unlearned or
learned, female or male, children or old men, in honor or dishonor,
rich or poor, rulers or private persons, all, He saith, are deemed
worthy the same privilege; for faith and the grace of the Spirit,
removing the inequality caused by worldly things, hath moulded all to
one fashion, and stamped them with one impress, the King's. What
can equal this lovingkindness? A king, who is framed of the same clay
with us, does not deign to enrol among the royal host his
fellow-servants, who share the same nature with himself, and in
character often are better than he, if they chance to be slaves; but
the Only-Begotten Son of God did not disdain to reckon among the
company of His children both publicans, sorcerers, and slaves, nay,
men of less repute and greater poverty than these, maimed in body, and
suffering from ten thousand ills. Such is the power of faith in Him,
such the excess of His grace. And as the element of fire, when it
meets with ore from the mine, straightway of earth makes it gold, even
so and much more Baptism makes those who are washed to be of gold
instead of clay; the Spirit at that time falling like fire into our
souls, burning up the "image of the earthy" (1 Cor. xv. 49),
and producing "the image of the heavenly," fresh coined, bright and
glittering, as from the furnace-mould.
Why then did he say not that" He made them sons of God," but that
"He gave them power to become sons of God"? To show that we need
much zeal to keep the image of sonship impressed on us at Baptism, all
through without spot or soils; and at the same time to show that no one
shall be able to take this power from us, unless we are the first to
deprive ourselves of it. For if among men, those who have received
the absolute control of any matters have well-nigh as much power as
those who gave them the charge; much more shall we, who have obtained
such honor from God, be, if we do noth is greater and better than
all. At the same time too he wishes to show, that not even does grace
come upon man irrespectively, but upon those who desire and take pains
for it. For it lies in the power of these to become (His) children
since if they do not themselves first make the choice, the gift does
not come upon them, nor have any effect.
3. Having therefore everywhere excluded compulsion and pointing to
(man's) voluntary choice and free power, he has said the same now.
For even in these mystical blessings, it is, on the one hand,
God's part, to give the grace, on the other, man's to supply
faith; and in after time there needs for what remains much
earnestness. In order to preserve our purity, it is not sufficient
for us merely to have been baptized and to have believed, but we must
if we will continually enjoy this brightness, display a life worthy of
it. This then is God's work in us. To have been born the mystical
Birth, and to have been cleansed from all our former sins, comes from
Baptism; but to remain for the future pure, never again after this to
admit any stain belongs to our own power and diligence. And this is
the reason why he remains us of the manner of the birth, and by
comparison with fleshly pangs shows its excellence, when he says,
Ver. 13. "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, but of God." This he has done, in order that, considering
the vileness, and lowness of the first birth, which is "of blood,"
and "the will of the flesh," and perceiving the highness and
nobleness of the second, which is by grace, we may form from thence
some great opinion of it, and one worthy of the gift of Him who hath
begotten, us, and for the future exhibit much earnestness.
For there is no small fear, lest, having sometime defiled that
beautiful robe by our after sloth and transgressions, we be cast out
from the inner room and bridal chamber, like the five foolish virgins,
or him who had not on a wedding garment. (Matt. xxv.; xxii.) He
too was one of the guests, for he had been invited; but because,
after the invitation and so great an honor, he behaved with insolence
towards Him who had invited him, hear what punishment he suffers, how
pitiable, fit subject for many tears. For when he comes to partake of
that splendid table, not only is he forbidden the least, but bound
hand and foot alike, is carried into outer darkness, to undergo
eternal and endless wailing and gnashing of teeth. Therefore,
beloved, let not us either expect that faith is sufficient to us for
salvation; for if we do not show forth a pure life, but come clothed
with garments unworthy of this blessed calling, nothing. hinders us
from suffering the same as that wretched one, It is strange that He,
who is God and King, is not ashamed of men who are vile, beggars,
and of no repute, but brings even them of the cross ways to that
table; while we manifest so much insensibility, as not even to be made
better by so great an honor, but even after the call remain in our old
wickedness, insolently abusing the unspeakable lovingkindness of Him
who hath called us. For it was not for this that He called us to the
spiritual and awful communion of His mysteries, that we should enter
with our former wickedness; but that, putting off our filthiness, we
should change our raiment to such as becomes those who are entertained
in places. But if we will not act worthily of that calling this no
longer rests with Him who hath honored us, but with ourselves; it is
not He that casts us out from that admirable company of guests, but we
cast out ourselves.
He has done all His part. He has made the marriage, He has
provided the table, He has sent men to call us, has received us when
we came, and honored us with all other honor; but we, when we have
offered insult to Him, to the company, and to the wedding, by our
filthy garments, that is, our impure actions, are then with good
cause cast out. It is to honor the marriage and the guests, that He
drives off those bold and shameless persons; for were He to suffer
those clothed in such a garment, He would seem to be offering insult
to the rest. But may it never be that one, either of us or of other,
find this of Him who has called us! For to this end have all these
things been written before they come to pass, that we, being sobered
by the threats of the Scriptures, may not suffer this disgrace and
punishment to go on to the deed, but stop it at the word only, and
each with bright apparel come to that call; which may it come to pass
that we all enjoy, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom and with whom, to the Father and the Holy
Ghost, be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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