Church Fathers Commentary John 14

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord consoles His disciples, who, as men, would be naturally alarmed and troubled at the idea of His death, by assuring them of His divinity: Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. This would not follow unless Christ were God, for they must believe in Him if they believe in God. You are in fear for this form of a servant; let not your heart be troubled, for the form of God will raise it up.

St. John Chrysostom: Faith in Me and in the Father who begot Me is more powerful than anything that will come upon you, and it will prevail in spite of all difficulties. He also shows His divinity by discerning their inward feelings, saying, Let not your heart be troubled.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The disciples were afraid for themselves, especially after Peter, the boldest and most zealous of them, had been told, The rooster will not crow until you have denied Me three times. To reassure them in their trouble, Jesus adds, In My Father’s house are many mansions. This was an assurance that, after all their trials, they could confidently and certainly look forward to dwelling with Christ in the presence of God.

For although one person is bolder, wiser, more just, or holier than another, no one will be removed from that house of God. Instead, each will receive a mansion suited to their merits. The penny that the householder paid to the laborers in his vineyard was the same for all, because eternal life, which this penny signifies, is of the same duration for everyone. Yet, there can be many mansions—many degrees of dignity—in that one life, corresponding to each person's merits.

St. Gregory the Great: The many mansions are consistent with the one penny because, although one may rejoice more than another, all rejoice with the same joy that arises from the vision of their Maker.

St. Augustine of Hippo: And so God will be all in all. Since God is love, love will bring it about that what each person has will be common to all. For that which one loves in another becomes one's own, even if one does not possess it oneself. And then there will be no envy of superior grace, for the unity of love will reign in all hearts.

St. Gregory the Great: Nor is there any sense of deficiency because of this inequality, for each will feel that they have as much as is sufficient for them.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Christians, however, reject the teaching of those who infer from the "many mansions" that there is a happy place outside the kingdom of heaven for innocent souls who have departed this life without baptism and thus could not enter it. God forbid that, when every dwelling of every heir of the kingdom is in the kingdom, a part of the royal house itself should not be in the kingdom! Our Lord does not say, "In eternal bliss there are many mansions," but that they are in My Father’s house.

St. John Chrysostom: Alternatively, our Lord had said to Peter, Where I am going, you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow Me afterward. So that the other disciples would not think this promise was made only to Peter, He says, In My Father’s house are many mansions. This means, "You will be admitted into that place, as well as Peter, for it contains an abundance of mansions ready to receive you." He continues, If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He evidently means that there are already many mansions and that there is no need for Him to prepare one.

St. John Chrysostom: Having said, you cannot follow Me now, so that they would not think they were cut off forever, He adds, And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. This was a recommendation for them to place the strongest trust in Him.

Theophylact of Ohrid: He says, If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. It is as if He said, "Either way, you should not be troubled, whether places are prepared for you or not. For if they are not prepared, I will very quickly prepare them."

St. Augustine of Hippo: But why does He go to prepare a place if there are already many mansions? Because these mansions are not yet prepared in the way they will be. The same mansions He has prepared by predestination, He now prepares by His work. They are already prepared in terms of predestination; if they were not, He would have said, "I will go and prepare"—that is, predestine—"a place for you." But since they are not yet prepared in terms of His work, He says, And if I go and prepare a place for you.

He is now preparing these mansions by preparing the occupants for them. Indeed, when He says, In My Father’s house are many mansions, what should we think the house of God is, if not the temple of God? As the Apostle says, The temple of God is holy, and you are that temple (1 Corinthians 3:17). This house of God, then, is now being built and prepared.

But why has He gone away to prepare it, if it is we ourselves whom He prepares? If He leaves us, how can He prepare us? The meaning is this: for those mansions to be prepared, the just must live by faith. But where there is sight, there is no faith. Let Him go away, then, so that He is not seen; let Him be hidden, so that He may be believed. A place is prepared if you live by faith. Let faith desire, so that desire may enjoy. If you understand Him correctly, He never leaves the place He came from or the place He goes to. He goes when He withdraws from sight; He comes when He appears. But unless He remains with us in power so that we may grow in goodness, no place of happiness will be prepared for us.

Alcuin of York: He says, then, "I go" by the absence of the flesh, and "I will come again" by the presence of the Godhead, or, "I will come again to judge the living and the dead." And since He knew they would ask where He went or by what way, He adds, And where I go you know, and the way you know—that is, you know I go to the Father, and you know the way is Myself.

St. John Chrysostom: He shows them that He is aware of their curiosity to know His meaning, and thus encourages them to press Him with questions.

St. John Chrysostom: If the Jews, who wanted to be separated from Christ, asked where He was going, all the more would the disciples, who never wanted to be separated from Him, be anxious to know. So with great love and, at the same time, fear, they proceeded to ask. Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"

St. Augustine of Hippo: Our Lord had said that they knew both, yet Thomas says that they knew neither. Our Lord cannot lie; they simply did not know that they knew. Our Lord proves that they did when Jesus said to Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

It is as if He said, "I am the way by which you must go; I am the truth to which you must go; I am the life in which you must abide." Everyone understands "the truth" and "the life," but not everyone has found the way. Even the world's philosophers have seen that God is eternal life and the truth that is the goal of all knowledge. But the Word of God, who is truth and life with the Father, has become the way by taking on human nature. Walk by the Man, and you will arrive at God. For it is better to limp on the right way than to walk confidently on the wrong one.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For He who is the way does not lead us astray; He who is the truth does not deceive us with lies; and He who is the life does not leave us in the darkness of death.

Theophylact of Ohrid: When you are engaged in practical matters, He becomes your way; when you are engaged in contemplation, He becomes your truth. And to both the active and the contemplative, life is joined, for we should both act and contemplate in light of the world to come.

St. Augustine of Hippo: They knew the way, then, because they knew He was the way. But why was it necessary to add "the truth, and the life"? Because they still had to be told where He was going. He was going to the truth; He was going to the life. He went, then, to Himself, by Himself.

But did you leave Yourself, O Lord, to come to us? I know that you took upon yourself the form of a servant. Through the flesh you came while remaining where you were; through the flesh you returned while remaining where you had come. If by this, then, you came and returned, by this you were the way—not only for us to come to you, but also for yourself to come and to return again.

And when you went to life—which is Yourself—you raised that same flesh of yours from death to life. Christ, therefore, went to life when His flesh rose from death to life. And since the Word is life, Christ went to Himself, for Christ is both in one person: that is, Word-flesh.

Again, through the flesh God came to men, the Truth to liars—for God is true, but every man a liar. When, then, He withdrew Himself from humanity and lifted up His flesh to that place where no liar is, He returned by the same way He came. The same Christ, who as the Word became flesh, returned by Himself—that is, by His flesh—to the Truth, which is Himself. This is the truth that He maintained even to death while among liars.

Consider this: if I make you understand what I am saying, in a certain sense I go out to you, even though I do not leave myself. And when I stop speaking, I return to myself, but I remain with you if you remember what you have heard. If the image that God has made can do this, how much more can the Image that God has begotten?

Thus, He goes by Himself to Himself and to the Father, and we go by Him to Him and to the Father.

St. John Chrysostom: For, He says, if you have Me for your guide to the Father, you will certainly come to Him. Nor can you come by any other way. Whereas He had said before, No man can come to Me, except the Father draw him, He now says, No man comes to the Father but by Me, thus showing He is equal to the Father.

The next words explain this: Where I go you know, and the way you know. He says, If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; that is, if you had known My substance and dignity, you would have known the Father’s. They did know Him, but not as they should have. It was not until later, when the Spirit came, that they were fully enlightened. For this reason He adds, And from now on you do know Him and have seen Him—meaning you know Him spiritually and have seen Him through Me, for whoever has seen Him has seen the Father. They saw Him, however, not in His pure substance but clothed in flesh.

The Venerable Bede: How can our Lord say, If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also, when He has just said, Where I go you know, and the way you know? We must suppose that some of them knew and others did not, with Thomas being among the latter.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: Or, to put it another way: When it is said that the Son is the way to the Father, does this mean He is the way through His teaching or through His nature? We can see the answer in what follows: If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. In His incarnation, by asserting His divinity, He maintained a certain order of sight and knowledge, separating the time of seeing from the time of knowing. He speaks of the One who must be known as having already been seen, so that from this revelation onward, they might gain knowledge of the divine nature that they had been seeing in Him all along.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: A declaration so new startled Philip. Our Lord is seen to be a man. He confesses Himself to be the Son of God and declares that if He were known, the Father would be known; that if He is seen, the Father is seen. The Apostle’s familiarity, therefore, breaks forth into questioning our Lord. Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us.” He did not deny that the Father could be seen, but wished for Him to be shown; nor did he wish to see with his bodily eyes, but that the One whom he had not seen might be revealed to his understanding.

He had seen the Son in the form of a man, but he did not know how he saw the Father through that form. This is what he wants to be shown to him—shown to his understanding, not set before his eyes—and then he will be satisfied: “and that is enough for us.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: For to that joy of beholding His face, nothing can be added. Philip understood this and said, “Lord, show us the Father, and that is enough for us.” But he did not yet understand that he could have said the same thing this way: “Lord, show us Yourself, and that is enough for us.” But our Lord’s answer enlightens him. Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet have you not known Me, Philip?”

But how can this be, when our Lord said that they knew where He was going, and the way, because they knew Him? The question is easily settled by supposing that some of them knew, and others did not; Philip was among the latter.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: He reproves Philip’s ignorance in this respect. For while His actions had been strictly divine—such as walking on the water, commanding the winds, forgiving sins, and raising the dead—He complained that the Divine nature was not discerned in His assumed humanity. Accordingly, to Philip’s request to be shown the Father, our Lord answers, “He that has seen Me, has seen the Father.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: When two people are very much alike, we say, “If you have seen one, you have seen the other.” So here, “He that has seen Me, has seen the Father”; not that He is both the Father and the Son, but that the Son is an absolute likeness of the Father.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: He does not mean sight with the bodily eye, for His fleshly part, born of the Virgin, does not help in contemplating the form and image of God in Him. Rather, when the Son of God is known with the understanding, it follows that the Father is also known, since the Son is the image of God, not differing from but expressing His Author.

For our Lord’s expressions do not speak of one solitary person without relationship, but teach us of His birth. The title “Father” also excludes the idea of a single, solitary person and leaves us no other doctrine but that the Father is seen in the Son by the incommunicable likeness of their shared nature.

St. Augustine of Hippo: But should someone be reproved who, having seen the likeness, wishes to see the person of whom he is the likeness? No, our Lord rebuked the question only with reference to the mindset of the one who asked. Philip asked as if the Father were better than the Son, and in doing so, showed that he did not know the Son. Our Lord corrects this opinion: “Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” It is as if He said, “If you have a great wish to see the Father, at least believe what you do not see.”

St. Hilary of Poitiers: For what excuse was there for ignorance of the Father, or what need was there to show Him, when the Father was seen in the Son by His essential nature? By the identity of their unity, the Begotten and the Begetter are one: “Believe you not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?”

St. Augustine of Hippo: He wished him to live by faith before he had sight, and therefore says, “Believe you not?” Spiritual vision is the reward of faith, vouchsafed to minds purified by faith.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, not by a joining of two harmonizing essences, nor by one nature grafted into a more spacious substance as in material bodies, where it is impossible for what is inside to be made external to what contains it. Instead, it is by the birth of a nature that is life from life, since from God nothing but God can be born.

The unchangeable God follows, so to speak, His own nature by begetting unchangeable God. Nor does the perfect birth of unchangeable God from unchangeable God forsake His own nature. We understand, then, the nature of God subsisting in Him, since God is in God; nor can any other be God apart from Him who is God.

St. John Chrysostom: Or consider this: Philip, because he thought he had seen the Son with his bodily eye, wished to see the Father in the same way. Perhaps he was also remembering what the Prophet said, “I saw the Lord” (Isaiah 6:1), and for that reason he says, “Show us the Father.” The Jews had asked who His Father was, and Peter and Thomas asked where He went, and neither was told plainly. Philip, therefore, so that he might not seem burdensome, after saying, “Show us the Father,” adds, “and that is enough for us,” meaning, “we seek for no more.”

In reply, our Lord does not say that he asked for an impossible thing, but that he had not truly seen the Son to begin with; for if he had seen Him, he would have seen the Father: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known Me?” He does not say, “not seen Me,” but, “not known Me,” meaning, not known that the Son, being what the Father is, properly shows the Father in Himself. Then, distinguishing the Persons, He says, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father,” so that no one might maintain that He was both the Father and the Son.

These words also show that even the Son was not seen in a merely bodily sense. So if anyone takes “seeing” here to mean “knowing,” I will not contradict him, but will take the sentence as if it were, “He that has known Me, has known the Father.” Here He shows His consubstantiality with the Father: “He that has seen My substance, has seen the Father’s.” From this it is evident He is not a creature, for all know and see the creature, but not all know God—Philip, for instance, wished to see the substance of the Father. If Christ, then, had been of another substance from the Father, He would never have said, “He that has seen Me, has seen the Father.” A person cannot see the substance of gold in silver; one nature cannot be made apparent by another.

St. Augustine of Hippo: He then addresses all of them, not Philip only: “The word that I speak to you, I speak not of Myself.” What does “I speak not of Myself” mean, but that “I who speak am not from Myself”? He attributes what He does to Him from whom He Himself, the doer, is.

St. Hilary of Poitiers: In this, He neither presents Himself as a solitary Son, nor hides the existence of His Father’s power in Him. When He speaks, it is He Himself who speaks in His own person; when He speaks not of Himself, He testifies to His divine birth, that He is God from God.

St. John Chrysostom: Mark the abundant proof of the unity of substance. For He continues, “But the Father that dwells in Me, He does the works.” It is as if He said, “My Father and I act together, not differently from each other,” which agrees with what He said elsewhere: “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not.” But why does He pass from words to works? Why does He not say, as we might have expected, “He speaks the words”? Because He means to apply what He says to both His doctrine and His miracles, or because His words are themselves works.

St. Augustine of Hippo: For one who edifies his neighbor by speaking does a good work. These two sentences are used against us by different sects of heretics: the Arians, who say that the Son is unequal to the Father because He does not speak of Himself; and the Sabellians, who say that the same one who is the Father is also the Son. For what is meant, they ask, by “The Father that dwells in Me, He does the works,” but “I who dwell in Myself do these works”?

St. Hilary of Poitiers: That the Father dwells in the Son shows that He is not single or solitary; that the Father works by the Son shows that He is not different or alien. As He is not solitary who does not speak from Himself, so neither is He alien and separable who works through Him. Having shown, then, that the Father spoke and worked in Him, He formally states this union: “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me,” so that they might not think that the Father works and speaks in the Son as through a mere agent or instrument, and not by the unity of nature implied in His Divine birth.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Before, Philip alone was reproved.

St. John Chrysostom: But if this is not enough to show my consubstantiality, at least learn it from My works: “Or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” You have seen My miracles and all the proper signs of My divinity—works which the Father alone does, such as sins forgiven, life restored, and the like.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Believe then for My works’ sake, that “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me”; for, were we separated, we could not be working together.

St. John Chrysostom: Having said, "Believe for the works’ sake," our Lord goes on to declare that He can do much greater things than these and, what is more wonderful, give others the power to perform them. "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and he will do greater works than these."

St. Augustine of Hippo: But what are these greater works? Is it that the shadow of the apostles, as they passed by, healed the sick? It is indeed a greater thing for a shadow to heal than for the border of a garment to do so.

Nevertheless, by "works" here, our Lord refers to His words. For when He says, "My Father who dwells in Me, He does the works," what are these works but the words which He spoke? And the fruit of those words was their faith. But these were only a few converts in comparison with the number the disciples made afterward by their preaching; they converted the Gentiles to the faith.

Did not the rich man go away sorrowful from His words? And yet what one man did not do at His own exhortation, many did afterward when He preached through the disciples. He did greater works when preached by believers than when speaking to people's ears. Still, He did these greater works through His apostles, yet He includes others besides them when He says, "He who believes in Me."

Are we not to count anyone among the believers in Christ who does not do greater works than Christ? This sounds harsh if not explained. The Apostle says, "To him who believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5). By this work, then, we will do the works of Christ, for the very act of believing in Christ is the work of Christ. He works this in us, though not without us.

Pay attention, then: "He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also." First I do them, then he will do them; I do them so that he may do them. What works are these but this: that a person, from being a sinner, becomes just? This is the thing Christ works in us, though not without us. In truth, I call this a greater work than to create the heavens and the earth, for heaven and earth will pass away, but the salvation and justification of the predestined will remain.

However, the angels in heaven are the work of Christ. Shall he who works with Christ for his own justification do greater works even than these? Let anyone judge which is the greater work: to create the just, or to justify the ungodly? At least, if both are of equal power, the latter has more mercy.

But it is not necessary to understand this to mean all the works of Christ when He says, "greater works than these he will do." "These" perhaps refers to the works He had done that hour. He had just been instructing them in the faith. And surely it is a lesser work to preach righteousness, which He did without us, than to justify the ungodly, which He does in us in such a way that we also do it ourselves. Truly, our Lord promised great things to His people when He went to His Father: "Because I go to My Father."

St. John Chrysostom: That is, "I will not perish, but will remain in My proper dignity, in heaven." Or He means, "From now on, it is your part to work miracles, since I am going."

St. Augustine of Hippo: And so that no one might attribute the merit to himself, He shows that even those greater works were His own doing: "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do." Before, it was, "He will do"; now, "I will do." It is as if He said, "Do not let this appear impossible to you. He who believes in Me will not be greater than I; but I will do greater works then than now—greater through him who believes in Me than now by Myself. This will not be a failure, but a condescension."

St. John Chrysostom: "In My name," He says. Thus the apostles said, "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk." All the miracles that they did, He did; the hand of the Lord was with them.

Theophylact of Ohrid: This is an explanation of the doctrine of miracles. It is by prayer and the invocation of His name that a person is able to work miracles.

St. Augustine of Hippo: "Whatever you ask." Then why do we often see believers asking and not receiving? Perhaps it is that they ask amiss. When a person would make a bad use of what he asks for, God in His mercy does not grant it.

Still, if God in His kindness often refuses the requests of believers, how are we to understand, "Whatever you ask in My name, I will do"? Was this said to the apostles only? No. He says above, "He who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also." And if we go to the lives of the apostles themselves, we will find that he who labored more than they all prayed that the messenger of Satan might depart from him, but was not granted his request.

But pay attention: does not our Lord lay down a certain condition? "In My name," which is Christ Jesus. Christ signifies "King," and Jesus signifies "Savior." Therefore, whatever we ask for that would hinder our salvation, we do not ask in our Savior’s name. And yet He is our Savior not only when He does what we ask, but also when He does not. When He sees us ask for anything to the disadvantage of our salvation, He shows Himself to be our Savior by not doing it.

The physician knows whether what the sick person asks for is to the advantage or disadvantage of his health; he does not allow what would be to his hurt, though the sick person desires it, but looks instead to his final cure. And some things we may even ask in His name, and He will not grant them to us at the time, though He will at some time. What we ask for is deferred, not denied.

He adds, "that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The Son does not do anything without the Father, inasmuch as He does it so that the Father may be glorified in Him.

St. John Chrysostom: For when the great power of the Son is manifested, He who begot Him is glorified. He introduces this last to confirm the truth of what He has said.

Theophylact of Ohrid: Observe the order in which the glorifying of the Father comes. In the name of Jesus, miracles were done, by which people were made to believe the apostles’ preaching. This brought them to the knowledge of the Father, and thus the Father was glorified in the Son.

St. John Chrysostom: After our Lord said, Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, He added, If you love Me, keep My commandments, so that the disciples would not think that simply asking was enough. His meaning seems to be, “And then I will do what you ask.”

Alternatively, when the disciples heard Him say, “I go to the Father,” they were troubled. He tells them that to love Him is not to be troubled, but to keep His commandments. This is true love: to obey and believe in the one who is loved. Since they had expressed a strong desire for His physical presence, He assures them that His absence will be supplied in another way: And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter.

St. Augustine of Hippo: In this, He also shows that He Himself is a Comforter. “Paraclete” means advocate, and it is applied to Christ: We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).

Alcuin of York: Paraclete means Comforter. The disciples had one Comforter, Christ, who comforted and uplifted them by the sweetness of His miracles and His preaching. DIDYMUS. But the Holy Spirit was another Comforter, differing not in nature, but in operation.

For while our Savior, in His office of Mediator, Messenger, and High Priest, made supplication for our sins, the Holy Spirit is a Comforter in another sense, by consoling our griefs. But do not infer a difference of nature from the different operations of the Son and the Spirit. For in other places we find the Holy Spirit performing the office of intercessor with the Father, as in, The Spirit Himself intercedes for us. The Savior, on the other hand, also pours consolation into hearts that need it, as in Maccabees: He strengthened those of the people that were brought low (1 Maccabees 14:15).

St. John Chrysostom: He says, I will ask the Father, in order to make them believe Him, for they might not have done so if He had simply said, “I will send.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: Yet to show that His works are inseparable from His Father’s, He says later, When I go, I will send Him to you.

St. John Chrysostom: But what more did He have than the Apostles if He could only ask the Father to give others the Spirit? The Apostles often did this, even without praying.

Alcuin of York: He says, I will ask, speaking from His humanity, in which He is inferior, and He says, “My Father,” with whom He is equal and consubstantial in respect to His divine nature.

St. John Chrysostom: He says, That He may abide with you for ever, meaning the Spirit does not depart even at death. He also intimates that the Holy Ghost will not suffer death or go away, as Christ has done.

So that the mention of the Comforter would not lead them to expect another incarnation—a Comforter who could be seen with their eyes—He adds, Even the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him.

St. Augustine of Hippo: This is the Holy Ghost in the Trinity, who the universal faith professes to be consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son.

St. John Chrysostom: He calls Him the Spirit of truth because He reveals the figures of the Old Testament. By “the world,” He means the wicked. By “seeing,” He means certain knowledge, since sight is the most certain of the senses.

The Venerable Bede: Note also that when He calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth, He shows that the Holy Spirit is His own Spirit. Then, when He says the Spirit is given by the Father, He declares Him to be the Spirit of the Father also. Thus the Holy Ghost proceeds from both the Father and the Son.

St. Gregory the Great: The Holy Spirit kindles in everyone in whom He dwells the desire for things invisible. Since worldly minds love only visible things, the world does not receive Him, because it does not rise to the love of things invisible. To the extent that worldly minds expand with the spread of their desires, they become narrower in their capacity to receive Christ.

St. Augustine of Hippo: Thus “the world,” meaning the lovers of the world, cannot receive the Holy Spirit; that is to say, unrighteousness cannot be righteous. The world cannot receive Him because it does not see Him. The love of the world does not have the invisible eyes with which to see what can only be seen invisibly.

It follows: But you know Him, for He dwells with you. And so that they would not think this meant a visible dwelling, like that of a guest, He adds, And shall be in you.

St. John Chrysostom: It is as if He said, “He will not dwell with you as I have done, but will dwell in your very souls.”

St. Augustine of Hippo: To be “in” a place is prior to dwelling there. “To be in you” is the explanation of “to dwell with you,” showing that the latter means not that He is seen, but that He is known. He must be in us so that the knowledge of Him may be in us. Therefore, we perceive the Holy Ghost in us, in our consciences.

St. Gregory the Great: But if the Holy Spirit abides in the disciples, how is it a special mark of the Mediator that the Spirit abides in Him? We can better understand if we distinguish between the different gifts of the Spirit. In respect to those gifts without which we cannot attain salvation, the Holy Spirit always abides in all the elect.

But in respect to those gifts which relate not to our own salvation but to procuring the salvation of others, He does not always abide in them. For He sometimes withdraws His miraculous gifts so that His grace may be held with humility. Christ, however, has the Spirit without measure and always.

St. John Chrysostom: This statement, at one stroke, refutes opposite heresies. The word “another” shows the distinct personality of the Spirit, while the word “Paraclete” shows His consubstantiality.

St. Augustine of Hippo: The Apostle applies the title of the Holy Spirit, “Comforter,” to God: God that comforts those that are cast down, comforted us. Therefore, the Holy Spirit who comforts those that are cast down is God. Or if some still claim the Apostle said this of the Father or the Son, they should no longer separate the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son in His unique office of comforting.

But if it is true that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us (Romans 5:5), how can we love and keep the commandments of Christ in order to receive the Spirit, when we are not able to love or keep them unless we have already received the Spirit? Does love come first in us? That is, do we love Christ and keep His commandments so as to deserve to receive the Holy Spirit? This is a perverse opinion, for he who does not love the Father does not love the Son, no matter what he thinks.

The correct understanding is that he who loves already has the Holy Spirit. By having Him, he comes to have more of Him; and by having more of Him, he comes to love more. The disciples already had the Spirit whom our Lord promised, but they were to be given more of Him. They had Him secretly; they were to receive Him openly. The promise is made both to the one who has the Spirit and to the one who does not. For the one who already has Him, it is a promise of more; for the one who does not yet have Him, it is a promise that he will receive Him.

St. John Chrysostom: When He had cleansed His disciples by the sacrifice of His passion, their sins were forgiven, and they were sent out into dangers and trials, it was necessary that they should receive the Holy Spirit abundantly. But they were made to wait for this gift so that they might feel their need for it and thus be more grateful for it when it came.