Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 13:33-35

"Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." — John 13:33-35 (ASV)

1. Above, our Lord spoke of the glory he would acquire by his leaving. Here, he is telling them that he will leave them.

   He does this in three parts:

   1. He foretells his leaving.
   2. He shows that his disciples were not yet fit to follow him: you will seek me.
   3. He shows how they can become fit: a new commandment I give to you.

2. He briefly foretells his coming departure, saying, little children, yet a little while I am with you. He uses the words of a parent to his children all the more to inflame their love, for it is when friends are about to leave each other that they especially glow with love: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end (John 13:1). He says, little children, to show their imperfection, for they were not yet perfectly children, because they did not yet perfectly love. They were not yet perfect in charity: my little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19). Still, they had grown somewhat in perfection, because from slaves they became little children, as he calls them here, and brethren: go to my brethren and say to them (John 20:17).

3. We should note that the expression, yet a little while, can be explained in three ways, according to the three ways Christ is present to his disciples.

   1. Christ was present to his disciples in body. His body can be considered in two ways. First, we can view it as having the characteristics that belong to human nature, for Christ had a mortal body, just as others do. In this case, a little while is understood as the time between these words and his death. Thus, the sense is: yet a little while I am with you, meaning, a little time remains until I am taken and die, and then I will rise and be immortal, even in body: Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him (Romans 6:9); these are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you (Luke 24:44).
   2. He was with them in body, but a body that was already glorified. In this case, a little while indicates the time that intervened until his ascension: a little while, and you will not see me; again a little while, and you will see me: because I go to the Father (John 16:16); once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land (Haggai 2:6).
   3. It can be explained as applying to the spiritual presence of Christ—his presence in his divinity and in the sacraments. In this case, a little while is taken to mean the time that would intervene until the end of the world. This is a little while in comparison with eternity: children it is the last hour (1 John 2:18). The meaning then is: yet a little while I am with you; that is, although I will leave you in body, I am still spiritually with you for a little while which remains before the end of the world: I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matthew 28:20).

   Yet this last explanation is not appropriate for the presence of Christ in his divinity, for he will be with them not only to the end of the world but for all eternity. For this reason, Origen explains it another way. He says that Christ is always with the perfect, who do not sin in a serious way, but he is not always present to the imperfect, because when they sin he withdraws from them. Soon, the disciples would leave Christ, fall away, and abandon him: you will all fall away because of me this night (Matthew 26:31). And so, Christ spiritually withdrew from them. In reference to this he says, yet a little while I am with you, that is, in a little while you will leave and abandon me, and then I will not be with you.

4. Next, he mentions their inability to follow him. First, he notes their effort, you will seek me, whom you have spiritually abandoned by your flight and denials. You will seek me, I say, by your repentance, as Peter did, who wept bitterly: seek the Lord while he may be found (Isaiah 55:6); in their distress they seek me (Hosea 5:15). Or, you will seek me, meaning you will want me to be present in body: the days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it (Luke 17:22).

   Second, he shows their weakness, saying, as I said to the Jews: where I am going you cannot come; I say to you now. Yet this was said differently to the two groups. To some of the Jews, who would never be converted, it was said absolutely that they could not go where Christ was going. But now that Judas has gone, none of the remaining disciples would be separated from Christ. To them he did not say absolutely, you cannot come, but added, I say to you now.

   It is as if he said: “I told the Jews, that is, the obstinate among them, that they could never come. But I say to you, that for now, you cannot follow me, because you are not perfect enough in charity to want to die for me, for I will leave you by dying. Similarly, I will go to the glory of the Father, to which no one can go unless they are perfect in charity. Furthermore, I am glorified now, as was said, now is the Son of man glorified (John 13:31), but now is not the time for your bodies to be glorified. Therefore, where I go you cannot come.”

5. Then, he teaches them how they can become fit to follow him: a new commandment I give to you.

   He does this first by mentioning the special character of this commandment, and second, by showing why they should live up to it: by this will all men know that you are my disciples. The special character of the commandment involves three aspects, which will be explained next: its newness, its meaning, and its standard.

6. The feature of this commandment he emphasizes is its newness. Thus he says, a new commandment.

   But did not the Old Law have a commandment about the love of one’s neighbor? It did, for when Christ was asked by a lawyer which was the greatest commandment, he replied, you shall love the Lord your God, and continued, you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37). This is found in Leviticus: you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18).

   Nevertheless, there are three special reasons why this commandment is said to be new:

   1. It is new because of the renewal it produces: you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator (Colossians 3:9). This newness is from charity, the charity to which Christ urges us.
   2. It is new because of the cause that produces this renewal: a new spirit. There are two spirits, the old and the new. The old spirit is the spirit of slavery; the new is the Spirit of love. The first produces slaves; the second, children by adoption: for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship (Romans 8:15); a new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you (Ezekiel 36:26). The Spirit sets us on fire with love because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
   3. It is a new commandment because of the effect it established: a New Covenant. The difference between the New and the Old Covenant is that between love and fear: I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel (Jeremiah 31:31). Under the Old Covenant, this commandment was observed through fear; under the New Covenant, it is observed through love. Therefore, this commandment was in the Old Law, not as characteristic of it, but as a preparation for the New Law.

7. The meaning of the commandment is mutual love; thus he says: that you love one another. It is of the very nature of friendship that it is not unperceived; otherwise, it would not be friendship, but merely goodwill. For a true and firm friendship, the friends need a mutual love for each other, for this mutuality makes it true and firm. Our Lord, desiring perfect friendship among his faithful and disciples, gave them this command of mutual love: whoever fears the Lord directs his friendship aright .

8. The standard for this mutual love is given when he says, as I have loved you.

   Christ loved us in three ways: gratuitously, effectively, and rightly.

   1. He loved us gratuitously because he began to love us and did not wait for us to begin to love him: not that we loved God, but that he loved us (1 John 4:10). In the same way, we should first love our neighbors and not wait to be loved by them or for them to do us a favor.
   2. Christ loved us effectively, which is obvious from what he did, for love is proven by one's actions. The greatest thing a person can do for a friend is to give his life for that friend. This is what Christ did: Christ loved us and gave himself up for us (Ephesians 5:2). So we read: greater love has no one than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). We also should be led by this example and love one another effectively and fruitfully: let us not love in word or in speech but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18).
   3. Christ also loved us rightly. Since all friendship is based on some kind of sharing (for similarity is a cause of love), that friendship is right which is based on a similarity or a sharing in some good. Christ loved us as being similar to himself by the grace of adoption, loving us according to this similarity in order to draw us to God: I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving-kindness (Jeremiah 31:3). We also, in the one we love, should love what pertains to God and not so much the pleasure or benefits the loved one gives to us. In this kind of love for our neighbor, the love of God is also included.

9. Then when he says, by this will all men know that you are my disciples, he gives the reason for following this command.

   Here we should note that one who is in the army of a king should wear his emblem. The emblem of Christ is the emblem of charity. Therefore, anyone who wants to be in the army of Christ should be stamped with the emblem of charity. This is what he is saying here: by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. He means a holy love: I am the mother of beautiful love and of fear and of knowledge and of holy hope .

   Although the apostles received many gifts from Christ—such as life, intelligence, and good health, as well as spiritual gifts like the ability to perform miracles (I will give you a mouth and wisdom (Luke 21:15))—none of these are the emblem of a disciple of Christ, since they can be possessed by both the good and the bad. Rather, the special sign of a disciple of Christ is charity and mutual love: he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22).