Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 14:1-3

"Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father`s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also." — John 14:1-3 (ASV)

1. Above, our Lord taught His disciples by example; here He consoles them with His words. His words do two things:

1. They encourage the disciples in many ways.
2. They explain what He has said: “These things I have spoken to you, that you may not be caused to stumble” (John 16:1).

Concerning the first point, we should note that two things could trouble the disciples. One was near: that Christ would soon be leaving them. The second was in the future: the hardships they would undergo.

Christ consoles them regarding both. First, over His leaving; second, over their future hardships: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1).

Concerning His leaving, He does two things:

1. He consoles them from their own point of view, as those who will be left: “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5).
2. He consoles them from His own point of view, as the one leaving: “Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

Concerning this consolation, He does three things:

1. He says that He is going to the Father.
2. He promises them the gift of the Holy Spirit: “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
3. He promises that He will also be with them: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).

Concerning His going to the Father, He does two things:

1. He mentions that He is going to the Father.
2. He brings in the way He would go: “And where I go you know, and the way you know” (John 14:4).

Concerning this, He does three things:

1. He expels their anxieties.
2. He refers to His power: “You believe in God, believe also in me.”
3. He adds a promise: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.”

2. In regard to the first point, note that the disciples could have been disturbed by what our Lord said about the betrayal of Judas, Peter’s denial, and His own departure. Indeed, each of these did trouble them and make them sad: “You have made the land to quake,” that is, the hearts of the disciples, “you have rent it open” (Psalms 60:2). Therefore our Lord, wishing to soothe their sorrow, said: “Let not your heart be troubled.”

3. In Acts we read: “Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). Yet above it says that Jesus “was troubled in spirit” (John 13:21). How can He tell His disciples not to be troubled when He Himself was troubled?

I answer that He did not teach the opposite of what He did. It was stated above that He was troubled in spirit, not that His spirit was troubled. Here He is not forbidding them to be troubled in spirit, but He is forbidding that their hearts—that is, their spirits—be troubled. For there is a troubled state which arises from reason; this is to be praised and is not forbidden: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation” (2 Corinthians 7:10). Yet there is a different grief or troubled state of the reason itself; this is not praiseworthy because it draws the reason from its proper course. This is forbidden: “The just person will not be troubled, for the Lord puts his hand under him” (Psalms 37:24). For one who always possesses God cannot be disturbed.

p>4. Accordingly, our Lord refers to the power of His divinity, saying, “You believe in God, believe also in me.” Here He presupposes one thing and commands another.

He presupposes their faith in God, saying, “You believe in God.” He had already taught them about this: “For whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists” (Hebrews 11:6).

What He commands is that they believe in Him, saying, “Believe also in me.” For if you believe in God, and since I am God, then you should believe in me. This follows whether the word ‘God’ stands for the divine essence, since the Son is God, or whether it stands for the person of the Father. For no one can believe in the Father unless he believes in the Son: “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (John 5:23).

The fact that He says, “Believe also in me,” indicates that He is truly God; for although we are allowed to believe a human being or a creature, we ought to believe in God alone. Therefore, we must believe in Christ as we believe in God. “We are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20); “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).

5. Then when He says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” He adds the promise that it is through Christ that they will approach and be brought to the Father. Now, a promise to others that they will gain entrance to some place involves two things: first, the place must be prepared; next, they have to be brought there. Our Lord makes these two promises here: one concerns the preparation of the place, and the other is about their being brought there. Yet the first is not necessary, for the place has already been prepared; but the second is necessary. Thus He does two things:

• He says the first promise is not necessary.
• He then makes His second promise: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself” (John 14:3).

In regard to the first, He does two things:

• First, He indicates that it is not necessary to prepare the place.
• Second, He shows that He could prepare it if it were necessary: “If it were not so, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you.”

6. He says, “In my Father’s house are many mansions.”

Anyone’s house is where he dwells, and so the house of God is where God dwells. Now God dwells in His saints: “Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us” (Jeremiah 14:9). In some of them He dwells by faith: “I will live in them and move among them” (2 Corinthians 6:16); while in others He dwells by perfect happiness: “that God may be everything to every one” (1 Corinthians 15:28). Accordingly, God has two houses. One is the Church militant, that is, the society of those who believe: “that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God” (1 Timothy 3:15). God dwells in this house by faith. “The dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:3). The other is the Church triumphant, that is, the society of the saints in the glory of the Father: “We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple” (Psalms 65:4).

Yet the house of the Father is not only where He dwells, but He Himself is the house, for He exists in Himself. It is into this house that He gathers us. We see from 2 Corinthians that God Himself is the house: “We have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). This house is the house of glory, which is God Himself: “A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctification” (Jeremiah 17:12). We remain in this place, in God, with our will and affections by the joys of love: “He who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). And we remain here with our minds by our knowledge of the truth: “Sanctify them in the truth” (John 17:17).

In this house, then, that is, in glory, which is God, “are many mansions,” that is, various participations in happiness. This is because one who knows more will have a greater place. Therefore, the different rooms are the various participations in the knowledge and enjoyment of God.

7. The question arises here whether one person can be happier than another. It seems not. For happiness is the end; and what is perfect and complete does not have degrees. Therefore, there cannot be different degrees of happiness.

I answer that a thing can be perfect in two ways: absolutely and in a qualified sense. The absolute perfection of happiness is found only in God. Only He knows and loves Himself to the extent that He is knowable and lovable, since He knows and loves His own infinite truth and goodness infinitely. From this point of view, the supreme good itself, which is the object and cause of happiness, cannot be greater or less, because there is only one supreme good. But in a qualified sense—that is, considering certain conditions of time, nature, and grace—one person can be happier than another depending on the possession of this good and the capacity of each. The greater the capacity a person has for this good, the more he shares in it; I mean he participates in it more, the better disposed and prepared he is to enjoy it. Now one is disposed for this good in two ways. Happiness consists in two things. The first is the vision of God, and one is disposed for this by purity. And so the more one has a heart that is raised above earthly matters, the more he will see God, and the more perfectly. Second, happiness consists in the delight of enjoying, and one is disposed for this by love. Thus, one who has a more burning love for God will find more delight in the enjoyment of God. We read about the first in Matthew: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).

8. Another question arises from what Matthew says, that every laborer received one denarius (Matthew 20:10). This denarius is nothing but a room in the house of the Father. Therefore, there are not many rooms.

I answer that the reward of eternal life is both one and many. It is many based on the various capacities of those who share in it, and from this point of view there are different rooms in the Father’s house. Yet this reward is one, and this for three reasons. First, because there is one object, for it is the same object which all the blessed see and enjoy. Thus, there is one denarius. But it is seen and loved in various degrees: “Then you will delight yourself in the Almighty” (Job 22:26); “In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people” (Isaiah 28:5). It is like a spring of water, available to all to take as much as they wish. One who has a larger cup will receive more, and one who has a smaller cup will receive less. Therefore, there is one fountain, considering it in itself, but not everyone receives the same portion. This is the opinion of Gregory, in his Morals XXII. Second, this reward is one, according to Augustine, because it is an eternal portion: each one will have an eternal happiness, for the just will go into eternal life, but there are differences in capacity. Third, this reward is one because of charity, which unites everything and makes the joy of each the joy of the rest, and vice versa: “Rejoice with those who rejoice” (Romans 12:15).

9. The Pelagians erred by misunderstanding this passage. They said that children who die without baptism will be saved in the house of God, but not in the kingdom of God, for we read, “Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

Augustine answers this by saying that our Lord said that these rooms are in God’s house. Now in a kingdom there are nothing but houses, for a kingdom is made up of cities, and cities of neighborhoods, and neighborhoods of houses. Thus, if rooms are in a house, it is evident that they are in the kingdom.

10. Then when He says, “If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you,” He shows He has the ability to prepare a place for them if necessary.

For one could say: “It is true that in His Father’s house many rooms have been prepared, but if not, He could not prepare them.” Our Lord excludes this by saying, “If not,” that is, if the rooms were not prepared, “I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.”

Here we should consider what is meant by the phrase, “to prepare a place for you.” A place is prepared in two ways. In one way, when something is done to the place itself, as when it is cleaned or enlarged: “Enlarge the place of your tent” (Isaiah 54:2). In another way, when someone is given the means to enter it; and so the Psalmist prays: “Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me” (Psalms 71:3), which is like saying: “May I always have the means to enter here.” With this in mind, the text can be understood in two ways. If this place had some defect or was something created, it would be subject to my power to perfect it, for every creature is subject to the power of the Word: “All things were made by him” (John 1:3). So, if it had some defect, “I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.” But this place, in itself, is prepared, for this place is God Himself, as was said, in whom is the abundance of all perfections. But perhaps you do not have the means to enter it; and so, “if not,” that is, if it were not so that you had the means to enter here and were not predestined to this place, “I would have told you: I go to prepare a place for you,” for it is in my power to predestine you to this place. For He, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, has predestined them to eternal life: “He chose us in him” (Ephesians 1:4).

11. Our Lord said above: “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now” (John 13:36). And then here, to keep them from believing that they would be absolutely separated from Him, He adds, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself.” This is the second promise, that they will be brought into the kingdom.

This seems to conflict with His earlier statement, for He had said: “If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.” This implies that He is not going to prepare a place for them. Yet here we read: “If I go and prepare a place for you,” which suggests that He is going to prepare a place for them.

One reply would be that these two sentences can be understood as connected. Then the meaning would be this: “If not,” that is, if places were not prepared and I had to go to prepare them, “I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.” And then again, “If I go and prepare a place for you.”

According to Augustine, however, these are distinct sentences and are not read together. Our Lord prepared places both by eternal predestination and by carrying out this predestination. He also prepared these places by His departure. Thus, what our Lord said first, that rooms were prepared, is understood as referring to the first preparation from all eternity. Then when He says, “If I go and prepare a place for you,” this is understood as referring to the carrying out of the eternal predestination.

12. Our Lord prepared a place for us by His departure in five ways.

1. He made room for faith. Since faith concerns things not seen, when the disciples saw Christ in person, they did not need faith for this. Thus He left them, so that the one they had possessed by His bodily presence and seen with their bodily eyes, they could still possess in His spiritual presence and see with the eyes of their mind. This is to possess Him by faith.
2. His leaving prepared a place by showing them the way to go to that place: “He who opens the breach will go before them” (Micah 2:13).
3. By His prayers for them: “He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him” (Hebrews 7:25); “He rides through the heavens to your help” (Deuteronomy 33:26).
4. By attracting them to what is above: “Draw me after you” (Song of Solomon 1:4); “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above” (Colossians 3:1).
5. By sending them the Holy Spirit: “For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39).

13. The glorification of Christ was completed by His ascension. And so as soon as He ascended, He sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples. He told them ahead of time that He would physically leave them, saying, “If I go and prepare a place for you.” And then He promised them a spiritual return, saying, “I will come again.” I will come at the end of the world: “This Jesus... will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). “And will take you,” glorified in soul and body, “to myself”: “We will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17).

14. Will Christ wait until the end of the world before He takes the spirits of the apostles?

It is the opinion of the Greeks that the saints will not go to paradise until the day of judgment.

But if this were true, the Apostle’s desire to be with Christ (Philippians 1:23) would be futile. Therefore, one should say that immediately after the house where we dwell here is overthrown, our souls are with Christ. And so the statement, “I will come again, and will take you to myself,” can be understood as that spiritual coming with which Christ always visits the Church of the faithful and gives life to each of the faithful at death. Then the meaning is: “I will come again,” to the Church, spiritually and continuously, “and will take you to myself,” that is, I will strengthen you in faith and love for me. “My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices,” that is, to the community of the saints, “to feed in the garden,” that is, to delight in their virtues, “and to gather lilies,” to draw pure souls to Himself when He gives life to the saints at death (Song of Solomon 6:2).

15. Then He mentions the result of this, saying, “That where I am, you may be also,” so that the members may be with their head, and the disciples may be with their Teacher: “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together” (Matthew 24:28); “Where I am, there will my servant be also” (John 12:26).