Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 16:25-28

"These things have I spoken unto you in dark sayings: the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings, but shall tell you plainly of the Father. In that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father. I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father." — John 16:25-28 (ASV)

1. Above, our Lord promised His disciples access and intimacy with the Father. Now He gives the reason for this intimacy. Two things make a person intimate with another and foster confidence when asking for something: knowledge and love. Thus, our Lord gives these two reasons here.

   1. The first is their clear knowledge of the Father.

   2. The second is His special love for them: in that day, you will ask in my name.

2. Regarding the first reason, He does two things:

   1. First, He reminds them of their previously imperfect knowledge of the Father.

   2. Second, He promises them complete knowledge: the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs.

   Indeed, their knowledge was imperfect, so He says, these things I have spoken to you in proverbs. A “proverb,” strictly speaking, is a maxim or a common expression, such as, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). Because proverbs are sometimes unclear and metaphorical, the word “proverb” is sometimes used to indicate a parable, which states one thing while actually meaning something else. This is the case here, and proverb should be understood to mean parable.

3. The statement, I have spoken to you in proverbs, can be understood in four ways. The first is literal, referring to what He had said immediately before this. The meaning would then be: I said to you that until now you have asked nothing in my name, and that you will ask in my name, and in saying this, I have spoken to you in proverbs, and obscurely. But the hour is coming when what I said obscurely I will say plainly. Thus He adds: the Father himself loves you, and I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. This seems to be how the apostles understood it, because when they heard Him say these things they said, behold, now you are speaking plainly and not in any proverb (John 16:29).

4. In the second way, I have spoken to you in proverbs refers to everything in this Gospel about the teaching of Christ. Then the next statement, the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, would refer to the time of glory. For now we see in a mirror, obscurely, since what we are told about God is presented to us in proverbs. But in our heavenly homeland we will see face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). Therefore, we will then be told of the Father plainly, and not in proverbs. He says, of the Father, because no one can see the Father in that glory unless the Son reveals Him: no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him (Matthew 11:27). For the Son is the true light and gives us the light by which we can see the Father: I am the light of the world (John 8:12).

5. However, the next statement, in that day you will ask in my name, does not fit this explanation. For if that hour is the time of glory, we will not ask for anything because our desires will be satisfied with good. Accordingly, there are two other meanings. According to Chrysostom, the meaning is this: I have spoken to you—that is, what I have just said—in proverbs, meaning in veiled language, not fully expressing all that you should know about me and the Father, because I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12).Commentary on Saint John 79.2. But the hour is coming—that is, when I have risen from the dead—when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, that is, obscurely and in figures, but will show you plainly of the Father. Indeed, during those forty days in which He appeared to them, He taught them many mysteries and told them many things about Himself and the Father. Furthermore, they had been raised to higher things by their faith in the resurrection, firmly believing that Christ was the true God. So we read that Christ was speaking of the kingdom of God to them (Acts 1:3), and that he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45).

6. The other reading is given by Augustine, and it is this: When Christ said, I have spoken to you in proverbs, our Lord is promising to make them spiritual.Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.4. There is a difference between one who is spiritual and one who is sensual. A sensual person understands spiritual words as proverbs, not because they were spoken as proverbs, but because such a person’s mind cannot rise above material things, and spiritual things remain hidden, for the sensual man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). But one who is spiritual understands spiritual words as spiritual. In the beginning, the disciples themselves were sensual, and what was told them they found obscure and took as proverbs. But after they were made spiritual by Christ and had been taught by the Holy Spirit, they clearly understood spiritual words as spiritual. And so Christ says, I have spoken to you in proverbs, that is, you understood what I said as proverbs. But the hour is coming, when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs: and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness, as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18).

7. Now we see the second reason why they should have confidence, which is based on the Father’s love for the disciples.

   1. First, He shows the Father’s love for them.

   2. Second, He shows the intimacy of the Father with the Son: I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world.

   Regarding the first point, He does two things:

   1. First, He repeats a promise He made to them.

   2. Second, He gives the reason for what was promised: for the Father himself loves you.

8. He does two things with the first point: He repeats one of His promises, and second, He promises that they will have confidence when they pray. He says, in that day, when I tell you plainly of the Father, you will ask in my name. For when you plainly know the Father, you will know that I am equal to Him and of the same essence, and that it is through me that you can approach or have access to Him. To have this hope of approaching or having access to the Father through Christ is what is meant by asking in the name of Christ: some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God (Psalms 20:7). But Christ is silent about asking the Father for them; He says, I do not say to you that I will ask the Father for you.

9. But does not Christ pray for us? Certainly: we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1); he is able for all time to save those who draw near to God through him (Hebrews 7:25).

   According to Augustine, Christ says this so the disciples will not think that Christ, as a man, is limited to interceding for them.Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.4. So in that day when He will show you plainly, not only will you ask in my name, but you will know that I am one with the Father—not just an intercessor, but one who, as God, will hear your prayer in addition to interceding.

   According to Chrysostom, however, Christ probably says this so the disciples will not believe that they are to ask through the Son as if they could not approach the Father directly.Commentary on Saint John 79.2. He is saying, in effect: “At present you come to me to intercede for you. But in that day you will have such confidence in the Father that you will be able to ask the Father in my name, without needing another to intercede for you.”

10. But did the apostles not need Christ, as man, to intercede? If not, then since He does intercede, His intercession is unnecessary.

    We should say that Christ intercedes for them not as though they were strangers with no access to the Father, but because He makes their prayers more effective.

11. Here He gives the reason for the promise, which is the Father’s love for them.

    1. First, He mentions the Father’s love.

    2. Second, He gives the proof of this love: because you have loved me.

12. He says: I do not say to you that I will ask the Father for you, for then it might seem that the Father did not love them. Certainly, the Father himself, who loves all things by willing them the goods of nature—for you love all things that exist, and have loathing for none of the things which you have made ()—loves you, apostles and saints, with an exceptional love, by willing you the highest good, which is Himself. He loved his people; all those consecrated to him were in his hand (Deuteronomy 33:3), because He loved them that much. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God .

13. He proves this from two facts: the love of the disciples for Christ, and their faith.

    With regard to the first, He says, because you have loved me. This proof does not give the cause, for we read, not that we have loved God but that he first loved us (1 John 4:10). Rather, it gives a sign, for the fact that we love God is a sign that He loves us, because our ability to love God is a gift from God: God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Romans 5:5); he who loves me will be loved by my Father (John 14:21).

    Referring to the second, He says, and have believed that I came out from the Father. For without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Our faith is due to God’s love for us, for it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). Now a gift is not given except through the love of the giver. To believe in and to love Christ because He comes forth from God is a clear sign of one’s love for God, since that which causes a quality in something possesses that quality to an even greater degree. Therefore, when one loves Christ, who came forth from God, this love is particularly traced back to God the Father; but this is not so when one loves Christ merely as a human.

14. Because He had mentioned His coming forth from the Father, He now comments more fully on it, saying, I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. This shows His intimacy with the Father.

    1. First, He mentions His coming forth from the Father.

    2. Second, His return to the Father: again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father.

15. The Son proceeds or comes from the Father in two ways: one is eternal, the other temporal. He refers to the eternal procession when He says, I came forth from the Father, eternally begotten from Him.

    Everything that comes forth from another was first in it. There are three ways one thing can be in something else: first, as what is contained is in its container; second, as a part is in a whole; and third, as an accident is in its subject or an effect is in its cause. What comes forth is in that from which it comes forth in one of these ways. In the first two ways, what comes forth remains the same individual it was. For example, the wine that comes from the cask is the very same wine that was in the cask; and the very same part that was in the whole comes from the whole. In the other two ways, what comes forth is not the same individual.

    Now, none of these ways apply to God. Since God is entirely simple and is in a place only metaphorically, we cannot say that the Son is in God like a part, or that the Son is contained in a container. Rather, the Son is in the Father by a oneness of essence: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). The entire essence of the Father is the entire essence of the Son, and vice versa. Consequently, the Son does not come forth from the Father in the ways previously mentioned.

    When a part comes from a whole, it is distinct from the whole in essence, for it becomes a being in act, while in the whole it was only a being in potency. Likewise, what comes from being contained in something now occupies a different place. But the Son does not come forth from the Father to occupy a different place, because He fills all things: do I not fill heaven and earth? (Jeremiah 23:24). Nor is the Son split off from the Father, because the Father is indivisible. Rather, the Son comes forth by reason of a distinction in person.

    Thus, to the extent that the Son’s coming forth presupposes some kind of existing in another, it indicates a unity of essence; yet to the extent that there is a coming forth, it indicates a distinction in person. His going forth is from the end of the heavens, that is, from God the Father (Psalms 19:6); from the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you (Psalms 110:3). In material things, what comes forth from another is no longer in it, since it comes forth by a separation in place or essence. This is not the kind of coming forth we have here, for the Son came forth from the Father from all eternity in such a way that He is still in the Father from all eternity. And so, when the Son is in the Father, He comes forth, and when He comes forth, He is in the Father. The Son is always in the Father and always coming forth from the Father.

16. He mentions His temporal coming when He says, I... have come into the world. Just as the Son’s coming forth from the Father from eternity does not involve a change of place, neither does His coming into the world imply a change of place. Since the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, then just as the Father fills all things, so does the Son; there is no place to go. Thus, the Son is said to have come into the world because He assumed a human nature, whose body originated from the world. But the Son did not move to a new place. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him (John 1:11).

17. Then when He says, again, I am leaving the world and going to the Father, He speaks of His return to the Father. First, He mentions His leaving the world—again, I am leaving the world—but not by ceasing to govern us by His providence, because He is always governing the world together with the Father and is always with the faithful by the help of His grace: I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Rather, He left the world by withdrawing from the physical sight of worldly people.

    Second, He mentions His return to the Father when He says, and I am going to the Father, whom He had never left. He goes in that He offered Himself to the Father in His passion: Christ... gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2). Again, He goes to the Father in that by His resurrection His human nature became like the Father in its immortality: the life he lives he lives to God (Romans 6:10). Further, He goes to the Father by ascending into the heavens where He shines in a special way with divine glory: so then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19); but now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’