Thomas Aquinas Commentary John 17:1-5

"These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee: even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given him, he should give eternal life. And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, [even] Jesus Christ. I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." — John 17:1-5 (ASV)

1. Previously, our Lord consoled His disciples by example and encouragement; here He comforts them by His prayer. In this prayer He does three things:

1. He prays for Himself.
2. He prays for the group of the disciples: I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world (John 17:6).
3. He prays for all the faithful: and not for them only do I pray, but for those also who through their word will believe in me (John 17:20).

Concerning the first part, He does three things:

• First, He makes His request.
• Second, He states the fruit of this request: that your Son may glorify you.
• Third, He mentions why His request deserves to be heard: I have glorified you on the earth.

Regarding the first point, we will consider three aspects:

• First, the order He followed in His prayer.
• Second, the way He prayed.
• Third, the words He used.

2. The order He followed was fitting, because He prayed after first encouraging them. So we read, these things Jesus spoke. This gives us the example to help by our prayers those we are teaching by our words, because religious teaching has its greatest effect in the hearts of those who hear it when it is supported by a prayer that asks for divine help: pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph (2 Thessalonians 3:1). Again, our sermon should end with a prayer: the sum of our words is: he is the all .

3. The way He prayed is described as lifting up his eyes to heaven. There is a difference between the prayer of Christ and our own. Our prayer arises solely from our needs, while Christ's prayer is more for our instruction. Indeed, there was no need for Him to pray for Himself, since He, together with His Father, answers prayers.

He instructs us here by His words and actions. He teaches us by His actions in lifting up His eyes, so that we also will lift our eyes to heaven when we pray: to you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! (Psalms 123:1). And we should lift not just our eyes, but also our actions, by directing them to God: let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven (Lamentations 3:41).

He teaches us by His words, for He said His prayer publicly; for this reason, the text says he said, so that those whom He taught by His teaching He might also teach by His praying. We are taught not just by the words of Christ, but also by His actions.

4. His words are effective, and so He says, Father, the hour has come. Their effectiveness is caused by three things.

1. The love of the one praying. For the Son is praying to His Father and petitioning the Father because of His love for Him. So He says, Father, to show us that we should pray to God with the affection of His children: and I thought you would call me, my Father, and would not turn from following me (Jeremiah 3:19).
2. The need for this prayer. For as He says, the hour has come—the hour of His passion, about which He had said before, my hour has not yet come (John 2:4). It is the hour, I say, not the season or the day, because Christ was to be seized right away. This was not an hour fixed by fate, but one chosen by His own plan and good pleasure. It is appropriate that right before He prays He mentions His troubles, because God especially hears us when we are troubled: in my troubles I cried to the Lord, and he heard me (Psalms 120:1); since we do not know what to do, we can only turn our eyes to you (2 Chronicles 20:12).
3. The content of the prayer: glorify your Son.

5. But the Son of God is Wisdom itself, and this has the greatest glory: wisdom is radiant and unfading . How then can He speak of glory being glorified, especially since He is the splendor of the Father (Hebrews 1:3)?

We should say that Christ asked to be glorified by the Father in three ways.

1. In His passion, which was done by the many miracles that occurred: the sun was darkened, the veil of the temple was torn, and graves were opened. This was referred to before: I have both glorified it, by the miracles occurring before the passion, and will glorify it again (John 12:28), during the passion. With this understanding, Christ says, glorify me in my passion by showing that I am your Son. And so the centurion, after seeing the miracles, said: truly, this was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54).
2. In His resurrection. His holy soul was always joined to God and possessed glory from the vision of God: we saw his glory, glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14). From the beginning of His conception, His soul was glorified, but in the resurrection He also had glory of body, which is referred to in Philippians: Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:21).
3. In the knowledge of all people: because of her I will have glory among the multitudes and honor in the presence of the elders .

And so He says, glorify your Son. This means, "Show the entire world that I am your Son in the strict sense." This is:

• By birth, not by creation, in opposition to Arius, who said that the Son of God is a creature.
• In truth, not just in name, against Sabellius, who said that the same person is now called Father and then called Son.
• By origin, not adoption, in opposition to Nestorius, who said that Christ was an adopted son.

6. Now we see the fruit of His being glorified. First, the fruit is mentioned, and second, it is explained: as you have given him power over all flesh.

7. The fruit of the Son’s being glorified is that the Father is glorified; thus He says, that your Son may glorify you.

When Arius observed that our Lord said, glorify your Son, he supposed that the Father is greater than the Son. This is true if we consider the Son in His human nature: the Father is greater than I (John 14:28). Consequently, Christ adds, that your Son may glorify you (in the knowledge of men) to show He is equal to the Father regarding the divine nature. Now, glory is renown joined with praise. Formerly, God was renowned among the Jews: in Judah God is known (Psalms 76:1); but later, through His Son, He was known throughout the entire world. Holy people also increase God’s renown by their good works: that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Above, Christ said: I do not seek my own glory, but there is one who seeks and judges (John 8:50).

8. Next, we come to the fruit of Christ’s request. First, we see the benefit Christ confers on us. Second, He shows that this benefit is related to the Father's glory: now this is eternal life.

9. He says, that your Son may glorify you, and this as you have given him power over all flesh. We should understand that whatever acts by the power of another tends to reveal that other in its effect, because the action of a secondary source reveals the primary source from which it proceeds. Now, whatever the Son has, He has from the Father; and thus it is necessary that what the Son does reveals the Father. Thus He says to the Father, you have given him power over all human beings. By this power, the Son is to lead them to a knowledge of the Father, which is eternal life. This is the meaning of that your Son may glorify you. As you have given him power over all flesh, that is, over all human beings: all flesh will see the salvation of God (Luke 3:6).

You have given him this, says Hilary, by giving the divine nature to the Son through an eternal generation, from which the Son has the power to embrace all things: all things have been delivered to me by my Father (Matthew 11:27); for the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself does (John 5:20). Or, in another way, you have given this power to Christ in His human nature because this nature is united with your Son to form one person. In this way, flesh has power over flesh: all authority in heaven and on earth has been given me (Matthew 28:18); and to him, that is, the Son of man, was given dominion and glory and kingdom (Daniel 7:14).

He says, "Father, you have given him power." This means: "Father, just as you have power not to take things from your human creatures but to give yourself to them, so you have given power to Christ in His human nature—power over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to all whom you have given him" through eternal predestination: my sheep hear my voice, and I know them (John 10:27).

10. But is the eternal life given to people related to the glory of the Father? Indeed it is, for this is eternal life: that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. That is, the Father could be glorified by being known by people.

Two things need explanation here. First, why He says, this is eternal life: that they may know. Note that strictly speaking, we call those things living which move themselves to their activities. Those things which are only moved by other things are not living, but dead. And so all those activities to which an active thing moves itself are called living activities, for example, to will, to understand, to sense, to grow, and to move about.

Now, a thing is said to be alive in two senses. It is alive because it has living activities potentially, as someone who is asleep is said to have sensitive life because they have the power to move themselves, although they are not actually doing so. Or, something is said to be alive because it is actually engaged in living activities, and then it is alive in the full sense. For this reason, one who is asleep is said to be half alive.

Among living activities, the highest is the activity of the intellect, which is to understand. Therefore, the activity of the intellect is living activity in the highest degree. Now, just as the active sense is identified with the active sense-object, so also the active intellect is identified with the thing actively understood. Since intellectual understanding is a living activity, and to understand is to live, it follows that to understand an eternal reality is to live with an eternal life. But God is an eternal reality, and so to understand and see God is eternal life.

Accordingly, our Lord says that eternal life lies in vision—in seeing. That is, it consists in this basically and in its whole substance. But it is love which moves one to this vision and is, in a certain way, its fulfillment. For the completion and crown of beatitude is the delight experienced in the enjoyment of God, and this is caused by charity. Still, the substance of beatitude consists in vision, in seeing: we will see him as he is (1 John 3:2).

11. Second, we should explain the phrase, you, the only true God. It is clear that Christ was speaking to the Father, so when He says, you, the only true God, it seems that only God the Father is true God. The Arians agree with this, for they say that the Son differs by essence from the Father, since the Son is a created substance, although He shares in the divinity more perfectly and to a greater degree than do all other creatures. So much so that the Son is called God, but not the true God, because He is not God by nature, which only the Father is.

Hilary answers this by saying that when we want to know whether a certain thing is true, we can determine it from two things: its nature and its power. For true gold is that which has the nature of true gold, and we determine this if it acts like true gold. Therefore, if we maintain that the Son has the true nature of God because the Son exercises the true activities of divinity, it is clear that the Son is true God. Now, the Son does perform true works of divinity, for we read, whatever he, the Father, does, these the Son also does in like manner (John 5:19). And again He said, for as the Father has life in himself, which is not a participated life, so he has also given to the Son to have life in himself (John 5:26). And elsewhere it is written, that we may be in his true Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20).

According to Hilary, He says, you, the only true God, in a way that does not exclude another. He does not say without qualification, you, the only, but adds, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. It is like saying, "that they know you and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, to be the one and only true God." This is a pattern of speaking that we also use when we say, you alone, Jesus Christ, are the most high, together with the Holy Spirit. No mention is made of the Holy Spirit because whenever the Father and the Son are mentioned, especially in matters pertaining to the grandeur of the divinity, the Holy Spirit, who is the bond of the Father and Son, is implied.

12. Or, according to Augustine in his work, The Trinity, He says this to exclude the error of those who claim that it is false to say that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, while it is true to say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. The reason for this opinion was that the Apostle said that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). Now, it is clear that we cannot call anyone God unless he has divine power and wisdom. Therefore, since these people held that the Father was wisdom (which is the Son), they held further that the Father considered without the Son would not be God. The same applies to the Son and the Holy Spirit. The incarnation of the Son of God is indicated by saying that He was sent. So when He says here, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent, we are led to understand that in eternal life we will also rejoice in the humanity of Christ: your eyes will see the king, that is, Christ, in his beauty (Isaiah 33:17); he will go in and out, and he will find pastures (John 10:9).

13. Now we see why Christ’s prayer deserves to be heard. First, He mentions why He deserves this, and second, He states the reward: and now glorify me, O Father, with yourself.

14. He states that He merited to be heard for two reasons. First, because of His teaching, when He says, I have glorified you on earth, that is, in the minds of people, by revealing you in my teaching: glorify the Lord in teaching (Isaiah 24:15). Second, He glorified you by His obedience; thus He said, I have finished the work.

He uses the past tense in place of the future: I have glorified for I will glorify, and have finished in place of I will accomplish. He does this because these things had already begun, and also because the hour of His passion, when His work would be accomplished, was very near. He says, The work that you gave me to do, not merely ordered. For it is not enough for Christ and for us to be ordered by God, because whatever Christ as man accomplished and whatever we can do is God’s gift: I knew that I could not be continent unless God gave it .

You gave me, I say, by the gift of grace, to do, that is, to accomplish. As it is written, he that sets his mind to finish his work, and his watching to polish them to perfection .

15. The reward for Christ’s obedience and teaching is glory: he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name (Philippians 2:8). And so Christ asks for His reward, saying, and now glorify me, O Father. According to Augustine, this does not mean, as some have thought, that the human nature of Christ, which was assumed by the Word, would at some time be changed into the Word, and the human nature changed into God. This would be to annihilate the nature of Christ, for when a first thing is changed into another in such a way that this other is not enriched, the first thing seems to have been annihilated. But nothing can be added to enrich the divine Word of God.

Thus, for Augustine, and now glorify me, O Father, refers to the predestination of Christ as man. Something can be had by us both in the divine predestination and in actual fact. Now Christ, in His human nature, like all other human beings, was predestined by God the Father: he was predestined Son of God (Romans 1:4). With this in mind He says, and now, that is, after I have glorified you, and finished the work that you gave me to do, glorify me, O Father with yourself, that is, have me sit at your right hand, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with you. This means, with the glory I had in your predestination: the Lord Jesus . . . was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19).

16. Hilary gives the other interpretation. The glory of human beings will be in a certain way similar to the glory of God, although unequal. Now Christ, as God, had glory with the Father from all eternity—a divine glory equal to that of the Father. Accordingly, what He is asking for here is that He be glorified in His human nature. That is to say, that what was flesh in time and subject to corruption should receive the glory of that brightness which is outside of time. He is asking not for an equal glory, but for one which is similar. This is to say that just as the Son is immortal and sitting at the right hand of the Father from all eternity, so He may now become immortal in His human nature and be exalted to the right hand of God.