CHRYSOSTOM:
The Sadducees know of nothing incorporeal, perhaps not even God, so thick-headed are they. Consequently, they are also unwilling to believe that there is a resurrection.1
Why didn’t [Jesus] appear to him before he fell into danger? Because, as always, it is in afflictions that God consoles. For then he appears more desirable, as he trains us even in the midst of dangers.2
HILARY OF POITIERS:
[This passage] shows that since human beings cannot, so to speak, be fused back into God or themselves coalesce into one undistinguished mass, this oneness must arise from unity of will, as all perform actions pleasing to God and unite with one another in the harmonious agreement of their thoughts. Therefore, it is not nature that makes them one but will.3
CHRYSOSTOM:
This is similar to what he said earlier, “By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” And how will they believe this? “Because,” he says, “you are a God of peace.” And, if therefore the [disciples] keep that same peace that they have learned [from me], their hearers will know the teacher by the disciples. But if they quarrel, people will deny that they are the disciples of a God of peace and will not allow that I, not being peaceable, have been sent from you. Do you see how he proves his unanimity with the Father to the very end?4
GREGORY OF NYSSA:
But it would be better here if we would quote the actual words of the Gospel. “That they all may be one,” he says, “as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us.” Now the bond of this unity is glory, and no one who would consider seriously the Lord’s words would deny that this glory is the Holy Spirit. For he says, “The glory that you have given me, I have given to them.” He gave his disciples this glory when he said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And he himself received this glory when he put on human nature, though he had indeed always possessed it since before the beginning of the world. And now that his human nature has been glorified by the Spirit, this participation in the glory of the Spirit is communicated to all who are united with him, beginning with his disciples.5
AUGUSTINE:
“And the glory that you gave me, I have given them.” And what was that glory but immortality, which human nature was afterward to receive in him? For not even he himself had as yet received it, but in his own customary way, because predestination is so absolutely inflexible, he intimates what is future in verbs of the past tense. He does this because he is now on the point of being glorified, or in other words, raised up again by the Father, knowing that he himself is going to raise us up to the same glory in the end.6
CHRYSOSTOM:
But why didn’t he say, “That they may share my glory” instead of “that they may behold my glory”? Here he implies that what they are doing is looking on the Son of God. This certainly is what causes them to be glorified, as Paul says, “with open face mirroring the glory of the Lord.” For as they who look on the sunbeams and enjoy a very clear atmosphere draw their enjoyment from their sight, so then also our sight will cause us greater pleasure. At the same time also he shows that what they should behold was not the body then seen but something awesome.7
AUGUSTINE:
On this account, doubtless, it was not enough for him to say, “I will that they also be where I am,” but he added, “with me.” For to be with him is the chief good. For even the miserable can be where he is, since wherever any are, there is he also. But the blessed are only with him because it is only of him that they can be blessed.[…]
For there is no doubt that a true believer is with Christ by faith, because in reference to this he says, “He that is not with me is against me.” But when he said to God the Father, “I will that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am,” he spoke exclusively of that sight that will see him as he is.8
ORIGEN:
I am of the opinion that the expression by which God is said to be “all in all” means that he is “all” in each individual person. Now he will be “all” in each individual when all those with any rational understanding—cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away—either feel, understand or think in terms wholly divine. He will be “all” in each person when that person’s understanding will no longer behold or retain anything else other than God, but God alone will be the measure and standard of all his or her movements. This is when God will be “all,” for there will no longer be any distinction of good and evil, since evil will no longer exist. For God is, then, all things, and no evil can be present where he is. Nor will there be a desire any longer to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on the part of one who is always in the possession of good and to whom God is everything.9
Footnotes
- HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 49. Martin, F., & Smith, E. (Eds.). (2006). Acts (p. 279). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 49. Martin, F., & Smith, E. (Eds.). (2006). Acts (p. 279). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- ON THE TRINITY 8.5. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 256). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.2. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 257). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- HOMILIES ON THE SONG OF SONGS 15. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (pp. 258–259). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 110.3. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 259). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 82.2–3. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 260). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 111.2. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 261). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
- ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 3.6.1, 3. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 261). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.