May 9

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.—John 14:27, 28.

By this then, it was possible, that their heart might be troubled and made afraid, namely, that he was going from them: lest peradventure the wolf should in this interval invade the flock, in the shepherd's absence. But whom the Man was quitting, the God was not forsaking: and one selfsame Christ is Man and God. Therefore he was both going, in that he was Man, and remaining in that he was God: going, in that he was in one place, remaining, in that he was everywhere. Why then should the heart be troubled and be afraid, when, in quitting their eyes, he quitted not their heart? Albeit God also, who is bounded by no place, departs from the hearts of them who go away from him, in manners not in feet; and comes to them who turn to him, not with face but with faith, and come to him in mind not in flesh. But, that they might understand it to be in regard of his being man that he had said, I go, and come to you; he further said, If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I. It was therefore in regard that the Son is not equal to the Father, that he was about to go to the Father, from whom he shall come to judge the quick and the dead: while in regard that the Only-Begotten is equal to him that begat, he never quitteth the Father, but is with him everywhere whole by equal Godhead, which no place containeth. For being in the form of God, as the apostle speaketh, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God: for how could that be robbery which was nature, and not by usurpation, but by nativity? but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant; therefore not losing that, but only taking this: in that sort emptying himself, that he appeared less here than he remained with the Father: for in truth the form of a servant was taken, not the form of God forsaken: this was assumed, not that consumed. In regard of this he saith, The Father is greater than I: but in regard of that, I and the Father are One.

Such is this form of a servant, that in it the Son of God is less, not than the Father only, but also than the Holy Ghost: nor only that, but even than himself: because in the form of God he is greater than himself. For think not that the Man Christ is not called the Son of God: by which name even his flesh in the tomb had a right to be called. For what other do we confess, when we say that we believe on the Only-Begotten Son of God, who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried? And what of him was buried, but the flesh without the soul? And therefore, when we believe on the Son of God who was buried, without doubt we give the name Son of God even to the flesh which by itself was buried. Therefore the same Christ, Son of God, equal with the Father in the form of God, in that he emptied himself, not by foregoing the form of God, but by undergoing the form of a servant, is greater even than himself: because greater is the form of God which was not foregone, than that of servant which was undergone. Where is the wonder then, or where the unworthiness, if speaking in regard of this form of a servant, the Son of God saith, The Father is greater than I, while yet speaking in regard of the form of God, the self-same Son of God saith, I and the Father are One! For they are one, in regard that the Word was God; the Father is greater, in regard that the Word was made flesh. I will say also, in regard of this form of a servant, the child Christ was even less than his parents, when being a little one, as it is written, he was subject unto his elders. What then, seeing Christ is God and man, doth he speak as man, and dost thou caluminate him as God? Doth he enhance to our regard the human nature in himself, and dost thou dare to deform in him the Divine nature? Infidel, ingrate, dost thou diminish him that made thee, only because he telleth what he became for thy sake? For that he the Father's equal Son by whom man was made, should be less than the Father, was because he became man: which had he not become, what would have become of man?

Then let our Lord and Master by all means say, If ye loved me, ye would rejoice that I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. With the disciples let us hear the words of the Teacher, not with the aliens follow the craft of the deceiver. Let us acknowledge the twofold substance of Christ: the Divine, to wit, by which he is equal with the Father; the human, than which the Father is greater. But the one and the other are together not two, but one Christ: lest God be quaternity, not trinity. For as the rational soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ: and therefore Christ is God, rational soul, and flesh. We confess Christ in all these, Christ in these severally. Who then is he by whom the world was made? Christ Jesus, but in the form of God. Who was crucified under Pontius Pilate? Christ Jesus, but in the form of a servant. Again as touching the several parts of which man consists: Who was not left in hell? Christ Jesus; but in the soul by itself. Who, being to rise again, lay three days in the tomb? Christ Jesus, but in the flesh by itself. Consequently, the name Christ is given to each of these several parts likewise. But all these are not two, or three, but is one Christ. Therefore in saying, If ye loved me, ye would rejoice that I go to the Father, he said it in regard that it is a subject of gratulation to the nature of man, that it is so assumed by the Word Only-Begotten, as to be placed immortal in heaven, and that earth should become so sublime, that dust incorruptible should sit at the right hand of the Father. In this sense spake he of going to the Father. He indeed to whom he was going was with him: but the going to him, and departing from us, was this: to change and make immortal that mortal which he took of us, and to lift it up into heaven by his having been on earth for us. Who would not rejoice at this, who, loving Christ, congratulates withal his own nature now made immortal in Christ, and hopes himself to become such through Christ?