HOMILY LX. v. 21. v. 18. v. 10. JOHN xiii. 21. When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me. 1. It is no slight question, my brethren, that is propounded unto us from the Gospel of blessed John, where he saith, When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me. Was it by this that Jesus was troubled, not in flesh, but in spirit, because He was about to say, One of you shall betray Me? What, did this then first come into His mind, or was it then first suddenly revealed to Him, and He troubled by the surprise and novelty of so great an evil? Was He not speaking of this just before, when He said, He that eateth bread with Me, will lift up his heel against Me? Had He not even before that said, And ye are clean, but not all? where the Evangelist added, For He knew who should betray Him: whom also He had erewhile ch. 6,71. signified, saying, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? What meaneth it then, that now He is troubled in spirit, when He testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me? Or, because He was now about to make him expressly known, so as he should not lurk unknown among the rest, but should be distinctly marked from the rest, was it for this that He was troubled in spirit? Or, because the traitor was now on the point of going out to bring the Jews to whom the Lord Christ was troubled in spirit because of Judas. 741 XIII. 27. 21. should of him be betrayed, was it that His Passion, now im- JOHN minent, troubled Him, and the closeness of the danger, and the traitor's now impending hand, of whose mind He was cognizant before? This, namely, that is said here, that Jesus was troubled in spirit, is like what He said before, Now is ch. 12, My soul troubled: and what shall I say? Father, save Me' from this hour: but therefore came I unto this hour. As then His soul was then troubled by the hour of His Passion drawing near, so likewise now, by the fact that Judas was about to go forth and to come, and by the near approach of that great wickedness of the traitor, He was troubled in spirit. 18. 2. He was troubled then, though having power to lay ch. 10, down His life, and having power to take it again. Troubled, that mighty Power; troubled, the firmness of the Rock: or rather, is it our infirmity that in Him is troubled? Yes, verily let not the servants believe ought unworthy concerning their Lord; but let them acknowledge themselves members in their Head. He that died for us, the self-same was troubled for us. He therefore Who of His own power died, of His own power was troubled: He Who transfigured the body of our humility that it should be conformed to the Phil. 3, body of His glory, transfigured also in Himself the affections of our infirmity, sympathizing with us by the affection of His soul. Therefore, when He is troubled; the Great, the Strong, the Sure, the Invincible; let us not fear for Him lest He faint: He is not lost, He does but seek us: us, I say, us entirely, is He in this sort seeking: in His perturbation let us see our own selves: that so, when we are troubled we may not, by despairing, be lost. When He is troubled, Who could not be troubled were He not willing, therein He comforts him who is troubled though he be not willing. 21. 1, 20. Ps. 94, 3. Perish the arguments of philosophers who deny that the wise man is liable to the perturbations of the mind. God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world; and the 1 Cor. Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vain. Yes, let the Christian mind be troubled, not by sense of his 11. own, but by pity for others' misery; let Him fear, lest men be lost to Christ; sorrow, when any is lost to Christ; desire, that men may be won to Christ; be glad, when men are won 1 742 True wisdom not exempt from perturbation. HOMIL. to Christ. Let him fear also for himself, lest he be lost to LX. Christ; sorrow that he is far away from Christ; desire to reign with Christ; be glad, while he hopes that he shall reign with Christ. These, I trow, are the four perturbations, as they call them: fear and sorrow, love and gladness. Let Christian minds have them, upon just causes; and as for the Philosophers, Stoics, or any such, let us not consent to their error: who doubtless, as they conceit vanity to be truth, so stupo- account' apathy to be health; being ignorant that it is with the mind of man as with any member of the body: its disease more desperate, when it has even lost the sense of pain. rem 23. 4. But some man will say: Is it right for the Christian mind to be troubled even by the near approach of death? For what becomes of that saying of the Apostle, that he has Phil. 1, a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, if that which he desires can trouble him when it is come? It is easy indeed for them to make answer to this, who call even gladness a perturbation. For what if the reason of His being troubled by the near approach of death, is, that the near approach of death makes Him glad? But this, say they, is to be called joy, not gladness". What is this but, where the thing felt is the same, to want to change the names of the things? But let us give ear to the Sacred Writings, and rather according to them, with the Lord's assistance, solve this question: and, since it is written, When Jesus had said these words, He was troubled in spirit, That is, the feeling here spoken of is not to be called lætitia, which is a perturbing affection, but gaudium,which is not so. Cic. Tusc. iv. 6. Quum ratione animus movetur placide atque constanter, tum illud gaudium dicitur: quum autem inaniter et effusa animus exultat, tum illa lætitia gestiens vel nimia dici potest. "When the mind is moved by reason in a placid and staid manner, that is called joy: but when the mind exults without matter and without restraint, then it may be called eager or excessive gladness" ib. 31. Atque ut cavere decet, timere non decet, sic quidem gaudere decet, lætari non decet. "And just as it is seemly to be cautious, but not to be afraid, so it is seemly to rejoice, but not to be .... Christ with our nature took its liability to perturbation. 743 XIII. 31. let us not say that it was by gladness that He was troubled, JOHN lest He reprove us by His own words, where He saith, My 21. soul is sorrowful even unto death. Something of this sort is Mat. 26, also here to be understood, when, His betrayer being even then about to go forth by himself, and to return straightway with his fellows, Jesus was troubled in spirit. 5. Those indeed are most strong Christians, who are not a whit troubled by the near approach of death: but are they stronger than Christ? Who, though ever so mad, would say this? Why then was He troubled, but for the sake of the weak in His Body, i. e. in His Church, whom, by voluntarily making Himself like us in His infirmity, He would console: that so, if any of His are still troubled in spirit by the near approach of death, they may look unto Him, lest, for this very thing counting themselves reprobates, they by a worse desperation be swallowed up of death? How great good then ought we to expect and hope for, from the participation of His Godhead, when both His perturbation makes us calm, and His weakness strong! Whether therefore, in this place, it was by pitying that perishing Judas, that He was troubled: or whether it was by the approach of His own death that He was troubled: yet is it not by any means to be doubted that not by weakness of mind was He troubled, but of His own power; lest to us there arise despair of our salvation, when not of our own power but by weakness we are troubled. For though indeed He had yet on Him the weakness of the flesh, which weakness was by the Resurrection consumed away; yet, seeing He was not only Man but God too, He did by an ineffable distance surpass all of human kiud in fortitude of mind. Therefore not by compulsion of any was He troubled, but troubled Himself: which thing is openly expressed concerning Him, when He raised Lazarus: for there it is written that He troubled Himself, that the same may be understood ch. 11, also where we do not read this written and yet do read that He was troubled. For, as touching the emotions of man's nature, He, when He judged it meet, did of His own power raise them in Himself, Who of His power took upon Him the whole nature of man. 33. 1 capitulum JOHN xiii. 21—27. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom He spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast said unto Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And after the sop, Satan entered into him. 1. THIS' portion of the Gospel, my brethren, is so propounded to us to be in the present lecture expounded, that we must needs say somewhat also of the Lord's betrayer, evidently enough exposed by the bread dipped and reached forth to him. And touching that matter, indeed, that the Lord, at the instant He was about to point him out, was troubled in spirit, I have discoursed in the foregoing sermon: but belike, which I did not say then, the Lord by His perturbation deigned to signify to us this also: I mean, as touching false brethren, those tares in the Lord's field, that the necessity of tolerating them among the wheat even until the harvest-time is such, that when urgent cause compels the separation of some of them even before the harvest, this thing cannot take place but with perturbation to the Church. This perturbation of His saints, to be caused by schismatics and heretics, the Lord, in a sort foretelling, did prefigure in Himself, when, at the moment Judas, that bad man, was |