Chapter XIV.
Second, the disciples are strengthened by the word of instruction and consolation in three ways.
1. And he said to his disciples: Let not [your heart] be troubled, etc. Above, the Lord strengthened his disciples by example; in this part he strengthens them by the word of instruction: and this part contains three chapters and is divided into three. In the first part, the Lord instructs them to be steadfast in faith: in the second, in love: and this begins at the start of the fifteenth chapter: I am the true vine: in the third, in the expectation of hope, shortly after the beginning of the sixteenth chapter: But these things I have told you from the beginning.
First, concerning steadfastness in faith, three things are set forth.
The first part, which contains the present chapter, has three parts. In the first, the Lord exhorts to steadfast faith. In the second, because "faith without works is dead," he exhorts to good works, at the passage: If you love me, keep my commandments. In the third, he foretells the hastening of his departure, at the passage: These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you.
First, therefore, he exhorts the disciples not to waver in faith on account of his departure, showing them first the manner of departing: second, the way: third, the destination: fourth, the fruit.
(Verse 1). He therefore first exhorts them that, considering the manner of departing, they should not be troubled by his departure nor fail in faith, but rather believe. Therefore he says: Let not your heart be troubled, but let it believe: whence: You believe in God, believe also in me. Let it not be troubled by absence, but believe in the absent one: just as you believe in God, whom you do not see. And the reason why they ought not to be troubled but to believe is this: namely, that the Lord does not depart from them entirely, but goes before them, so that he may again take them up to glory, in which there are many mansions already prepared according to eternal election, but still to be prepared according to merits: whence this word to prepare, according to Augustine's exposition, is taken in the text according to these two significations. Therefore the text should be read thus:
2. (Verse 2). In my Father's house there are many mansions, already prepared, that is, according to eternal election: for in Ephesians 1: "He chose us before the foundation of the world"; Jerome says: "In heaven diverse mansions are prepared for diverse virtues, which not persons receive, but works." Thus they are prepared. If not so, that is, if it were not so: whence another reading of Chrysostom, where it says: If not so, reads: "If indeed not," that is, if they were not prepared through predestination: I would have told you: For I go to prepare a place for you. But it is impossible that I should now prepare: because it is impossible that I should predestine anyone anew, as Augustine says. Therefore I said that "mansions are in the Father's house," already prepared through predestination, but still to be prepared through the merit of faith, which has its greatest merit in absence. Therefore he adds:
3. (Vers. 3.). And if I go and prepare a place for you, through your faith, namely, in my absence: whence Augustine says: "Let the Lord Jesus go and prepare a place; let him go, so that he may not be seen; let him be hidden, so that he may be believed. For then is a place prepared, if one lives by faith. Let him who is believed be desired, so that he who is desired may be possessed: the desire of love is the preparation of the dwelling." When I shall have thus prepared in my absence, I come again and will take you to myself, through glory, namely, that where I am, you also may be: above in the twelfth chapter: "If anyone serves me, let him follow me, and where I am, there let my servant also be." He therefore exhorts them to faith in his absence, because he absents himself for this reason, that faith may have merit. So Augustine and the Gloss read it.
4. The whole can nevertheless be expounded in one signification of this word to prepare, so that the sense is: Let not your heart be troubled, but believe in me; because in my Father's house there are many mansions, in which you will rest together with me, to which I prepare the way; therefore you ought not to grieve. But then you would have cause to grieve, if it were not so, I would have told you, that is, if I had not said: Because I go to prepare a place for you, I will take you up again, etc. But I have said this and I say it; whence: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and will take you to myself, etc. However it may be read, an exhortation to faith is made.
5. (Vers. 4.). And where I go, you know. Here the second point is touched upon, namely the way of departure. And lest he should seem to them to be saying something new about his departure, he says that they knew both the way and the destination; therefore he says: And where I go, you know, and the way you know. But some of them did not fully understand; therefore they ask, namely Thomas and Philip; whence:
6. (Vers. 5.). Thomas says to him: Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? Thomas the doubter was slow to understand, and this for our benefit: because, just as the denial of Peter was profitable for removing presumption, so the ignorance of Thomas was profitable for the strengthening and clarification of faith. Therefore the Lord assures him concerning the way and the destination; whence:
7. (Vers. 6.). Jesus says to him: I am the way, the truth, and the life. The truth and the life with respect to the destination, because the truth regards the intellect, the life regards the affection. I am the way for those seeking, the truth for those finding, the life for those remaining without death.
I am the way that does not err: Psalm: "They wandered in a pathless waste and not in the way." I am the truth that does not deceive: Psalm: "The Lord is faithful in all his words." The life that does not fail: Luke ten: "Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her."
I am the way teaching: Proverbs 4: "I will lead you through the paths of equity, which when you have entered, your steps shall not be straitened, and running you shall have no stumbling block." I am the truth shining; Malachi, the last chapter: "The sun of justice shall arise for you who fear God." The life nourishing: above in the tenth chapter: "If anyone enters through me, he shall be saved: and he shall go in and go out and shall find pastures."
I am the way by example: above in the thirteenth chapter: "I have given you an example, that as I have done to you, so you also should do." I am the truth in promise: the Psalm: "What proceeds from my lips I shall not make void." I am the life in reward: Romans 6: "The wages of sin is death: but the grace of God is life eternal." And that he is the way, he shows: No one comes to the Father except through me, and through me one assuredly comes.
8. (Verse 7). If you had known me, you would certainly have known my Father also; because, as is said above in the tenth chapter, "I and the Father are one"; Matthew 11: "No one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him." And from henceforth you shall know him, and you have seen him: you shall know him, namely in the coming of the Holy Spirit: below in the sixteenth chapter: "When that Spirit of truth shall come, he will teach you all truth." That word of Jeremiah 31 shall be verified in you: "I will give my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts I will write it."
9. (Verse 8). Philip says to him. Here the third point is touched upon, namely the terminus of Christ's departure, which Philip desired to see: on account of which Philip says to him: Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us, as if to say: we seek nothing further from you. For he is "all in all," 1 Corinthians 15. Not only he himself, but also his grace; 2 Corinthians 12: "My grace is sufficient for you." And because Philip was seeking what was not needful, therefore the Lord instructs Philip that he is seeking what he ought to have known: whence:
10. (Verse 9). Jesus says to him: I have been with you so long a time, and you have not known me? As if to say:
when you ask about the Father, you ask about me, whom you ought to know. Therefore he says: Philip, he who sees me sees also my Father. How do you say: Show us the Father? He sees with the eye of faith, according to which Abraham, Genesis 18, is said to have "seen three and adored one." And that he ought so to believe, he shows, because they are one: on account of which he says:
11. (Verse 10). Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? as one: as if to say: this you ought to believe. And he manifests this through his work: The words that I speak to you, I do not speak of myself: but the Father who abides in me, he does the works, and thus, if the operation is one, the substance also is one: above in the fifth chapter: "Whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner"; and in the eighth chapter: "Of myself I do nothing."
12. (Vers. 11.). Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? Simply, without persuasion, as right faith believes.
13. (Vers. 12.). Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves; above in the tenth chapter: "If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me." Whence Augustine says: "If we were separated, we could in no way work inseparably." And thus it has been explained where he had said he was going to go, because he was not going to the Father as to someone outside himself, but he wished to make them believe that he was equal to the Father. And indeed the disciples already knew this, because they believed him to be true God, and thus equal to the Father in all things: otherwise he would not be true God.
Amen, amen, I say to you. Here the fourth point is touched upon, namely the fruit or utility of Christ's departure in believers: on account of which he says: He who believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do, and greater things than these shall he do: Matthew 17: "If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: Move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." And the reason for this is Christ's departure from us: therefore he adds: Because I go to the Father, namely, that I may appear before the face of God "to intercede for you"; therefore 1 John 2: "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ"; and therefore he says:
14. (Vers. 13.). Whatever you shall ask the Father in my name, this I will do. Therefore he says that we ought to ask the Father in the name of the Son, so that namely the Father may be glorified in the Son, because the Son does not seek his own glory, but the Father's: therefore it was said above in the seventh chapter: "He who seeks the glory of him who sent him, he is truthful." And for greater certainty, because a promise is made firmer by a double affirmation, therefore he adds: