And Augustine responds that by adding true, "he distinguishes himself from that vine to which it was said: How have you turned into bitterness, O foreign vine "? Jeremiah two: How have you turned to perversity, O foreign vineyard? Hence it is not called true because it is not said by likeness, but true because it is not foreign.
Nevertheless, it can be said that just as true wine is that which has the operation of wine, so the true vine is that which has the operation of the vine. The vine therefore, literally, is true when it produces wine; not true, that which does not bear fruit. So also a figurative vine is called true which has the activity of the vine; not true, which does not have it. So also Christ, because he truly has the activity of the vine, is the true vine. But not the synagogue, of which Isaiah five says: "He expected it to produce grapes, but it produced thorns."
14. Question II. But then the question remains: why does the Lord compare himself to the grain of wheat among grains, and to the wood of the vine among woods?
I respond: This is on account of the true body and the mystical body. The true body of Christ is true food, and the true blood is true drink. Because therefore from grains of wheat is made bread that most excellently nourishes, and from the vine wine that most excellently gives drink, he therefore compared himself to the vine and the grain. And hence it is that in these two species the Sacrament of the altar is confected.
Another reason is on account of the mystical body, because just as from the purest grains of wheat and grape berries bread and wine are made, so from pure faithful ones the mystical body of Christ is formed.
15. Question III. Likewise it is asked, according to which nature Christ is the vine, whether according to the divine or according to the human.
And that it is according to the human nature, Augustine says: "The vine and the branches are of one nature; on account of which, since he was God, of whose nature we are not, he was made man, so that in him the vine would be human nature, of which we too could be branches."
But against this there is: 1. Because insofar as the vine pours sap into the branches: therefore if no one pours the sap of grace except God alone and insofar as He is God, then He is the vine according to the divine nature. 2. Likewise, in this vine all the Saints from Abel to the last just person remained and proceeded; but Christ according to His human nature came after Abel: therefore they were not branches in Him according to His human nature.
I respond: It must be understood that certain things are said of Christ according to the divine nature purely, such that they are said no less even when the human nature is abstracted, as being eternal and impassible: certain things according to the human purely, as being mortal and passible: certain things according to the human insofar as it is united to the divine, or conversely, as being mediator. For if He were only God, He would not be mediator: if only man, He would not be mediator: if God and man, then He is mediator. And according to this He is the vine and the head of the Church insofar as He is mediator. Therefore that He is called the vine is not according to the human nature purely, but insofar as it is joined to the divine in the unity of the hypostasis. And on account of the unity of the hypostasis, Christ is the object of faith according to both natures, whence insofar as we believe Him to be God and man. And because without this faith, whether implicit or explicit, no one was saved, the sap of grace from this vine overflowed into all the Saints.
2. And thus it is clear how He was the vine with respect to those who preceded and those who followed; whence both those who went before and those who followed cried out: Hosanna to the Son of David. Whence Christ was most fittingly signified by the cluster of grapes that was brought from the promised land, Numbers thirteen, which they carried on their shoulders, and those who went before carried it but did not see it: those who followed carried it and saw it.
16. Question IV. Likewise Augustine asks concerning what He says: You are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you: because the word is exterior, cleanliness is interior. How then can an exterior word cleanse interiorly?
I respond: It must be said that this is either on account of faith, or on account of the Sacrament of faith: on account of faith, because faith comes from hearing, which purifies the heart: on account of the Sacrament of faith, which is baptism. Whence Augustine says: "In the water the word cleanses: take away the word, what is water but water? The word comes to the element, and it becomes a Sacrament." But this word of faith and of the Sacrament, even though it is exterior, nevertheless cleanses, as Augustine says, "not because it is spoken, but because it is believed; Romans ten: If you confess with your mouth that the Lord has ascended into heaven, and in your heart you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved ".
17. Question V. The question is raised concerning what He says: The Father will take away every branch not bearing fruit.
Either he will take away from the vine, or he will take away from life. From the vine, no, because the Father separates no one from his Son; or if he takes away, how does he take away from the vine? Because he who does not work good is by that very fact separated from the vine, Christ, because he does not have grace, but rather loses it. If from life; this is false, because the wicked live longer than the good, as we see. Likewise, he also takes the good from bodily life just as he does the wicked.
I respond: It must be said that the branches draw from Christ not the life of nature, but the life of grace and the life of glory. A branch is said to be taken away or separated from this vine not through the death of nature, but through the death of sin, or of final damnation. Hence unfruitful branches and those who receive the grace of God in vain are separated from the vine by the merit of their sin through the judgment of divine justice; hence Revelation 3: Because you are lukewarm, I will begin to vomit you out; because by just judgment God does not bestow grace upon them. By the judgment of final damnation they will be taken away and cast into the fire, when the time of meriting is closed off; hence he says: he will take away, not because he removes immediately, since he grants a place for repentance.
18. Question VI. Likewise, there is a question about what he says: As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.
Against this is the fact that the love of the Father is natural, while the love of the Son toward us is purely gratuitous; therefore no likeness seems apparent. It is therefore asked: in what respect does he say, As the Father has loved me, etc.?
I respond: It must be said that, as Richard of Saint Victor says, in the divine persons there is love that is purely gratuitous, love that is owed, and love mixed from both. The love of the Father for the Son is purely gratuitous, because the Father gives to the Son and receives nothing. But the love of the Holy Spirit for the Father and the Son is purely owed, because he only receives. But the love of the Son for the Father is owed, because he receives; toward the Holy Spirit it is gratuitous, because he gives. Since therefore the Son loved us purely gratuitously, he compares the love by which he loves us to the love of the Father for himself.
Second, he exhorts the disciples to love their friends.
19. This is my commandment. After the Lord has exhorted to the love of God, here secondly he exhorts to the love of brother and friend, and he does this in the following manner. First, he binds them to fraternal love in view of obedience; second, in view of divine friendship; third, in view of eternal reward.
(Verse 12). He binds them first by the precept of obedience, indicating that this is entirely in his will as the chief commandment; on account of which he says: This is my commandment, that you love one another; hence above in chapter thirteen: "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another." And the manner is added: As I have loved you, "not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth," as I have loved you. And he shows that he himself loved them in deed:
20. (Vers. 13.). Greater, he says, love than this no one has, than that one lay down his life for his friends: as if to say: nothing more can one do than give one's life, which is dearer than all things; Ephesians 5: "Christ loved us and delivered himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness." And this was a most vehement love, not only in Christ, who delivered himself and his soul, but in the Father: whence Romans 8: "He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all: how has he not also, together with him, given us all things?"
Whence it should be noted that great is the love by which a mother loves her son: beyond this Christ loved us: Isaiah 49: "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you."
Greater is that by which a wife loves her husband, and beyond this Christ loved us; Jeremiah 3: "It is commonly said: If a man dismiss his wife, and she departing from him marry another man, shall he return to her any more? But you have committed fornication with many lovers: yet return, and I will receive you."
Greatest is that of the soul to the body: and beyond this he loved us: Jeremiah 12: "I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance, I have given my beloved soul into the hands of her enemies." And therefore that saying is true in the last chapter of the Song of Songs: "Love is strong as death," etc.