19. (Vers. 11.). And I am no longer in the world: because, above in the fourteenth chapter, "I will no longer speak much with you"; and these are in the world, and I come to you, and therefore I leave them desolate: above in the sixteenth chapter: "I go to him who sent me: but because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart." And this was the third reason for being heard; whence above in the fourteenth chapter: "I go to the Father: and whatever you ask the Father in my name, this I will do."
20. Holy Father. After the manifold reason for asking has been set forth, here in the fourth place is added the petition itself, by which he asks for their preservation in good: on account of which he says: Holy Father, keep them in your name, whom you have given me, that is, in the power of your name: above in the tenth chapter: "No one can snatch them from my Father's hand." Keep them, I say, in good: whence he says: That they may be one, even as we are, namely in the unity of concord and peace, which unity God preserves in the elect, but nevertheless with their own solicitude: therefore Ephesians four: "Being solicitous to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
QUESTIONS.
21. Question I. But here a question is raised about this, that the Lord here prays for the Apostles:
1. Because above in the sixteenth chapter it is said: I do not say to you that I will ask the Father concerning you; for the Father himself loves you: therefore here he does the contrary of what he had said.
2. Likewise, the Lord himself prayed for none except the predestined, about whom he knew that God willed to save them in the end; but they would be saved without his prayer; therefore he prayed in vain.
3. Likewise, why did he pray with vocal prayer? What was the necessity?
I respond: It must be said that the Lord prayed for the Apostles for a threefold reason, namely for the obtaining of salvation, consolation, and instruction: because he merited for them, because from hearing these words they were consoled, because they were instructed to pray from this, and we ourselves as well; therefore he prayed with vocal prayer.
1. To the objection that the Lord said above: I do not say to you that I will ask the Father, etc.; the Lord did not wish to deny that he would pray for them, since it is said in Hebrews 9 that he appears before the face of God to intercede for us; but rather that he would not pray to the Father as though to one unwilling, but as to one benevolent toward the Apostles themselves.
2. But one asks: to what end does he pray? Augustine says in On the Predestination of the Saints that we are not heard except on behalf of the predestined, and for them we do not pray in vain, because "perhaps they were predestined so that they might be granted through our prayers." So also in Christ.
22. Question II. There is a question about what he says: I pray for them, not for the world.
On the contrary: 1. Below in the same chapter: That the world may believe that you sent me; therefore he was praying that the world might believe.
2. Likewise, he ought to have prayed for those for whom he was sent and for whom he ought to die; but he died for the world; above in chapter 3: God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.
3. Likewise, by world are understood sinners; but those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are ailing; therefore it was especially necessary to pray for such people.
I respond: It must be said that world is taken in three ways in this prayer, and on account of this it generates ambiguity, and a fourth mode is added besides. For world is said to be the visible globe itself; and so it is taken above in chapter 1: The world was made through him. Sometimes it is said to be the state of our sojourn, insofar as it has misery attached to it; and so there: These are in the world, and I come to you. Sometimes, insofar as it names the state of the present sojourn together with fault; and so below: The world has hated them. Sometimes, insofar as it implies eternal reprobation; and so it is taken there: I pray for them; I do not pray for the world.
In the first mode it denotes nature; in the second mode, nature and misery; in the third, nature and misery and fault; in the fourth mode, nature and misery and fault and divine reprobation.
23. When I was with them, etc. After he sought preservation in the good, here he seeks deliverance or rescue from evil; and here the petition or prayer itself is set forth in this manner. For first, the necessity of petitioning is noted; second, the form of the petition; third, the reason for granting it.
The necessity therefore of seeking preservation comes from a twofold cause: both from the absence of the preserver, and from the immersion in tribulation.
24. (Verse 12.). Christ was being made absent from them, he who had preserved them: therefore he says: While I was with them, I kept them in your name. He preserved the disciples in the name of the Father, because by the power of the Father and because for the glory of the Father: and afterward the Father kept them in the name of the Son: whence above in the sixteenth chapter: "If you shall ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you." And indeed he kept them well: therefore he says: Those whom you gave me, I have guarded, as a good prelate, to whom it is said in 3 Kings 20: "Guard this man, for if he shall have escaped, your life shall be for his life." Concerning this guardianship, in the Psalm: "Behold, he shall neither slumber nor sleep who guards Israel"; and again: "Unless the Lord shall have guarded the city, he watches in vain who guards it"; whence the Psalm: "Guard us, O Lord, as the pupil of the eye"; Deuteronomy 32: "He led him about and taught him and guarded him as the pupil of his eye." And well indeed: whence he says: And none of them perished except the son of perdition, that is, Judas, who is called of perdition because he was foreknown unto death. For he destroyed himself temporally; Matthew 27: "He went and hanged himself with a noose"; he destroyed himself eternally; Matthew 26: "Woe to that man! by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed: it were better for him if that man had not been born." For the same reason, it is said of the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2: "Then shall be revealed the man of sin, the son of perdition." He did not perish by chance nor by Christ's negligence, but by his own malice, which was foreknown from eternity and foretold through Scripture; therefore he says: That the Scripture might be fulfilled, namely of that Psalm: "O God of my praise." Thus therefore I was keeping them well, and then they did not need me to pray for them.
25. (Verse 13.). But now I come to you, and I leave them, and therefore I pray, that they themselves may conceive confidence from my prayer; therefore he says: These things I speak in the world, that is, I make this prayer while they themselves are listening, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves, so that they may not be troubled by distrust, but may rejoice in themselves through the hope of being heard, according to that passage above in the sixteenth chapter: "Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full." Therefore he himself was asking, so that they might conceive full joy.
This therefore is the first necessity, namely the absence of the preserver; but the other is the immersion in tribulation, which on this account was about to rush upon them because of their observance of the divine word, on account of which the world held them in hatred. Therefore he says:
26. (Vers. 14.). I have given them your word: above in the fourteenth chapter: "The word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father's who sent me." And from this they have incurred the hatred of the world; therefore he says: And the world has hated them. And the reason is that they themselves have left the world; therefore he says: Because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, that is, separated from worldly conduct, just as I am; above in the fifteenth chapter: "If you were of the world, the world would love what was its own; but because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." The Apostles were separated from the world; whence in Romans 1 he said, "Paul, Apostle of Jesus Christ, set apart," truly set apart, because in the last chapter of Galatians he said: "The world is crucified to me, and I to the world."
27. (Vers. 15.). I do not ask that you take them away. Here the second point is touched upon, namely the form of the petition, in which he asks that they be removed from a twofold evil, namely of perverse affection and of error.
He asks, therefore, that they be preserved from perverse affection, to which the world draws them, in which they had to dwell; therefore he says: I do not ask that you take them out of the world, that is, through the death of the flesh, as is said of Enoch in Genesis 5: "Enoch walked with God and appeared no more, because God took him." He took him for this purpose, to preserve him from evil; Wisdom 4: "He was snatched away, lest wickedness alter his understanding." He was not asking that they be preserved in this way, but in the world: therefore he adds: But that you keep them from evil. And the reason is why they must be preserved in the world:
28. (Vers. 16.). They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world, namely in conduct; therefore he was asking that they be saved and preserved, lest they be turned back to the world through love; concerning which preservation, Apocalypse 3: "Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth." Thus he asks that they be preserved from the evil of transgression; he also asks that they be preserved from the evil of error: on account of which he says: