1133 Here the question arises as to whether a sinful judge sins by passing sentence against another person who has committed the same sin. It is obvious that if the judge who passes sentence is a public sinner, he sins by giving scandal. Yet, this seems to be true also if his sin is hidden, for we read in Romans (2:1): "When you judge another you condemn yourself." However, it is clear that no one condemns himself except by sinning. And thus it seems that he sins by judging another.
My answer to this is that two distinctions have to be made. For the judge is either continuing in his determination to sin, or he has repented of his sins; and again, he is either punishing as a minister of the law or on his own initiative. Now if he has repented of his sin, he is no longer a sinner, and so he can pass sentence without sinning. But if he continues in his determination to sin, he does not sin in passing sentence if he does this as a minister of the law; although he would be sinning by doing the very things for which he deserves a similar sentence. But if he passes sentence on his own authority, then I say that he sins in justice, but from some evil root; otherwise he would first punish in himself what he notices in someone else, because "A just person is the first to accuse himself" (Prv 18:17).
1134 Jesus continued to write, and again bending down, he wrote. He did this, first, to show the firmness of his sentence, "God is not like a man, who may lie, or like a son of man, so that he may change" (Num 23:19). Secondly, he did it to show that they were not worthy to look at him. Because he had disturbed them with his zeal for justice, he did not think it fit to look at them, but turned from their sight. Thirdly, he did this out of consideration for their embarrassment, to give them complete freedom to leave.
1135 The effect of his justice is their embarrassment, for on hearing this, one after the other departed , both because they had been involved in more serious sins and their conscience gnawed them more: "Iniquity came out from the elder judges who were seen to rule the people" (Dn 13:5), and because they better realized the fairness of the sentence he gave: "I will go therefore to the great men and speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord and the judgment of their God" (Jer 5:5).
And there remained only Jesus and the woman standing there , that is, mercy and misery. Jesus alone remained because he alone was without sin; as the Psalm says (Ps 13:1): "There is no one who does what is good not even one," except Christ. So perhaps this woman was afraid, and thought she would be punished by him.
If only Jesus remained, why does it say that the woman was standing there in the center ? I answer that the woman was standing in the center of the disciples, and so the word only excludes outsiders, not the disciples. Or, we could say, in the center, that is, in doubt whether she would be forgiven or condemned. And so it is clear that our Lord's answer preserved justice.
1136 Then (v 10), he shows that Jesus did not abandon mercy, but gave a merciful sentence. First, Jesus questions the woman; then forgives her; and finally, cautions her.
1137 Jesus questioned her about her accusers; thus he says that Jesus rising up, that is, turning from the ground on which he was writing and looking at the woman, asked her, Woman, where are those who accuse you? He asks about her condemnation saying, Has no one condemned you? And she answers, No one, Lord.
1138 Jesus forgives her; and so it says, Then Jesus said: Nor will I condemn you , I who perhaps you feared would condemn you, because you saw that I was without sin. This should not surprise us for "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (3:17); "I do not desire the death of the sinner" (Ez 18:23). And he forgave her sin without imposing any penance on her because since he made her inwardly just by outwardly forgiving her, he was well able to change her so much within by sufficient sorrow for her sins that she would be made free from any penance. This should not be taken as a precedent for anyone to forgive another without confession and the assigning of a penance on the ground of Christ's example, for Christ has power over the sacraments, and could confer the effect without the sacrament. No mere man can do this.
1139 Finally, Jesus cautions her when he says, Go, and do not sin again. There were two things in that woman: her nature and her sin. Our Lord could have condemned both. For example, he could have condemned her nature if he had ordered them to stone her, and he could have condemned her sin if he had not forgiven her. He was also able to absolve each. For example, if he had given her license to sin, saying: "Go, live as you wish, and put your hope in my freeing you. No matter how much you sin, I will free you even from Gehenna and from the tortures of hell." But our Lord does not love sin, and does not favor wrongdoing, and so he condemned her sin but not her nature, saying, Go, and do not sin again. We see here how kind our Lord is because of his gentleness, and how just he is because of his truth.
LECTURE 2
12 Again Jesus spoke to them saying: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have the light of life." 13 The Pharisees then said to him, "You are bearing witness to yourself; your testimony is not true. 14 Jesus replied: "Even though I bear witness concerning myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I come from and where I am going. But you do not know where I come from, or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh. I do not judge anyone. 16 And if I do judge, my judgment is true because I am not alone; but there is me and the Father who sent me. 17 And it is written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true. 18 It is I who bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me who bears witness concerning me." 19 They therefore said to him, "Where is your Father?" Jesus replied, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you did know me, you might also know my Father." 20 Jesus spoke these words in the treasury where he was teaching in the temple; and no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.
1140 The Evangelist has presented Christ as teaching; now he shows, first, the power which this teaching has to give light, and secondly, what Christ himself said about it (v 13). With respect to the first he does three things: first, he states Christ's prerogative concerning spiritual light; secondly, the effect of this prerogative, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness; and thirdly, its fruit, but he will have the light of life.
1141 He says, concerning the prerogative of Christ, who is the light, to the spiritual light, Again Jesus spoke to them saying: I am the light of the world. We can relate this statement with what went before in this way. Christ had said, when forgiving the woman's sin, "Nor will I condemn you." And so they would have no doubt that he could forgive and pardon sins, he saw fit to show the power of his divinity more openly by saying that he is the light which drives away the darkness of sin. Or, we could connect this statement with what the Pharisees said before (7:52): "Look at the Scriptures and see that the Prophet will not come from Galilee." For they thought of him as a Galilean and linked to a definite place, and so they rejected his teaching. So our Lord shows them that he is in the universal light of the entire world, saying, I am the light of the world, not just of Galilee, or of Palestine, or of Judea.
1142 The Manicheans, as Augustine relates, misunderstood this: for since they judged by their imagination, which does not rise to intellectual and spiritual realities, they believed that nothing but bodies existed. Thus they said that God was a body; and a certain infinite light. Further, they thought that the sun that we see with our physical eyes was Christ the Lord. And that is why, according to them, Christ said, I am the light of the world. But this cannot hold up, and the Catholic Church rejects such a fiction. For this physical sun is a light which can be perceived by sense. Consequently, it is not the highest light, which intellect alone grasps, and which is the intelligible light characteristic of the rational creature. Christ says about this light here: I am the light of the world. And above we read: "He was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world" (1:9). Sense perceptible light, however, is a certain image of spiritual light, for every sensible thing is something particular, whereas intellectual things are a kind of whole. Just as particular light has an effect on the thing seen, inasmuch as it makes colors actually visible, as well as on the one seeing, because through it the eye is conditioned for seeing, so intellectual light makes the intellect to know because whatever light is in the rational creature is all derived from that supreme light "which enlightens every man coming into the world." Furthermore, it makes all things to be actually intelligible inasmuch as all forms are derived from it, forms which give things the capability of being known, just as all the forms of artifacts are derived from the art and reason on the artisan: "How magnificent are your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom" (Ps 103:24). Thus Christ truly says here: I am the light of the world; not the sun which was made, but the one who made the sun. Yet as Augustine says, the Light which made the sun was himself made under the sun and covered with a cloud of flesh, not in order to hide but to be moderated [to our weakness].
1143 This also eliminates the heresy of Nestorius, who said that the Son of God was united to human nature by a mere indwelling. For it is obvious that the one who said, I am the light of the world, was a human being. Therefore, unless the one who spoke and appeared as a human being was also the person of the Son of God, he could not have said, I am the light of the world, but "The light of the world dwells in me."
1144 The effect of this light is to expel darkness; and so he says, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness. Because this light is universal, it universally expels all darkness. Now there are three kinds of darkness. There is the darkness of ignorance: "The have neither known nor understood; they walk in darkness" (Ps 81:5); and this is the darkness reason has of itself, insofar as it is darkened of itself. There is the darkness of sin: "You were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord" (Eph 5:8). This darkness belongs to human reason not of itself, but from the affections which, by being badly disposed by passion or habit, seek something as good that is not really good. Further, there is the darkness of eternal damnation: "Cast the unprofitable servant into the exterior darkness" (Mt 25:30). The first two kinds of darkness are found in this life; but the third is at the end of life. Thus, Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness: the darkness of ignorance, because I am the truth; nor the darkness of sin, because I am the way; nor the darkness of eternal damnation, because I am the life.
1145 He next adds the fruit of his teaching, but he will have the light of life , for one who has the light is outside the darkness of damnation. He says, Whoever follows me, because just as one who does not want to stumble in the dark has to follow the one who is carrying the light, so one who wants to be saved must, by believing and loving, follow Christ, who is the light. This is the way the apostles followed him (Mt 4). Because physical light can fail because it sets, it happens that one who follows it meets with darkness. But the light we are talking about here does not set and never fails; consequently, one who follows it has an unfailing light, that is, an unfailing light of life. For the light that is visible does not give life, but gives us an external aid because we live insofar as we have understanding, and this is a certain participation in this light. And when this light completely shines upon us we will then have perfect life: "With you is the fountain of life, and in your light we will see the light" (Ps 35:10). This is the same as saying: We will have perfectly or completely when we see this light as it is. Thus we read further on: "This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (17:3).
Note that the phrase, whoever follows me , pertains to our merits; while the statement, he will have the light of life , pertains to our reward.
1146 The Evangelist mentions three things that Jesus says about himself. First, I am the light of the world; secondly, I am going away (v 21); and thirdly, if any one keeps my word, he will not see death forever (v 51).
The first thing he said was, I am the light of the world ; and this troubled the Jews. So first, he shows their opposition; secondly, how Jesus proved that they were wrong by showing what he said was true (v 14).
1147 With respect to the first, it is obvious that what Jesus said in the temple, he said in the presence of the people. But now he is speaking before the Pharisees, and so they said to him: You are bearing witness to yourself; your testimony is not true. They were saying in effect: Because you are bearing witness to yourself, your testimony is not true.
Now in human affairs it is neither acceptable nor fitting that a person praise himself: "Let another praise you, and not your own mouth" (Prv 27:2), because self-praise does not make a person commendable, but being commended by God does: "It is not he who commends himself who is approved, but he whom God commends" (2 Cor 10:18), because only God perfectly knows a person. But no one can really sufficiently commend God except God himself; and so it is fitting that he bear witness to himself, and also to men: "My witness is in heaven" (Jb 16:20). Thus the opinion of the Jews was mistaken.
1148 Next (v 14), our Lord rejects their opposition: first, by the authority of his Father; secondly, by answering their rejection, which arose concerning his Father (v 19). The opposition of the Jews arose from a certain conclusion which they drew: and so the first he shows that their conclusion is not true; secondly, he proves that his own testimony is true (v 1b). He does two things concerning the first: first, he shows that their conclusion is false; secondly, he adds the reason for their error (v 14b).
1149 Their conclusion was that the testimony of Christ was not true, because he bore witness to himself. But our Lord says the opposite, namely, that because of this it is true. Jesus replied: Even though I bear witness concerning myself, my testimony is true; and it is true because I know where I come from and where I am going. It is like saying, according to Chrysostom, my testimony is true because I am from God, and because I am God, and because I am the Son of God: "God is truthful" (Rom 3:4).