17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
CHRYSOSTOM . Our Lord having said, Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that I will do; that they might not think simply asking would be enough, He adds, If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And then I will do what ye ask, seems to be His meaning. Or the disciples having heard Him say, I go to the Father, and being troubled at the thought of it, He says, To love Me, is not to be troubled, but to keep My commandments: this is love, to obey and believe in Him who is loved. And as they had been expressing a strong desire for His bodily presence, He assures them that His absence will be supplied to them in another way: And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter.
AUGUSTINE . (Tract. lxxiv. 4) Wherein He shews too that He Himself is the Comforter. Paraclete means advocate, and is applied to Christ: We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1)
ALCUIN . Paraclete, i. e. Comforter. They had then one Comforter, who comforted and elevated them by the sweetness of His miracles, and His preaching.
DIDYMUS . (Didym. De Spiritu Sancto.) But the Holy Ghost was another Comforter: differing not in nature, but in operation. For whereas our Saviour in His office of Mediator, and of Messenger1, and as High Priest, made supplication for our sins; the Holy Ghost is a Comforter in another sense, i. e. as consoling our griefs. But do not infer from the different operations of the Son and the Spirit, a difference of nature. For in other places we find the Holy Spirit performing the office of intercessor2 with the Father, as, The Spirit Himself intercedeth for us. (Rom. 8:26) And the Saviour, on the other hand, pours consolation into those hearts that need it: as in Maccabees, He strengthened those of the people that were brought low. (1 Macc. 14:15)
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxiv. 2) He says, I will ask the Father, to make them believe Him: which they could not have done, had He simply said, I will send.
AUGUSTINE . (contra Serm. Arrian. c. xix.) Yet to shew that His works are inseparable from His Father’s, He says below, When I shall go, I will send Him unto you.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxiv) But what had He more than the Apostles, if He could only ask the Father to give others the Spirit? The Apostles did this often even without praying.
ALCUIN . I will ask—He says, as being the inferior in respect of His humanity—My Father, with Whom I am equal and consubstantial in respect of My Divine nature.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxv. 1) That He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit does not depart even at death. He intimates too that the Holy Ghost will not suffer death, or go away, as He has done. But that the mention of the Comforter might not lead them to expect another incarnation, a Comforter to be seen with the eye, He adds, Even the Spirit of truth, Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him.
AUGUSTINE . (Tract. lxxiv. 1) This is the Holy Ghost in the Trinity, Whom the Catholic faith professes to be consubstantial and coeternal with the Father and the Son.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxv. 1) The Spirit of truth He calls Him, because He unfolds the figures of the Old Testament. The world are the wicked, seeing is certain knowledge; sight being the most certain of the senses.
BEDE . Note too, that when He calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth, He shews that the Holy Spirit is His Spirit: then when He says He is given by the Father, He declares Him to be the Spirit of the Father also. Thus the Holy Ghost proceeds both from the Father, and from the Son.
GREGORY . (v. Mor.) The Holy Spirit kindles in every one, in whom He dwells, the desire of things invisible. And since worldly minds love only things visible, this world receiveth Him not, because it rises not to the love of things invisible. In proportion as secular minds enlarge themselves by the spread of their desires, in that proportion they narrow themselves, with respect to admitting Christ.
AUGUSTINE . (Tract. lxxiv. 4) Thus the world, i. e. the lovers of the world, cannot, He says, receive the Holy Spirit: that is to say, unrighteousness cannot be righteous. The world, i. e. the lovers of the world, cannot receive Him, because it seeth Him not. The love of the world hath not invisible eyes wherewith to see that, which can only be seen invisibly. It follows: But ye know Him, for He dwelleth (manebit) with you. And that they might not think this meant a visible dwelling, in the sense in which we use the phrase with respect to a guest, He adds, And shall be in you.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxv. 1) As if He said, He will not dwell with you as I have done, but will dwell in your souls.
AUGUSTINE . (Tract. lxxiv. 5) To be in a place is prior to dwelling. Be in you, is the explanation of dwell with you: i. e. shews that the latter means not that He is seen, but that He is known, He must be in us, that the knowledge of Him may be in us. We see the Holy Ghost then in us, in our consciences.
GREGORY . (ii. Mor.) But if the Holy Spirit abides in the disciples, how is it a special mark of the Mediator that He abides in Him. (supr. 1:32. ἐπʼ αὐτὸν) We shall better understand, if we distinguish between the different gifts of the Spirit. In respect of those gifts without which we cannot attain to salvation, the Holy Spirit ever abides in all the Elect: but in respect of those which do not relate to our own salvation, but to the procuring that of others, He does not always abide in them. For He sometimes withdraws His miraculous gifts, that His grace may be possessed with humility. Christ has Him without measure and always.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxv. 1) This speech levels at a stroke, as it were, the opposite heresies. The word another, shews the distinct personality of the Spirit: the word Paraclete, His consubstantiality.
AUGUSTINE . (contr. Serm. Arrian. c. xix.) Comforter, the title of the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity, the Apostle applies to God: God that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us. (2 Cor. 7:6) The Holy Spirit therefore Who comforts those that are cast down, is God. Or if they will have this said by the Apostle of the Father or the Son, let them not any longer separate the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, in His peculiar office of comforting.
AUGUSTINE . (Tract. lxxiv. c. 1) But when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us, (Rom. 5:6) how shall we love and keep the commandments of Christ, so as to receive the Spirit, when we are not able to love or to keep them, unless we have received the Spirit? Does love in us go first, i. e. do we so love Christ and keep His commandments as to deserve to receive the Holy Spirit, and to have the love of God the Father shed abroad in our hearts? This is a perverse opinion. For he who does not love the Father, does not love the Son, however he may think he does. (c. 2). It remains for us to understand, that he who loves has the Holy Spirit, and by having Him, attains to having more of Him, and by having more of Him, to loving more. The disciples had already the Spirit which our Lord promised; but they were to be given more of Him: they had Him secretly, they were to receive Him openly. The promise is made both to him who has the Spirit, and to him who has Him not; to the former, that he shall have Him; to the latter, that He shall have more of Him.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxv. 1) When He had cleansed His disciples by the sacrifice of His passion, and their sins were remitted, and they were sent forth to dangers and trials, it was necessary that they should receive the Holy Spirit abundantly. But they were made to wait some time for this gift, in order that they might feel the want of it, and so be the more grateful for it when it came.
14:18–21
18. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more: but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.