AUGUSTINE . (Tr. ciii) For they did not only with their bodies leave His body, when He was taken, but with their minds the faith.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxix) Ye shall be scattered; i. e. when I am betrayed, fear shall so possess you, that ye will not be able even to take to flight together. But I shall suffer no harm in consequence: And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
AUGUSTINE . (Tr. ciii) He wishes to advance them so far as to understand that He had not separated from the Father because He had come forth from the Father.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxix. 2) These things have I said unto you, that ye might have peace: i. e. that ye may not reject Me from your minds. For not only when I am taken shall ye suffer tribulation, but so long as ye are in the world: In the world ye shall have tribulation.
GREGORY . (xxvi. Moral. c. xi.) As if He said, Have Me within you to comfort you, because you will have the world without you.
AUGUSTINE . (Tract. ciii. 3) The tribulation of which He speaks was to commence thus, i. e. in every one being scattered to his home, but was not to continue so. For in saying, And leave Me alone, He does not mean this to apply to them in their sufferings after His ascension. They were not to desert Him then, but to abide and have peace in Him. Wherefore He adds, Be of good cheer.
CHRYSOSTOM . (Hom. lxxx) i. e. raise up your spirits again: when the Master is victorious, the disciples should not be dejected; I have overcome the world.
AUGUSTINE . When the Holy Spirit was given them, they were of good cheer, and, in His strength, victorious. For He would not have overcome the world, had the world overcome His members. When He says, These things have I spoken to you, that in Me ye might have peace, He refers not only to what He has just said, but to what He had said all along, either from the time that He first had disciples, or since the supper, when He began this long and wonderful discourse. He declares this to be the object of His whole discourse, viz. that in Him they might have peace. And this peace shall have no end, but is itself the end of every pious action and intention.