John 14:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The ways of the Lord and the paths, according to the prophet, are the saving writings of the holy prophets. If anyone sets his mind upon them, he will find the good way, that is, Christ.

Through Him complete sanctification comes to our souls. We are justified through faith (2 Pet 1:4), and by participation in the Holy Spirit we become partakers of the divine nature.

The great-voiced prophet Isaiah himself proclaimed Christ to us in these words: "There shall be a pure way there, and it shall be called the holy way" (Is 35:8).

He says "there," evidently in the times of the divine economy of the Only-begotten with flesh. For He became for us the pure and holy way.

Those who walk by Him will see, at the appointed times, the beautiful city of the saints and the free Jerusalem. So again the divine Psalmist himself speaks to God the Father as it were.

"Set me a law, O Lord, in Your way" (Ps 26:11). He desires to be instructed by the laws of Christ. He does not fail to know that through the evangelical instruction he goes straight toward every good and will reach the City above.

It would not be difficult to bring forward many other testimonies from the prophets. Through them we could learn that Jesus is called the holy way.

But I think there is no necessity or profit in trying to explain further matters so clear. Therefore He says, "You know the way" by which you yourselves will go to the mansions above.

He already points to this and to nothing else. Or He means that there are very many well-ordered chambers with God the Father, and that "I will go beforehand" to prepare for you a place of free dwelling in those regions.

Moreover, He says, you know that no one can obtain dwelling there through anyone else, but only through Me alone. Therefore if anyone falls away from the love of Christ, or listens to profane empty talk (1 Tim 6:20) and the impurities of perverse slanderers' words, let him beware.

If he places His ineffable and incomprehensible nature among the ranks of servants, and counts the free Word, born of the Father's essence, among creatures, or harms Him in some other way, let him finally know this.

He has lost the path of progress toward heaven and has turned aside from the furrows of his plowing, as someone has said. He must certainly undergo the punishment befitting those who are in Hades.

Therefore the all-wise Paul says that those who, through a diseased mind, deny life in Christ and return to the shadows under the law are estranged from Christ and have fallen from grace.

They do this because they prefer justification by the law (Gal 5:4). One who turns aside from a beaten and straight road must necessarily suffer harm from wandering.

In exactly the same way, I think, those who reject justification in Christ and count the instruction of evangelical life as nothing will not see the City above.

Nor will they live with the saints, for the way that leads to this is one: Christ.

What does it mean that You go away? What does it mean that You come again? If I understand You rightly, You do not go away from anywhere, nor do You return from where You go.

You go away by becoming invisible. You come by revealing Yourself to our sight.

But if You do not remain here, governing us so that we may advance in the good life, how will the place be prepared where we can abide in delight?

Let this suffice concerning the Gospel words that were read up to the place where the Lord said: "I will come again and take you to Myself."

As for what follows, "that where I am, you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know," it will be better for us to hear this and more fitting to discuss it after the following question asked by the disciple.

It is as though we ourselves asked that question through him.

Now, beloved, we have time, as far as we are able, to understand the Lord's earlier words from those spoken afterward. We may understand the preceding words from what followed, when, as you heard, an answer was given to the question of the Apostle Thomas.

For the Lord was speaking about the mansions. Concerning them He said both that they already exist in His Father's house, and that He would go to prepare them.

We have understood this in this way: these mansions already exist in predestination, and they are prepared through the cleansing by faith of the hearts of those who will dwell in them.

For they themselves are properly the house of God. What else does it mean to live in the house of God, except to be among the people of God, while that people abides in God, and God in them?

To prepare this house, the Lord departed, so that through faith in Him as invisible, the mansion might now be prepared through faith.

It has always existed according to its form, but has still to be prepared. Therefore He said: "And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know."

Christ answers in such a way that by His answer He directly removes every sensory understanding of His words.

He designates Himself as the sole and universal mediator and guide to the Father: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."

He is the way precisely because in Him, for all creatures, lies the source of truth and true life (Jn 1:4, 14). Therefore, apart from communion with Him, no one comes to the Father.

"No one comes to the Father except through Me," because God was pleased to reveal Himself to the world in His Son (cf. Jn 1:17-18).

Therefore, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also." Since with the Incarnation and becoming man of the Son, the fullest and final revelation of the Father has been accomplished,

"from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

Therefore both the Lord and Thomas could equally say, the one, "you know," and the other, "we do not know."

Moreover, the Lord speaks of His own departure and His own way by which He will go. Above, He did not specify the way by which He would take the Apostles to Himself.

He Himself knew both things so clearly and saw them so truly that life beyond the grave and His way of the Cross were as if before His eyes.

His disciples also ought to have known both things.

After three and a half years, during which He so tirelessly instructed them in the mysteries of the Kingdom, these words of the Savior could not have been unexpected to them:

"If I go, you know where I go, and you know the way by which I go, as your Leader."

If they still lacked proper understanding (Mt 15:16; Mk 8:17-19), this referred only to their weakness. It did not weaken the truth of His instructions, and with them the truth of His promises.

So you see, hearers, what the Savior offers His disciples for their consolation: "Believe in God, believe also in Me. This faith will comfort you with living hope of eternal blessedness."

Here is reliable help for all of us in earthly life: Christian hope in blessed futurity, teacher of virtues and friend in sorrows.

It can animate us with love for the will of the Heavenly Father and give us strength to endure earthly sorrows.

Not only the words of the Lord assure us of its truth, but also the experiences of the Christian centuries and of so many ascetics of piety.

Do we not know that Christian hope helped martyrs endure terrible sufferings for Christ, and confessors to despise the promises of the deceitful world?

It helped the chaste struggle with the stirrings of the flesh, the penitent endure the labors of repentance, the rich share all things with the poor, the poor patiently bear poverty, and the sick not groan from illnesses.

Whoever you may be, my hearer, and whatever your condition may be, Christian hope is faithful help for you.

Hold firmly to it. Look to the Lord who awaits you with a reward. Do not cling to the earth; you yourself see how wearisome it is.

Look to heaven; there is your wondrous mansion. Amen.