John 17:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore those who, despite such glory set before them, harm themselves by laziness and drowsiness are worthy of countless tears. Even if there were no Gehenna, those who could reign and be glorified with the Son of God, yet deprive themselves of such great blessings, would be the most wretched of all.

Indeed, if it were necessary to be torn apart, to die a thousand deaths, and to give each day a thousand souls and as many bodies, should one not endure all this for so great a glory?

Yet we do not even despise wealth, which afterward we shall leave behind unwillingly. We do not despise wealth that brings upon us a thousand evils, that remains here, and that does not belong to us. For we do not administer what is our own, even if we received it from our fathers.

But when there is also Gehenna, the undying worm, the unquenchable fire, and the gnashing of teeth, how, tell me, shall we endure this? How long shall we not open our eyes, spending all our time in daily quarrels, disputes, and empty words?

How long shall we feed the earth, fatten the body, and neglect the soul? How long shall we pay no attention to what is necessary, while devoting great care to what is excessive and empty?

We build splendid tombs for ourselves, buy costly houses, drag after ourselves crowds of every kind of servant, and invent various managers. We appoint overseers over houses, money, and even overseers over overseers. But we have no care for the soul that lies desolate.

Where will this end? Do we not fill one belly? Do we not clothe one body? Why, then, this multitude of cares? Why and for what purpose do we tear and rend the soul we have received into so many different services, devising harsh slavery for ourselves?

Whoever needs many things is truly a slave of many things, even if he seems to possess them all. In this way the master too is the slave of his servants, and he introduces a new and heavier kind of slavery.

He is a slave in this also, that without them he does not dare go either to the marketplace, or to the bath, or to the countryside. The servants often go everywhere without him. But he, who is considered master, does not dare leave the house alone if slaves are not with him. If he does go out alone, he considers himself ridiculous.

Perhaps some will laugh at us for these words. For that very reason they are worthy of countless tears. To show that this is truly slavery, I would gladly ask you: would you wish to need someone to place a piece of bread into your mouth, or set the cup to your lips?

Would you not consider such service worthy of tears? Or if, in order to go anywhere, you always needed some bearers, would you not for this reason consider yourself the most miserable and pitiable of men?

You ought to reason in exactly the same way now. There is no difference whether someone is carried by irrational animals or by men. Tell me, are the angels not distinguished from us, among other things, by the fact that they do not need so much as we do?

Therefore, the fewer needs we have, the nearer we approach them. The more needs we have, the deeper we fall into this corruptible life. To be convinced that this is truly so, ask the old what life they consider happy. Is it the life when they were under the power of these vain things, or the life when they themselves have mastery over them?

We have appealed to the old because those intoxicated with youth do not even feel the excessiveness of this slavery. What about those afflicted with fever? Do they consider themselves happy when, tormented by intense thirst, they drink much and ask for much, or when, having recovered, they are freed from this need?

Do you see that in every case needing many things is pitiable and contrary to philosophy, and that by it slavery and desire are increased? Why, then, do we voluntarily increase the misery of our condition?

Tell me, truly, if you could live without roof and walls, with no harm at all, would you not prefer this? Why then do you multiply the signs of your weakness? Do we not call Adam blessed because he needed nothing, neither dwellings nor clothing?

Yes, you will say, but now we have needs. Why, then, do we multiply these needs? If many deny themselves even many necessities, such as slaves, houses, and money, what defense shall we have when we transgress the limit of need?

The more needs you surround yourself with, the greater the slavery you will undergo. For the more you need, the more you will curtail your freedom. Perfect freedom consists in needing nothing at all. Next after it is to need little. This freedom belongs especially to the angels and to those who imitate them.

Consider how great the glory is, to attain this while dwelling in a mortal body. Paul expressed this when he wrote to the Corinthians, "I spare you," and, "that such may not have tribulation in the flesh" (1 Cor 7:28).

Money is called chremata because we ought to use it for needs, not store it up and bury it in the earth. That is no longer to possess, but to be possessed. If we aim only at acquiring more, and not at using it for needs, then the order is already overturned. It possesses us, not we it.

Let us therefore free ourselves from this harsh slavery and at last become free. Why do we invent for ourselves a multitude of varied bonds? Are the natural bonds, the necessities of life, and the accumulation of countless affairs not enough for you?

Yet you weave other nets for yourself and bind yourself by the feet with them. When will you reach heaven and have strength to stand at such a height? It is desirable, truly desirable, that by breaking all these bonds you may reach the city above.

There are so many other obstacles as well. To overcome them, let us preserve confidence. Through this we shall attain eternal life, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The cross was formerly the name of condemnation and punishment, but now it has become something honorable and desirable. Formerly the cross was an instrument of shame and execution, but now it has become the source of glory and honor.

That the cross is truly glory, listen to Christ, who says: "Glorify Me, Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (Jn 17:5), calling the cross glory.

The cross is the head of our salvation. The cross is the cause of countless blessings. Through it we, who were formerly without glory and rejected, are now received among the sons. Through it we no longer remain in error, but have come to know the truth.

Through it we, who formerly worshiped wood and stones, have come to know the Creator of all. Through it we, who were slaves of sin, have been led into the freedom of righteousness. Through it the earth has finally become heaven.

It freed us from error. It led us to the truth. It established reconciliation between God and men. It drew us out from the depth of vice and raised us to the very summit of virtue. It destroyed demonic error. It abolished deception.

Through it there is no longer smoke, stench, and the shedding of the blood of irrational animals, but everywhere spiritual services, hymns, and prayers. Through it the demons have been put to flight. Through it the devil has been cast out.

Through it human nature has begun to emulate the life of the angels. Through it virginity was established on earth, because from the time the One born of the Virgin came, human nature learned this path to virtue.

It enlightened us who sat in darkness. It reconciled us who were at enmity with God. It brought near those who were far away. It made His own those who were strangers. It made citizens of heaven those who were sojourners.

It became for us the cessation of wars. It became for us the support of peace. Through it we no longer fear the fiery darts of the devil, for we have found the fountain of life. Through it we ceased to be widowed, for we acquired the Bridegroom.

Through it we no longer fear the wolf, for we have come to know the good Shepherd. "I am," the Lord says, "the good Shepherd" (Jn 10:11). Through it we no longer dread the tyrant, for we have fled to the King.

Do you see of how many blessings the cross is the cause for us?

Listen indeed to how He says, "Glorify Me, Father" (Jn 17:5). What are You saying? You are being led to the cross with robbers and grave-robbers, to suffer the death of the cursed. Spitting and blows await You, and You call this glory?

Yes, He says. I suffer these things for the beloved, and I rightly count them as glory. Therefore, if my Lord, having loved the wretched and burdened, calls this glory and prefers it to glory on the Father's throne, how much more must I count it glory?

Then He added: "And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence." It therefore seems that He is to be glorified by the Father after He Himself has glorified Him. What did He show by this, except that His earlier words, "I glorified You on earth," were spoken as though He had already done what He was still about to do? Here He asked the Father to accomplish that through which the Son also would accomplish the same thing. He asked the Father to glorify the Son, and through this glorification of the Son, the Son also would glorify the Father.

In short, if, with respect to a future event, we put a future verb where He Himself used a past tense for the future, no uncertainty would remain in the statement. It would be as though He said: "I shall glorify You on earth. I shall accomplish the work which You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence." Thus everything becomes as clear here as in the place where He says: "Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You." These statements are the same, except that in one case the manner of this glorification is stated, and in the other it is not.

It is as though He wished to explain, for those in whom He had raised the question, how the Father will glorify the Son, and especially how the Son is to glorify the Father. For when He said that the Father had been glorified by Him on earth, and that He Himself was glorified by the Father in the Father's own presence, He certainly showed the manner of both glorifications. He Himself glorified the Father on earth by preaching Him to the nations. The Father glorified Him in His own presence by setting Him at His right hand.

Yet when He later spoke of glorifying the Father, saying, "I glorified You," He preferred to use the past tense. He did this to show that it had already been accomplished in predestination, and that what will plainly occur in the future should be understood as already done. Namely, the Son, glorified by the Father in the Father's presence, will glorify the Father on earth.

Still, He disclosed this predestination more plainly with respect to His own glorification, in which the Father glorified Him, when He added: "with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (cf. Jn 17:5). The order of the words should be: which I had with You before the world was. This is indicated by His saying, "And now glorify Me." That is, as then, so now. As then in predestination, so now in fulfillment. "Do in the world what was already with You before the world. Do in time what You established before all times."

Some suppose that this should be understood as though the human nature assumed by the Word was changed into the Word, and man was transformed into God. Indeed, if we consider their judgment, man disappeared in God, that is, was dissolved and vanished. For, they say, no one will assert that because of this transformation of man the Word of God is either doubled or increased, so that there are two where there was one, or that He becomes greater after previously being less. And again, if after the human nature was converted and transformed into the Word, the Word of God remained such as He was, and what He was, where is man, if not dead?

But nothing compels us to agree with such a judgment. I do not see it as consonant with the truth at all. For in the Son's words, "And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory which I had with You before the world was," we understand the predestination of the glorification of the human nature which was in Him and which will be with the Father. From being mortal it became immortal. What happened in due time in the world had already been accomplished in predestination before the world was.

For if the Apostle said of us, "as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4), why should it be regarded as a departure from truth to say that the Father glorified our Head then, when He chose us in Him, so that we might become His members? For we were chosen as He was glorified, since before the world was, neither we nor the Mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, yet existed (cf. 1 Tim 2:5).

But insofar as He is His Word, He Himself through Himself made what was to be, and called the things that do not exist as though they existed (cf. Rom 4:17). Certainly, insofar as the Mediator between God and men is man, God the Father glorified Him for our sake before the world was, if He also chose us in Him then. For what did the Apostle say? "We know that for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose, all things work together for good. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom He predestined, He also called" (Rom 8:28-30).

But perhaps we are afraid to say that He was predestined. For the Apostle seems to have said only of us that we are to be conformed to His image. Yet can anyone sincerely following the rule of faith deny that the Son of God was predestined, without denying that He is man? It is true to say that He was not predestined insofar as He is the Word of God, God with God. For how could He be predestined, since He already existed, eternal without beginning and without end?

What is subject to predestination is that which previously was not, so that in its own time it may come to be as it was predestined before all times to begin to be. Therefore whoever denies the predestination of the Son of God denies that He was also the Son of Man. But for the sake of those who like to dispute, let us together listen to the Apostle as he speaks in his Epistles. In the beginning of his first Epistle, which is addressed to the Romans, we read: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which God promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures. Concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and was predestined Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom 1:1-4). In the Vulgate a passive construction is used with the past participle praedestinatus, "predestined," whereas the Greek text of the Epistle uses the participle όρισθείς, "manifested" or "shown."

According to this predestination, then, He was glorified before the world was, so that His glory, through the resurrection from the dead, would be with the Father, at whose right hand He sits. And when He saw that the time of that predestination had already come for His glorification, so that what had been done in predestination might now happen in actual recompense, He prayed in these words: "And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory which I had with You before the world was."

It is as though He said: "The glory which I had with You, that is, the glory which I had with You in Your predestination. The time has come for Me to have with You also by living at Your right hand." But since the discussion of this question has detained us at length, we must explain what follows in another discourse.

If so, He lost not only glory but also the Godhead, since glory is inseparable from the Godhead. Consequently He would have been a mere man, as Photinus thought.

From this it is clear that He spoke in this way according to the divine economy of His humanity, and not because of any deficiency in the Godhead.

How many tears are needed to lament those who, in view of such glory, lose it through their own negligence. They harm themselves, like madmen and demoniacs.

Even if there were no punishment at all, those would still have to be considered most wretched for whom reigning and being glorified with the Son of God had been prepared, yet who deprived themselves of such blessings.

For 'the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us' (Rom 8:18).

In like manner He indicated the one glory while glorifying the Spirit, when He said the same thing about Him that He had said about the Father: 'He will glorify Me' (Jn 16:14). Persons equal in honor glorify one another.

After His Passion and Resurrection, His human nature became incorruptible, received divine prerogatives, and was exalted above every creature. He 'sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens' (Heb 8:1).

He became 'so much better than the Angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they' (Heb 1:4).

The Arians themselves are put to shame when they hear, 'with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.' What other glory did the Son of God have while coexisting with the Godhead before the creation of the world, except divine glory?

He was glorified as God, consubstantial with the Father.

When we hear, 'I have glorified Thee, and now glorify Me,' we learn from this that only those are worthy of divine glory who have glorified God by good works. 'Not so with Me; for those who glorify Me I will glorify' (1 Sam 2:1).

After our Savior has shown what glory He asked from His Father, He then shows the manner in which He glorified God and His Father, saying, 'I have manifested Thy name to men.'

It cannot be compared with any of our prayers. No sinful man can ever experience what filled the soul of the God-man, who gave His human life for the sins of others, for the sins of the whole world.

Let us bow before the majesty and holiness of this sacrifice. Let us leave aside every bold attempt to convey the content of this prayer to readers in other words.

Let us read it in the very words recorded by the Evangelist, who wrote not only from memory, but also by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

'The nature of the flesh had not yet been glorified, since it had not yet been deemed worthy of incorruption or made a partaker of the royal throne. Therefore He says, Glorify Me, that is, My human nature, which is now without honor and will be crucified. Raise it into that glory which I, the Word and Thy Son, had with Thee before the world came to be. For He seated human nature with Himself on the royal throne, and now every creature worships Him' (Theophylact; compare Chrysostom).

The Lord prays to be brought into this glory, though as God He has the right to it, and as Redeemer He has acquired this right. He prays because in all His actions on earth He expresses His complete dependence on His heavenly Father, having humbled Himself (Phil 2:8).

Thus, in Christ Jesus, the eternal Word is clothed with humanity, and for this reason He had glory from eternity.

Since the Word was man (Jn 1:14), and the God-man fulfilled the work of the Father, the God-man, the Messenger of God, asks for glory as the righteous reward for His completed service. He received this glory.

'He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death... Therefore God also highly exalted Him' (Phil 2:9; Heb 2:9).

O listeners, if only we too might fulfill the work entrusted to each of us from above. Why take upon ourselves works that have not been given to us?

Let us turn all our cares and all our labors toward fulfilling what the heavenly Father expects from us. The common work for all, and the common path to salvation, is to acquire living and fruitful knowledge of the Father and His Son, our Savior.

O that the light of the living knowledge of the Godhead would illumine all our thoughts and deeds. Then there would be among us no worship of the golden calf, and no pagan service to the belly or to vain glory.

To the Triune God be glory. Amen.