Mortal thought is again troubled. The Father shows the Son what He Himself does. Therefore, someone will say, the Father acts by Himself, so that the Son may see what He does.
Human thought again imagines two craftsmen. It is as if a master taught his son his craft and showed him what he was doing, so that the son could do the same. He says, He shows Him all that He Himself does.
Does this mean that while the Father works, the Son does not work, so that the Son may see what the Father does? On the contrary, all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made. From this we see how the Father shows the Son what He does, since the Father does nothing except through the Son.
"For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself does" (Jn 5:20). These words seem to refer to what He said above: the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it. So too He says, He shows Him all that He Himself does.
But if the Father shows what He Himself does, and the Son cannot act unless the Father shows Him, and the Father cannot show except by acting, then it is clear that the Father does all things through the Son.
Again, if we hold it firm and unshaken that the Father does all things through the Son, then before He makes anything He shows it to the Son. For if the Father shows the Son only after He has made something, so that the Son may make what He has seen, then the thing seen has already been made. Without doubt, the Father would then have made something without the Son.
But the Father does nothing without the Son, for the Son of God is the Word of God, and all things were made through Him. It remains, then, that when the Father intends to make something, He shows what is to be made, so that it may be made through the Word.
For if the Son makes what the Father shows as already made, then what the Father shows as made was certainly not made through the Son. Only what has been made could be shown to the Son. The Son can make only what He has seen. Therefore it would have been made without the Son.
Yet it is true that "all things were made through Him" (Jn 1:3). Therefore all things were shown before they were made. But what we have said must be set aside for a time. After reading the following passages, if time and strength suffice us, we shall return to what we have set aside for reconsideration.
Hear the more difficult words that follow: "And He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may marvel" (Jn 5:20). Greater than these? Greater than what? Quite simply, greater than the things of which you have just heard, that is, greater than the healing of sick bodies.
Enough had already been said about the man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and was healed by the word of Christ. Yet the Lord resolved to add: "He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may marvel." For there are works greater than those, and the Father will show them to the Son.
He did not say, He has shown, as though in the past, but, He will show, in the future. That is, He was going to show them. Again a difficult question arises. Does the Father possess something that has not yet been shown to the Son?
Was there something in the Father still hidden from the Son when the Son spoke these words? For if He will show, that is, if He is going to show, then He has not yet shown. The Son will be shown it at the time when those men also are shown it. For He adds, "so that you may marvel."
And it is hard to understand how the eternal Father shows anything in a passing way to the coeternal Son, who knows all that the Father has.
Yesterday, as far as the Lord permitted us, we discussed as far as we were able, and understood as far as we could, how the works of the Father and the Son are indivisible. It is not that the Father does one thing and the Son another. Rather, the Father does all things through the Son, as through His Word, of whom it is written: "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made" (cf. Jn 1:3).
Let us consider today the next words of our Lord. Let us ask the Lord for His mercy, and let us hope that, if He deems us worthy, we may understand what is true. If we cannot understand it, may He not allow us to fall into what is false.
It is better not to know than to be mistaken. Yet to know is better than not to know. Therefore, first of all, we must strive to know. If we can know, thanks be to God. If we cannot come fully to the truth, let us not fall into falsehood.
We must be conscious of who we are and of what we are discussing. We are men bearing flesh, wandering in this life. Even if we have already been born again by the seed of the Word of God, we are renewed in Christ in such a way that we have not yet been wholly freed from Adam.
It is clear that what is mortal in us, subject to corruption and burdensome to the soul, is from Adam (cf. Wis 9:15). It is also clear that what is spiritual in us and lifts the soul upward comes from the gift and mercy of God.
He sent His Only-begotten Son to share our death with us, and to bring us to His immortality. He is our Teacher, that we may not sin. He is our Advocate if we sin, confess it, and amend ourselves.
He is our Intercessor if we desire something good from the Lord. He is the Giver together with the Father, for one God is Father and Son.
He spoke His words to men as man. The hidden God became visible man, in order to make visible men gods. Being the Son of God, He became the Son of Man, in order to make the children of men children of God.
By what skill of His Wisdom He does this, we learn from His own words. For He, having become lowly, spoke with the lowly. Yet He became lowly in such a way that He remained great. We are lowly, but in Him we are great.
Thus He speaks to us as one strengthening and feeding with milk infants who are growing in love. He said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it" (Jn 5:19).
We have understood this to mean that the Father does not perform some separate work, which the Son then observes and afterwards does likewise. Rather, He said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, unless He sees the Father doing it," because the Son is wholly from the Father. His whole essence and His power are from Him who begot Him.
He said that the Son does in like manner what the Father does, so that we should not think the Father does one thing and the Son another. We are to understand that the Son does the very same thing with the same authority, because the Father acts through the Son.
He continues and says what we heard in today's reading: "For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He Himself does." Mortal thinking again intrudes and disturbs us. The Father shows the Son what He Himself does.
Someone will therefore say, "The Father does something separately, so that the Son may behold what He is doing." Again, the human imagination forms the image of two craftsmen. It is as if a master were teaching his son his craft, and showing him everything he does, so that the son too might act on his own.
"He shows Him all that He Himself does," He says. What then? When the Father works, does the Son not work, so that He may be able to observe what the Father does? Clearly, "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made" (cf. Jn 1:3).
Thus we see that the Father shows the Son what He does. At the same time, the Father does nothing except through the Son. What did the Father make? The world. Did He then show the created world to the Son, so that the Son might make another like it?
Let them show us, then, the world which the Son made. But as "all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made," so also "the world was made through Him" (cf. Jn 1:10).
If the world was made through Him, and all things were made through Him, and if the Father does nothing except through the Son, where does the Father show the Son what He does, if not in the Son Himself, through whom He acts?
What is the place where the works of the Father are revealed to the Son? Is it as though the Father were somewhere, doing His work, while the Son watched attentively from outside the Father's hand as He worked?
Where, then, is the undivided Trinity? Where is the Word, of whom it was said that He is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:24)? Where is what Scripture says concerning Wisdom Herself: "She is the radiance of eternal light" (Wis 7:26)?
Where is what is again said of Her: "She reaches mightily from one end to the other, and orders all things well" (Wis 8:1)? If the Father does what He does through the Son, if He acts through His Wisdom and His Power, then He does not show the Son from some other place what the Son must see. In the Son Himself He shows Him what He does.
What does the Father see, or rather, what does the Son see in the Father, so that He Himself may act? Perhaps I could answer, but give me someone able to understand it. Perhaps I could conceive it, but I could not express it. Indeed, perhaps I cannot even conceive it.
For that Godhead surpasses us, as God surpasses men, as the immortal surpasses the mortal, as the eternal surpasses the passing. May He inspire us and grant to us. May He deign to sprinkle and water us in our thirst from the fountain of life, lest we dry up in this desert.
Let us say to Him, "Lord," to Him whom we have learned to address as "Father." We dare to address Him in this way because He Himself willed that we should so address Him. Yet this is so only if we live in such a way that these words are not said of us: "If I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am Lord, where is reverence for Me?" (Mal 1:6).
Therefore let us address Him as "Our Father." To whom do we say "Our Father"? To the Father of Christ, that is, to God the Father. Therefore, when someone says "Our Father" in relation to the Father of Christ, what does he say in relation to Christ, if not "Our Brother"?
Yet He is not Father to Christ as He is Father to us. Christ has never been joined to us in such a way that He made no distinction between Himself and us. He is the Son equal to the Father. He is eternal with the Father, coeternal with the Father. We, however, were created through the Son and adopted through the Only-begotten.
Therefore it was never heard from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He spoke with His disciples, that He called the Most High God, His Father, "Our Father." He said either "My Father" or "your Father."
He so refused to say "Our Father" that in one place He used both expressions: "I ascend to My God and your God" (cf. Jn 20:17). Why did He not say, "to our God"? He said, "to My Father and your Father" (Jn 20:17). He did not say, "to our Father."
He joined us to Himself in such a way that He did not confuse us with Himself. He distinguished the Father and the Son in such a way that He did not break their unity. He wills that we be one in Him, and that the Father and He be one.
However much may be accessible to our understanding, however much we may be able to see, even if we became equal to the angels, we shall not be able to see as the Son saw. For even when we do not see, we are something. And what are we when we do not see, if not blind men?
Yet even when we are blind, in order to see, we turn toward what we desire to behold. Within us an idea is born that did not exist before, although we ourselves existed. A blind man remains a man, and when he sees, he is called a seeing man.
Therefore, for him, to see and to be a man are not the same. If seeing were the same for him as being a man, a blind man would never be called a man. When a man is blind and tries to see what he does not see, he is seeking and turning himself in order to see.
If he turns himself rightly and sees, he becomes a seeing man, though before he was a blind man. Therefore, for him, seeing is a faculty that comes and goes. It comes when he turns in the right direction. It goes when he turns away.
THEOSIS