Commentary on John by Cyril;Maxwell David R.;Elowsky Joel C.;

Author:Cyril;Maxwell, David R.;Elowsky, Joel C.; [Cyril of Alexandria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830898138
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2015-03-26T05:00:00+00:00

14:28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’”

You did not learn of my departure from someone else. You heard my words for yourselves. And what did I, who do not know how to lie, promise you? “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” Now if my statement had threatened a departure and an eternal desertion that would leave you without comfort, you would quite likely be very upset at this, find it unbearable and sink into sheer despondency. But since I told you not only that I would go away but that I would return at the proper time, why, he says, do you let the cause of grief enter into your mind, but you slight the cause of joy by forgetfulness? Let that which can heal arise in you to combat what strikes you, and let the power of my comforting statement wrestle with the causes of grief. [512] It has been ordained for me to ascend to the Father, but I have promised that I will return again. And so he allays, then, the deep grief that he finds in the disciples. It is as if a fond and good father is forced by some important reason to take his children away from the woman who is holding them. When he sees the flood of tears from his children drenching their tender dear cheeks, he constantly brings up the good that will come from the departure and arms them, in a way, against their grief with the hope of pleasure. In the same way, our Lord Jesus Christ protects the soul of the saints from grief. He knew—he knew, since he was true God, that his abandonment of them would be excessively burdensome to them, though he was always with them through the Spirit. And this is a proof of their extreme love and holiness. After all, wanting to be with Christ—how is that not perfectly fitting for the saints? The admirable Paul, for example, has this same intention, since he says that it is better “to depart and be with Christ.”43 [513]

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