{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/107/1070062.htm","path":"chr/ecf/107/1070062.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/107/1070062.htm","text":"1. We have just heard in the holy Gospel the Lord speaking, and saying, \u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord, nor the apostle [he that is sent] greater than he that sent him: if ye know these things, blessed shall ye be if ye do them.\u201d He said this, therefore, because He had washed the disciples\u2019 feet, as the Master of humility both by word and example. But we shall be able, with His help, to handle what is in need of more elaborate handling, if we linger not at what is perfectly clear. Accordingly, after uttering these words, the Lord added, \u201cI speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but, that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me.\u201d And what is this, but that he shall trample upon me? We know of whom He speaks: it is Judas, that betrayer of His, who is referred to. He had not therefore chosen the person whom, by these words, He setteth utterly apart from His chosen ones. When I say then, He continues, \u201cBlessed shall ye be if ye do them, I speak not of you all:\u201d there is one among you who will not be blessed, and who will not do these things. \u201cI know whom I have chosen.\u201d Whom, but those who shall be blessed in the doing of what has been commanded and shown as needful to be done, by Him who alone can make them blessed? The traitor Judas, He says, is not one of those that have been chosen. What, then, is meant by what He says in another place, \u201cHave I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?\u201d 1185 Was it that he also was chosen for some purpose, for which he was really necessary; although not for the blessedness of p. 308 which He has just been saying, \u201cBlessed shall ye be if ye do these things\u201d? He speaketh not so of them all; for He knows whom He has chosen to be associated with Himself in blessedness. Of such he is not one, who ate His bread in order that he might lift up his heel upon Him. The bread they ate was the Lord Himself; he ate the Lord\u2019s bread in enmity to the Lord: they ate life, and he punishment. \u201cFor he that eateth unworthily,\u201d says the apostle, \u201ceateth judgment unto himself.\u201d 1186 \u201cFrom this time,\u201d 1187 Christ adds, \u201cI tell you before it come; that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He:\u201d that is, I am He of whom the Scripture that preceded has just said, \u201cHe that eateth bread with me, shall lift up his heel upon me.\u201d\n2. He then proceeds to say: \u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me.\u201d Did He mean us to understand that there is as little distance between one sent by Him, and Himself, as there is between Himself and God the Father? If we take it in this way, I know not what measurements of distance (which may God forbid!) we shall be adopting, in the Arian fashion. For they, when they hear or read these words of the Gospel, have immediate recourse to their dogmatic measurements, whereby they ascend not to life, but fall headlong into death. For they straightway say: The Son\u2019s messenger stands at the same relative distance from the Son, as expressed in the words, \u201cHe that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me,\u201d as that in which the Son Himself stands from the Father, when He said, \u201cHe that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me.\u201d But if thou sayest so, thou forgettest, heretic, thy measurements. For if, because of these words of the Lord, thou puttest the Son at as great a distance from the Father as the messenger [apostle] from the Son, where dost thou purpose to place the Holy Spirit? Has it escaped thee, that ye are wont to place Him after the Son? He will therefore come in between the messenger and the Son; and much greater, then, will be the distance between the Son and His messenger, than between the Father and His Son. Or perhaps, to preserve that distinction between the Son and His messenger, and between the Father and His Son, at their equality of distance, will the Holy Spirit be equal to the Son? But as little will ye allow this. And where, then, do ye think of placing Him, if ye place the Son as far beneath the Father, as ye place the messenger beneath the Son? Restrain, therefore, your foolhardy presumption; and do not be seeking to find in these words the same distance between the Son and His messenger as between the Father and His Son. But listen rather to the Son Himself, when He says, \u201cI and my Father are one.\u201d 1188 For there the Truth hath left you no shadow of distance between the Begetter and the Only-begotten; there Christ Himself hath erased your measurements, and the rock hath broken your staircase to pieces.\n3. But now that the heretical slander has been disposed of, in what sense are we to understand these words of the Lord: \u201cHe that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me; and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me\u201d? For if we were inclined to understand the words, \u201cHe that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me,\u201d as expressing the oneness in nature of the Father and the Son; the sequence from the similar arrangement of words in the other clause, \u201cHe that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me,\u201d would be the unity in nature of the Son and His messenger. And there might, indeed, be no impropriety in so understanding it, seeing that a twofold substance belongeth to the strong man, who hath rejoiced to run the race; 1189 for the Word was made flesh, 1190 that is, God became man. And accordingly He might be supposed to have said, \u201cHe that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me,\u201d with reference to His human nature; \u201cand he that receiveth me\u201d as God, \u201creceiveth Him that sent me.\u201d But in so speaking, He was not commending the unity of nature, but the authority of the Sender in Him who is sent. Let every one, therefore, so receive Him that is sent, that in His person he may give heed to Him who sent Him. If, then, thou lookest for Christ in Peter, thou wilt find the disciple\u2019s instructor; and if thou lookest for the Father in the Son, thou wilt find the Begetter of the Only-begotten: and so in Him who is sent, thou art not mistaken in receiving the Sender. What follows in the Gospel cannot be compressed within the shortness of the time remaining. And therefore, dearly beloved, let what has been said, if thought sufficient, be received in a healthful way, as pasture for the holy sheep; and if it is somewhat scanty, let it be ruminated over with ardent desire for more.\nA modo; Greek, \u2019\u0391\u03c0\u2019 \u1f04\u03c1\u03c4\u03b9; margin of English Bible, \u201cFrom henceforth.\u201d\u2014Tr.\n308:1188 308:1189 308:1190","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VII: Lectures or Tra...","type":"page"}