Catena Aurea

30. I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xix. s. 19) We were about to ask Christ, Thou wilt judge, and the Father not judge: wilt not Thou then judge according to the Father? He anticipates us by saying, I can of Mine own Self do nothing.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xxxix. 4) That is, nothing that is a departure from, or that is unlike to, what the Father wishes, shall ye see done by Me, but as I hear, I judge. He is only shewing that it was impossible He should ever wish any thing but what the Father wished. I judge, His meaning is, as if it were My Father that judged.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxiii. s. 15) When He spoke of the resurrection of the soul, He did not say, Hear, but, See. (v. 19) Hear implies a command issuing from the Father. He speaks as man, who is inferior to the Father.

AUGUSTINE. (Serm. contr. Arrian. c. 9. [xiv.]) As I hear, I judge, is said with reference either to His human subordination, as the Son of man, or to that immutable and simple nature of the Sonship derived from the Father; in which nature hearing and seeing is identical with being. (ut sup. c. xvii.). Wherefore as He hears, He judges. The Word is begotten one with the Father, and therefore judges according to truth. (c. xviii). It follows, And My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent Me. This is intended to take us back to that man (sc. Adam.) who, by seeking his own will, not the will of Him who made him, did not judge himself justly, but had a just judgment pronounced upon him. He did not believe that, by doing his own will, not God’s, he should die. So he did his own will, and died; because the judgment of God is just, which judgment the Son of God executes, by not seeking His own will, i. e. His will as being the Son of man. Not that He has no will in judging, but His will is not His own in such sense, as to be different from the Father’s.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xix. 19.) I seek not then Mine own will, i. e. the will of the Son of man, in opposition to God: for men do their own will, not God’s, when, to do what they wish, they violate God’s commands. But when they so do what they wish, as at the same time to follow the will of God, they do not their own will. Or, I seek not Mine own will: i. e. because I am not of myself, but of the Father.

CHRYSOSTOM. (Hom. xxxix. 4) He shews that the Father’s will is not a different one from His own, but one and the same, as a ground of defence. Nor marvel if being hitherto thought no more than a mere man, He defends Himself in a somewhat human way, and shews his judgment to be just on the same ground which any other person would have taken; viz. that one who has his own ends in view, may incur suspicion of injustice, but that one who has not cannot.

AUGUSTINE. (Tr. xxi) The only Son says, I seek not Mine own will: and yet men wish to do their own will. Let us do the will of the Father, Christ, and Holy Ghost: for these have one will, power, and majesty.