Tractates on the Gospel of John

^6. What then? What shall we say of that night? When will it be, when no one shall be able to work? It will be that night of the wicked, that night of those to whom it shall be said in the end, “Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” But it is here called night, not flame, nor fire. Hearken, then, why it is also night. Of a certain servant He says, “Bind ye him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness.” Let man, then, work while he lives, that he may not be overtaken by that night when no man can work. It is now that faith is working by love; and if now we are working, then this is the day— Christ is here. Hear His promise, and think Him not absent. It is Himself who has said, “Lo, I am with you.” How long? Let there be no anxiety in us who are alive; were it possible, with this very word we might place in perfect security the generations still to come. “Lo,” He says, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. That day, which is completed by the circuit of yonder sun, has but few hours; the day of Christ's presence extends even to the end of the world. But after the resurrection of the living and the dead, when He shall say to those placed at His right hand, “Come, you blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom;” and to those at His left, “Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;” then shall be the night when no man can work, but only get back what he has wrought before. There is a time for working, another for receiving; for the Lord shall render to every one according to his works. While you live, be doing, if you are to be doing at all; for then shall come that appalling night, to envelope the wicked in its folds. But even now every unbeliever, when he dies, is received within that night: there is no work to be done there. In that night was the rich man burning, and asking a drop of water from the beggar's finger; he mourned, agonized, confessed, but no relief was vouchsafed. He even endeavored to do good; for he said to Abraham, “Father Abraham, send Lazarus to my brethren, that he may tell them what is being done here, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Unhappy man! When thou were living, then was the time for working: now you are already in the night, in which no man can work.

7. “When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He spread the clay upon his eyes, and said unto him, Go and wash in the pool of Siloam (which is, by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” As these words are clear, we may pass them over.

8. “The neighbors therefore, and those who saw him previously, for he was a beggar, said, Is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, It is he: others, No; but he is like him.” The opening of his eyes had altered his countenance. “He said, I am he.” His voice utters its gratitude, that it might not be condemned as ungrateful. “Therefore said they unto him, How were your eyes opened? He answered, The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and saw.” See, he has become the herald of grace; see, he preaches the gospel; endowed with sight, he becomes a confessor. That blind man makes confession, and the heart of the wicked was troubled; for they had not in their heart what he had now in his countenance. “They said to him, Where is he who has opened your eyes? He said, I know not.” In these words the man's own soul was like that of one only as yet anointed, but not yet seeing. Let us so put it, brethren, as if he had that anointing in his soul. He preaches, and knows not the Being whom he preaches.

9. “They brought to the Pharisees him who had been blind. And it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked how he had received his sight. And he said unto them, He put clay upon my eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees;” not all, but some; for some were already anointed. What then said those who neither saw nor were anointed? “This man is not of God, because he keeps not the Sabbath.” He it was rather who kept it, who was without sin. For this is the spiritual Sabbath, to have no sin. In fact, brethren, it is of this that God admonishes us, when He commends the Sabbath to our notice: “You shall do no servile work.” These are God's words when commending the Sabbath, “You shall do no servile work.” Now ask the former lessons, what is meant by servile work; and listen to the Lord: “Every one that commits sin is the servant of sin.” But these men, neither seeing, as I said, nor anointed, kept the Sabbath carnally, and profaned it spiritually. “Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?” These were the anointed ones. “And there was a division among them.” The day had divided between the light and the darkness. “They say then unto the blind man again, What do you say of him who has opened your eyes?” What is your feeling about him? What is your opinion? What is your judgment? They sought how to revile the man, that he might be cast out of the synagogue, but be found by Christ. But he steadfastly expressed what he felt. For he said, “That he is a prophet.” As yet, indeed, anointed only in heart, he does not thus far confess the Son of God, and yet he speaks not untruthfully. For the Lord says of Himself, “A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country.”

10. “Therefore the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, till they called the parents of him that received his sight;” that is, who had been blind, and had come to the possession of sight. “And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? How then does he now see? His parents answered them, and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but how he now sees, we know not; or who has opened his eyes, we know not. And they said, Ask himself; he is of age, let him speak of himself.” He is indeed our son, and we might justly be compelled to answer for him as an infant, because then he could not speak for himself: from of old he has had power of speech, only now he sees: we have been acquainted with him as blind from his birth, we know him as having speech from of old, only now do we see him endowed with sight: ask himself, that you may be instructed; why seek to calumniate us? “These words spoke his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had conspired already, that if any man did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.” It was no longer a bad thing to be put out of the synagogue. They cast out, but Christ received. “Therefore said his parents, He is of age, ask himself.”

11. “Then again called they the man who had been blind, and said unto him, Give God the glory.” What is that, “Give God the glory”? Deny what you have received. Such conduct is manifestly not to give God the glory, but rather to blaspheme Him. “Give God,” they say, “the glory: we know that this man is a sinner. Then said he, If he is a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they to him, What did he to you, how opened he your eyes?” And he, indignant now at the hardness of the Jews, and as one brought from a state of blindness to sight, unable to endure the blind, “answered them, I have told you already, and you have heard: wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye also become his disciples?” What means, “Will ye also,” but that I am one already? “Will ye also be so?” Now I see, but see not askance.