Homilies on Acts

Acts I. 6

“When they therefore had come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, will You at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

When the disciples intend to ask anything, they approach Him together, that by dint of numbers they may abash Him into compliance. They well knew that in what He had said previously, “Of that day knows no man”, He had merely declined telling them: therefore they again drew near, and put the question. They would not have put it had they been truly satisfied with that answer. For having heard that they were about to receive the Holy Ghost, they, as being now worthy of instruction, desired to learn. Also they were quite ready for freedom: for they had no mind to address themselves to danger; what they wished was to breathe freely again; for they were no light matters that had happened to them, but the utmost peril had impended over them. And without saying any thing to Him of the Holy Ghost, they put this question: “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” They did not ask, when? But whether “at this time.” So eager were they for that day. Indeed, to me it appears that they had not any clear notion of the nature of that kingdom; for the Spirit had not yet instructed them. And they do not say, When shall these things be? But they approach Him with greater honour, saying, “Will You at this time restore again the kingdom,” as being now already fallen. For there they were still affected towards sensible objects, seeing they were not yet become better than those who were before them; here they have henceforth high conceptions concerning Christ. Since then their minds are elevated, He also speaks to them in a higher strain. For He no longer tells them, “Of that day not even the Son of Man knows”; but He says, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father has put in His own power You ask things greater than your capacity, He would say. And yet even now they learned things that were much greater than this. And that you may see that this is strictly the case, look how many things I shall enumerate. What, I pray you, was greater than their having learned what they did learn? Thus, they learned that there is a Son of God, and that God has a Son equal with Himself in dignity; they learned that there will be a resurrection; that when He ascended He sat on the right hand of God; and what is still more stupendous, that Flesh is seated in heaven, and adored by Angels, and that He will come again; they learned what is to take place in the judgment; learned that they shall then sit and judge the twelve tribes of Israel; learned that the Jews would be cast out, and in their stead the Gentiles should come in. For, tell me, which is greater? To learn that a person will reign, or to learn the time when?. Paul learned “things which it is not lawful for a man to utter”; things that were before the world was made, he learned them all. Which is the more difficult, the beginning or the end? Clearly to learn the beginning. This, Moses learned, and the time when, and how long ago: and he enumerates the years. And the wise Solomon says, “I will make mention of things from the beginning of the world.” And that the time is at hand, they do know: as Paul says, “The Lord is at hand, be careful for nothing.”. These things they knew not [then], and yet He mentions many signs. But, as He has just said, “Not many days hence,” wishing them to be vigilant, and did not openly declare the precise moment, so is it here also. However, it is not about the general Consummation that they now ask Him, but, “Will You at this time,” say they, “restore the kingdom to Israel?” And not even this did He reveal to them. They also asked this [about the end of the world] before: and as on that occasion He answered by leading them away from thinking that their deliverance was near and, on the contrary, cast them into the midst of perils, so likewise on this occasion but more mildly. For, that they may not imagine themselves to be wronged, and these things to be mere pretences, hear what He says: He immediately gives them that at which they rejoiced: for He adds: “But you shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Then, that they may make no more enquiries, straightway He was received up. Thus, just as on the former occasion He had darkened their minds by awe, and by saying, “I know not;” here also He does so by being taken up. For great was their eagerness on the subject, and they would not have desisted; and yet it was very necessary that they should not learn this. For tell me, which do the Gentiles most disbelieve? That there will be a consummation of the world, or that God has become man, and issued from the Virgin? But I am ashamed of dwelling on this point, as if it were about some difficult matter. Then again, that the disciples might not say, Why do you leave the matter in suspense? He adds, “Which the Father has put in His own power.” And yet He declared the Father's power and His to be one: as in the saying, “For as the Father raises up the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will.” If where need is to work, Thou actest with the same power as the Father; where it behooves to know, dost Thou not know with the same power? Yet certainly to raise up the dead is much greater than to learn the day. If the greater be with power, much more the other.