Homilies on the Gospel of John

“But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father.”

“We, O woman,” He says, “excel you in the manner of our worship, but even this shall henceforth have an end. Not the places only, but even the manner of serving God shall be changed. And this change is at your very doors. 'For the hour comes, and now is.'”

2. For since what the Prophets said they said long before the event, to show that here it is not so, He says, “And now is.” Think not, He says, that this is a prophecy of such a kind as shall be accomplished after a long time, the fulfillment is already at hand and at your very doors, “when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.” In saying “true,” He excludes Jews as well as Samaritans; for although the Jews be better than the Samaritans, yet are they far inferior to those that shall come, as inferior as is the type to the reality. But He speaks of the Church, that she is the “true” worship, and such as is meet for God.

“For the Father seeks such to worship Him.”

If then He in times past sought such as these, He allowed to those others their way of worship, not willingly, but from condescension, and for this reason, that He might bring them in also. Who then are “the true worshipers”? Those who confine not their service by place, and who serve God in spirit; as Paul says, “Whom I serve in my spirit in the Gospel of His Son”: and again, “I beseech you that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable unto God, your reasonable service.”