Homilies on the Gospel of John

“Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you see Me no more.”

That is, “I have exhibited a blameless life, and this is the proof, that, 'I go to the Father.'” For since they continually urged this against Him, that He was not from God, and therefore called Him a sinner and transgressor, He says, that the Spirit shall take from them this excuse also. “For if My being deemed not to be from God, shows Me to be a transgressor, when the Spirit shall have shown that I have gone there, not merely for a season, but to abide there, (for the, 'You see Me no more,' is the expression of one declaring this,) what will they say then?” Observe how by these two things, their evil suspicion is removed; since neither does working miracles belong to a sinner, (for a sinner cannot work them,) nor does the being with God continually belong to a sinner. “So that you can no longer say, that 'this man is a sinner,' that 'this man is not from God.'”