John XIX. 24-30.
1. The Lord being now crucified, and the parting of His garments having
also been completed by the casting of the lot, let us look at what the
evangelist John thereafter relates. "And these things," he says, "the soldiers
did. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's
sister, Mary [the wife] of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore
saw His mother, and the disciple standing by whom He loved, He saith unto
His mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold
thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home."
This, without a doubt, was the hour whereof Jesus, when about to turn the
water into wine, had said to His mother, "Woman, what have I to do with
thee? mine hour is not yet come." This hour, therefore, He had foretold,
which at that time had not yet arrived, when it should be His to acknowledge
her at the point of death, and with reference to which He had been born
as a mortal man. At that time, therefore, when about to engage in divine
acts, He repelled, as one unknown, her who was the mother, not of His divinity,
but of His [human] infirmity; but now, when in the midst of human sufferings,
He commended with human affection [the mother] by whom He had become man.
For then, He who had created Mary became known in His power; but now, that
which Mary had brought forth was hanging on the cross.
2. A passage, therefore, of a moral character is here inserted. The
good Teacher does what He thereby reminds us ought to be done, and by His
own example instructed His disciples that care for their parents ought
to be a matter of concern to pious children: as if that tree to which the
members of the dying One were affixed were the very chair of office from
which the Master was imparting instruction. From this wholesome doctrine
it was that the Apostle Paul had learned what he taught in turn, when he
said, "But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of
his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."
And what are so much home concerns to any one, as parents to children,
or children to parents? Of this most wholesome precept, therefore, the
very Master of the saints set the example from Himself, when, not as God
for the hand-maid whom He had created and governed, but as a man for the
mother, of whom He had been created, and whom He was now leaving behind,
He provided in some measure another son in place of Himself. And why He
did so, He indicates in the words that follow: for the evangelist says,
"And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own," speaking of himself.
In this way, indeed, he usually refers to himself as the disciple whom
Jesus loved: who certainly loved them all, but him beyond the others, and
with a closer familiarity, so that He even made him lean upon His bosom
at supper; in order, I believe, in this way to commend the more highly
the divine excellence of this very gospel, which He was thereafter to preach
through his instrumentality.
3. But what was this "his own," unto which John took the mother of the
Lord? For he was not outside the circle of those who said unto Him, "Lo,
we have left all, and followed Thee." No, but on that same occasion he
had also heard the words, Every one that hath forsaken these things for
my sake, shall receive an hundred times as much in this world. That disciple,
therefore, had an hundredfold more than he had cast away, whereunto to
receive the mother of Him who had graciously bestowed it all. But it was
in that society that the blessed John had received an hundredfold, where
no one called anything his own, but they had all things in common; even
as it is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. For the apostles were as
if having nothing, and yet possessing all things How was it, then, that
the disciple and servant received unto his own the mother of his Lord and
Master, where no one called anything his own? Or, seeing we read a little
further on in the same book, "For as many as were possessors of lands or
houses sold them, and brought the prices of them, and laid them down at
the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according
as he had need," are we not to understand that such distribution was made
to this disciple of what was needful, that there was also added to it the
portion of the blessed Mary, as if she were his mother; and ought we not
the rather so to take the words, "From that hour the disciple took her
unto his own," that everything necessary for her was entrusted to his care?
He received her, therefore, not unto his own lands, for he had none of
his own; but to his own dutiful services, the discharge of which, by a
special dispensation, was entrusted to himself.
4. He then adds: "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now
accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now
there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar,
and fixed it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth. When Jesus therefore
had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head,
and gave up the ghost." Who has the power of so adjusting what he does,
as this Man had of arranging all that He suffered? But this Man was the
Mediator between God and men; the Man of whom we read in prophecy, He is
man also, and who shall acknowledge Him for the men who did such things
acknowledged not this Man as God. For He who was manifest as man, was hid
as God: He who was manifest suffered all these things, and He Himself also,
who was hid, arranged them all. He saw, therefore, that all was accomplished
that required to be done before He received the vinegar, and gave up the
ghost; and that this also might be accomplished which the scripture had
foretold, "And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink," He said, "I
thirst:" as if it were, One thing still you have failed to do, give me
what you Are. For the Jews were themselves the vinegar, degenerated as
they were from the wine of the patriarchs and prophets; and filled like
a full vessel with the wickedness of this world, with hearts like a sponge,
deceitful in the formation of its cavernous and tortuous recesses. But
the hyssop, whereon they placed the sponge filled with vinegar, being a
lowly herb, and purging the heart, we fitly take for the humility of Christ
Himself; which they thus enclosed, and imagined they had completely ensnared.
Hence we have it said in the psalm, "Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and
I shall be cleansed." For it is by Christ's humility that we are cleansed;
because, had He not humbled Himself, and became obedient unto the death
of the cross, His blood certainly would not have been shed for the remission
of sins, or, in other words, for our cleansing.
5. Nor need we be disturbed with the question, how the sponge could
be applied to His mouth when He was lifted up from the earth on the cross.
For as we read in the other evangelists, what is omitted by this one, it
was fixed on a reed, so that such drink as was contained in the sponge
might be raised to the highest part of the cross. By the reed, however,
the scripture was signified, which was fulfilled by this very act. For
as a tongue is called either Greek or Latin, or any other, significant
of the sound, which is uttered by the tongue; so the reed may give its
name to the letter which is written with a reed. We most usually, however,
call those tongues that express the sounds of the human voice: while in
calling scripture a reed, the very rareness of the thing only enhances
the mystical nature of that which it symbolizes. A wicked people did such
things, a compassionate Christ suffered them. They who did them, knew not
what they did; but He who suffered, not only knew what was done, and why
it was so, but also wrought what was good through those who were doing
what was evil.
6. "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished."
What, but all that prophecy had foretold so long before? And then, because
nothing now remained that still required to be done before He died, as
if He, who had power to lay down His life and to take it up again, had
at length completed all for whose completion He was waiting, "He bowed
His head, and gave up the ghost." Who can thus sleep when he pleases, as
Jesus died when He pleased? Who is there that thus puts off his garment
when he pleases, as He put off His flesh at His pleasure? Who is there
that thus departs when he pleases, as He departed this life at His pleasure?
How great the power, to be hoped for or dreaded, that must be His as judge,
if such was the power He exhibited as a dying man!
