Homilies on the Gospel of John — Homily 73

St. John Chrysostom

1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 3

A great thing is love, and stronger than fire itself, and it goes up to the very heaven; there is no hindrance which can restrain its tearing force. And so the most fervent Peter, when he hears, Whither I go ye cannot come, what says he? Lord, where are you going? and this he said, not so much from wish to learn, as from desire to follow. To say openly, I go, he dared not yet, but, Where are you going? Christ answered, not to his words, but to his thoughts. For that this was his wish, is clear from what Christ said, Whither I go you can not follow Me now. Do you see that he longed for the following Him, and therefore asked the question? And when he heard, you shall follow Me afterwards, not even so did he restrain his longing, and, though he had gained good hopes, he is so eager as to say,

When he had shaken off the dread of being the traitor, and was shown to be one of His own, he afterwards asked boldly himself, while the others held their peace. What do you say, Peter? He said, you can not,' and you say, 'I can'? Therefore you shall know from this temptation that your love is nothing without the presence of the impulse from above. Whence it is clear that in care for him He allowed even that fall. He desired indeed to teach him even by the first words, but when he continued in his vehemence, He did not indeed throw or force him into the denial, but left him alone, that he might learn his own weakness. Christ had said that He must be betrayed; Peter replied, Be it far from You, Lord; this shall not happen unto You. [[Matthew 16.22]] He was rebuked, but not instructed. On the contrary, when Christ desired to wash his feet, he said, You shall never wash my feet. [[John 13.8]] Again, when he hears, You can not follow Me now, he says, Though all deny You, I will not deny You. Since then it was likely that he would be lifted up to folly by his practice of contradiction, Jesus next teaches him not to oppose Him. This too Luke implies, when he tells us that Christ said, And I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not [[Luke 22.32]]; that is, that thou be not finally lost. In every way teaching him humility, and proving that human nature by itself is nothing. But, since great love made him apt for contradiction, He now sobers him, that he might not in after times be subject to this, when he should have received the stewardship of the world, but remembering what he had suffered, might know himself. And look at the violence of his fall; it did not happen to him once or twice, but he was so beside himself, that in a short time thrice did he utter the words of denial, that he might learn that he did not so love as he was loved. And yet, to one who had so fallen He says again, Lovest thou Me more than these? So that the denial was caused not by the cooling of his love, but from his having been stripped of aid from above. He accepts then Peter's love, but cuts off the spirit of contradiction engendered by it. For if you love, you ought to obey Him who is