Saint of the day – Pope Saint John I – Martyr
“O Virgin Lady, immaculate Mother of God, my most glorious mistress, higher than heaven, much purer than the rays of the sun… listen to my unworthy prayer, keep me and deliver me from all the traps of the evil one…” St Ephrem
John 16:29-33
His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure! Now we know that you know all things, and need none to question you; by this we believe that you came from God.”
Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
What do the Fathers say?
St John CHRYSOSTOM. The disciples were so refreshed with the thought of being in favour with the Father, and since His answer met what was in their minds, they add, Now we know that you know all things. See how imperfect they yet were, after so many and great things now at last to say, Now we know that you know all things – saying it too as if they were conferring a favour. and need none to question you. i. e. You know what offends us, before we tell You, and You have relieved us by saying that the Father loves us.
St AUGUSTINE. His disciples said to Him, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure! Why do they say so, when the hour in which He was to speak without proverbs was still in the future, and only promised? Because, our Lord’s communications still being figurative to them, they are so far from understanding them, that they do not even understand that they do not understand them.
When the Holy Spirit was given to them, they were of good cheer, and, in His strength, victorious. For Christ would not have overcome the world, had the world overcome His members.
When He says, These things I have said to you, that in Me you may have peace, He refers not only to what He has just said, but to what He had said all along, either from the time that He first had disciples, or since at the supper, when He had begun this long and wonderful discourse. He declares this to be the object of His whole discourse, viz. that in Him they might have peace. And this peace shall have no end, but is itself the end of every pious action and intention.
Sources:
Bible readings from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Second Catholic Edition, copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Quotes of the Fathers from Thomas Aquinas’ Catena Aurea Translated by St John Henry Newman
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