44. Jo. ev. tr. 36.1 (BA 73A:174–76); trans. Rettig, FOTC 88:81–82.
to [Christ,] through whom all things were made, saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was nothing made" (Jn 1:1–3). Harmonious with such a sublime meaning as this, he also preached the rest, and he spoke about the divinity of the Lord as no other had. He belched out what he had drunk in. For not without reason is it told about him in this very Gospel that at the [Last] Supper he reclined upon the Lord's breast. From that breast he drank in secretly; but what he drank in secretly he has uttered openly so that to all nations may come [the proclamation of] not only the Incarnation of the Son of God and His Passion and Resurrection, but also [of] what was before the Incarnation, the only One of the Father, the Word of the Father, coeternal with the Begetter, equal to Him by whom He was sent, but in the sending itself, He became the lesser that the Father might be the greater.44
The Mystery of the 38 Years
Let us see now how principles enunciated in On Christian Teaching shaped Augustine's practical exegesis. The following sermon interprets the healing of the paralytic at the pool of Siloam (Jn 5:1–18). Augustine opens with a favorite device: pinpointing some obscurity, some "mystery," in the text that requires elucidation. He knew that hearers were intrigued by such mysteries, much as we today enjoy a good detective story. Like Sherlock Holmes, Augustine tends to zero in on some minute, overlooked clue. Here the textual clue is that the man whom Christ healed had suffered for 38 years. To unravel the hidden significance of the number, Augustine ranges around the whole Bible for evidence, linking Old and New Testaments; he reads what he finds in terms of the twofold love of God and neighbor; he appeals to St. Paul repeatedly to name broader issues or to look for clues to decipher conundrums; he alludes to his theory of signs and their soul-strengthening power; and, at the end, he refers to his highway analogy. Rarely does one find an instance where so many concerns and principles enunciated in On Christian Teaching come together in a single sermon. From Tractates on the Gospel of John 17:
(1) The performance of an amazing deed by God ought not to be a source of amazement. It would be an amazing thing only if a human being had performed it. We ought to rejoice more than be amazed, rejoice more that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ became human than be amazed that God performed divine acts among human beings. For what He became for human beings is more valuable for our salvation than what He did among human beings. That He healed the vices of souls is more valuable than that He healed
44. Jo. ev. tr. 36.1 (BA 73A:174–76); trans. Rettig, FOTC 88:81–82.
The Exegete 177 the maladies of bodies destined to die. But because the soul itself did not know the One by whom it had to be healed, and because it had eyes of flesh with which it might see physical acts but did not yet have healthy eyes in the heart with which it might recognize God lying hidden, He did something that the soul could see so that it might be healed by what it could not see. He entered a place where there lay a great multitude of sick, blind, lame, and shriveled-limbed. And since He was the physician of both souls and bodies, He who had come to heal all those souls who would come to believe, He chose one of the sick whom he might heal in order to signify unity. If we were to reflect on this with an ordinary heart, as though with a human grasp and insight, then [we would judge that] in regard to power, He performed nothing great, while in regard to kindness, He did too little. So many were lying there, and only one was cured, when with one word He could have made all of them rise up. What, then, ought we to understand except that that power and that goodness were doing what souls might understand in His deeds for their eternal salvation rather than what bodies might gain for their temporal health? For the true health of bodies—what in the end we wait for from the Lord—will come at the resurrection of the dead. Only then what will live will die no more. Only then what will be healed will not become ill. Only then what will be filled will not hunger or thirst. Only then what will be renewed will not grow old. But here, even with those deeds of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the opened eyes of the blind would [eventually] be closed by death, and whatever was healed temporarily in mortal limbs would succumb in the end, but the person who believed would make the passageway to eternal life. Therefore, from the healing of this sick man, Christ gave a great sign to any soul who would believe, to any soul whose sins He had come to forgive, whose maladies He had humbled himself to heal. As far as God deigns to bestow, if you give your attention and assist my weakness by your prayer, I shall discuss as best I can the profound mystery of this event and this sign. But whatever I cannot do, that One with whose help I do what I can do will supply you. . . .
(4) Let us, therefore, see what He intended to signal in that one who alone of so many sick He . . . deigned to heal. He found in the years of the man a number, so to speak, of the sickness: "He was thirty-eight years under his infirmity" (Jn 5:5). How this number refers more to the sickness than to the cure must be explained a little more carefully. I want you to be attentive. The Lord will help that I may speak aptly and you may hear sufficiently. The number forty has been recommended to us as sacred and refers to a certain perfection. I think, my beloved people, you know this well. The divine Scriptures very often attest it. Fasting was consecrated by this number, as you well