Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
44 ST. AUGUSTINE man from below; that, however, to which the heart of man ascends, is above as regards man. Even so, my brothers, one can say that if it ascended into the heart of John, if one can say that in any way at all, then it rose up into the heart of John insofar as John himself was not a man. What does this mean, he was not a man? To the extent that he began to be an angel. For all holy men are angels because they are the messengers of God.^ (2) What, then, does the Apostle say to the carnal and the natural who have not the power to perceive what the things of God are? "For whenever you say, I am of Paul, I of ApoUos, are you not men?" What did he want to make them if he was reproaching them because they were men? Do you want to know what he wanted to make them? Hear it in the Psalms: 'T have said, you are gods, and all sons of the most high."'^ To this, then, God calls us: not to be mere men. But then we will not be men for the better if first we recognize that we are men, that is, that we may rise to that height rom our lowliness, lest whenever we think ourselves to be something, though we are nothing,'^ we not only do not accept that we are not, but even lose what we are.
5. And so, my brothers, John, too, was one of those mountains, who said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This mountain had received peace; he was contemplating the divinity of the Word. What kind of mountain was he? How high? He had risen beyond all the mountain peaks of the world; he had risen beyond all the fields of the sky; he had risen beyond all the heights of the constellations; he had risen beyond all the choirs and legions of angels. For unless he had risen beyond all the things which have been created, he would not have reached him through whom all things were made.
(2) You cannot conceive what he has risen beyond unless
9. Augustine here, as often, uses "angel" in its Greek sense of messenger, designating an office, not a metaphysical being. See Berrouard, Homelies I -XV I, 132.
10. Cf. 1 Cor 3.4. 11. Ps 81.6. 12. Cf. Gal 6.3.