Tractates on the Gospel of John
62 ST. AUGUSTINE that men can both gain wisdom if they draw near to its light and heat and can lose wisdom if they withdraw from it because of an evil influence? Therefore since you see that all these things are changeable, what is that which is except that which transcends all things which are in such a way that they are not?
(3) Who, then, can grasp this? Or, in whatever way someone has exerted the powers of his mind to touch that which is, in whatever way he can, who can attain that which he has somehow or other touched with his mind? For it is as though one could see his homeland from afar, and a sea lay in between; he sees where to go but has not the means to go. So we wish to reach that stability of ours where that which is is because this alone always is just as it is; [but] the sea of this world lies in between where we are going, even though we already see where we are going. But many do not even see where they are to go.
(4) And so, that there might be also a way by which we might go, he came from him to whom we desired to go. And what has he done? He has provided the wood by which we may cross the sea. For no one can cross the sea of this world unless carried by the cross of Christ. And even the man with poor eyesight sometimes embraces this cross. And he who does not see from afar where to go, let him not depart from that [cross], and it will lead him over.
3. Therefore, my brothers, I would implant this in your hearts: if you wish to live in a devout and Christian way, adhere to Christ according to that which he became for us, so that you may reach him according to that which he is and according to that which he was. He came to us that he might become this for us; for he became for us this upon which the weak may be carried and may cross the sea of the world and reach their homeland where there will be no need of a ship because no sea is crossed. It is better, then, not to see with the
8. The Latin text reads venit inde ad quern. Inde in Christian Latin frequently carries a personal connotation as translated here. The phrase could mean, however, "He came from the place to which . . ."