Tractates on the Gospel of John
66 ST. AUGUSTINE ened, [he was] darkness, but by enlightenment he became a light.
(2) Indeed, if he were not enlightened, he was darkness, like all the irreligious people, to whom, once they believed, the Apostle said, "You were once darkness."^' Now, however, since they had believed, what did he say? "But now, however, light in the Lord." If he did not add "in the Lord," we would not understand. "Light in the Lord," he said; you were darkness but not in the Lord. "For you were once darkness." There he did not add, in the Lord. Therefore darkness in yourselves, "light in the Lord." So, too, "that man was not the light, but to give witness concerning the light."
7. But where is the light itself? "It was the true light which enlightens every man who comes into this world." If every man who comes, then John too. He himself, then, enlightened him by whom he wished himself to be pointed out. My beloved people, exercise your understanding; for he came to weak minds, to wounded hearts, to the vision of bleary-eyed souls. He had come for this reason.
(2) And how could the soul see what exists in perfection? In the very same way as often the sun, which we cannot see with our eyes, is known to have arisen through some irradiated body. For even those who have injured eyes are able to see a wall which has been clearly and brightly lighted up by the sun; or they are able to see a mountain or a tree or anything of the sort. And through that irradiated object the rising of the sun is shown to them even though they still have insufficient sharpness of eye to see it. So, then, all those to whom Christ had come were less able to see him; he shed his rays upon John; and through him who proclaimed that he was irradiated and enlightened, and not the one who irradiated or enlightened, he who enlightens was known, he who fills was known. And who is he? "He who enlightens every man who comes into the world," he says.
(3) For if man had not departed from that light, he would
17. Eph 5.8. 18. Cf. Tractate 1.18, note 42.