Tractates on the Gospel of John
TRACTATE 2 67 not have to be enlightened; but he must be enlightened here precisely because he departed from that light whereby mankind could always have been enlightened.
8. What then? If he came here, where was he? "He was in this world." He both was here and he came here. He was here by his divinity; he came here by his flesh because when he came here by his divinity, he could not be seen by the stupid and the blind and the unjust. The unjust themselves are the darkness about which it has been said, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."^^ (2) Look, he is here even now, and he was here, and he is always here; and he never departs, he departs nowhere. It is essential that you have a vantage point from which to see that he never departs from you. It is essential that you do not depart from him who retreats nowhere. It is essential that you not desert, and you will not be deserted. Do not fall and the sun will not set for you.^^ If you have caused your fall, he causes his setting for you; but if you stand upright, he is present to you.
(3) But you have not stood upright: recall from where you have fallen, from where he who fell before you cast you down. For he cast you down not by force, not by compulsion, but by your own will. For if you did not consent to evil, you would stand upright, you would remain enlightened. Now, however, because you have already fallen from where that light can be seen, and have been wounded in your heart, there has come to you such a one as you might be able to see; and he has shown himself as man in such a way that he sought witness from man. From man God seeks witness, and God has man as witness. God has man as witness, but for man's sake — so weak are we!
(4) We seek the day with a lamp! For John himself was called
19. Jn 1.5. 20. The Latin metaphor contains a play on words that is untranslatable; Latin cadere, "to fall," and occidere, "to fall down," or, for heavenly bodies, "to set," and the derivative nouns, casvs and occasus. The enlightening God never stops shining on men; but a person's sin blocks out that light and, so to speak, God the sun sets on that person who then is darkness and not light.