Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
TRACTATE 2 73 him.*^* Do not wonder, then, O man, that you are made a son through grace, that you are born of God according to his Word. The Word himself wished first to be born of man, that you might be born safely of God, and that you might say to yourself, "It was not without reason that God willed to be born of man, but because he thought me of some importance, so that he should make me immortal and should himself be born into mortal life for me."
(2) So when [the gospel] had said, "of God were born," in order that, as it were, we might not be astonished and terrified at a grace so great that it might seem unbelievable to us that men were born of God, as if relieving you of anxiety, [the gospel] says, "and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Why then are you astonished that men are born of God? Notice that God himself was born of men: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."
16. Indeed, because "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," by the nativity itself he made a salve by which the eyes of our heart may be wiped clean and we may be able to see his majesty through his lowliness.^' Thus "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." He healed our eyes. And what follows? "And we saw his glory."
(2) His glory no one could see unless he were healed by the lowliness of his flesh. Why could we not see? Concentrate, my beloved people, and see what I am saying. Dust, so to speak, had forcibly entered man's eye; earth had entered it, had injured the eye, and it could not see the light. That injured eye is anointed; it was injured by earth, and earth is put there that it may be healed. For all salves and medicines are nothing but [compounds] of earth. You have been blinded by dust, you are healed by dust; thus the flesh had blinded you, flesh heals you. For the soul had become carnal by assenting to carnal passions; from that the eye of the heart had been blinded.
"The Word was made flesh." That physician^- made a salve for
40. Cf. Tractate 1.12.
41. Many codices read per eim humanitatem, "through his humanity." 42. This title of Christ was widely used among the Fathers, particularly in Africa, and is a favorite of Augustine. See the fine note in Berrouard, Home-
74 ST. AUGUSTINE you. And because he came in such a way that by his flesh he might extinguish the faults of the flesh and by his death he might kill death, it was therefore effected in you that, because "the Word was made flesh," you could say, "And we saw his glory." What sort of glory? Such as he became as the Son of Man? That was his lowliness, not his glory. But where has man's eyesight, healed through flesh, been guided? "We saw," it says, "his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
(3) We shall discuss grace and truth more fully in another passage in the same gospel, if the Lord will deign to grant it. Now let these words suffice; grow strong in Christ, be strengthened in the faith, and be watchful in good works. Do not depart from the wood by which you can cross the sea. lies I -XVI, 854-855, and the thorough study of the title in R. Arbesmann, "The Concept of 'Christus Medicus' in St. Augustine," Traditio 10 (1954) 1-28. Christ as healer is a particularly important concept for Augustine in these Tractates to provide a thorough understanding of ihe meaning of the Incarnation in the life of man. See R. Hardy, 1 12-1 16. See also, Poque, Le langage, 1.176-177, 186-187.