Tractates on the Gospel of John
TRACTATE 8 187 answer that they believed the gospel. Why do they not believe the gospel when it says "the mother of Jesus was there" and "his mother said to him"? Or if the gospel lies in this, how can that be believed which Jesus said, "What is it to me and to you, woman?" Why do they not rather, the wretched men, believe faithfully also that the Lord made that answer not to a strange woman but to his mother?
(4) And why do they not devoutly seek out why he answered that way? For there is considerable difference between him who says, "I want to know why Christ made this reply to his mother," and him who says, "I know that Christ did not make this answer to his mother." It is one thing to wish to understand what has been hidden, another to be unwilling to believe what has been made clear. One who says, "I want to know why Christ made this reply to his mother," wishes the gospel in which he believes to be made clear to him. But one who says, "I know that Christ did not make this reply to his mother," accuses of a lie the very gospel in which he has believed that Christ did make such a reply. 8. Now then, if you please, brothers, since they have been repulsed and forever wander in their blindness, unless they should be healed in humility, let us ask why our Lord made this reply to his mother. He, uniquely, was born of the Father without a mother, and of the mother without a father; as God without a mother, as man without a father; before time without a mother, in the end of times without a father. What he answered, he answered to his mother, because "the mother of Jesus was there" and "his mother said to him." All of this the gospel says. From that passage we know that "the mother of Jesus was there," where we know that he said to her, "What is it to me and to you, woman? My hour has not yet come." Let us believe all of it and let us examine what we do not yet understand.
(2) And first watch out for this, that, just as the Manichaeans have found an opportunity for their incredulity because the Lord said, "What is it to me and to you, woman?" so the astrologers may not find an opportunity for their deceit because he said, "My hour has not yet come." And if he said this