Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
190 ST. AUGUSTINE according to the flesh and the Lord of Mary according to [his] majesty. Because, therefore, she was not the mother of [his] divinity and what she sought would be a miracle through [his] divinity, he answered her, "What is it to me and to you, woman?" But that you may not think that I am denying you as my mother, "My hour has not yet come." For there shall I acknowledge you when the weakness of which you are the mother has begun to hang on the cross. Let us test if this is true.
(5) When the Lord suffered, as the same Evangelist says, who knew the mother of the Lord and who has informed us of the mother of the Lord at this wedding also, he himself relates: "There was," he says, "there near the cross the mother of Jesus. And Jesus says to his mother, 'Woman, behold your son,' and to the disciple, 'Behold your mother.' "^^ He entrusts the mother to the disciple; he, about to die before the mother, to rise again before the mother's death, entrusts the mother. A human being entrusts a human being to a human being. Mary had given birth to this. That hour had come about which the Lord had said, "My hour has not yet come."
10. In my opinion, brothers, the heretics have been answered. Let us answer the astrologers. And by what do they try to demonstrate that Jesus was subject to fate? Because he himself said, they say, "My hour has not yet come." Therefore we believe him. If he had said, "I have no hour," he would have debarred the astrologers. "But look," they say, "he himself said, 'My hour has not yet come.'" If, then, he had said, "I have no hour," he would have debarred the astrologers; there would be no way that they might misrepresent [him]. But, in fact, because he said, "My hour has not yet come," what can we say against his own words?
(2) It is amazing that the astrologers, while believing the words of Christ, try to convince Christians that Christ lived under a fated hour. Let them, then, believe Christ when he says, "I have the power to lay down my life, and to take it up again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down of my-