The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Ver. 30. — When , therefore , he had received the morsel , he straightway went out. Both because he then became possessed by the devil, and also because Christ by the foregoing words had expelled him from His household. The word “ therefore ” refers to both these reasons. S. Augustine remarks that, the unclean one going forth, all they that were clean remained with Him that cleanseth them, like the wheat when the tares have been separated from it. S. Cyril observes that the devil impelled Judas to go forth immediately to betray Christ, lest, by the virtue of the Eucharist which, though unworthily received, was pricking his conscience, he might repent and think better of his crime. Origen adds further, that the teaching of Christ was so efficacious as to move His betrayer afterwards to say : I have sinned in betraying the innocent blood ; nay, even to such sorrow, that unable to tolerate life he hanged himself, “ showing,” he says, “ how great was the power of the teaching of Jesus even in a sinner, a thief, and a traitor, seeing that he even could not altogether set at nought the things he had learnt from Jesus.” Hence we may gather that it is good to bring about delays in the way of those who are suffering a strong temptation from the devil to commit some sin forthwith ; for through this very delay, the matter being more maturely considered, the vileness, the evil results, and penalties of the sin come to be seen, and deter the man from its commission ; and at last the heat of the temptation abates and slackens by reason of the mere delay.
On the other hand, when we are following after good and virtuous intentions, as, for instance, a resolution to enter the Priesthood or the Religious State, there is need of haste, lest our relatives, our companions, or the devil, by interposing delays, succeed in frittering away the whole scheme. Hear what S. Chrysostom says (Horn. 57), “While this love is burning in thee, betake thee straightway to the angels themselves and inflame it yet more exceedingly. Say not, I will first speak to my relations, and set my affairs in order; for such delay is the beginning of torpor. The disciple would bury his father, and Christ suffered him not. Why so? Because the devil is eager and watchful to creep into the soul, and if he can seize but a brief delay, it brings thee to lukewarmness.” S. Anselm and S. Bernard speak in the same sense.
And it was night. John adds this, first, for the sake of historical completeness, to mark the time when Christ was betrayed and seized by the Jews ; secondly, to indicate the haste of the devil, who drove on Judas late at night to go and look for the guards who were perhaps asleep; and, thirdly, says S. Chrysostom (Horn. 71), “that we may appreciate the rashness of Judas whom the unreasonableness of the hour did not restrain.”
Symbolically, the Gloss says that the night-time is in keeping with the mystery, for he that went out was a son of darkness and did the works of darkness. The night indicates the darkness of mind in which Judas was, says S. Ambrose (De Cain , bk. ii. ch. 4), also the impenitence and condemnation to the darkness of hell, to which Judas was on his way. S. Gregory (“ Morals,” ii. 2), “ By the nature of the time the end of the action is expressed, and Judas, who was never to come back to pardon, is recorded to have gone forth by night. ... For this cause it is said to the wicked rich man : This night shall thy soul be required of thee. His soul which is being carried away into darkness, is mentioned as being required of him not by day but by night.”
Ver. 31. — When, therefore , he had gone forth , Jesus said , Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him — “ is glorified equivalent to “ is soon to be glorified ;” the perfect put for the immediate future; Judas is now gone forth to betray Me, therefore is my cross and death nigh at hand, and so far is it from bringing ignominy on Me that, on the contrary, by it I am to be supremely glorified. For in it shall I be recognised as not only man and the Son of man, but also the Son of God and God ; for the Divinity that lieth veiled in My humanity shall be recognised by the darkening of the sun, the cleaving asunder of rocks, the opening of sepulchres , the rising up of the dead, and the quaking of all the earth, —all these things shall show forth that God suffereth and dieth upon the cross. And again by its effects, for by the cross will I subjugate to Myself the whole world, all the devils, and sin, death and hell, as the God and Lord of all things. So S. Chrysostom, Cyril, and others. And here, note that by these signs God and the Godhead of Christ not only glorified the humanity of Christ but Itself also ; for in them was made manifest the infinite goodness, power, wisdom, majesty, and glory of Christ’s Godhead.
Ver. 32. — If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself and shall glorify Him straightway . If that is because Christ, made obedient unto the death of the cross, hath by this His obedience, reverence, and sacrifice, glorified God the Father, therefore shall God the Father in turn glorify the Son in Himself by demonstrating and making manifest the Divinity that is hidden in Him. And this straightway — quickly, for on the third day He shall raise Him up revived, and glorious in His death ; on the fortieth day He shall cause Him to ascend in triumph into Heaven ; and on the fiftieth to send down His Holy Spirit upon the apostles. By all these things He made known to the world that Jesus is not only man but God, and the Son of God. So Cyril and Chrysostom.
Origen, in his 6th Homily, says that the glorification of Christ was twofold, — the former in His death, by which He was glorified in the lowliness of His mortality ; and the latter in His resurrection, by which He was glorified in the sublimity of His immortality.
Secondly, S. Hilary (He Trinitate , bk. v.), and Toletus following him, think that God is said to be glorified in Christ , because He showed His own Divinity in His death and resurrection ; proving Himself God and the Son of God by raising Himself from death, ascending into heaven by His own power, and thence sending down the Holy Spirit and working many wonders through the apostles. This interpretation is called for by the expressions — in Him , in Himself. The Godhead was veiled in Christ until His death, but it then shone out and thrust itself forth, showing Christ to be not only man, but also the Son of God, inasmuch as He raised Himself from death by virtue of His own Divinity. Origen says, “The Son is, as Paul says, the brightness of the Divine glory, from whence come its splendours upon every rational creature ; for only the Son is capable of comprehending all the brightness of the Divine glory.” The words “ in Himself” may be referred, first, to “the Son of Man.” God glorified the Man Christ, by showing that He, as man, had God indwelling in Him, and the Godhead of the Word ; and secondly, to “ God ” — God showing that the Man Christ subsists in the Divine Person of the Word, that is, in God.
Ver. 33. — My little children . Notice the tenderness of Christ’s feeling of love towards His apostles and the faithful. He says not “ my sons” but “ my little children,” showing in our regard the heart, as it were, of a mother towards her newly born infants. Again, little children, because the apostles were as yet little in the faith and love of Christ, for they received its fulness and, as it were, their manhood from the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. Symbolically Cyril says that all the Saints are little ones in relation to Christ.
Yet a little (a little time) I am with you — because an hour hence I shall be betrayed by Judas and given up to the Jews. Christ is here taking His last farewell of His own. Farewell, He says, My well-beloved children, for I am going away from you to death, and after that I shall not converse with you as we have been wont, but shall return to heaven.
Ye shall seek Me , and, as I said to the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come . I by My death return to heaven ; you, O apostles, bereft of My presence, shall seek Me in the tribulations and persecutions that await you, and shall wish that I were with you that you might consult Me in your doubts and receive comfort and consolation from Me in your troubles; but whither I go you cannot come , both because you cannot by your own strength — with your own feet and your own natural powers — follow Me when I ascend into heaven, and you have not yet the supernatural strength of grace. For you are not yet strong enough to be able to accompany Me to the Cross and the martyr’s death, — not yet so perfect in grace, strength, and love as to be fit for and worthy of the kingdom of heaven. Lastly, you cannot come there yet, because My Heavenly Father has determined to send you after My death to preach the gospel throughout the world, and bring all nations to My faith and salvation.