The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Analogically, Bede says : “Show them things to come ; i.e., the joys of the heavenly country and the sufferings they would have to endure for Christ. The Interlinear Gloss says, “ Not only what will happen in time, but also in eternity, inflaming them with the love of them.”
Ver. 14. — He will glorify Me. By showing Me to be the Son of God : or with S. Augustine (in loc.), “By shedding abroad love in men’s hearts, and making them spiritual, He declared to them that the Son was equal to the Father, though they had before known Him in the flesh. And the Apostles, filled with boldness by that very love, and having banished fear, proclaimed Christ to men, and thus was His fame spread abroad over the whole world ; for that which they would do by the Holy Spirit, He said that the Holy Spirit would Himself do.”
For He shall receive of mine. That is, of My Divine Essence, says Nazianzen (Orat. de Fide.) and consequently of My will and knowledge , for this He ought to announce to you, say S. Cyril, Chrysostom , Jansenius, Toletus, and others. Didymus observes : “ The Son, in giving, loses not that which He bestows, nor does He impart it to others, to His own loss. Nor does the Holy Spirit receive that which He had not before. The Holy Spirit must be understood to receive from the Son in such a manner that the substance of both the giver and receiver should be recognised as One : and so also the Son receives His subsistence from the Father.” Maldonatus thus, “ He will receive of Mine, that is, He will come in My name, and as My Legate will teach no other doctrine than Mine.” But this seems foreign to the subject. Nonnus wrongly paraphrased, “ He shall receive of My Father,” as though the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father only.
From this passage the Fathers (and even the Council of Florence, sess. 25) prove both the Divinity of Christ, and the Procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son. Maldonatus quotes them fully, and also Bellarmine (de Christo , lib . ii. 23 and 24 chap.) And Theodorus of Heraclea (in Cat. Græc.) learnedly says, “ The Holy Spirit was a witness of the Divinity of the Only Begotten, since He came of His essence, and made known His essence,” for the Holy Spirit could not have been breathed forth except by Him who was God.
But why did Christ say “ of Mine ” and not “ of Me ” ? I reply, Because the Holy Spirit received not from the Son all that is in the Son. He received His essence, but not His filiation. But it is from His essence and filiation that He is constituted as the Son, according to our mode of conceiving it. And Christ so explains it in the next verse, “ All things that the Father hath are Mine,” &c. Hence it is plain that “ of Mine ” means the same as “ all things that the Father hath are Mine,” i.e. the Godhead with all its attributes. Hence Theophylact explains, “ of Mine,” i.e. of the Treasure of the Godhead, which is in Me. Heretics therefore wrongly contended from these words that the Holy Spirit was not God by nature, but only by participation (see S. Augustine in loc., and S. Cyril, Thesaur. xiii. 4), for He participates in the Divine Nature, which has no parts, but is wholly indivisible and most simple Being.
He will receive. That is, He has received from all eternity, still receives, and will ever receive ; for the future embraces all time, and is most like eternity, for it endures for ever, just like the breathing of the Holy Spirit. The meaning of the passage is this : Sorrow not, because when I am gone ye will be deprived of your Teacher. For I will send you the Holy Ghost, who, as being purely the Divine Spirit, will teach you all things which concern the salvation of your spirit. But when He is teaching you, because He receives all things from Me from whom He proceeds, He will make known to you My Brightness and Glory, for He will receive from Me all things which He will declare to you, and thus I shall speak through Him, and show Myself to you. And marvel not at this : for I, by My eternal generation, have received from My Father everything which He Himself has, and I have therefore received from Him to be with Him the one principle (origin) of the Holy Spirit.
Ver. 15. — All things that the Father hath are Mine. For all things, saving His paternity (says the Council of Florence), the Father, by begetting the Son, communicated to Him. He therefore communicated to the Son the power of breathing forth the Holy Spirit, which He Himself has. He therefore adds in explanation, Therefore I said , He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it to you. By using the Name Father He declared Himself to be the Son, but did not claim the Paternity, as Sabellius taught. But all things which the Father hath in His substance, His eternity, His unchangeableness, His goodness — all these hath the Son also.” And S. Hilary ( de Trinit lib . viii.) says, “He teaches that all things which are to be received from the Father, are yet received from Himself, for all things the Father hath are His. The general statement ( universitas ) does not admit of distinction.” And hence it is again inferred that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, for the Son hath all things which the Father hath, saving His Paternity. But the Father has actively the power of breathing forth the Holy Spirit, therefore the Son hath the same. For if the Father and the Son had not all things in common, saving their opposite relation to each other [as Father and Son], they would be distinguished by more than relation, and consequently be diverse in substance. For the Father as breathing forth [the Spirit] is not co-relative to the Son. And therefore if He is distinguished from the Son by His breathing forth the Spirit, He is distinguished by it, not as something relative, but as a kind of “ form ” subsisting in the Father, and therefore the Father and the Son differ in substance, which is the Arian heresy.
Ver. 16. — A little while , and ye shall not see Me; and again , a little while , and ye shall see Me , because I go to the Father. For in a few hours I shall die on the cross, and be buried, but in three days I shall rise again, and manifest Myself to you with great joy, for I shall shortly afterwards ascend into heaven, and sit at the right hand of the Father. For I shall not be detained by death, but shall conquer it in My own Person, and with you overcome it also. So S. Chrysostom, Cyril, Leontius, Theophylact, Euthymius, &c. S. Augustine, Bede, and Maldonatus explain it otherwise. I shall abide with you for forty days only, and then after My ascension ye will see Me no more, then after another “ little time,” ye will see Me again, in the day of judgment, and the general resurrection, when I shall take you both in body and soul into heaven with Myself , I will bless and glorify you. For I go to My Father, to reign with Him in glory until that time. And this whole period, though one of many thousand years, is but like a small point compared with the eternity of God.
Hear S. Augustine (in loc.) : “ The whole space which the present age of the world passes through is but a little while. As the same Evangelist says (1 John ii. 18), ‘ It is the last hour.’ ” And further on, “ This ‘ little while ’ seems long to us, because it is yet going on. But when it is ended, we shall feel how short it has been. Let not then our joy be like that of the world, of which it is said ‘the world shall rejoice.’ Nor let us be sorrowful, and without joy, in our travailing with this longing desire, but as the Apostle says, ‘ Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,’ because she who is in travail (to whom we are compared) rejoices more at the child which will be born of her, than she sorrows for her present suffering.” Hence the Psalmist, and after him 2 Peter iii. 8, One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, &c.
Ver. 17. — Then said some of His disciples among themselves, What is this that He saith unto us? ... . We cannot tell what He saith. Christ’s words seemed to be obscure, a very enigma, and no wonder, for it is just the same to many Christians even now. Christ did this intentionally, to rouse the minds of the sorrowing Apostles to ask the meaning of this strange expression : so that He, in His answer, might remove, or anyhow mitigate, their sorrow. S. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius give two reasons for their asking: because His words were obscure in themselves; and secondly, because they were weighed down with sorrow. Rupertus adds that they did not yet certainly believe that He would rise again on the third day. S. Augustine and Bede give a further reason for their being troubled at the twice repeated expression “a little while,” namely, that the brief pleasure of this life is changed, in the next life, into eternal and unbounded joy. See 2 Cor. iv. 17. Take which view you prefer.
Ver. 19. — But Jesus knew that they wished to ask Him. But dared not through fear and dread. Christ knew this by the Power of His Godhead, looking into their secret thoughts and inward desires. He therefore anticipated their reply, to show that He knew all hearts, and was therefore God (so Cyril) ; and He adds,