The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Ver. 10. — And all Mine are Thine , and Thine are Mine. I am about to depart, and I commend My disciples to Thee ; because they are Thine, and elected by Thee to eternal life and committed to My care. But they are still Thine, though given to Me. And though, as I say, they were given to Me, yet they were ever Mine ; for all Thou hast are Mine, by reason of our unity of Essence. So SS. Cyril and Chrysostom.
And I am glorified in them. Because they believe in Me, love Me, worship, adore, and praise Me as the Messiah and the Son of God. So Cyril and Chrysostom. Morally. Learn hence that God and Christ are glorified in us, when we do what is right, and especially when we preach His faith, and convert unbelievers and ungodly men. S. Augustine (in loc.) takes it otherwise, putting the matter as past, instead of its being yet to come. For what is past is a matter of greater certainty. I pray for the Apostles, for I am about to be glorified by them, when they preach My Godhead in all the world.
Ver. 11. — And now I am no more in the world (I shall be soon out of the world), but these are in the world, and I come to Thee. I am leaving the world, but they remain in it, to preach the gospel, and therefore will be exposed to the hatred of both Jews and Gentiles, and countless perils. Keep them, then, O Father, for there is no one else who can do so, in My absence.
Holy Father . He terms the Father “ Holy,” because He is speaking of holiness, and He prays the Father to keep and advance the Apostles in holiness. And in ver. 25 He terms Him “righteous” for withholding from the unrighteous and proud world the mysteries of My humiliation in redeeming man. And when consoling S. Paul in tribulation, He is called " The Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation ” (2 Cor. i. 3). And when He strengthened David in battle, and made him victorious, He was thus addressed, “I will love Thee, O Lord, My strength ” (Ps. xviii. 1).
Keep through Thine Own Name , by Thy might and omnipotence, that they may ever be in Me, and abide in My love. It is plain then that the Apostles had not lost the grace of the Holy Spirit. For this prayer of Christ’s was fully heard by the Father.
That they may be one , as We are one , i.e. in consent and will : just as We are One in Nature, and the same Essential Godhead. That being joined together by one spirit of charity, they may ever follow Me, and not be rent asunder by discord, and thus may have the unity of spirit in agreement, which we have by means of the same Essence. So S. Augustine (in loc.) and S. Ambrose (de Fide , iv. 2). Whence S. Cyril notes here, and S. Athanasius (contr. Arian) that the word “like” signifies only a kind of resemblance, but not identity ; which means that they, by the consent of their minds, may imitate that unity which We possess, in having the same numerical essence and will.
S. Cyril and S. Hilary ( de Trinit . lib. viii.) refer these words to the Holy Eucharist, as though Christ wished that the Apostles, by partaking of His Body therein, might become one with Him and amongst themselves. And this truly and substantially, as He is truly one in substance with the Father. For just as the Father is united to the Son in the same Essential Godhead, so are the Apostles and all the faithful united one with another in the same substance of the manhood and Godhead of Christ, which they receive in the Eucharist.
Ver. 12. — When I was with them I kept them in Thy Name , i.e. “ by Thy power, by Thy authority, as Thy messenger to them.” So S. Cyril. For they, knowing that I was sent by Thee, willingly and boldly cleaved to Me, as knowing that through Me they were cleaving to God, and were blessed and protected by Him. For those whom the Son guards, the Father guards also. Others explain “ Thy Name ” as meaning, for the sake of Thee and Thy boundless goodness.
Those that Thou gavest Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition . The word “ son ” means here, worthy of, guilty of. And hence it is plain that Christ here did not pray for Judas, who had withdrawn from the company of the Apostles in order to betray Christ. He had not been given to Christ by the Father, but had destroyed himself by his covetousness in betraying Me, and therefore passed away into the number of the reprobate.
That the Scripture might be fulfilled. This signifies, not the end and intent of Scripture, but merely that it so came to pass in order that the Scripture, which cannot lie, should be fulfilled. See Ps.
Ver. 13. — And now come I to Thee (I shall soon come at My ascension ) ; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I speak of these things, in order that the Apostles may fully rejoice with Me at these great blessings, and hope that they will hereafter be received by Me into heaven, to the same glory with Myself.
S. Augustine says, “ He stated before the nature of this glory, when He said ‘that we may be one.’ For this is the peace and blessedness of the life to come.”
Ver. 15. — I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil . From the evil (1.) first of guilt, which alone is real evil; (2.) Of punishment, i.e. to preserve them from every adversity, or strengthen them to bear it; (3.) From the evil one, his snares and temptations. In Greek roD
Ver. 16. — They are not of the world . He repeats what He had said before about the world, to show why the Father should care for and protect them, viz., because they had left the world, and given themselves wholly to the worship and protection of Christ.
Ver. 17. — Sanctify them through Thy truth . This signifies not the beginning of sanctification, but its progress and perfection (Rev. xxi.) Confirm and perfect them in holiness; pour into them by the
Holy Spirit at Pentecost complete evangelical truth, that they may be filled with wisdom and holiness, both within and without, and thus become in life and doctrine true teachers of the world, Priests and Rulers of the churches, breathing on all their own holiness, as a fire from above.
Thy word is truth. (1.) It is not Moses or Philosophers, but Thy word which teaches this evangelical truth. The holiness of Moses and the Jews was merely ceremonial and shadowy. That of Philosophers was either pretended, or else merely moral and natural.
That of Christ was supernatural, heavenly, and divine. Others understand by the words, sanctify them truly, that is completely and perfectly , as the Apostle says (Eph. iv. 24.), in true holiness (the holiness of truth, Vulg.). For perfect and great holiness is required in an Apostle, for continuous preaching, for resisting tyrants, for labouring night and day, for suffering martyrdom and death (2 Cor. xi.). 2d. It can be explained thus : “ Sanctify them in Me, who am the way, the truth, and the life. Make them partakers of My goodness and holiness.” So S. Augustine (in loc.), S. Cyril, Rupertus, and S. Thomas.
3d. Maldonatus explains it: Set them apart as holy ministers and preachers of the Gospel. But in truth, not in shadow, as of old Aaron and his sons were consecrated only in a shadowy and typical way. So S. Chrysostom. And Jeremiah (i. 5) was said to have been sanctified in the womb, that is designated and, as it were, consecrated as a Prophet.
4th. It might be thus understood : " Make them holy victims, that they may be sanctified and offered to Thee in martyrdom.” It was fitting that the Apostles should become martyrs, in order to confirm and seal the holiness of their doctrine by the holiness of their martyrdom. And thence, in fact, all the Apostles were martyrs, after the pattern of Christ, who said (ver. 19), “I sanctify Myself,” i.e., I offer Myself. For in Leviticus the victims are always said to be sanctified, when they are offered to God. See below, ver. 19. Observe, Christ as man had a threefold sanctity, which He imparted to the Apostles and the faithful. (1.) The first was infused into the soul of Christ at the very instant of His conception, just as God bestows all power on us by virtue of His merits. (2.) The second was Divine sanctity, by which the Deity is Itself most holy, and the fount of all holiness in men and angels. For Christ had this as man by communicatio idiomatum , by which the attributes of Godhead are truly ascribed to the man Christ, as subsisting with the Godhead in the one Person of the Word. (3.) The holiness of Christ as man, was absolutely caused by this hypostatical union with the Word, for by this the manhood of Christ was absolutely sanctified and made most holy. For even if Christ as man had had no infused grace, yet His very hypostatical union with the Word was His highest sanctification and holiness. Whence the manhood of Christ, as being united to the Word, was clearly impeccable, most pleasing and acceptable to God. Nay more, Christ, as man, was the Son of God, not by adoption, as we are, but properly, and in His very nature.