The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Accordingly S. Bernard rightly exclaims (De Div. Amor. cap . iv.), “ O happy, yea most happy soul, whom God vouchsafes to influence so that by unity of spirit with God it loves God only, and not its own private good, and loves itself only as in God ; while God loves or approves in it only that which He ought to approve, that is to say Himself, which in truth ought alone to be loved both by the Creator and the creature. For the name and feeling of love belongs and is due to Thee alone, O thou beloved Lord, Thou true love.” And he concludes thus with the words from S. John, “ This is the will of Thy Son in us. This His prayer to Thee His Father, I will that as I and Thou art one, so they also may be one in Us. This is the end, this the consummation , this is perfection, this is peace, this is joy in the Holy Ghost, this is silence in heaven.”
That the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me . Not merely through its unity and agreement in doctrine, as Euthymius supposes, but through its union with God and Christ. That is, even by this mark alone will the world believe Christ to be the Son of God, because it will behold Christians both united to God and Christ as well as by mutual love to each other. For it will see that such an union could not be effected except by Christ and God. And therefore it will be attracted by this, so as, though now unbelieving, to cast off its unbelief and to believe. The “ world ” is here used in a good sense, as in John iii. 17 and 2 Cor. v. 19. Jansen less correctly considers the “ world ” here to mean the reprobate ; in this sense, “ That it will be forced by the evidence of the miracles and the holiness of My disciples to confess Me to be God. As S. James says, ‘ the devils believe and tremble.’ ”
Ver. 22. — And the glory Thou gavest Me I have given them , that they may be one , even as we are one . By the “ glory,” understand (1.) The glory of the Divine Sonship. For Christ has this as God by nature, and as man by the hypostatical Union. And this He gives to the holy faithful ones, to have it not by nature, but by adoption, and to be the sons of God, not by nature, as Christ, but as adopted. So Jansenius, and before him S. Ambrose, v. 4.
2. Maldonatus understands by the word " the love,” that whereby the Father glorified Him at His baptism, and elsewhere by showing Him forth as His Beloved Son.
3. Leontius and Ribera understand it to be the Eucharist, for in this the Godhead and Manhood of Christ are given to us. And this is the highest glory, for we being many are one Body, for we are all partakers of the one Body and the one Cup. (1 Cor. x.) And in like manner S. Cyril, xi. 26, and S. Hilary (de Trinit . viii.), explain it of the Godhead of the Word united to the flesh, for Christ received this as man from the Father, when the Word was made flesh. And this Christ gave to us when He made His flesh to be our food, and He is united really and truly to us by this wonderful sacrament.
Toletus takes the same view, who thus explains it, I have already made them one by the glory I received from Thee. Give, O Father, thy Holy Spirit, that they may also become one. This glory is the Godhead of the Son, which He says He has received as man through the Hypostatic Union. And this Godhead united to His flesh Christ gave to us in the sacrament which He had just instituted.
Symbolically . S. Chrysostom and Euthymius understand by ‘glory’ both the miraculous power which Christ gave His disciples, and also the unity of concord, of which it was said, “ that they may be one.” For these two were an effectual argument for confirming the truth of the Faith, namely miracles, and the wonderful agreement in the belief of them.
Anagogically . S. Augustine (in loc.) says, “This is the glorifying of the body. The immortality and glory which after three days I will give to My Flesh and Manhood at My Resurrection, ‘ I have given,’ i.e. I will give most assuredly, to the faithful at the general resurrection.’”
Ver. 23. — I in them , and Thou in Me , that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me. That their union may be consummated and perfected, as the union of many members in one Body and Head. For, as many members make up one body, so do the many faithful bind together the one mystical Body of Christ, which is His Church. Again, all the members are united and made complete in one head, so are all Christians in One Christ and God. Toletus appositely explains it of the Holy Eucharist ; “I am in them,” he says, “ by My flesh given them as their true and real food, but Thou art in Me, because Thy Godhead is united to My flesh. If therefore the Godhead is in My flesh, and My flesh is in the believers, it comes to pass that the Godhead also is in believers through the medium of the Body of Christ. Believers therefore have in themselves both the Body of Christ, and by means of It the Godhead. They become one, and have through Christ a kind of unity by reason of their flesh, and so are consummated in one, that is, become perfectly one, as not only being united amongst themselves, and with God, as to their souls, which is effected by the Holy Spirit, but also as to their very bodies.”
Hence S. Dionysius (De Divin. Nom . cap. iv.) teaches that Divine Love revolves in a circle, because it comes from God the Father to the Son, and thence to the Holy Spirit, through Whom it returns to the Father and the Son. For the Holy Spirit is the reasonable love of the Father and the Son. Again, it moves in a circle, because it comes from God into the creatures (especially into men and angels), and converts them to the love and enjoyment of God. For as God is the efficient cause of love, so also is He its end. For love transfers him who loves into the beloved object itself. For the soul is really more in that which it loves than in that which it animates. “ Therefore S. Paul (Dionysius says), that mighty man, when already led captive by Divine Love, and endued with its strength, which lifts up a man from his own state, says with inspired lips, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in Me’ (Gal. ii. 20). And as a true lover, lifted above his own sphere, he lives to God, not his own life, but the life of Him who loves him, as in truth a life which is greatly to be loved.” And afterwards he defines love as “a power impelling to action, and attracting upwards to itself, &c., which originates from goodness, and flows from that source of goodness to the things which exist, and thence flows back to goodness. And in this, Divine Love especially shows that It has neither beginning nor end. For it is a perpetual circle, which, springing from a good source (from that which is good) in good deeds, and by turning back from all which is wrong towards that which is good, sets itself free, and, though abiding in the same spot, is ever advancing, and yet stationary, and comes round on itself.”
He then proves it by the authority of his teacher, S. Hierotheus, who says, By love, whether Divine or angelic or spiritual, or so to speak animal or natural, we must understand a force which unites and blends together, which impels those which are superior to consult the good of those who are inferior, which leads those on a level to join in intercourse with each other, and inferiors to look up to superiors. Hence, too, the Egyptians represented God as a circle, but to show rather that He was eternal, without beginning or ending, and accordingly boundless. Whence the saying, “God is a circle, whose centre is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.” The Persians also called Jupiter the circle of heaven ; and the Saracens too represent God under the same image.