The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle of S. John
And the Life was manifested : By the Incarnation, by which He was beheld and even touched by men. This was prophesied by Isaiah ; and see Luke iii. 5. And S. Ambrose in Ps. xxxvi. (xxxvii.) 19 says, “Christ is in all things our life. His Godhead is our life. His eternity is our life, His flesh is our life, His Passion is our life.” Whence Jeremy says, “ We shall live in His shadow, the shadow of His wings. The shadow of the cross is the shadow of His Passion, His death is life, His wounds are life, His blood is life, His burial is life, His Resurrection is the life of all men. Wishest thou to know how His death is life ? We are baptized into His death, that we may walk with Him in newness of life [Rom. vi. 4]. And He says Himself, “ Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit ” (John xii. 24). He, that grain of wheat, was separated from the body for us, and died that He might bring forth much fruit in us. His death therefore is the fruit of life.”
And bear witness. In our words, our life, our suffering death and martyrdom. As S. John says of himself (Rev. v. 1.) Again, it means, “ We protest and denounce, by threatening unbelievers with the terrible judgment of God.” As Cassian says ( de Incarn. v. 6), “ In faithfully discharging His office, He leaves those who refuse to listen, to bear the peril of their own disobedience.”
And shew unto you that Eternal Life ; Christ, who as the Word of God is eternal life: which was with the Father , and was manifested unto us — being made visible by His Incarnation, miracles, especially (says Cajetan) by His Transfiguration, Resurrection, and Ascension. By which latter He shows that not only as the Word, but as man also, He will live a glorious and eternal life.
With the Father . As the Gospel says, “ The Word was with God.” Being, as Nonnus says, “never parted from the Father: ever seated on His Throne.”
S. John here answers the objection, “ How could He be ever with the Father, when there was no place where He could be ? S. John replies that there was no need of space for Him. He was in the bosom of the Father. But the word ‘ with ’ signifies three things : (1) That He was a person distinct from the Father, (2) that He was closely connected with Him, (3) was equal to the Father. This overthrows the Eunomian heresy that the Son was not the Word, for S. John says that it was the same Word which was with the Father, and was manifested in the flesh. And to keep them from inferring that the Word was not God, S. John expressly adds, “And the Word was God.” For the Divine Persons, though distinct the one from the other, have yet one and the same Essence. And that the Word was not, as Arian suggested, separable from the Father, as some article of dress (see S. Fulgent, contr. Monimum , lib . iii. cap . 2, 3), He is one with the Father as heat and brightness co-exist in the fire, or as memory and understanding co-exist in the same mind, or perhaps intellect, memory, and will are identical with the mind itself.
And was manifested unto us. This was at the Incarnation (as S. Dionysius Alex, says), where the invisible became visible, and when He who far surpasses every being came from the hidden shrine of Godhead, became man, and stood forth to our view. But God in truth is hidden even after this manifestation of Himself, or indeed (to announce a higher truth) even in this very manifestation.
For the Godhead of Jesus was hidden, and the mystery which then was wrought respecting Him is not revealed or brought into light by anything which can be said or thought about Him, but even when it is spoken of cannot be explained, and when it is understood is still kept secret.
Ver. 3. — That ye also may have fellowship with us. That is, in the same faith and Church of Christ, where all partake in the same sacraments . It means also that ye should make increase and advance in the faith. It signifies a continuous and growing act. For he speaks to the faithful who already belonged to this society, though Œcumenius thinks it refers to unbelievers, whom John wished to attract to the Church of Christ. This is what S. Paul speaks of (Heb. xii. 22), “ Ye have come unto Mount Sion,” &c. For with all these we have fellowship in the Church — with Angels, with the Apostles, with the early Christians, with just men made perfect, with Christ and with God. Whence S. John adds,
And that our fellowship may be with the Father , and with His Son Jesus Christ. Not with the god of Simon Magus, and with his mediating angels, whom he regards, as does Plato also, as demigods. For, as Bede says, “No one can have fellowship with God, unless he be first joined to the fellowship of the Church.” And as S. Cyprian says (de Unit. Ecclesiæ), “ Whoever is separated from the Church is joined to an adulteress. He is severed from the promises of the Church, and will not attain to the rewards which Christ offers. He who has left the Church of Christ is an alien, is profane, is an enemy. He cannot have God as his Father, who hath not the Church as his mother. If no one could escape who was without the ark, so can no one escape who is without the Church, &c.” Excommunicated persons then who are separated from the Church are likewise separated from God. In the Greek this is stated more plainly and forcibly, Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. It sets forth the nobleness of the fellowship of the Church, as being our fellowship with God and Christ, for the Church is His spouse. (See 2 Pet. i. 4 ; 1 Cor. i. 9 and vi. 17.)
All the faithful then have fellowship with Christ and God by faith, hope, and charity, and the more so as they advance in these graces, imitate His life, and help to propagate His truth, like the Apostles, who did and suffered so much for Christ, and devoted themselves entirely to promote His glory and the salvation of souls. This fellowship or society embraces all the qualifications of true friendship which Aristotle, Cicero, and others speak of. Accordingly S. Augustine (Tract. lxxvi. on John) says, “The Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son makes His abode with us as in a temple. The whole three Persons come to us, when we come to them : they come , we by obeying ; they by enlightening, we by beholding the light ; they by filling us, we by receiving — so that our sight of them is not outward, but inward, and their dwelling with us is not transitory but eternal.” Dionysius the Carthusian beautifully and piously explains (in loc.) how the faithful should hold converse with God. Hesselius and Lorinus describe our fellowship with Christ as that of a lord with his servant, a father with an adopted child, of the enlightener and the enlightened, the justifier and the justified, a ruler and subject, a giver and receiver, of one who invokes and one who hears, of one who bestows gifts and one who returns thanks, of Him who blesses and he who is blessed ; so that, cleaving to God, we may be one with Him, and walking in the light as He is in the light, may have fellowship with Him. It is (as concerns Christ’s human nature) like the relation of a master and his scholars, of a Priest and those for whom he offers sacrifice and intercedes, of one who suffers punishment which another deserved, and one who receives a favour which he did not deserve, &c. Scripture explains it under the type of a Shepherd and his sheep, the head and the members, of food and its eaters, the vine and the branches, and so on. We, in a word, who are partakers of His sufferings, are partakers of His consolations. Christ also calls us His friends, brethren, &c. He says that His God is our God, His Father and our Father. (See Eph. ii. 19 ; 1 John iii. 1 ; 2 Cor. xi. 2 ; Hos. ii. 19.)
And these things write we that ye may rejoice in the fellowship of the Church of Christ, and that your joy may be full . Increase daily more and more (see Phil. ii. 2 ; John xvii. 13.) This is the result of a good conscience (2 Cor. i. 12). As S. Bernard says to Pope Eugenius, “What is more precious, what more calm, and what freer from care than a good conscience ? It fears not losses, it fears not reproaches, it fears not bodily tortures, for it is exalted rather than cast down by death itself.” And so too Cicero, Horace, and other heathen writers. The Apostle therefore rightly sets forth the hope and confidence inspired by a pure and innocent conscience. For S. Augustine truly said [on Ps. xxxi.], “ The very charity of a righteous man gives him hope of a good conscience, for a good conscience inspires hope ; for just as an evil conscience leads to utter despair, so does a good conscience inspire confident hope.”