The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle of S. John
The joy then of believers is real and solid. Being joy in the Lord it satisfies and fills the mind, while joy in worldly delights, wealth, and honours, does but excite without gratifying. Hear S. Gregory (Horn, xi. in Evang.), “ Because unending lamentations follow after present joys, avoid vain joys in this life if ye dread sorrow in the next. For no one can both rejoice with the world here, and reign with Christ hereafter. Abstain therefore from the fleeting pleasures of temporal delight, subdue the desires of the flesh. And if anything charms thy mind here, let it shrivel to nothing at the thought of the eternal fire ; and whatever makes thee merry in youth, let youthful discipline check and restrain, that so ye may more easily obtain eternal joys, by fleeing of your own accord from those which are only temporal.” And S. Chrysostom (Horn, xviii. ad populum ), “ He that rejoices in the Lord can never by anything accidental be deprived of it. For all other things which delight us are subject to change, nor can they afford us so much pleasure, as to drive away and cast a shade over the sorrow which springs from other causes. But the fear of God is firm and immovable, and is the source of so much joy, that no sense of other evils can gain hold of us.” And S. Augustine ( Confess . x. 22) distinguishes between true and false joy, “There is a joy which is not vouchsafed to the wicked, but to those who freely worship Thee. For Thou Thyself art their joy. And a happy life consists in rejoicing in Thee, and for Thee. There is no other joy but this, and they who think that there is another, follow after another kind of joy, and not the true one.”
And this is the announcement. That is, the message announced : As God is called our fear, our hope, that is the object of our fear and hope, by a metonymy.
That God is light , and in Him is no darkness at all. Referring to John i. 4. The Word then is the light of men, by which they are enlightened through faith, hope, and charity. For it is spiritual light which is here spoken of. The meaning is, that our life consists in the enlightenment of the Word, whereby men are enlightened in the knowledge of God and their own salvation. And this was the reason why the Word was made flesh, and manifested to men. The Word then is substantial and uncreated light, formally, ideally, and as the cause of all light, whether corporeal or spiritual, of grace and of glory. God, accordingly, is said to be clothed with light (Ps. civ.), to be the Father of lights (James i. 17), and to dwell in unapproachable light (1 Tim. vi. 16). For light is the noblest quality of matter, setting forth the glory and gifts of God’s illumination and grace. There are indeed very many and most beautiful resemblances between God and light. For the quality of light is its great swiftness and its efficacy, its purity, which is not soiled by anything it comes into contact with, with its warmth, brightness, and gladness — making everything visible, giving to all living things life and vigour. Such is the grace of God. Sin is the opposite, and is therefore symbolised by darkness. S. [Pseudo]-Dionysius (Cœlest. Hier. cap . xv.) gives thirty-one resemblances between light and the grace of God. And S. John Damascene (de Fide ii. 11) compares the Holy Trinity to a parhelion, in which there appear to be three suns, though in reality there is but one. “He says the Godhead is indivisible, just as in these three suns, inseparably connected together, there is one and the same tempering and blending of light.” And [Pseudo]-Dionysius represents the Holy Trinity by three lamps, illuminating a house as with one single indistinguishable brightness. And the light of the Deity, and the Trinity,
as it is in itself, yet is obscure darkness to us, because the eyes
of our mind are unable to gaze steadily on so brilliant and overpowering a light. This is also referred to by [Pseudo]-Dionysius. The Father then is the source of light ; the Son, light proceeding directly from Him with equal and commensurate brightness; the Holy Spirit, as a reflected brightness, proceeding from the mutual and reflected love of the Father and the Son. The Gentiles had some shadowy notion of this, Parmenides defining God as a continuous circle of light, encompassing heaven, and Democritus, as mind in a fiery circle.
Christ, as God and the Word, is the formal uncreated light ; as man, He is the created light, because He is full of wisdom, grace, and glory. He is also the causal light, as being the cause of all grace and glory in us. As S. John says, “ He is the light, because He enlightens every man that cometh into the world,” and that not as giving them the light of reason (as Origen and S. Cyril suppose), but rather as giving them the supernatural light of faith and wisdom. Malachi terms Him the Son of righteousness. Manichæus was wrong in supposing that the material sun was Christ (see S. Augustine, Tract . xxxiv. on S. John). Christ specially shone forth after His Incarnation, though He shone as a light even before that, as the dawn precedes the day. See S. Augustine (Tract, i. on S. John , and Isa. xlix. 6). Christ said Himself, “ I am the Light of the World.” And Simeon also, Luke ii. 32. S. Augustine (Horn, xliii. inter L. [nunc cxxxv.]) says beautifully, “Christ came as an illuminator, because the devil had blinded men. This chiefest Physician compounded an eye-salve of infinite value to cure the blinded eyes. How healing was it, compounded of the Word and the flesh. But the eyes of man were so restored and enlightened, as to be equal to the eyes of angels, and to behold the heavenly glory of God Himself.” This light He imparted to the faithful, and especially to apostolic men, for them to become the light of the world (see Job xxxviii. ; Ps. lxxxix.) And as He said to His apostles, “ Ye are the light of the world.” So John, speaking of S. John the Baptist, and so S. Paul writes to the Ephesians, v. 5.
And in Him is no darkness at all, darkness being the type of ignorance and sin. So Didymus and Œcumenius, who quotes John i. 5, and adds, “ He calls our sinful flesh darkness, in which Christ was born, and yet was not partaker of sin.” As Moses, David, Habakkuk, and S. James (i. 17) say of God. Our actions, however they shine, are not the light. But the Divine Essence is light. It was said of the holiest of men, “ He was not that Light ; ” but of the Word of God, it was said, “That was the true Light,” &c. And S. Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xl.) says, “ God is that highest and unapproachable Light, which cannot be conceived in the mind, or expressed in words, enlightening every nature which is endowed with reason, in matters intelligible to the mind, as the sun does in objects of sense, presenting itself more clearly to our comprehension, the more carefully we have cleansed our minds from sin, and as one who is the more greatly loved, the more we contemplate Him, and lastly, as one who is better known the more we love Him.”
All this indicates the truth of John’s words, that God is light perfectly unblended with darkness, and that light of the understanding, which enlightens the eyes of our soul to discern it, by withdrawing it from all material objects, exciting all our affections to desire it, and it alone.
This corresponds with John i. 4 : “ The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” Of which S. Gregory Nyssen (Orat. de Nativ.) remarks, “ His purity touched our filthiness, but was not defiled.” And S. Augustine ( Epist . ad Honorat) says, “The Son of God is not absent even from the minds of the ungodly, though they see Him not, just as light is not seen when presented to the eyes of the blind. But the light of the Word shines in the darkness of ungodly men, by the light of reason, by the voices of created beings, which exclaim that there is a Creator who is to be venerated and loved, by the law of nature within in the mind, by the new law, by Scripture, by doctors and preachers, holy inspirations,” &c.
And hence S. Augustine (Tract. ii. in John) says, “Sink not into sin, and that sun will not sink to thee. If thou sinkest, He will sink to thee.”
The Gentiles seem to have seen this in a shadowy way. See S. Clement Alex., Strom. Lib . iv.
Ver. 6. — If we say that we have fellowship with Him , and walk in darkness , we lie. See 2 Cor. vi. 14. To walk in darkness, is to live in sin, to add sin to sin. He here aims at the Gnostics, who, like the Lutherans and Calvinists, think that they are predestinate, and that they will certainly be saved, however sinfully they may live. And so too the Ebionites. Here observe sins are called darkness for various reasons. (1.) Darkness is a loss of light, sin is a loss of grace. (2.) Darkness causes us to stumble, so do sins cause us to stumble in the way of holiness. (3.) Those who work in the dark (owls) hate the light, so do sinners. John iii. 20. (4.) Sins are the work of the prince of darkness. (5.) They are committed in the dark. (6.) Sins arise from blindness of heart. “ This can be removed only by God, who enlightens our minds ” (see S. Augustine, contr. Julian , lib. v.) This darkness is a sin and the punishment of sin. (7.) Sins darken the mind more and more; and (8.) they lead to everlasting darkness, and are called the shadow of death.