The First Letter of St. John, Chapter Two

I apologize for failing to post last Tuesday.  I had a little health problem.  I feel much better now.  Here is the commentary for the entirety of the second chapter of the First Letter of St. John:

1. My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just. 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 3. And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments.

John tells the recipients of his letter that his purpose in confirming the truth about Jesus Christ, that he is God and man, is to assist them in living the virtuous life, "that you may not sin".  Belief is linked inextricably to action.  It is not a belief in the abstract, but in the tangible.  He reminds them, though, that if anyone does sin, Jesus -- the tangible one -- is his advocate with the Father.  Note that John does not say "when" anyone sins, but "if", as though it were difficult for John to imagine that a person acquainted with Jesus Christ would choose to sin.  John calls Jesus an "advocate".  In his gospel, John quotes Jesus as applying this term to the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, both are advocates, but of different kinds.  It is the Son who stands before the Father in heaven, pleading for us with his sacred wounds.  The Holy Spirit, proceeding from both the Father and the Son, abides with us forever (cf. John 14, 16) and will give testimony of Jesus, and will enable his followers to give testimony of him as well.  John calls Jesus the propitiation for our sins and for those of the world.  Jesus does not merely make propitiation for our sins, he is this propitiation.  This may remind us of Paul's words, that he became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5, 21), so that the propitiation might be made.  The Lord did this not for a limited number of initiates into his mysteries, or those who possess secret knowledge of him, or those who have magic words, but for everyone in the world.  He has brought about our redemption, though not all will receive salvation.  In order to hope in this salvation, we examine our lives in order to know that we keep his commandments.

4. He who saith that he knoweth him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar: and the truth is not in him. 5. But he that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected. And by this we know that we are in him. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. 7. Dearly beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8. Again a new commandment I write unto you: which thing is true both in him and in you, because the darkness is passed and the true light now shineth.

"The truth is not in him", that person is a hypocrite, or, "The Truth is not in him", as Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  John emphasized the humanity of Jesus previously, and now he focuses on the consequent need to obey his commandments.  This would be especially necessary for the Gentiles to hear.  They would be acquainted, of course, with state laws, but these ordinances merely outlawed certain actions.  The laws of Christ, "You shall love the Lord your God", and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" go far beyond these, and have validity not only because God commanded them, but because the Son of God embodied them.  John speaks of the "old" commandment and the "new commandment".  He means that which concerns love of neighbors.  It is "old" in the sense that the recipients of this letter had learned it some time before, but it is "new" in that it is not a dead letter which is learned and then forgotten, but which must be lived now, with the aid of the Holy Spirit.  "Which thing is true both in him and in you": an ambiguous statement, but which could mean that the commandment was made in the old law, and is made again in the new law -- this time fulfilled in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, "the darkness" of the old law, written on stone tablets, thus giving rise to the "new Light", which illuminates those tablets. John explains this old and new commandment of fraternal love in the following verses.

9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light: and there is no scandal in him. 11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth: because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.

John quotes Jesus as using the images of light and darkness in his Gospel, as in chapter 3, verses 19-21.  "Light" equates with truth, life, and grace; "darkness" with lies, death, and sin.  For this reason, one who hates his brother commits mortal sin and loses the life of grace in his soul.  On the other hand, one who loves his brother "abides" in light, that is, he dwells in light as a proper inhabitant.  There is no "scandal" in him: the Greek here is "skandalon", sometimes translated as "stumbling block".  The meaning is that hatred of one's brother is a snare laid by the enemy to catch others, perhaps tempting the hated one to hate in return.  "Brother" is the Greek "adelphon".  This work primarily is used in the Gospels and other New Testament writings to mean "one's fellow Christians".  The Lord uses a word translated as "neighbor" to mean a fellow human being, whether joined with one in religion or not (cf. Luke 10, 25-37).  The emphasis John gives on loving one's brother may help us to see the congregation(s) to whom he was writing as consisting of members of all classes, including slaves, and various ethnicities which might have harbored hostility towards each other.  "He knoweth not where he goeth": his sin causes him to stray from the "strait and narrow way" to life, leaving him to wander through the wastelands of life without grace.

12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. 13. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. 14. I write unto you, babes, because you have known the Father. I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

The Rheims translation here does not accurately reflect the change in the tenses of the Greek verb.  From verse twelve through verse thirteen, John says, in the present active, "I write".  In verse fourteen, he says, in two instances, in the perfect active, "I have written", implying a previous letter.  In these verses, John calls all in his Christian audience "little children" cf. below, 2, 18), whose sins are forgiven in baptism, then distinguishes between the "young men" and the "fathers".  The young men have "overcome" the devil and his temptations, considered especially dangerous for the young.  The fathers "have known" the Lord through, at least, the witness of the Apostles and through prayer, which is less distracted because the heat of youth is done with.  "I have written [or, "wrote"] to you, children" -- not "babes", but, as indicated by the Greek word (and distinct from the earlier word translated as "little children"), children under the age of twelve.  John might here also intend to address all baptized Christians, for, in grace, all have "seen the Father".  "You have overcome the wicked one".  The Greek here, "poneron" can mean "the wicked one", "the jealous one", or "the vicious one".








15. Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. 16. For all that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life, which is not of the Father but is of the world. 17. And the world passeth away and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever.

"Love not the world."  John does here mean the earth, which God found "good" after creating it, and which glorifies him in its beauty (cf. Psalm 8).  When the Lord and the Apostles after him speak of "the world" they mean false values such as money, fame, power, and the draw these things have on humans, and drawing them away from the love and service of God.  Thus, too much concern for one's reputation or pursuing a secular ambition are seen as "belonging to the world".   The Fathers point out also that we cannot serve two masters, as the Lord said.  The charity of the Father is "not with him" when a person is preoccupied with that which is "worldly".

2:18. Little children, it is the last hour: and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby
we know that it is the last hour.

"It is the last hour", that is, "the end of the age", or, "in the final age".  With the Ascension of Christ, the end of the world will come "soon", although we do not know the exact time.  Indeed, the ability to calculate the "exact" time is a modern accomplishment unimaginable to the ancients.  The very word "hour" in ancient times, had a broad meaning.  Thus, we may be in the "last hour", but we do not know where we are within it.  "As you have heard that Antichrist cometh": Only in John's letters do we encounter the term "antichrist".  It is not found in the Gospels, or in St. Paul's letters, or even in the Book of Revelation, although the antichrist(s) are described and foreseen  in those places.  St. Paul speaks of  the one "whose coming is according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all seduction of iniquity to them that perish" (2 Thessalonians 2, 8-10), but whom "the Lord Jesus shall kill with the spirit [or, "breath"] of his mouth" (2 Thessalonians 2, 8).  Jerome says that he will be born in the region of Babylon.  Other Fathers assert that he will be born from the tribe of Dan, that he will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and declare himself to be the Christ.  He will even appear to raise the dead and to cause signs to appear in the skies.  "There are many Antichrists": John here speaks of heretics who deny the humanity of the Lord Jesus.  Indeed, any who oppose the reality or commandments of the Lord can be described as "antichrists", and these are forerunners of the principal antichrist who will persecute the Church at the end of time.

19. They went out from us but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us: but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us.

Those who were denying the human nature of Jesus Christ had learned about him among the Christians and perhaps had even accepted baptism, but their faith and understanding were weak.  John, as the other Apostles in their letters, emphasizes the invisible but very real communion of true Christians with one another.  They did not have visible signs as the Jews did in their circumcision and in their use of the Hebrew language, and so their sense of belonging as members of one another required constant reinforcing.

20. But you have the unction from the Holy One and know all things.

The "unction" here, that is, the anointing, is of the Holy Spirit in baptism, conferring spiritual gifts such as faith,  wisdom and prudence.

2:21. I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but
as to them that know it: and that no lie is of the truth.

"The truth": "The revelation of the mystery which was kept secret from eternity" (Romans 16, 25).  That is, "the mystery of [the Father's] will . . . which he has purposed" in Christ.  (Ephesians 1, 9), God's saving plan for us in his Son, formed from before all ages, and not understood until Christ himself revealed it.

22. Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ?  This is Antichrist, who denieth the Father and the Son.

Jesus is the anointed one, the one sent by the Father and anointed -- Christos -- with the Holy Spirit.  Here, John presupposes the knowledge of his audience that the "Christ", with his human nature, must be the Son of God.

23. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that
confesseth the Son hath the Father also.

To deny that Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of God, who came in mortal flesh, is, to the mind of the Apostle, a denial of the Father as well.  The Venerable Bede reminds us that the Father was not called "the Father" until Jesus declared him to be so.  Indeed, he is Father principally in relation to his Son, begotten before eternity.  This is his natural Son, while those who are baptized are adopted children of the Father.  To deny that Jesus is the Son is to deny that God is the Father.

24. As for you, let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If that abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning, you also shall abide in the Son and in the Father.

The verb John uses here, "abide", is one he uses advisedly because it refers to a wonderful intimacy with and in God.  John quotes the Lord Jesus, "If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him" (John 14, 23).  This means something more than simply that the Father and the Son will smile upon or favor the person who "keeps his word".

25. And this is the promise which he hath promised us, life everlasting.

"Life everlasting".  The Greeks believed that after death, a person's "shade" was ferried into the underworld by the boatman Charon, and that they entered into the realm ruled by Hades.  This was a place of bare existence, without joy.  In Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey", the hero Odysseus goes down alive to this kingdom and the shade of Achilles, killed at Troy, appears to him and laments his fate there.  When Odysseus attempts to console him, Achilles breaks forth with bitter words: "I would rather be a paid servant in a poor man's house and be above ground than be king of kings among the dead" (Book 11, 594-597).  The life of which John speaks is something entirely new to the Gentiles, a life of perpetual happiness with God in heaven.  It is necessary, in reading the letters of Paul, and John to Gentile Christians, to keep in mind how wildly impossible this promise must have sounded to the majority of their neighbors.

26. These things have I written to you concerning them that seduce you.

That is, the warning regarding the heretics who defined the human nature of the Lord Jesus.

2:27. And as for you, let the unction, which you have received from him abide in you. And you have no need that any man teach you: but as his unction teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie. And as it hath taught you, abide in him.

"You have no need that any man teach you."  John quotes the Lord as saying, "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your mind all things whatsoever I shall have told you" (John 14, 26).  There is no need for the formed Christian to learn from any man, but there is always need for him to learn from the Holy Church, which is filled by the Holy Spirit.

28. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be confounded by him at his coming.

As will be the damned, gathered on the King's left side (cf. Matthew 25, 44).

29. If you know that he is just, know ye, that every one also who doth
justice is born of him.

This is justice as the Lord himself defines it, rather than humans, with their varying and unsettled, and sometimes unjust definitions.  Everyone who is baptized and made an adopted child of God knows him as just in a way no one else can, and is capable, through grace, of doing the justice of God.

The First Letter of St. John, Chapter Two

Here is my commentary on the first fourteen verses of chapter two of St. John's First Letter:

1. My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just. 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 3. And by this we know that we have known him, if we keep his commandments.

John tells the recipients of his letter that his purpose in confirming the truth about Jesus Christ, that he is God and man, is to assist them in living the virtuous life, "that you may not sin".  Belief is linked inextricably to action.  It is not a belief in the abstract, but in the tangible.  He reminds them, though, that if anyone does sin, Jesus -- the tangible one -- is his advocate with the Father.  Note that John does not say "when" anyone sins, but "if", as though it were difficult for John to imagine that a person acquainted with Jesus Christ would choose to sin.  John calls Jesus an "advocate".  In his gospel, John quotes Jesus as applying this term to the Holy Spirit.  Indeed, both are advocates, but of different kinds.  It is the Son who stands before the Father in heaven, pleading for us with his sacred wounds.  The Holy Spirit, proceeding from both the Father and the Son, abides with us forever (cf. John 14, 16) and will give testimony of Jesus, and will enable his followers to give testimony of him as well.  John calls Jesus the propitiation for our sins and for those of the world.  Jesus does not merely make propitiation for our sins, he is this propitiation.  This may remind us of Paul's words, that he became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5, 21), so that the propitiation might be made.  The Lord did this not for a limited number of initiates into his mysteries, or those who possess secret knowledge of him, or those who have magic words, but for everyone in the world.  He has brought about our redemption, though not all will receive salvation.  In order to hope in this salvation, we examine our lives in order to know that we keep his commandments.

4. He who saith that he knoweth him and keepeth not his commandments

is a liar: and the truth is not in him. 5. But he that keepeth his word, in him in very deed the charity of God is perfected. And by this we know that we are in him. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked. 7. Dearly beloved, I write not a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard. 8. Again a new commandment I write unto you: which thing is true both in him and in you, because the darkness is passed and the true light now shineth.

"The truth is not in him", that person is a hypocrite, or, "The Truth is not in him", as Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  John emphasized the humanity of Jesus previously, and now he focuses on the consequent need to obey his commandments.  This would be especially necessary for the Gentiles to hear.  They would be acquainted, of course, with state laws, but these ordinances merely outlawed certain actions.  The laws of Christ, "You shall love the Lord your God", and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" go far beyond these, and have validity not only because God commanded them, but because the Son of God embodied them.  John speaks of the "old" commandment and the "new commandment".  He means that which concerns love of neighbors.  It is "old" in the sense that the recipients of this letter had learned it some time before, but it is "new" in that it is not a dead letter which is learned and then forgotten, but which must be lived now, with the aid of the Holy Spirit.  "Which thing is true both in him and in you": an ambiguous statement, but which could mean that the commandment was made in the old law, and is made again in the new law -- this time fulfilled in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, "the darkness" of the old law, written on stone tablets, thus giving rise to the "new Light", which illuminates those tablets. John explains this old and new commandment of fraternal love in the following verses.  

9. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. 10. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light: and there is no scandal in him. 11. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth: because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.

John quotes Jesus as using the images of light and darkness in his Gospel, as in chapter 3, verses 19-21.  "Light" equates with truth, life, and grace; "darkness" with lies, death, and sin.  For this reason, one who hates his brother commits mortal sin and loses the life of grace in his soul.  On the other hand, one who loves his brother "abides" in light, that is, he dwells in light as a proper inhabitant.  There is no "scandal" in him: the Greek here is "skandalon", sometimes translated as "stumbling block".  The meaning is that hatred of one's brother is a snare laid by the enemy to catch others, perhaps tempting the hated one to hate in return.  "Brother" is the Greek "adelphon".  This work primarily is used in the Gospels and other New Testament writings to mean "one's fellow Christians".  The Lord uses a word translated as "neighbor" to mean a fellow human being, whether joined with one in religion or not (cf. Luke 10, 25-37).  The emphasis John gives on loving one's brother may help us to see the congregation(s) to whom he was writing as consisting of members of all classes, including slaves, and various ethnicities which might have harbored hostility towards each other.  "He knoweth not where he goeth": his sin causes him to stray from the "strait and narrow way" to life, leaving him to wander through the wastelands of life without grace.

12. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. 13. I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. 14. I write unto you, babes, because you have known the Father. I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

The Rheims translation here does not accurately reflect the change in the tenses of the Greek verb.  From verse twelve through verse thirteen, John says, in the present active, "I write".  In verse fourteen, he says, in two instances, in the perfect active, "I have written", implying a previous letter.  In these verses, John calls all in his Christian audience "little children" cf. below, 2, 18), whose sins are forgiven in baptism, then distinguishes between the "young men" and the "fathers".  The young men have "overcome" the devil and his temptations, considered especially dangerous for the young.  The fathers "have known" the Lord through, at least, the witness of the Apostles and through prayer, which is less distracted because the heat of youth is done with.  "I have written [or, "wrote"] to you, children" -- not "babes", but, as indicated by the Greek word (and distinct from the earlier word translated as "little children"), children under the age of twelve.  John might here also intend to address all baptized Christians, for, in grace, all have "seen the Father".  "You have overcome the wicked one".  The Greek here, "poneron" can mean "the wicked one", "the jealous one", or "the vicious one".

BIBLE STUDY: THE FIRST LETTER OF ST. JOHN

The First Letter of St. John, Chapter One

We do not have definite information on when this letter was written or to whom, specifically, it was meant.  However, we can infer a few likelihoods from the interior evidence of the letter itself, and also from what we know of St. John's whereabouts after the ascension of the Lord, and from our knowledge of the history of the ancient near east.  John evidently is writing to a group of people who already know him and with whom he is on good terms.  These are gentile Christians, and not Jewish converts.  John is concerned with the problem of gnostic teachers appropriating the person of .Jesus and his Gospel into their own system, leading to confusion for the Christian believers.  This last indicates that the letter probably was addressed to Christians in Asia Minor, where Gnosticism became popular among many people, especially among the Greeks.  Basic gnostic teachings included the idea of the earthly and material as evil, while the mind and that which was immaterial and spiritual was good.  For this reason, when the Gnostics began to adopt Jesus as one of their own, some of them said that he was a higher being who took merely the form of a man, and only appeared to die on the Cross.  Other Gnostics taught that Jesus was a spirit who had possessed a man so as to walk among human beings and teach them his philosophy, and who, at the time of his crucifixion, abandoned the man and returned to heaven.  We see the problem with both ideas: if the Son of God could not redeem humanity if he did not assume a human nature and "become man".  St. John vehemently rejected the Gnosticism he saw encroaching on the new Christians, even referring to those who denied the Lord's human nature as "antichrists".  The vehemence is personal, for John had stood at the Cross and watched his Master die.

One final preliminary note: since no particular recipient is addressed by John, it would seem that his letter was meant to be handed on from one community to the next.  It seems safe to say that the communities in question would be those of the seven churches to whom the Lord writes (through John) in the Book of Revelation.  Early Church writers such as Eusebius associate John in the region of these churches, especially with that of Ephesus.

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life.  John speaks of "the beginning", echoing his introduction to his Gospel, which, in turn, echoes the opening words of the Book of Genesis.  John might mean God the Father as this "beginning", keeping in mind that while the Son refers to himself as "the beginning and the end" in Revelation, the Father calls himself "the first and the last" in Isaiah 44, 6.  These terms, in fact befit each Person of the Holy Trinity.  John may be confirming for us here that the Son whom "we have heard . . . seen with our eyes . . . touched with our hands" is indeed from the eternal Father.  John would be linking, very deliberately, this Letter with his Gospel in order to show that what he himself was about to say about the human nature of the Lord Jesus was simply a reiteration of what Jesus himself had revealed.  "The Word of life" -- Jesus tells us that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  "Word" here, a translation of the Greek Logos, may be understood as coming forth directly from the mouth of the Father, with the Holy Spirit the breath accompanying the sound.

2For the life was manifested; and we have seen and do bear witness, and declare unto you the life eternal, which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us.  Again, the insistence of John that this Word could be seen, heard, and touched.  This is not a myth from long ago or some abstract philosophy.  Life is a Person.  Truth is a Person.  The eternal Word of God, spoken for all to hear, is a Person, and John and many others knew him.

3That which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.  Jewish Christians knew a firm sense of community both in their local group and with others far away, but this idea of union with Christians all over the world was completely new to the gentile Christians.  Paul repeated this teaching again and again, and so does John.  Furthermore, John says, we have this universal fellowship because it is with God himself, in what the Church would come to describe as "the mystical Body of Christ".

4And these things we write to you, that you may rejoice, and your joy may be full.  John adapts the words of Jesus in John 15, 11, in which Jesus speaks of the disciples abiding in him and him in them as the cause and completion of their joy.

5And this is the declaration which we have heard from him, and declare unto you: That God is light, and in him there is no darkness.  These words may remind us of how we profess that the Son of God is "Light from Light", in the Niceness Creed.  Light and Darkness were terms the Gnostics used in talking about spirit and flesh, and good and evil.  John "takes back" these terms for the Christians and uses them to describe God's utter transcendence.  There is no "darkness" in him, no weakness of any sort, no need for learning, no possibility of growth.  He is infinite in his knowing, in his power, and in his presence.

6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not have the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he also is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.  We walk in darkness, John means, if we deny that the Son became man.  We modern Christians may think we have gotten beyond this question, but this is not so.  We often behave in ways (we "walk in darkness") when we act as though the Lord had not come among us, had not become one of us.  We act as though he were a distant figure unconcerned with our individual actions.  It is our faith in the truth about the Lord, that he is God and man, that gives us "fellowship with one another".  And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.  Faith in the Lord leads to the experience of the effects of his redemption, wrought for us on the Cross.  It is his blood that saves us, not a magic spell or secret knowledge.  His blood saves.

8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.  It might seem silly to us that anyone would presume to say that he "has no sin", but how many of us act as though we have not sinned, or that we could not sin?  We do this when we forget that we belong to the Lord, who has purchased us with his blood (cf. 1 Peter 1, 18-19), and we have in our minds that we are our own.  The reference to confessing our sins may be a reference to baptism as well as to a regular practice of the devout Christian.  "We make him a liar" -- if we have not sinned, then his death was for nothing.

NEXT WEEK, CHAPTER TWO!  FEEL FREE TO ADD COMMENTS OR ASK QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENT SECTION!

Jesus Teaches Us How to Pray

The Lord Jesus spent much time in prayer, even keeping vigil at night with his Father, after a long day of preaching and healing.  His disciples longed to learn from him how to pray.  In the following excerpt from St. Bede’s commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, we learn the deeper meaning of Christ’s words on prayer:

“ ‘He said to them: Which of you shall have a friend and shall go to him in the middle of the night, and should say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for my friend has come to me from the road, and I have nothing to set before him’ (Luke 11, 5-6).  The disciples had asked the Savior, and not only did he teach them the form of praying, but also the urgency and frequency of praying.  The ‘friend’ to whom we come in the middle of the night, is understood to be God.  We ought to pray urgently to him in the midst of tribulation for three ‘loaves of bread’ – that is, the knowledge of the Trinity, by which our sufferings in this present life are eased.  The ‘friend’ who comes in from the road, is our soul, which departs from us as many times as it wanders away ‘outside’, desiring worldly and temporal goods.  But it returns and wishes to be fed heavenly food when it comes back to itself and begins to meditate on heavenly and spiritual goods.  But it does not have the goods of its desire set before it: for the soul sighing for God after the darkness of this world, there is nothing further to think about, to say, or to learn attentively; all that is left is to contemplate the Holy Trinity with joy, and to engage in marveling at him more fully.

“ ‘And he said, Do not bother me now, for my door is closed and my children are with me in my room.  I cannot get up to give these to you’ (Luke 11, 7). The ‘door’ of the divine Friend is the understanding of the word, which the Apostle prayed would be opened to him so that he could speak on the mystery of Christ.  At a time of famine of the word – when understanding is not given – the door is ‘closed’.  Those who preach the word throughout the world are those who give out the ‘bread’ of the knowledge of the Gospel.  The ‘children’ of the head of the household rest in a hidden place with the Lord.  But through praying, the one desiring understanding from God receives it, even if he misses the one through whom this knowledge is taught. 

“ ‘And if he should persevere in knocking, I say to you that if he does not rise up and give these to him because he is his friend, still will he rise and give to him as much as he needs, because of his impertinence.  And I say to you: Seek, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find.  Knock, and it will be opened to you’ (Luke 11, 8-9).  If the friend is forced to get out of bed, and gives not out of friendship but out of annoyance, how much more does God give (in whom there is no annoyance), who grants most abundantly what is sought.”

St. Isidore Explains the Our Father

St. Isidore provides a succinct and insightful commentary on the Our Father in his “Treatise on the Mass”:

“ ‘Our Father, who are in heaven.’  After his Resurrection, Christ said: ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father.’  Sometimes he called God his Father, and sometimes our Father.  He called him his Father because, properly, he is his Son, born of the substance of the Father before all ages, and coeternal with him.  He is our Father because he created us in time, we are his adopted children, and we should possess a heavenly inheritance from our heavenly Father, if we fulfill his works, for we have pledged our faith to him.   The word ‘heaven’ [coelo] is from the verb ‘to conceal’ [celando], inasmuch as it hides divine secrets.  Or, it is from the word ‘heights’ [celsitudo], inasmuch as it is high above the things of this world.  Therefore, we say: Our Father, who are in heaven, in order to show that we believe in a heavenly Father, and as children of our Father, we desire to fulfill his commandments.  And, in fulfilling his commandments, we ever desire to tend to heaven.

“ ‘Holy be your name.’  That is, may we be worthy to hold his holy name in our hearts.  And, just as the holy angels know and comprehend the holiness of his name, so may we, who are on earth, merit to know his sanctity by his help.  May his name be sanctified on earth as it is in heaven.  ‘May your kingdom come.’   That is, may we merit to know his kingdom and power so that the devil may not reign over us because of our sins; but may our Father’s kingdom come, as it is written in the Gospel: ‘The kingdom of God is among you.’

“ ‘May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’  That is, just as those in heaven carry out his will, so may we who are on earth do it.  The word ‘earth’ [terra] is from the verb ‘to tread’ [terendo], for the earth is trod by our feet.  ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’  The Greek word for ‘bread’ means ‘all’, in our language.  We pray that almighty God might deign to grant us ‘all’ nourishment, spiritual and bodily, at all times.  ‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’  There is no injustice in seeking payment for a debt owed to us, but if almighty God requires us to pay back all our debts, no one will go free.  We should forgive those who owe debts to us so that the Almighty may forgive ours, for he said: ‘If you do not forgive each of your brothers from your heart, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your sins’ (Matthew 18, 35).  In another place, he said: ‘They will gather out of his kingdom all scandals’ (Matthew 13, 41).  So, if a sacrifice is offered in scandal, it is not received: the man offering is commanded to leave his gift before the altar until he is reconciled with his brother, and then he may make his offering with a pure heart (cf. Matthew 5, 23-24).

“ ‘And do not lead us into temptation.’  That is, lest we enter into temptation, in which the devil tempts us, and we consent to him.  But may the Lord defend us lest we be led into diabolic temptation.  If he sends us away, right away we will be led into the pit of the devil, and so we ask that the Lord free us from evil – that is, from every attack of the devil.”

Ageless Advice for the Student

Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha, sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to him, learning of the kingdom of God from his very words.  Hugo of the Monastery of St. Victor in Paris, wrote on the subject of learning in his essay (d. 1141), “On the Way to Speak and Meditate”:

“Humility is necessary for one who wishes to learn.  The beginning of learning is humility.  Much can be learned from humility, but there are three principles that pertain to the student.  The first is that he should hold no knowledge or teaching as beneath contempt.  Second, that no one should be ashamed to learn.  The third is that when one subject has been learned, others should not be spurned.  There are many who wish to seem learned before they have studied and so they are embarrassed to learn from others.  But you, my child, learn gladly from others what you do not know.  If you learn from all, you shall be wiser than all.  Those who take from all, shall be richer than all.  Do not hold any knowledge beneath contempt, because all knowledge is good.  Even if a book or a law is idle, do not hold it in contempt.  If you gain nothing, at least you do not lose anything.  As the Apostle said: ‘Test all things: hold to that which is good’ (1 Thessalonians 5, 21).  A good student should be humble and meek.  He should be entirely foreign to worldly cares and the enticements of the flesh.  He should be willingly attentive so that he may learn from all.  He should not presume on his knowledge, appear learned, but to be as one who seeks the words of the wise, always holding them before the eyes of his mind – as though before the image of his face – that he may ardently study them. 

“Three qualities are necessary for the student: nature, skill, and discipline.  The nature is necessary so that the student may perceive easily through hearing and to retain the perception firmly.  In regards to his skill, he should develop his natural understanding by his labor and attentiveness.  In regards of his discipline, he should combine his good behavior with his knowledge.

“He should strengthen his natural talent and his memory.  He who devotes himself to studies should strengthen his natural talent and his memory.  These two should so adhere to each other that if one ceased, no one could attain perfection: he strengthens a receptacle in vain, if he has not that with which to fill it.”

What St. Joseph Knew

Although the accounts surrounding the conception of the Lord Jesus are well-known, the Fathers and the commentators of later times continuously provided new insights and interpretations for the faithful.  Here is an excerpt from a homily by the French Benedictine monk, Remigius of Auxerre (d. 908):

“ ‘Before they came together’ (Matthew 1, 18).  These words, ‘coming together’, do not mean ‘having relations’, but signify the time when of the wedding, when a betrothed woman became a wife.  ‘Before they came together.’  The sense is, before the wedding was solemnly celebrated.  The fact that Joseph took her, the Evangelist shows when he says that he took her when the angel exhorted him to do so, and to show that they did not have relations, he added: ‘he did not know her.’  Now, ‘she was found with child’, and this was certainly by no one but Joseph, for he knew nearly everything of his future wife, and he carefully discerned her swollen womb.  ‘Now, since Joseph her husband was a just man, he did not wish to display her, but to send her away secretly.’  It is well said that he was a ‘just man’, for he was a guardian of justice: when he saw that his betrothed had conceived, he knew that this had not happened by any other man.  He saw the woman, heavy with child, and knew her to be truly chaste.  He had read in the Prophet: ‘A rod shall go forth from the root of Jesse, and a flower from the root shall grow up’ (Isaiah 11, 1), and he knew that the blessed Mary was descended from the line of David, the son of Jesse.  He also had read: ‘Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son’ (Isaiah 7, 14), and so he did not lack belief or trust that the prophecy would be fulfilled in her."