The Farewell Discourse of Jesus Christ With His Disciples

The Old Covenant now had ended with the paschal supper; the New had begun together with the mystery of the Eucharist; and so everything that could be done had been done in the upper room of Zion; but the disciples went on reclining at the table, which was now, in the very highest sense, for them the table of the Lord. The weight of what they had seen and heard held each of them in his place. Nor did the Teacher rise from the table. From the fullness of His heart His lips wished to speak, and their ears to listen.

«Little children,» the Lord proclaimed at last, as though wishing, among other things, to show that this mystery of mutual love and remembrance of Him, which He had just now instituted, was needed now also on account of the approaching parting — «little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek Me, and, as I said to the Jews, where I am going you cannot come; so now I say also to you.

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also are to love (in the same way) one another.

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.»

At this reminder of mutual love and faithfulness, the lips of the ardent Peter could not help but respond with the question: «Lord, where are You going?» — he said, foreseeing that danger awaited the Teacher, and wishing to share it with Him.

«Where I am going,» the Lord answered, «you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow Me afterward.»

Had Peter seen even a little way into the mystery of this great path, now to be shared with no one else, he would, no doubt, have been content with the promise of the great honor of one day setting out upon it after the Teacher. But this mystery, like the mystery of the washing of the feet, was still beyond him: hence—a fresh instance, like before, of untested self-confidence.

Peter said: «Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for You!»

«Will you lay down your life for Me?» the Lord answered, as though with a sorrowful feeling. «Truly, truly, I say to you: the rooster will not crow» (before dawn) «before you deny Me three times!»

However much the disciples’ sense of humility had been shaped by the Teacher’s unparalleled humility, so dark a betrayal of the Teacher seemed, to Peter’s love (always ardent, though not always brave in deed), a sheer impossibility. To turn aside such a reproach from himself all the more forcefully, his childlike self-assurance did not shrink even from a comparison not altogether harmless to others.

«Even if all fall away because of You,» — the troubled Simon dared to say to Him — «I will not fall away!.. I am ready to go with You both to prison and to death!»

By such self-assured words it was easy to become, once again, an opening—within the company of Jesus, fenced about by holy love—for the spirit of darkness, who, emboldened by his success over Judas, went on prowling like a lion around the little flock in hope of new prey. The Heavenly Shepherd, who lays down His life for the sheep, had long foreseen and averted this danger by prayer (Lk 22:32). But to warn against self-assurance, the veil now had to be lifted for a moment, and the dread enemy shown even to the disciples.

«Simon! Simon! — the Lord said, with a feeling of deep compunction—if only you knew what enemies you must contend with! Behold, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat (to have the right to deal with you as he once dealt with Job).

But I have prayed for you, that your faith, at least, may not fail—if it cannot keep you from falling. So when you have turned back after your fall, strengthen (to make amends for what you have done) your brothers also» (Lk 22:31-32).

So decisive a prediction of so great a fall, made to Peter himself, necessarily suggested the great danger now approaching. The mysterious pointing to Satan, with his dreadful request and terrible winnowing-fork, disposed the disciples, already sorrowful, to still greater distress. To leave them, in His last moments, so unsettled, without a firm anchor of hope before the rising storm of doubt, temptation, and fear, would have been hard even for a heart not Jesus’s own. All the treasures of love and comfort had to be opened—and they were opened!..

«Let not your heart be troubled,» — thus the Lord began to lead the disciples into the mystery — «trust in God, and trust also in Me. In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places; were it not so, I would have told you: I am going to make ready a place for you. And when I have made ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am, you too may be.

And where I am going»—the Lord added, as though wishing to show how far the disciples’ knowledge, and their lack of it, extended — «you know the way» (the way by which I go, and by which you too must one day go) «you know».

And indeed, after all that had been said, at various times and especially now, about the departure to the Father, after the giving of the Body and Blood, given as food and left as a remembrance of Himself, it was hard to have no idea whatsoever of this way. But the Jewish prejudice about an earthly kingdom and the Messiah’s immortality stood like a wall before the disciples’ eyes, blocking from them the very nearest and most magnificent vistas of the gracious Kingdom of God, to be established by the death of its Founder upon the cross. They supposed, of course, that the Teacher must depart somewhere from them: that He would do so under compulsion from His enemies, amid the greatest dangers; perhaps even that He would be caught up for a time to the place from which He came—to the Father; but they had no thought at all of death and the cross in the form these were to take on the following day.

In this frame of mind, Thomas, distinguished by his forthright character (Jn 11:16) and, at the same time, by a certain exactingness of mind, said outright: «Lord, we do not know where You are going: how then can we know the way?»

To hear from one of His nearest disciples such a confession of ignorance—even of the impossibility of knowing what it was now especially needful to know—was something not altogether expected, and therefore unwelcome, to the Teacher. Such ignorance called for a strong lesson.

«I am the way, and the truth, and the life,» the Lord answered, giving the discourse a higher, instructive tone, «no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me» (as you ought), «you would have known My Father also.

And from now on»—the Lord added, unwilling to deepen the disciples’ sorrow by dwelling on their lack of knowledge — «from now on you have known Him, and have seen Him».

Indeed, the time was already very near when each of the disciples would be able to say, together with John: «that which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have touched, concerning the Word of life—and the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and we testify» (1 Jn 1:1); but for now, this mention of knowing the Father gave one of the disciples occasion to reveal his own lack of understanding with a further question. Philip (such was the disciple’s name), by his bent toward the visible and the outward (Jn 6:7), was especially fond of the sensible manifestations of God in which the Old Covenant so abounds. The times of the Messiah, in the common opinion of the Jews, were bound to be times of still greater manifestations of God; and yet Jesus’s own disciples—the Messiah’s own—had not until now seen God as Abraham, Moses, and the rest had once seen Him. This seemed strange to Philip: and so, when the Lord said «you have seen Him» (the Father), he at once seized the occasion to express a long-standing, and perhaps common, desire.

«Philip said: Lord (since You Yourself now say: you have seen), show us the Father, and it is enough for us!» (we will ask for, and desire, nothing more). Despite the childlike character of this question, there was stirred by it, one might say, the whole depth of Jesus’s soul: for, childlike as it was, it was a question that could have been put to the Son of Man by the whole human race.

«So long a time have I been with you,» the Lord answered, as gently as He answered majestically, «and you have not known Me, Philip?.. He who has seen Me has seen the Father: how then do you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?

The words that I speak to you»—the Lord continued, turning to all the disciples, in whom too a wish like Philip’s might easily have arisen — «I do not speak of Myself: the Father, who dwells in Me, He does the works. Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. But if not» (if My own assurance is not enough for this) — «believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

Truly, truly, I say to you: whoever believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

As for you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

And if you ask anything in My name (directly of Me), I will do it».

To such a language of love the disciples could not but respond with some sign of love and reverence.

«If you love Me,» the Lord answered, «keep My commandments; and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him, nor knows Him; but you know Him» (if not yet by clear understanding, then by the feeling of the heart), «because He dwells in you» (though as yet in secret) «and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans»,—the Lord continued, having noticed, no doubt, that the promise of another Comforter would not, in the disciples’ minds, greatly make up for the loss of a guide and teacher in Himself — «I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me: because I live, you too will live. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

He who has My commandments and keeps them (on this everything depends), he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will show Myself to him».

The promise to appear only to His own disciples, and only to those who love Him, could not but seem strange, given the expectation of the Teacher’s visible enthronement over the whole world.

This thought worked with particular force upon Judas (not Iscariot): «Lord,—he asked — and what has happened, that You mean to show Yourself to us, and not to the world?»

«If anyone loves Me,» the Lord answered, «he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our home with him. But he who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word that you have heard is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. These things» (not many) «I have spoken to you,» — the Lord concluded (while still among you) — «but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.»

On rising from the paschal supper, the eldest would customarily pronounce: peace be with you! This was the close of the Passover. And the Lord too spoke a word of peace, but in another, higher way: «Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you: not as the world gives (in words alone) do I give to you!» the Lord declared.

«Let not your heart be troubled,» He continued, «nor let it be afraid» (you). «You have heard that I said to you: I am going away, and I will come to you. If you loved Me» (as you ought to love Me, though you are not lacking in love), «you would have rejoiced, because I said: I am going to the Father; for My Father is greater than I.

I have told you now» (of the fact that I must go away) «before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.

I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming» (the devil, who acted against Jesus Christ through Judas and the chief priests), «though he has nothing in Me» (belonging to him).

(At this very time, the chief priests were probably already beginning to arm their guard for a military expedition against the unarmed company of Jesus.)

«But let the world know that I love the Father, and that, as the Father has commanded Me, so I do: rise, let us go from here» (to meet the prince of darkness with his army, to the place where the betrayer intends to betray Me, though We, knowing this, could withdraw elsewhere and avoid the betrayal).

On rising from the supper, it was customary to sing several psalms. This holy custom was carried out now with all the greater feeling, since the paschal psalms seemed chosen as though on purpose to express what was now coming to pass over the Son of Man. Could one sing, without deep compunction: «the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?» (Ps 117:22-23). «I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord! Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints!» (Ps 115:6). Having finished singing, the Lord went out of the city with His disciples to His beloved place of retreat, the Mount of Olives, to Gethsemane. The short way was lengthened by a continuation of moving discourses with the disciples, which were stamped all the more deeply on their souls the more they had been shaken and moved by the extraordinary events of the paschal supper. As He had always loved to rise from visible things to invisible, so He did now. Passing by the vineyards that covered every slope of the Mount of Olives, and which were now in bloom and filling the air with fragrance, He began to speak of Himself as a vine.

«I am the vine» (the true vine) «and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that bears no fruit He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean» (pruned) «because of» (through) «the word that I have spoken to you: (but) abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and they gather them, and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples.

Just as the Father has loved Me, I too have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you.

This I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. Remember the word that I spoke to you: a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no» (excuse) «for their sin. Whoever hates Me hates My Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else has done, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this is so that the word written in their law may be fulfilled: they hated Me without cause. But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me. And you also testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

These things I have spoken to you, that you may not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known the Father, nor Me. But I have spoken these things to you, so that when» (that) «the hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them; I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to Him who sent Me» (Jn 15:16, 1-5).

The Teacher fell silent (waiting to hear something from the disciples). After so many words, one might have supposed that they had at last understood the path now set before Him, and would be curious to learn more of the beneficial consequences of His departure to the Father, and of their own duties during His absence. But instead of curiosity and questions, there was on their faces only confusion, and on their lips silence. A heartfelt anguish visibly bound the thoughts and tongues of each of them (Jn 16:5). «And, after all this, none of you asks Me:» «where are You going?» — the Teacher said with astonishment, breaking the general silence once more—I see that your heart has grown too full of what you have heard from Me. But I tell you the truth: it is far better for you «that I go: for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness,» (of My own person and ministry) «because I go to My Father, and you will no longer see Me» (in My present state of humiliation). «Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world» (by whose instigation My enemies will condemn Me) «has been judged» (by My teaching, My life, and My death).

«I still have much to say to you,» the Lord continued, «but you cannot bear» (take in) «it now. But when He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is Mine; that is why I said that He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. A little while, and you will no longer see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me: because I am going to the Father».

The disciples, following the Teacher at some distance, taking advantage of His silence and recalling His challenge: «you ask nothing,» began to discuss among themselves, in low voices, what the Teacher could mean by saying: «In a little while you will not see Me, and again in a little while you will see Me; and: I am going to the Father?» — what does He mean by «a little while»? — Despite every effort to solve the riddle, it remained unsolved (on account of the universal prejudice that the Messiah, as King—earthly, perhaps, but eternal—could not die); each confessed, for himself and for the rest: «we do not know what He means!»

Perceiving that the disciples wished to ask Him the meaning of the words He had used, the Lord stopped and said: «Is this what you are debating among yourselves, that I said: in a little while you will not see Me, and again in a little while you will see Me?» (Had the future been laid open before you, it would not be such questions—about words—that would occupy you.)

«Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, yet for all that, be of good courage; for your sorrow will turn into joy. A woman, when she is giving birth, has sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So you too have sorrow now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. And on that day you will ask Me nothing.

Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full. I have spoken these things to you in figures; but the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. On that day you will ask in My name; and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf: for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world. And again I am leaving the world, and going to the Father».

At this reminder of their Teacher’s divine dignity, a feeling of living faith in Him at once awoke in the disciples. His disciples said to Him: «Now you are speaking» (plainly) «and telling no riddles» (nothing obscure) «Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You: by this we believe that You came forth from God».

Sincere though these words were, it was clear that they came more from a heart devoted to the Teacher than from a mind fully persuaded. All the more strikingly opposed to this profession were the disciples’ own coming actions amid the trials now approaching. «Do you believe now?» the Lord said, with this very contrast in view. «Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave Me alone… and yet I am not alone, for the Father is with Me…

These things I have spoken to you,—the Lord concluded—that in Me» (and not in anyone or anything else) «you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but—take courage, I have overcome the world.» (Jn 16:6-33.)

After these words, as St. John relates, Jesus stopped, perhaps upon one of the hills of Olivet, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and began a prayerful discourse with the Father.

«Father, the hour has come: glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You: since You have given Him authority over all flesh, that to all You have given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life: that they may know You, the one true God, and Him whom You have sent, Jesus Christ! I have glorified You on earth, having finished the work that You gave Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me, with Your own self, with the glory that I had with You before the world was!

I have made known Your name to the men» (the eleven disciples) «whom You gave Me out of the world: they were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that all You have given Me is from You. For the words that You gave Me I have given them; and they received them, and knew truly that I came forth from You, and believed that You sent Me. It is for these» (especially) «that I pray—I do not pray for the whole world, but for those whom You have given Me, because they are Yours. All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, whom You have given Me, that they may be one, just as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name; those You gave Me I have guarded, and none of them has perished except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in Your truth: Your word is truth.

Just as You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world; and for their sake I sanctify Myself, that they too may be sanctified in truth. I do not pray for these only, but also for» (all) «those who believe in Me through their word: that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory that You gave Me, I have given them, that they may be one, just as We are one. I in them, and You in Me: that they may be perfectly one, and that the world may know that You sent Me, and have loved them, just as You have loved Me. Father, those You have given Me—I desire that where I am, they also may be with Me, that they may see My glory, which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world has not known You, but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. And I have made known to them Your name, and will make it known: that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them!»

Before entering Gethsemane, the Lord thought it necessary to warn the disciples once more of the trials now approaching (Mt 26:31). «When I sent you out» (to preach) «without a purse, without a bag, and without sandals,» He asked, «did you lack anything?» «Nothing,» the disciples answered.

«But now,» the Lord continued, using figurative language so as not to alarm them too much, «now, whoever has a purse, let him take it, and likewise a bag; and whoever has none, let him sell his cloak and buy a sword» (a knife).

For I tell you that now even this word of Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: «and He was numbered» (among the wrongdoers) «with the transgressors!» Transparent as the Teacher’s figure was—meaning that the disciples would now, for a time, be left to themselves, and so must see to their own food and safety—it proved not altogether clear to some of them. They thought that the Teacher was truly advising them to arm themselves with swords in case of danger. With this in mind, one of the disciples said that they had two swords.

The answer was not what the Teacher had in mind; for He meant something else: but the two actual swords were, even so, not without their use now for the disciples, who, amid the coming night, would have to scatter through the wild country around Jerusalem. So the Lord, as though in token of approval, said: «it is enough» (Lk 22:35-38).

«All of you,—He added, instead of any further explanation of His figure—all of you will fall away because of Me this night; for it is written: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I am risen, I will meet you in Galilee».

«Even if all fall away because of You, I,—Peter answered, forgetting the Teacher’s earlier lesson in his great love for Him—I will never fall away!..»

«Truly, truly, I say to you,» Jesus answered, «that this very night» (as I have already told you) «before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times».

«Even if I must die with You, I will not deny You,» Peter continued, to whom the predicted fall seemed a sheer impossibility.

The same, as Matthew notes, was repeated by all the other disciples too (Mt 26:31-35).

Amid these avowals of faithfulness unto death—which all, in fact, came true, though only later, at the end of each disciple’s own earthly course—they arrived at Gethsemane. Here there was a garden, belonging to one of Jesus’s followers. The Lord had often gone there before with His disciples, and now chose it as the place for His final preparation for the struggle of the cross; so that, as one teacher of the Church observes, the first victory might be won in that very garden where the first defeat had been dealt (to the whole human race).

Before we venture to enter the garden of Gethsemane, and turn our thoughts back to what we have heard, let us make a few observations on Jesus Christ’s last discourse to His disciples, which may help toward understanding some of its passages, and especially its spirit.

This discourse, preserved for us chiefly by St. John, forms the most precious part of the Gospel narratives, disclosing to us the soul and heart of the Lord Jesus in such decisive moments, from such weighty sides, in such an overflow of divine light. Here, from His own lips, we hear the mystery of His person and ministry, the substance of His teaching and promises, the great beginning of His greatest work; we see whence He came and for what purpose, whither and for what purpose He departed, what He intends to make of mankind, how He means to join heaven with earth, to raise up all that has fallen, to make blessed all the unhappy sons of Adam. Earlier, and above all else, we see here, we hear, we feel with our very spirit, a love of Christ’s «surpassing understanding», which spreads so far that it visibly embraces heaven and earth, time and eternity.

What inimitable majesty in the most sorrowful of moments! When the most virtuous of sages would have said, with grief: «I am betrayed now; I must die!» — Jesus cries out: «Now the Son of Man is glorified!» Listening to His words of comfort to the disciples, one might think that tomorrow held in store for Him not a cross, but a throne; that on the following day it was not He, but His inconsolable disciples, who faced torment…

Whence such holy courage? From the fact that the ruler of this world has nothing belonging to him in Him (Jn 14:30), and that the world has been utterly overcome by Him (Jn 16:33); from the fact that He always did what was pleasing before the Father, and therefore is never alone, but the Father is always with Him (Jn 16:32); from the fact that He has the «authority» to «lay down His soul and take it up again», and if He lays it down now, He does so of His own will, concerning Himself (Jn 10:18); from the fact, finally, that He who speaks in this way is He «who had glory with the Father before the world was» (Jn 17:5), is the «Word» that was «in the beginning with God», by whom all things were made, and «without whom nothing was made that was made» (Jn 1:1-4).

Some other son of man, too, might have been found with love pure enough for his neighbors to suffer death for their salvation. Moses had already given an example of such self-sacrifice (Ex 32:32), and Paul was ready to repeat it (Rom 9:3); but only the Son of God, «the Lord from heaven» (1 Cor 15:47), could say, on the eve of His own death: «Trust in God, and trust also in Me» (Jn 14:1); «take courage, for I have overcome the world» (Jn 16:33); «whatever you ask in My name, I will do it» (Jn 14:13); «apart from Me you can do nothing» (Jn 15:5); «whoever believes in Me, the works that I have done, he too will do, and greater works than these he will do» (Jn 14:12).

The disciples’ perplexities, and the answers given to them, in a certain way interrupt the course of the Divine Teacher’s discourse and slow its effect upon the mind; but the truths that, on account of these very perplexities, come forth from Jesus’s lips are so weighty and precious, the sides from which He was pleased to disclose Himself so exalted and comforting, that one cannot but give heartfelt thanks: to Thomas, for his curiosity about the way (Jn 14:5-7); to Philip, for his wish to see the Father (Jn 14:9-12); to Judas, not Iscariot, for his question why the Teacher would not show Himself to the whole world (Jn 14:22-24)!

The aim of all Jesus’s words of comfort was plainly directed, above all, at guarding the disciples from stumbling and falling away during His parting from them on the cross. A time brief in the count of hours, but exceedingly dangerous in the concurrence of circumstances. How many temptations and fears awaited them! How many occasions for breaking faith! The ruler of this world, though conquered by the cross, would no doubt leave no means untried for snaring the sheep scattered by the Shepherd’s death. And yet it was in this very small, scattered flock that lay the foundation «for gathering into one all the children of God» (Jn 11:52); the loss even of one of the «little children» of Jesus’s love (Jn 13:33) would have been keenly felt for the good of the whole world, for its future turning from darkness to light through their preaching.

Yet, great as the need for comfort was, it had to be given without disclosing, in the whole (dreadful) clarity of it, the events that were to follow the next morning. The most holy mystery of the world’s redemption had, in a certain sense, to remain sealed until its very fulfillment. Even the disciples’ own devotion to their Teacher, not free from prejudice, needed to be held in check by a measure of uncertainty. And so the veil of the future is lifted just so far as was needed to guard against falling, and no further. The disciples feel that some great trial lies ahead, some sorrowful parting from their Teacher; they see themselves, in the future, orphaned, hated, scattered, in the sorrows and pains of a woman in labor—but they also see the Teacher soon returning to them, bringing joy and peace; they see another Comforter, coming to abide with them forever, to teach them all things, to convict the world, which hates them, of everything; they see, again, the Teacher Himself coming with the Father, to make His dwelling with each of those who love Him: all this, I say, the disciples see, as though in a perspective filled with such a light that even the saddest objects within it take on a moving aspect, touching the heart. In just what manner all this would come to pass, the disciples did not yet understand. One thing they had firmly learned—that their Teacher had come forth from God, which was of great importance for the future. Besides, they now held in their hands, as it were, the plan of events to come. When the time came, they would remember what had been told them. The prediction would strip the predicted trial of its power to make them stumble.

Besides this, the God-man’s last discourse was useful to His disciples in yet «another way». Even in ordinary human conversation, words can produce a great effect without being fully understood, in every detail, by those who hear them. One can be moved, touched, changed in heart, by mere feeling within words, without understanding them completely. This observation applies—in the highest degree—to Jesus’s last discourse. By it, so to speak, a spirit of peace, patience, and hope was breathed upon the disciples; their hearts were, in some mysterious way, anointed to bear the cruelest blows more easily: they did not understand every thought, but they understood the feeling, were filled with the spirit of Jesus, «touched the Word of life» (1 Jn 1:1).

Of Jesus’s last prayer (Jn 17) it is almost too bold even to speak in human language: so all-embracing, so majestic, so divine is it! After it, Philip, no doubt, would not have said again: «Lord, show us the Father!» For in it, the believer sees the Father more fully than in the whole world. Here it was that Peter might have said: «Lord, You have the words of eternal life!» (Jn 6:68). This is the prayer of the Great High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek, before His entrance into the Holy of Holies. Whoever has read it attentively even once will keep it in his heart for the whole of his life; and whoever has been animated by its spirit can never again fail to belong forever to Jesus.