Section CCCVII

But 4) John must be heard by name, who disclosed most splendidly of all the font of reparation and salvation. For he describes God the Father once and again¹ in these words: ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν, “God the Father² is love,” and it belongs to his nature to pursue men with love and to heap benefits upon them. Then principally under this name—as the connected discourse teaches—he commends and extols τὴν ἀγάπην τοῦ θεοῦ, the love of God: that God gave his only-begotten Son to us who by no means loved him, but who sinned against the divine law and by sinning had been made miserable and even worthy of death, that he might exempt us from punishments and adorn us with the means of attaining felicity. Behold—

—some testimonies concerning this matter³: ἐν τούτῳ ἐφανερώθη ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ θεοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν, “in this the charity of God appeared in us, because God sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we may live through him”; ἐν τούτῳ ἐστὶν ἡ ἀγάπη, “in this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he first loved us and sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins”; “and we have seen and testify ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ ἀπέσταλκε τὸν υἱὸν σωτῆρα τοῦ κόσμου, that the Father sent the Son as Savior of the world.” The Son himself also testified this concerning himself⁴, saying: “This is the will of him who sent me, the Father: that of all that he has given me, I should lose nothing from it, but should raise it up on the last day. But this is the will of my Father who sent me: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life.” Therefore⁵, “I came as light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness. And if anyone shall hear my words and shall not keep them, I do not judge him: οὐ γὰρ ἦλθον, ἵνα κρίνω τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα σώσω τὸν κόσμον, for I did not come that I might judge the world, but that I might save the world.” For I came not⁶ that I might fulfill my own will, but that of the Father; but this is⁷ the will of God the Father, ὁ ἁγιασμὸς ὑμῶν, your sanctification. Therefore,⁸ “entering the world I said: Sacrifice and oblation you did not will, but you fitted a body for me. Holocausts for sin did not please you. Then I said: Behold, I come; in the head of the book it is written of me, that I may do your will, O God.” This will looked to this: that⁹ “we might be sanctified διὰ τῆς προσφορᾶς τοῦ σώματος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐφάπαξ, through the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ once.”

Therefore, the supreme origin of all benefits is contained in the love and mercy¹⁰ by which God the Father repaired and restored the whole—

—human race, created by himself through the Son and enriched with heavenly gifts, likewise through the Son, but clothed in our flesh. And it was indeed fitting that all things at last, for each order, both natural and supernatural, integral as well as healed and raised up, should be referred back to one and the same font; it was fitting that the unity of the principle should shine no less in creation and elevation than in reparation; and it was fitting that each of us should be able to repeat¹¹, ἡμῖν εἷς θεὸς ὁ πατήρ, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα, καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτόν· καὶ εἷς κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, δι᾽ οὗ τὰ πάντα, καὶ ἡμεῖς δι᾽ αὐτοῦ, “for us there is one God the Father, from whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.”