Section CCCX

How does it therefore happen that more do not enjoy so great a good? Does it happen for this reason, that the faculty of breaking the chains is denied to them? By no means; but it happens for this reason, that they spurn the faculty divinely conferred. Of himself and by his own counsel¹, Christ is τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, the true light, which illuminates not this or that man, but φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον, “illuminates every man coming into this world”; whence² he is called simply τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, the light of men, and τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, the light which shines in darkness, and therefore shines upon all men who, being turned away from the sun of justice, are deservedly called darkness. Why, therefore, when light is lacking to no one, are so many nevertheless occupied in the shadow of death and in most miserable blindness? Because³ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν, the darkness did not comprehend it. Blinded men could have comprehended the salutary light; they could have received the sight they had lost; but⁴, ungrateful and enemies to themselves, they repelled “the light which came into the world, καὶ ἠγάπησαν μᾶλλον τὸ σκότος ἢ τὸ φῶς, and loved darkness more than light.” In these things is contained the reason why men are blind and, destitute of knowledge of the truth, perish eternally. They are blind and perish eternally, not because they are deprived of the means of seeing and obtaining salvation, but because, contrary to the counsel of God and the benefits of the mediator, they prefer flesh to spirit and error to truth.

Concerning this matter John must be heard, who first⁵ writes concerning—

—the Word: ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἦν, καὶ ὁ κόσμος δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, “he was in the world, and the world was made through him”; namely, the Word was not absent from the world which he founded, nor was he absent from the men whom he created, and it ought therefore to have been expected that men would know him and would reverence him piously and holily as their own author and that of the world—especially since they could not excuse themselves by ignorance. The Precursor⁶, sent by God, had come εἰς μαρτυρίαν, ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός, ἵνα πάντες πιστεύσωσι δι᾽ αὐτοῦ, “for a testimony, that he might bear testimony concerning the light, that all might believe through him.” But what then happened? Behold the things which John⁷ adds: καὶ ὁ κόσμος αὐτὸν οὐκ ἔγνω. εἰς τὰ ἴδια ἦλθε, καὶ οἱ ἴδιοι αὐτὸν οὐ παρέλαβον, “and⁸ the world did not know him. He came unto his own, and his own did not receive him.” It is almost as if he said: God left nothing undone that men, suffused with the light of truth, might know Christ and, once he had been known, embrace him by faith; but very many failed themselves and repudiated the grace offered to all. “But as many as⁹ received him, ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι, τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, he gave them the power¹⁰ to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name.” Therefore, the benefit of the grace of adoption and of the paternal inheritance extends as far as the very faculty of believing extends itself. But this is at hand for all and is utterly withdrawn from no one. For just as¹¹ “he who believes in Christ οὐ κρίνεται, is not judged; but he who does not believe, ἤδη κέκριται, ὅτι μὴ πεπίστευκεν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ μονογενοῦς υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ, is already judged because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God,” so οὐκ ἀπέστειλεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν κόσμον, ἵνα κρίνῃ τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα σωθῇ ὁ κόσμος δι᾽ αὐτοῦ, “God did not send his Son into the world that he might judge the world, but—”

—that the world might be saved through him.” Therefore Christ imparts to all the faculty of believing, and the judgment¹² by which unbelievers will be condemned comes back to this: ὅτι τὸ φῶς ἐλήλυθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, that the light came into the world and shone upon all; καὶ ἠγάπησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι μᾶλλον τὸ σκότος ἢ τὸ φῶς, but men preferred darkness to light.

For as regards Christ, he most truly¹³ affirms concerning himself: “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.” This he repeats elsewhere¹⁴ in a somewhat inflected manner of speaking, saying: ἦλθε γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός, “for the Son of man came to save that which had perished.” And¹⁵ again: ἦλθε γὰρ ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ζητῆσαι καὶ σῶσαι τὸ ἀπολωλός, “for the Son of man came to seek and save that which had perished.” To these words these¹⁶ correspond excellently: ὁ γὰρ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἦλθε ψυχὰς ἀνθρώπων ἀπολέσαι, ἀλλὰ σῶσαι, “for the Son of man did not come to destroy souls, but to save them.”

Since these things are so, I do not think that an end can be imposed upon the entire treatment more fittingly than by those words with which Saint Bruno, father of the Carthusians, meets this question: “Why does the Apostle command prayer to be made for all, when certain men have been reprobated by God, and he who prays for them seems to offend God who reprobates them?”¹⁷, saying: “Against these things it is said that God indeed, from his benignity and clemency, wills every man to be saved, because, insofar as it lies in him, the obstacle does not remain in God; but the injustice of the impious turns aside the benignity of God. Whence a twofold will is considered in God: one of benignity and clemency, by which he wills all to be saved; the other is the—”

—will of justice, which reprobates the evil and elects the good. But according to the will of God’s benignity, the Apostle commands prayer to be made for all. God truly wills all to be saved, which is evident from this: that there is one God, that is, creator of all. And since God is the creator of all, there is no cause why he should deny his benignity to one creature and give it to another—a benignity which the impious man indeed denies to himself because he acts impiously, while the benignity of God endures safe and integral toward all. Hence it is also manifest that God wills all to be saved, because there is one mediator of God and men, and not several mediators. Whence it is established that he wills equally to profit all, for he was made the mediator of all.”

THE END.