Have confidence, I have overcome the world. St John Chapter xvi. 29-33

St John Chapter xvi : Verses 29-33

Contents

• St John Chapter xvi : Verses 29-33
   Douay-Rheims (Challoner) text, Greek (SBLG) & Latin text (Vulgate); 
• Annotations based on the Great Commentary of Cornelius A Lapide (1567-1637)

St John Chapter xvi : Verses 29-33

Have confidence, I have overcome the world.
J-J Tissot. Brooklyn Museum.

29 His disciples say to him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb.  

30 Now we know that thou knowest all things, and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

31 Jesus answered them: Do you now believe?  

32 Behold, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.  

33 These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world.

29 ⸀Λέγουσιν οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ· Ἴδε νῦν ⸀ἐν παρρησίᾳ λαλεῖς, καὶ παροιμίαν οὐδεμίαν λέγεις.

29 Dicunt ei discipuli ejus : Ecce nunc palam loqueris, et proverbium nullum dicis :  

30 νῦν οἴδαμεν ὅτι οἶδας πάντα καὶ οὐ χρείαν ἔχεις ἵνα τίς σε ἐρωτᾷ· ἐν τούτῳ πιστεύομεν ὅτι ἀπὸ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθες.

30 nunc scimus quia scis omnia, et non opus est tibi ut quis te interroget : in hoc credimus quia a Deo existi.

31 ἀπεκρίθη ⸀αὐτοῖς Ἰησοῦς· Ἄρτι πιστεύετε;

31 Respondit eis Jesus : Modo creditis?  

32 ἰδοὺ ἔρχεται ὥρα ⸀καὶ ἐλήλυθεν ἵνα σκορπισθῆτε ἕκαστος εἰς τὰ ἴδια κἀμὲ μόνον ἀφῆτε· καὶ οὐκ εἰμὶ μόνος, ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἐστιν.

32 ecce venit hora, et jam venit, ut dispergamini unusquisque in propria, et me solum relinquatis : et non sum solus, quia Pater mecum est.  

33 ταῦτα λελάληκα ὑμῖν ἵνα ἐν ἐμοὶ εἰρήνην ἔχητε· ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ θλῖψιν ἔχετε, ἀλλὰ θαρσεῖτε, ἐγὼ νενίκηκα τὸν κόσμον.

33 Haec locutus sum vobis, ut in me pacem habeatis. In mundo pressuram habebitis : sed confidite, ego vici mundum.

Annotations

    29. His disciples say to him: Behold, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no proverb: we now clearly understand that which we did not comprehend before. For Thou spakest obscurely, “A little while, and ye shall not see Me,” &c. But now thou explainest it clearly.

    30. Now we know that thou knowest all things, and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God. 

“From our seeing and hearing that Thou understandest our secret thoughts, our doubts, and our desires to understand the meaning of Thy words, for Thou hast anticipated our questionings, and hast of Thine own accord cleared up our doubts. And for this cause we believe the more firmly that Thou art in truth the Son of God, and begotten by Him, because Thou knowest all things, and seest the secrets of hearts; which is the property of God.” So Cyril; 

or as Toletus says, 

“This alone is sufficient to make us believe that Thou camest forth from God, because Thou discoverest our secret thoughts, and makest answer to them. And if other arguments (many as they are) were wanting, this alone would suffice to make us believe in Thee.”

    31.-32. Jesus answered them: Do you now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, and it is now come, that you shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave me alone;  This first clause is read either as a question (with Theophylact, Euthymius, Jansenius, and others) or as an affirmation. The meaning is the same in either case. Do ye believe? But ye will soon show how little and feeble is your faith. Or else, Ye now have faith in Me, but much feebler than you think, for you will flee away, and leave Me. Each of you hasting away to the place which is nearest, and none of you waiting for any others.

    and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I say not this for My own sake, but for your sake. I need not your protection, as I have the Almighty Father with Me.

    33. These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace.  The things I said before (ver. 5, and ch. 16:18 and 19). That ye might trust confidently in Me, with a mind calm and tranquil, unmoved, and unterrified by the waves of persecution.

    In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world. I have begun to overcome it, by My holy Life and heavenly doctrines, but I will now fully and completely overcome it by My Passion and Death. Be confident then, that as I have overcome it, so will ye overcome it if ye persevere in faith and love. If therefore ye abide in Me, ye also, by My example, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, which I will give you, will overcome the world; i.e., all the hatred, persecutions, &c., of the Jews (see 1 John v.) Understand by the world, the prince of the world, and all other adversaries of Christ. So Toletus, Ribera, and others. Be assured then, under every worldly trial, that I have overcome the world, not for Myself but for your sakes I have overcome, that ye might overcome, that I might give you a rule and pattern, that I might obtain from God the grace of victory for you. Contend therefore resolutely, because I will contend in you, and overcome in you, by making you conquerors. For, as S. Augustine says here, He would not have overcome the world, if the world were to conquer His members.

    Montanus, and his fellow martyrs, the disciples of S. Cyprian, trusting in these words were strengthened by them, and exulted in their dark and gloomy prison; for they said, “Where the temptation is great, there is He, the Greater One, who overcomes it in us, and there is no contest in which, by the protection of the Lord, there is not victory.” See their Acts in Surius, Feb. 24. And S. Cyprian himself (I.p. ad Fortunatum) says, “If any one, keeping the commands of the Lord, and boldly cleaving to Christ, has stood against the adversary, he must needs be conqueror, for Christ is unconquerable.” Also in Epist. to Donatus, “He can seek for nothing from the world who is above the world.” And again (Epist. to people of Thibaris), e.g. “The Christian soldier, instructed by His precepts and warnings, trembles not at the battle, but is ready for the Crown.” And just before, “The Lord wished we should rejoice in persecutions, because when they come, then the crowns of faith are given, the soldiers of God are proved, the heavens are opened to martyrs.” And again, 

“He is not alone, whose companion in flight is Christ, who keeping the temple of God, wherever he may be, is not without God. And should a robber assault him when flying in solitude, or on the mountains, or a wild beast attack, or hunger, or thirst, or cold afflict, or when hastening over the sea storm and tempest overwhelm him, Christ everywhere beholdeth His soldier, and if he dies in persecution for the honour of His name, He gives Him the reward He has promised He will give in the resurrection.” 

    And also in the Treatise de Mortal., “He who is a soldier of God, who, stationed in the heavenly camp, is already hoping for things above, should recognise what He is, in order that there may not be any trepidation or faltering in us at the storms and tempests of the world. For the Lord foretold that these things should come to pass, instructing and teaching us beforehand by His word of encouragement, and preparing and strengthening us to meet them.” And he says (Epist. i. ad Cornelium): “That the soldiers of Christ cannot be conquered, though they can die, and that they are unconquered because they are not afraid to die.” And the Confessors, too, who were in prison and destined to martyrdom, wrote thus touchingly to S. Cyprian, as the encourager of Martyrs:—

“What more glorious or what more happy can be granted to any man by Divine favour, than fearlessly to confess the Lord God in the midst of his murderers, and that while the various and exquisite torments of the secular power are raging, even with a racked, tortured, and mangled body, to confess Christ the Son of God with his departing but still free spirit? having broken through all worldly hindrances, to present himself before God freed from them all,—than to win the heavenly kingdom without delay, than to become a fellow-sufferer with Christ by suffering in His Name?” 

And so too S. Chrysostom, when his banishment was in debate, addressed to his people eleven discourses, beginning thus:

“Many are the floods, and huge the waves, but I fear not drowning, for I stand on the rock. But what think they? Lest I should fear death, to whom to live is Christ and to die is gain? lest I should be afraid of exile, though I know that the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof? or the proscription of my goods, though I know that I brought nothing into the world, neither can I take anything out? The terrors of the world—I despise them; its pleasures—I deride them. I desire not riches, I dread not poverty, I fear not death.” 

        

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The Vladimirskaya Icon. >12th century.

SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.

 

 

 

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.