Homily on this passage by St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
Tract 38 on John
The Lord spake unto the Jews, saying: I go My way for, to the Lord Christ, death was a departure to that place whence He had come, and whence He had never departed. I go My way, saith He, and ye shall seek Me not from love, but from hatred. Yea after He had withdrawn Himself from the sight of men, two classes sought Him, even they that loved, and they that hated Him; the one because they longed for His presence, the other because they were fain to hunt Him down. In the Psalms the Lord Himself saith by His Prophet: Refuge failed me, and no man cared for my soul. Ps. cxli. 5. And again He said in another Psalm: Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul.
Sequentia sancti Evangelii secundum Joannem.
Sequel of the Holy Gospel according to John.
Cap. viii.
Ch. viii.
In illo tempore: Dixit Jesus turbis Judæorum: Ego vado, et quæretis me, et in peccato vestro moriemini. Quo ego vado, vos non potestis venire. Dicebant ergo Judæi: Numquid interficiet semetipsum, quia dicit: Quo ego vado, vos non potestis venire? Et dicebat eis: Vos de dorsum estis; ego de supernis sum. Vos de mundo hoc estis; ego non sum de hoc mundo. Dixi ergo vobis, quia moriemini in peccatis vestris: si enim non credideritis quia ego sum, moriemini in peccato vestro. Dicebant ergo ei. Tu quis es? Dixit eis Jesus: Principium, qui et loquor vobis. Multa habeo de vobis loqui, et judicare. Sed qui me misit, verax est; et ego quæ audivi ab eo, hæc loquor in mundo. Et non cognoverunt quia Patrem ejus dicebat Deum. Dixit ergo eis Jesus: Cum exaltaveritis Filium hominis, tunc cognoscetis quia ego sum, et a meipso facio nihil, sed sicut docuit me Pater, hæc loquor: et qui me misit, mecum est, et non reliquit me solum: quia ego, quæ placita sunt ei, facio semper.
At that time: Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: I go, and you shall seek me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come. The Jews, therefore, said: Will he kill himself, because he said: “Whither I go, you cannot come?” And he said to them: You are from beneath, and I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore, I say to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin. They said therefore to him: Who art thou? Jesus said to them: The beginning, who also speak unto you. Many things I have to speak, and to judge of you. But he that sent me is true; and the things I have heard of him, the same I speak in the world. Now they understood not that he called God his Father. Jesus therefore said to them: When you shall have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself, but as the Father hath taught me, these things I speak: and he that sent me is with me, and he hath not left me alone: for I do always the things that please him.