31. Then, finally, to express in words the whole Mystery, He raised His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come: glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee. Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that, whatsoever Thou hast given Him, to them He should give eternal life509    Ib. xvii. 1, 2.. Do you call Him weak because He asks to be glorified? So be it, if He does not ask to be glorified in order that He may Himself glorify Him by Whom He is glorified. Of the receiving and giving of glory we have spoken in another book510    See iii. 12., and it would be superfluous to go over the question again. But of this at least we are certain, that He prays for glory in order that the Father may be glorified by granting it. But perhaps He is weak in that He receives power over all flesh. And indeed the receiving of power might be a sign of weakness if He were not able to give to those whom He receives life eternal. Yet the very fact of receiving is used to prove inferiority of nature. It might, if Christ were not true God by birth as truly as is the Unbegotten. But if the receiving of power signifies neither more nor less than the Birth, by which He received all that He has, that gift does not degrade the Begotten, because it makes Him perfectly and entirely what God is. God Unbegotten brought God Only-begotten to a perfect birth of divine blessedness: it is, then, the mystery of the Father to be the Author of the Birth, but it is no degradation to the Son to be made the perfect image of His Author by a real birth. The giving of power over all flesh, and this, in order that to all flesh might be given eternal life, postulates the Fatherhood of the Giver and the Divinity of the Receiver: for by giving is signified that the One is the Father, and in receiving the power to give eternal life, the Other remains God the Son. All power is therefore natural and congenital to the Son of God; and though it is given, that does not separate Him from His Author, for that which is given is the property of His Author, power to bestow eternal life, to change the corruptible into the incorruptible. The Father gave all, the Son received all; as is plain from His words, All things, whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine511    St. John xvi. 15.. He is not speaking here of species of created things, and processes of material change512    i.e. He does not mean whatsoever the Father hath the created world; nor is the giving and receiving to be understood in a material sense, cf. c. 72., but He unfolds to us the glory of the blessed and perfect Divinity, and teaches us that God is here manifested as the sum of His attributes, His power, His eternity, His providence, His authority; not that we should think that He possesses these as something extraneous to Himself, but that by these His qualities He Himself has been expressed in terms partly comprehensible by our sense. The Only-begotten, therefore, taught that He had all that the Father has, and that the Holy Spirit should receive of Him: as He says, All things, whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine; therefore I said, He shall take of Mine513    St. John xvi. 15. The “He” is the Holy Ghost; see the context.. All that the Father hath are His, delivered and received: but these gifts do not degrade His divinity, since they give Him the same attributes as the Father.

31. Filium infirmum non probat gloriae petitio, non potestatis acceptio. Potestas omnis Filio est congenita. ---Postremo totius mysterii fidem locuturus, elevatis in coelum oculis ait: Pater, venit hora, honorifica filium tuum, ut filius tuus honorificet te. Sicut dedisti illi potestatem omnis carnis, ut omne quod dedisti illi, det ei vitam aeternam (Joan. XVII, 1 et 2). Anne tibi infirmus videtur, cum honorificari se rogat? Sit plane infirmus, nisi honorificari se idcirco postulat, ut ipse honorificet honorantem. De honore accipiendo et reddendo, libro alio (Lib. III, n. 12) tractavimus, et eadem revolvere admodum otiosum est. Certe non ambigitur gloriam idcirco posci, ut glorificetur impertiens. Sed forte in eo imbecillus est, quod potestatem omnis carnis accepit. Sit quoque acceptio 0304D potestatis imbecilla, nisi potens est illis, quos accepit, vitae tribuere aeternitatem. Sed in eo ipso quoque, quod accepit, naturae aliqua infirmitas arguitur. Sit plane acceptio infirmitas, nisi Christus ex nativitate potius, quam ex innascibilitate Deus verus est. 0305A Quod si acceptio potestatis, sola est significatio nativitatis, in qua accepit id quod est; non est infirmitati datio deputanda, quae totum hoc nascentem consummat esse quod Deus est. Cum enim innascibilis Deus ad perfectam divinae beatitudinis nativitatem unigenito Deo auctor sit, auctorem nativitatis esse sacramentum paternum est. Caeterum non habet contumeliam, quae se auctoris sui esse imaginem genuina nativitate consummat. Dedisse enim potestatem omnis carnis, et ad id dedisse ut det ei vitam aeternam, habet et in dante quod pater est, et in accipiente quod Deus est: cum et in eo significetur Pater esse, quod dederit; et in eo Filius Deus maneat, quod vitae aeternae dandae sumpserit potestatem. Naturalis igitur filio Dei et congenita omnis 0305B potestas est: quae cum data sit, non alienat eum per id ab auctore quia data est; cum quod sit auctoris, hoc datum sit, dare scilicet vitam aeternam, et corruptionem 282 in incorruptionem mutare. Dedit itaque Pater omnia, et accepit Filius omnia: neque ambiguum est, cum dixerit: Omnia quae Patris sunt, mea sunt (Joan. XVI, 15). Et hic quidem non creationum species, neque elementorum diversas substitutiones praesens sermo significat (V. infra n. 72): sed beatae atque absolutae divinitatis nobis gloriam pandens, Deum in his ostendit intelligendum esse quae sua sunt, in virtute, in aeternitate, in providentia, in potestate: non quod haec Deus ita habeat, tamquam aliud quid extra ista esse credendus sit: sed quod in his ad aliquantulam sensus 0305C nostri opinionem significatus sit ipse quae habeat. Unigenitus igitur in his se docens substitisse quae Patris sunt, cum ex se sumpturum esse sanctum Spiritum dixisset, adjecit: Omnia quae Patris sunt, mea sunt; propterea dixi, de meo accipiet (Ibid.). Omnia quae Patris sunt, sua sunt, tradita utique et accepta. Sed data non infirmant divinitatem, quae in his eum constituunt esse quibus Pater est.