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TRACTATE 691 On John 14.3–6 ow obtains for us, dearest people, the opportunity to understand as much as we can from the Lord’s later words the earlier ones, and from the following words the preceding ones in regard to what you heard was answered to Thomas’s questioning. For the Lord had said previously,2 when he was speaking about the dwelling-places that he said both were in his Father’s house and that he was going to prepare them, where we understood both that these dwelling-places already are, with regard to predestination , and that they are being prepared whenever the hearts of those who will abide there are being cleansed by faith, because they themselves are God’s very house, and what else is it to remain in God’s house than to be in the people of God when the same people is in God and God in it?3 The Lord went to prepare this, that by believing in him who is not seen, that dwelling place which will always exist when we are face to face may now be prepared by faith. For this reason, then, he had said, “And if I shall go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and I shall take you to myself, that where I am you also may be. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” (2) To these words, “Thomas says to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?’” The Lord had said that they knew both; he says that they did not know either, either the place to go or the way to go. But he knew not how to lie. Therefore, they knew and 1. See M.-F. Berrouard, “Saint Augustin et le mystère du Christ. Chemin, Vérité et Vie,” Augustiniana 41 (1991): 431–49. 2. This sentence is aposiopetic. 3. Cf. Tractate 68. 67 did not know that they knew. Let him prove that they already know what they think they still do not know. “Jesus says to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’” What is this, brothers? Look, we have heard the apostle asking , we have also heard the Lord teaching, and we do not yet, even after the resounding voice, grasp the hidden meaning. But what can we not grasp? Were the apostles with whom he was speaking able to say to him, “We do not know you”? Accordingly, if they know him and he is the way, they knew the way; if they knew him and he is the truth, they knew the truth; if they knew him and he is the life, they knew the life. Therefore, they were proven to know what they did not know that they knew. 2. What, therefore, have we also not grasped in this discourse ? What do you think, brothers, except that he said, “And where I go you know, and the way you know”? And look, we have learned that they knew the way because they knew him who is the way. But the way is that by which one goes. Is the way also that to which one goes? Moreover, he had said that they knew both, both where he goes and the way. Therefore, there was need for him to say, “I am the way,” in order to show them who knew him that they knew the way, which they thought they did not know. (2) But what need was there for him to say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” when, after the way by which he was going was known, it remained to know where he was going, except that he was going to truth, he was going to life? Therefore, he himself was going to himself by way of himself. And where do we go except to him? And by what way do we go except through him? He himself, therefore, to himself through himself; we to him through him, and indeed also to the Father, both he and we. For elsewhere too he says about himself, “I go to the Father,”4 and in this place for our sakes, “No one,” he says, “comes to the Father but by me.” And in this way he through himself both to himself and to the Father, and we through him both to him and to the Father...

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