John the evangelist was an eagle, soaring high in the sky into the sun;¹ Augustine was the Lord’s trumpet,² proclaiming the gospel and blaring forth its meaning. John’s Gospel is a profound theological study of Christ’s divinity; Augustine’s In Ioannis Evangelium Tractatus CXXIV are a prolonged pastoral investigation of that profundity. In them, Augustine, the world-renowned bishop of Hippo Regius, the humble pastor of souls, seeks to peer into the depths of Johannine theology and rise to the heights of Johannine illumination, that the shepherd might reveal to his sheep, as far as God granted, the meaning of John’S Gospel....

As i consider what we have just heard read from the Apostle’s text, namely, that “the natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God,”¹ and as I reflect that among the crowd present here, among you, my beloved people,² there necessarily are many natural men whose understanding is still only according to the flesh³ and who are not yet able to raise themselves to a spiritual understanding, I am very much at a loss how, even with the Lord’s largess, I may say or explain in my small measure what has been read from...

It is a good thing for us, brothers, to discuss¹ the text of the divine Scriptures, especially the holy gospel, as far as possible, without omitting any passage, and to be nourished according to our capacity, and then to minister to you from that source from which we ourselves also are nourished. We remember that on the last Lord’s day we discussed the first chapter, that is, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him...

We have undertaken in the Lord’s name and we have promised you,¹ beloved people, to discuss the grace and truth of God, filled with which the only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, appeared to his saints. [We shall also indicate that this subject] must be considered apart from the Old Testament since it is a matter proper to the New Testament. Pay attention, therefore, and concentrate, both that God may grant as much as I can grasp and that you may hear as much as you can grasp.

(2) For it will be left [to you] that,...

You have heard very often, holy people, and you know very well that, the more renowned John the Baptist was among those born of women¹ and the more humble in acknowledging the Lord, the more he deserved to be the friend of the bridegroom, loving zealously the bridegroom and not himself,² seeking not his own honor but that of his judge whom he preceded as a herald. Thus it was granted to the preceding Prophets to foretell the future events about Christ, but to this man to point to him with his finger.

(2) For just as Christ was unknown...

As the lord willed, we have arrived at the day of our promise; he will also grant this, that we may be able to arrive at the fulfillment of the promise itself.¹ For then, the things that we say, if they are useful for us and for you, are from him; but the things that are from man are lies, as our Lord, Jesus Christ, himself said, “He who speaks a lie speaks from what belongs to himself.”² No one has anything of what belongs to him except lying and sin. But if a man has any truth and justice,...

My holy people, I had feared, I admit it to you, that this cold [weather] might cool your enthusiasm for coming together; but, because you show by the great number and crowd of you that you are on fire in the spirit, I have no doubt that you have also prayed for me that I may pay what is owed to you.

(2) For I had promised in the name of Christ, since then the shortness of time prevented me from being able to give an interpretation and explanation of it, to discuss today why God wanted to show the...

We are delighted by the large number of you present today, especially since you have come with an eagerness far beyond what we could have hoped for. This is what brings us joy and consoles us in all the labors and dangers of this life—your love for God, your devout zeal, your firm hope, your fervor of spirit.¹

(2) You heard when the Psalm was read that a poor and needy man cries out to God in this world.² For it is the voice, as you have often heard and as you ought to remember, not of one man...

The miracle of our Lord, Jesus Christ, by which he made wine from water is certainly no wonder for those who know that God did it. For he, the very one who every year does this on vines, made wine on that day at the wedding in those six water jars, which he ordered to be filled with water. For just as what the attendants put into the water jars was turned into wine by the Lord’s effort so also what the clouds pour down is turned into wine by the effort of the same Lord. But that does not...

May the Lord, our God, be present that he may grant to us to deliver what we have promised. For yesterday, if you remember, my holy people, when the shortness of time prevented us from completing the sermon that was begun, we put it off until today, so that those things which in this event of the gospel reading were put mystically in profound mysteries might, with his help, be made clear. And so there is no need to delay any longer in making God’s miracle manifest. For it is God himself who through all of creation every day performs...

In the psalm you heard the moaning of the poor whose members suffer tribulations throughout the whole earth even to the ends of the world. Strive hard, my brothers, to be among these members and of these members; for all tribulation will pass. Woe to those who rejoice!¹ The truth says, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”² God was made man. What will man be, for whose sake God was made man? Let this hope console us in every tribulation and temptation of this life. For the enemy does not stop persecuting; and if he does...