But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.
All Commentaries on John 4:23 Go To John 4
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
But the hour cometh, &c. Now is the time of the New Law of My Gospel, in which the true worshippers, namely, Christians, whether Jews, or Samaritans, or of other nations, being converted unto Me, shall worship God, not in this mountain, nor Jerusalem only, by the carnal sacrifices of beasts, as the Jews and Samaritans do, but in all places throughout the world in spirit and in truth.
In spirit and truth. Observe, the Samaritans ignorantly and falsely worshipped God. But the Jews worshipped the true God indeed, but chiefly by corporeal victims, and other bodily symbols, and in one stated place, Jerusalem: all which things were shadows and types of the spiritual worship which was to he inaugurated by Christ. To both these Christ opposes His faithful Christians, who instead of the body, worship God in spirit; and in truth instead of in falsity, shadows and ignorance. For God is an incorporeal Spirit, most true, and most pure. Spirit therefore here signifies the spiritual worship of faith, hope, and charity, devotion, contrition, and other virtues, by which God is most rightly worshipped by Christians, and not through shadows and figures, but in truth. In truth therefore is in the true, sincere, and worthy worship of God, in which God is well pleased, according to the words ( Psalm 1:18), "In holocausts Thou shalt not be delighted: the sacrifice for God is a broken spirit" (Vulg.). Also ( Psalm 49:23), "The sacrifice of praise shall honour Me"0 (Vulg.). And ( Psalm 4:6), "Sacrifice the sacrifice of justice, and trust in the Lord."
As Theophylact says, "Because many seem to worship in soul, but have not right knowledge, such as heretics, therefore He added, and in truth. For it behoves us both to worship God with the mind, and also to have a sound faith with regard to Him. Such a worshipper was Paul, as Origen says, when he declares, "God is my witness, whom I serve" (Greek, ÏŽ λατζεÏω, i.e, worship with latria) in my spirit ( Romans 1:9)." And the Gloss says, not in the Temple, not in the mountain, but in the innermost temple of the heart, and with a true knowledge must God be worshipped. The Samaritan therefore worshipped God in a mountain, or locally, the Jew in a shadow, or figuratively, the Christian in spirit and in truth, truly and spiritually. For, as S. Chrysostom says, "The former things were figures, now all is truth."
Others explain thus, we must worship God in spirit, i.e, by the Spirit, or the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
"Mystically, by the spirit is intended," says Theophylact, "action: by truth, contemplation." For all Christians serve God either by an active, or a contemplative life.
Heretics object, since God should be worshipped by Christians in spirit and in truth, therefore all corporal rites and ceremonies ought to be rejected in baptism.
I answer by denying the consequence. For these are not shadows and figures of the Old Law, but ornaments, incentives, and effects of the Spirit, and therefore pertain to the Spirit. For without sacraments and sacrifices the Church cannot exist, because without them she would cease to be visible, and could not be united and gathered together. In form these ceremonies are practised by Christians, and flow from the inward spirit of faith, hope, and charity. Therefore they belong to the Spirit, as results depend upon a cause, and external upon interior actions. It was otherwise with the ignorant and carnal Jews, who placed all their worship in external sacrifices and rites. So SS. Cyril and Ambrose, (De Sp. Sc. l3. c12).
Even the heathen saw that God, to be worshipped acceptably, must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.
"If God be Mind, as ancient verses tell,
Who worship Him in spirit, worship well."
God is a Spirit, &c. This is the reason a priori: God is a most pure and true Spirit, therefore He is pleased only with worship in spirit and in truth. "If God were a body," says S. Augustine, "it would be fitting to worship Him in a mountain, because a mountain is material. Hence it is plain against the Anthropomorphites, and against Tertullian and Lactantius, that God has not a body, even the least material conceivable, but that He is a most immaterial Spirit." That axiom therefore of Tertullian is false, "that what is incorporeal is non-existent." However, Tertullian and Lactantius seem to use the words body and corporeal in an improper sense, merely to denote an actual substance.
Listen to S. Augustine expounding these words of Christ (lib. De Spec. c1). "God is a Spirit incomprehensible, incorporeal, immutable, that cannot be bounded by space, everywhere whole, nowhere divided: everywhere present, ineffably penetrating all things, containing all things, knowing all things, beholding all things; Almighty, governing all things: wholly in heaven, wholly in earth, wholly everywhere. Always working, always resting, gathering, but needing not, carrying all things without being burdened, filling all things, but not included in them, creating and protecting, nourishing and perfecting all things. Thou seekest, but Thou never wantest anything. Loving, but not inflamed. Thou art jealous, but untroubled. Thou repentest without grieving. Thou art angry, and tranquil all the while. Thou changest Thy works, but Thy counsel knows no alteration. Thou holdest all things, fillest all things, embracest all things, art above all things, sustainest all things. Nor dost Thou in one part sustain, and in another super-exceed: nor in one part dost Thou fill, and in another include. In sustaining Thou super-exceedest, and in super-exceeding Thou sustainest. Thou teachest the hearts of the faithful without the service of words, "reaching from one end to another mightily, and sweetly disposing all things.""
What is God? Listen to Arnobius invoking Him (lib1 , Cont. Gent.). "0 greatest and highest Creator of things invisible. Thou art invisible, and art never comprehended by any other natures. Worthy, indeed worthy art Thou, if only Thou mayest be called worthy by mortal lips, after whom all intelligent nature aspires, and to whom it never ceases to give thanks: to whom every living thing ought continually to bend the knee, and supplicate with unceasing prayers. For Thou art the First Cause: the locality and space of things: the foundation of whatsoever is infinite, unborn, immortal, eternal, the Only One, whom no corporeal form outlines, no circumscription bounds, without quality or size, without situation, motion, or hold: concerning whom nothing can be said or expressed by mortal words: and that Thou mayest be understood, we must be silent, and that as in a shadow a fallible look may seek after Thee, nothing whatsoever must be muttered."
