For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does: and he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
All Commentaries on John 5:20 Go To John 5
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For the Father, &c. Showeth, not as a master to a disciple, says Euthymius, but as a father to a Song of Solomon , as God to God. Showeth therefore means gives, communicates, especially because, as I have said, the Son by demonstration, i.e, by understanding and vision, proceedeth as the Word from the Father. To show in the sense of give, exhibit, attribute, is used in 1 Samuel 14:12; Exodus 33:19; Psalm 4:6, &c. That this is the meaning here is plain from what follows. Moreover, the Father showeth, i.e, communicates all things to the Son in that He is God, not by free love, but by nature, out of the fecundity of the Divine Essence, of which the greatest sign among men is love. For he who among men communicates all things to his Song of Solomon , by so doing gives an eminent token that he loves him in the highest degree. Moreover, the Father communicates all things to the Son in that He is Prayer of Manasseh , of which communication love is not the sign, but the cause. "For the Father to show to the Song of Solomon ," says Bede, "is by the Son to do what He doeth."
Admirably does S. Athanasius say (Disp. cont. Arium. lib1), "The Almighty Father hath given to the Son omnipotence, majesty to majesty, to virtue He has given virtue, to the prudent one He has given prudence, foreknowledge to the foreknowing, eternity to eternity, Divinity to Divinity, equality to equality, immortality to immortality, invisibility to invisibility, to a king a kingdom, life to life; and He hath given not something other than that which He hath; and as much as He hath, so much hath He given."
You will ask why to manifest and to show here and elsewhere are put for to give and to communicate. I reply (1.) because God by showing Himself and His works to the Song of Solomon , communicates to Him His own knowledge, and consequently His essence. For God"s knowledge is the same thing as His essence. (2.) By showing, He illuminates the Song of Solomon , i.e, He communicates His own light of Wisdom of Solomon , and of all good, and Himself, wholly to Him. For God is the uncreate and infinite Light, as S. John shows (1Epist. i5). Lastly, by showing, i.e, by understanding, He produces the Word, i.e, the Son. For in God the most noble thing is understanding, and the most noble action is to understand, to illuminate, to show. For the noblest and chief power of the soul is intellect and reason. These command the will, and guide it as it were blindfold; and by it they rule and move all the other senses and powers of the soul. Hence comes the axiom of the wise, "Mind effects all things:" it is the part of reason to govern. Just as strong as any one is in intellect, so far is he able to command. For the intellect in conceiving and understanding, by means of conception and intelligence, in a lively manner incorporates all those things into itself, and as it were possesses them. For it conceives all things in itself in a certain lively manner, and forms an appearance of them in itself, which presents to it all the goodness and beauty of things. Wherefore the understanding is the eye of the mind. As in the body the eye is the noblest and most efficacious sense, which incorporates into itself the forms of all things, far more does the understanding do this in the mind. Wherefore the blessed in heaven, by means of the understanding, in understanding and seeing God, incorporate Him into themselves, possess Him, and are blessed by Him. This then is the reason of this mode of speech by which to show is taken for to give, to communicate, to bring one into possession of the thing shown. This is what Aristotle says, "The intellect by understanding becomes all things," because by a lively conception of things it assimilates itself to them, and them to itself. Thus it seizes and holds them, and makes them to exist in a nobler and better manner in itself than they are in themselves. For in themselves they are often dead and inanimate, but in the intellect they are living and animated. They live in the highest and most excellent vital act.
And will show greater things: by showing will give and communicate. These greater things are more illustrious mysteries and miracles, especially the raising of the dead, and the authority to judge all men; of both which Christ proceeds to speak.
That ye may marvel. He does not say that ye may believe. For the scribes and the Jews, when they saw so many miracles of Christ, wondered at His power, but yet were blinded by envy and hatred, and would not believe in Him as the Messiah. Still Christ did those things with the intention that they should believe in Him. The heretics act in just the same way even now. They admire the Wisdom of Solomon , holiness, and miracles of the orthodox saints, but will not follow their faith, nor imitate their manner of living. Such is heresy, and the blindness, obstinacy, and malignity of error.
