For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
All Commentaries on John 16:27 Go To John 16
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me. He first loveth us, in calling and urging, us sinners to repentance and love of Him. And we then begin to love Him, and He then pours into us charity and justifying grace, making us His sons and friends. Hence it is clear that charity is the bond between God and man for it causes us to love God, and God in turn to love us, as a friend loves a friend and is loved by him in return.
And have believed that I came forth from God: that Isaiah , that I am the Son of God, sent by Him into the world for your and others" salvation. But you will say: "If God loves us, why does not He give of His own accord those things He knows we need, but wishes to be asked?" (1.) Because the reverend Majesty of God demands of us that we should reverence Him by our prayers, and testify that we need His bounty, and that no one can relieve our wants but Himself. We owe to Him the tribute of our prayers.
(2.) The state of man requires us to acknowledge that we depend on Him, are fostered and protected by Him, and that in all things we need His aid and bounty. "Nay, let him openly confess," says S. Augustine, "that he is God"s mendicant. Let him humble himself before Him, and with bended neck beg from Him what he needs."
(3.) The greatness of the thing asked for demands it. For we ask of God grace and glory, and there is nothing more excellent than these. God wishes us therefore to buy them by prayer, as it were by a price, that we may value them the more, and carefully preserve them. See S. Basil (Conat. Monast. chap. ii.)
(4.) The utility and the excellence of prayer demands it. For therein we exercise, 1. Faith, in believing that God is Almighty, All-wise, and Most Good2. Hope, for we hope that He will give as all things necessary for this life and the next3. Love, whereby we as children ask all these things from a most loving Father. S. Chrysostom says thus on Ps. iv, "Prayer is no slight bond of our love towards God: for it accustoms us to speak to Him, and leads us on to the study of wisdom. For if he who holds much converse with some great and wonderful Prayer of Manasseh , gains thereby great benefit, how much more does he who holds perpetual converse with God?" For "prayer" (as he says elsewhere) "is a talking with God, which makes man a kind of familiar angel with God." See his book "De orando Deum," and Climacus (gradu xxviii), where he gives many excellent testimonies in favour of prayer, and adds, "Prayer is a kind of holy tyranny over God," for it compels Him, as it were, to grant those things which are asked for.
