And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
1. We acknowledge, beloved brethren, that we are owing you, and ought now to repay, what was left over for consideration, how we can understand that there is no real mutual contrariety between these two statements, namely, that after saying, In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go to prepare a place for you;— where He makes it clear enough that He said so to them for the very reason that there are many mansions there already, and there is no need of preparing any; — the Lord again says: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. How is it that He goes and prepares a place, if there are many mansions already? If there were not such, He would have said, I go to prepare. Or if the place has still to be prepared, would He not then also properly have said, I go to prepare? Are these mansions in existence already, and yet needing still to be prepared? For if...
And if I go away, &c. If, i.e, when, I go away into heaven and there prepare a place for you and all your successors, that Isaiah , for all the elect, by giving them through the ages the Holy Ghost, and His grace by which He may prepare them for celestial glory; when, I say, this has been accomplished, then I will come again in the day of judgment, and receive you all to Myself, and crown you with a worthy reward in heaven.
And whither I go, ye know, &c.; i.e, Ye can, and ought easily know, because ye have often heard of Me that I am going to the Father in heaven, and that the road to heaven is My faith, doctrine, passion, and cross. The Apostles knew that Christ had said these things, but they did not yet understand them, which was the reason why they did not remember them. So S. Augustine, Maldonatus.
I will come again: not only by rising the third day, but at your death, and at the day of judgment: that where I am, you also may be, and may receive the reward of eternal happiness in my kingdom.
So earnest have I been concerning this matter, that I should already have been given up to it, had not preparation been made long ago for you. Showing them that they ought to be very bold and confident. Then that He may not seem to speak as though enticing them, but that they may believe the thing to be so, He adds,
