John 7:35

"Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go?" Yet they who had wished to be rid of Him, who did all in their power not to see Him, ought not to have asked this question, but to have said, "we are glad of it, when will the departure take place?" but they were somewhat affected at His words, and with foolish suspicion question one another, "whither will he go?" "Will he go unto the dispersion of the Gentiles?" What is, "the dispersion of the Gentiles"? The Jews gave this name to other nations, because they were everywhere scattered and mingled fearlessly with one another. And this reproach they themselves afterwards endured, for they too were a "dispersion." For of old all their nation was collected into one place, and you could not anywhere find a Jew, except in Palestine only; wherefore they called the Gentiles a "dispersion," reproaching them, and boasting concerning themselves.

(Hom. l. 3) They did not mean, that our Lord was going to the Gentiles for their hurt, but to teach them. Their anger had subsided, and they believed what He had said. Else they would not have thought of asking each other, What manner of saying is this that He said, Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me: and whither I am, ye cannot come.

"Then said the Jews," not to Him, but "to themselves, Whither will this man go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersion among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?" For they knew not what they said; but, it being His will, they prophesied. The Lord was indeed about to go to the Gentiles, not by His bodily presence, but still with His feet. What were His feet? Those which Saul desired to trample upon by persecution, when the Head cried out to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" What is this saying that He said, "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?" Wherefore the Lord said this they knew not, and yet they did predict something that was to be without knowing it. For this is what the Lord said that they knew not the place, if place however it must be called, which is the bosom of the Father, from which Christ never departed; nor were they competent to conceive where Christ was, whence Christ never withdrew, whither He was to return, where He was all the while dwelling. How was it possible for the human heart to conceive this, least of all to explain it with the tongue? This, then, they in no wise understood; and yet by occasion of this they foretold our salvation, that the Lord would go to the dispersion of the Gentiles, and would fulfill that which they read but did not understand. "A people whom I have not known served me, and by the hearing of the ear obeyed me." They before whose eyes He was, heard Him not; those heard Him in whose ears He was sounded. For of that Church of the Gentiles which was to come, the woman that had the issue of blood was a type: she touched and was not seen; she was not known and yet was healed. It was in reality a figure what the Lord asked: "Who touched me?" As if not knowing, He healed her as unknown: so has He done also to the Gentiles. We did not get to know Him in the flesh, yet we have been made worthy to eat His flesh, and to be members in His flesh. In what way? Because He sent to us. Whom? His heralds, His disciples, His servants, His redeemed whom He created, but whom He redeemed, His brethren also. I have said but little of all that they are: His own members, Himself; for He sent to us His own members, and He made us His members. Nevertheless, Christ has not been among us with the bodily form which the Jews saw and despised; because this also was said concerning Him, even as the apostle says: "Now I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." He owed it to have come to those by whose fathers and to whose fathers He was promised. For this reason He says also Himself: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But what says the apostle in the following words? "And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy." What, moreover, saith the Lord Himself? "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold." He who had said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel," how has He other sheep to which He was not sent, except that He intimated that He was not sent to show His bodily presence but to the Jews only, who saw and killed Him? And yet many of them, both before and afterwards, believed. The first harvest was winnowed from the cross, that there might be a seed whence another harvest might spring up. But at this present time, when roused by the fame of the gospel, and by its goodly odor, His faithful ones among all nations believe, He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles, when He shall come who has already come; when He shall be seen by all, He who was then not seen by some, by some was seen; when He shall come to judge who came to be judged; when He shall come to distinguish who came not to be distinguished. For Christ was not discerned by the ungodly, but was condemned with the ungodly; for it was said concerning Him, "He was accounted among the wicked." The robber escaped, Christ was condemned. He wh

(Tract. xxxi. 10) Whither I go, i. e. to the bosom of the Father. This they did not at all understand: and yet even their mistake is an unwitting prophecy of our salvation; i. e. that our Lord would go to the Gentiles, not in His own person, but by His feet, i. e. His members. He sent to us those whom He had made His members, and so made us His members.