Fathers

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What the Fathers say

John 17:1

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

"Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." Again He showeth us, that not unwilling He cometh to the Cross. For how could He be unwilling, who prayed that this might come to pass, and called the action "glory," not only for Himself the Crucified, but also for the Father? since this was the case, for not the Son only, but the Father also was glorified. For before the Crucifixion, not even the Jews knew Him; "Israel," it saith, "hath not known Me" (Isa. i. …

Homily on the Gospel of John 80 ↗

Cyril of Alexandria

CHAPTER III. That no man should consider that the Son has any lack of God-befitting glory, though He be found to say, Father, glorify Thy Son. Having given His disciples a sufficiency of things necessary for salvation, and incited them by fitting words and arguments to a more accurate apprehension of His doctrines, and made them best able to battle against temptation, and confirmed the courage of each one, he straightway changes the form of His speech for our profit, and turns it into a kind of prayer, allowing no interval to elapse …

Commentary on the Gospel of John - Book 11 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Having told the disciples that they would have sorrows, and having persuaded them not to lose heart, the Lord further encourages them with prayer, teaching us also in temptations to leave everything aside and turn to God. Otherwise. The present words are not a prayer, but a conversation with the Father. If in other cases (Matt. 26:39) He prays and bends His knees, do not be surprised at this. For Christ came not only to reveal Himself to the world, but also to teach every virtue. …

Commentary on John ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

Our Lord, in the form of a servant, could have prayed in silence had He pleased; but He remembered that He had not only to pray, but to teach. For not only His discourse, but His prayer also, was for His disciples' edification, yea and for ours who read the same. Father, the hour is come, shews that all time, and every thing that He did or suffered to be done, was at His disposing, Who is not subject to time. Not that we must suppose that this hour came by any fatal necessity, but rather by God's ordering. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Hilary of Poitiers

He doth not say that the day, or the time, but that the hour is come. An hour contains a portion of a day. What was this hour? He was now to be spit upon, scourged, crucified. But the Father glorifies the Son. The sun failed in his course, and with him all the other elements felt that death. The earth trembled under the weight of our Lord hanging on the Cross, and testified that it had not power to hold within it Him who was dying. The Centurion proclaimed, Truly this was the Son of God. (Matt. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Bede

These things spake Jesus, those things that He had said at the supper, partly sitting as far as the words, Arise, let us go hence; (c. 14:31.) and thence standing, up to the end of the hymn which now commences, And lifted up His eyes and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗