Fathers

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What the Fathers say

John 16:28

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

As it was consolatory to them to hear of His resurrection, and how He came from God, and went to God, He dwells again and again on these subjects: Again I leave the world, and go to the Father. The one was a proof that their faith in Him was not vain: the other that they would still be under His protection.

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Cyril of Alexandria

Herein, then, in the fact that our Lord went back to the Father and returned with power to the place from which He knew that He had gone forth, is proof clear and incontrovertible, that He was not one of the false prophets, and that He did not come to utter to us the promptings of man's private judgment, or to teach us doctrines contrary to the Father's Will, as the demented Jews ignorantly imagined. Granting then, (so a man might speak, wishing to combat the perverse opinions of the Jews) that He was not the true Christ, as you say. …

Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 11 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

And since the report that He came forth from God and goes again to God comforted them in various respects, He speaks of this often. Therefore they themselves also, having benefited from hearing this and having been encouraged, what do they say?

Commentary on John ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"And ye have believed," He adds, "that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and go to the Father." Clearly we have believed. For surely it ought not to be accounted a thing incredible because of this, that in coming to the world He came forth in such a sense from the Father that He did not leave the Father behind; and that, on leaving the world, He goes to the Father in such a sense that He does not actually forsake the world. …

Tractates on John 102 ↗

Hilary of Poitiers

Perfect faith in the Son, which believes and loves what has come forth from God, and deserveth to be heard and loved for its own sake, this faith confessing the Son of God, born from Him, and sent by Him, needeth not an intercessor with the Father: wherefore it follows, And have believed that I came forth from God. His nativity and advent are signified by, I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world. The one is dispensation, the other nature. …

Catena Aurea by Aquinas ↗

Bede

He came forth from the Father and came into the world because he made himself visible to the world in his humanity, who in his divinity was invisible along with the Father. He came forth from the Father, because he appeared not in that form in which he is equal to the Father but in the lesser one of a created being that he took on himself. And he came into the world because, in the form of a servant that he accepted, he offered himself to be seen even by those who love this world. …

Homilies on the Gospels 2.12 ↗