WE must lift ourselves up to God, my brethren, with greater intentness, that as the words of the holy Gospel have now sounded in our ears, we may also to the best of our ability take them in with the mind. For the Lord Jesus said: Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. That they might not as men fear death, and therefore be troubled, he consoles them, assuring them that he also is God.
BELIEVE, he says, In God and believe in me. For it follows, that if you believe in God, you ought also to believe in me: which would not follow, if Christ were not God. Believe in God, and believe in him to whom it is nature, not robbery, to be equal with God: for, He emptied himself, yet not losing the form of God, but, taking the form of a servant. You fear death for this form of a servant: Let not your heart be troubled; the form of God shall raise to life again.
BUT what is this that follows: in my Father's house are many mansions, but were they also afraid for themselves? Wherefore it was meet to be said to them: Let not your heart be troubled. For which of them would not be afraid, when to Peter, the more confident and forward, it was said: The cock shall not crow, before you have denied me three times.
They too must perish with him, so with good reason they were troubled: but when they are told: In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you; then they are refreshed from their perturbation, assured and confident that even after perils of temptations they shall dwell where Christ is, with God. For even if one be stronger than another, one wiser than another, one more righteous than another, one holier than another: In the Father's house are many mansions; none of them shall be estranged from that house; where there shall be a mansion for each according to his deserving.
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