Uzdrowienia dokonane przez Jezusa – boskiego lekarza w świetle Augustynowych homilii do Ewangelii Jana Apostoła

Abstract

St Augustine’s homilies included in Iohannis Evangelium Tractatus are sui generis biblical commentaries on individual pericopes of the Gospel according to St John. Analyzing the content of the homilies in question it can be noticed that Bishop of Hippo fundamentally uses the allegorical method which allows him to capture the “spiritual meaning” of the Biblical texts. St Augustine’s usage of the allegorical method is particularly vivid in his interpretation of Jesus’s healings. These were described in the Fourth Gospel: healing the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda (Jn 5: 1-18) as well as healing the blind from birth (Jn 9: 1-41). The cure of Malchus’s ear, which had been cut off, was also invested with allegorical significance. Although there is no direct relation concerning the cure of Malchus, a servant of Caiaphas, in the Fourth Gospel, St Augustine, beginning with the pericope Jn 18: 10-11, refers to the Gospel according to St Luke (Lk 22: 51). Thus, he shows the interpretation of healing Malchus in the context of the commentaries to John’s writings. Explaining the meaning of each cure, the Author of the homilies teaches that each human being who inherits human nature through birth from earthly parents, is contaminated with the spiritual illness – the sin. Such illness could not be healed by the Old Testament’s Moses Law. The one who cured the man thoroughly was Jesus Christ, the Divine Doctor and the cure from heaven. It was Him who freed the human from the power of law, the cure from the lack of faith and any spiritual illnesses. Humans cured by Jesus are freed from the enslavement to sin. They are also capable of living according to “the new commandment” – “the commandment of love”. Spiritually renewed people who follow the rules of the “new commandment” are part of Christ’s Kingdom, of which He is the King. At the same time, they become participants of Christ’s royal power, in other words they co-reign. According to Augustine, this idea is hidden in the name of the healed man, Malchus. The author of the homilies translated it into Latin by means of the future tense participle “regnaturus” – “the one who is to reign” Thus, the ones who were cured by Christ are called to partake in His Kingdom which is fulfilled in the dimension of eternity.