Love And The End

'Sciens ergo Iesus quia venit hora eius ut transiret ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, cum dilexisset suos qui erant in mundo, in finem dilexit eos.' Utique ut et ipsi de hoc mundo ubi erant, ad suum caput, quod hinc transisset, eius dilectione transirent. Quid est enim, in finem, nisi, in Christum? Finis enim Legis Christus, ait Apostolus, ad iustitiam omni credenti. Finis perficiens, non interficiens: finis quo usque eamus, non ubi pereamus. Sic omnino intellegendum est: Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. Ipse est finis noster, in illum est transitus noster. Nam video posse ista verba evangelica quodam humano modo etiam sic accipi, tamquam usque ad mortem Christus dilexerit suos, ut hoc videatur esse, in finem dilexit eos. Humana est haec sententia, non divina: neque enim nos hucusque ille dilexit, qui semper et sine fine nos diligit. Absit ut dilectionem morte finierit, qui non est morte finitus. Etiam post mortem, quinque fratres suos dilexit dives ille superbus atque impius, et usque ad mortem nos dilexisse putandus est Christus? Absit, carissimi. Nequaquam ille nos diligendo usque ad mortem veniret, si dilectionem nostram morte finiret. Nisi forte ita sit intellegendum, in finem dilexit eos: Quia tantum dilexit eos, ut moreretur propter eos. Hoc enim testatus est dicens: Maiorem hac caritatem nemo habet, quam ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis. Ita sane non prohibemus intellegi, in finem dilexit, id est, usque ad mortem illum dilectio ipsa perduxit. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis,In Evangelium Ionannis, Tractatus LV Source: Migne PL 35.1785

'When Jesus knew that His hour had come when He should pass out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.' 1 And so that when they passed from the world in which they were to their head, they might pass by His love. For what is 'to the end,' unless to Christ? 'For the end of the law is Christ,' says the Apostle, 'for righteousness to all who believe.' 2 The end which perfects and does not destroy. The end to which we may go, not where we perish. So should we understand: 'Christ our Passover is sacrificed.' 3 He is our end, in Him we pass over. For I see that it is possible to receive the words of the Gospel in a human sense, so that it might seem that even to death Christ had loved them because he had loved them up to that end. This is a human understanding, not Divine, for He did not love until this point, who loves us without end. Let it not be that love ended with death, the love of Him who did not end in death. Even after death that rich and proud and impious man loved his five brothers, 4 and shall Christ be thought of loving us only up to death? Let it not be, most beloved. By no means did He did come to love us up to death, as if our love shall lend in death. Unless perhaps it should be understood: 'He loved them to death,' means that He loved them so much that He would die for them. For to this He did give witness, saying: 'Greater love has no man than to lay down his soul for his friends.' 5 We certainly do not prohibit this understanding, that He loved them to death, that is, it was that love which lead Him to death. Saint Augustine of Hippo, On the Gospel of John, Tractate 55 1 Jn 13.1 2 Rom 10.4 3 1 Cor 5.7 4 Lk 16.27-28 5 Jn 15.13