The Son's Place

Ego, inquit, et pater tuus dolentes quaerebamus te. Cui ait Jesus: Nesciebatis quod in his quae Partis mei sunt oportet me esse? Ecce ubi habet quaeri Filius, utique in his quae Patris sunt. Ecce ubi non vult nesciri Filius esse se. Ideo cuidam eum inter mortuos quaerenti dictum est: Noli me tangere, nondum in corde tuo ascendi ad Patrem, nondum in his quae Patris mei sunt me quaeris: nondum in his quae ejus sunt, qui omnia sua est, scis me esse oprtere: tanquam non ipsum, sed ipsius, nec tamen aliud ab ipso. Excepta tamen hac unitate naturae, et naturali unitate Patris et Filii, a qua non recessit nec Pater, nec Filius: etiam in sua minoratione non recessit Filius a Patre, dum in ejus semper mansit obedientia et voluntate. Unde et quosdam increpans ait: Vos ex patre diabolo estis, et desideria patris vestri facitis. Ac si diceret: In his quae patris vestri sunt manentis, et estis. Isaac, Cisterciensis Abbas, Sermo VIII Source: Migne PL 194.1717c-d

'I and your father,' she says, 'have been seeking you in grief.' To which Jesus says: 'Did you not know that I must be among those things which are my Father's?' 1 Behold, you have where the Son desires to be sought, that is, 'in those things which are of the Father'. Behold, then, where the Son does not wish to be known. It was said to her who was seeking Him among the dead: 'Do not touch me' in your heart, 'I have not yet ascended to the Father,' 2 you do not yet seek me in things which are of my Father, not yet in the things which are His, which are all His, where you know that it is necessary for me to be. I am not He but His, but not only something from Him. Now excepting this unity of nature, and the natural unity of the Father and the Son, from which neither the Father withdraws, nor the Son, even in His diminishment the Son did not withdraw from the Father, but in His will remained ever obedient and pleasing. Whence He cried out against certain folk saying: 'You are from your Father the devil, and you act according to his desires.' 3 As if He said 'Being in the things of your father, so you are.' Isaac of Stella, from Sermon 8 1 Lk 2.47 2 Jn 20.17 3 Jn 8.44