Patristic A.D. 407
“(Hom. li. 2) Or thus; By the glory of Christ, He means the cross. For, whereas we were enemies, and gifts are not made to enemies, but to friends, it was necessary that the victim should be first offered up, and the enmity of the flesh removed; that, being made friends of God, we might be capable of receiving the gift.”
Catena Aurea: Gospel of John, as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on John 7:37-39
PD · J. H. Newman (Oxford, 1845) ↗