Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues to teach by his own example how greatly scandals are to be guarded against, and he relates that he had refused to receive the stipend, or sustenance, owed to preachers, and this for the sake of greater merit and edification.
Hence secondly, in verse 7, he proves by six arguments (which I shall collect at verse 12) that this sustenance is owed to him and to others who evangelize.
Thirdly, in verse 20, for the same reason he shows that he has been made all things to all men, that the Corinthians may learn how greatly the edification and salvation of one's neighbor must be the care of each one.
Fourthly, in verse 24, he urges them to the same edification, teaching that our life is a stadium and contest of virtue, in which we must always run and strive for better things, and for the prize, by continual abstinence and chastisement of the body.
Vulgate Text: 1 Corinthians 9:1-27
1. Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Have I not seen Christ Jesus our Lord? Are not you my work in the Lord? 2. And if to others I am not an Apostle, yet to you I am: for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. 3. My defense to those who question me is this: 4. Have we not the right to eat and to drink? 5. Have we not the right to lead about a woman, a sister, as also do the other Apostles, and the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? 6. Or do I only and Barnabas not have the right to do this? 7. Who serves as a soldier ever at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who pastures a flock and does not eat of the milk of the flock? 8. Do I say these things according to man? Or does not the law also say these things? 9. For it is written in the law of Moses: Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Is it for the oxen God has care? 10. Or does He not say it altogether on our account? For these things were written for our sake: that he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes, in hope of receiving fruit. 11. If we have sown to you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things? 12. If others are partakers of your power, why not rather we? But we have not used this power: but we bear all things, lest we should give any hindrance to the Gospel of Christ. 13. Do you not know that they who work in the holy place eat the things that are of the holy place? and they who serve the altar, partake with the altar? 14. So also the Lord ordained that they who preach the Gospel should live by the Gospel. 15. But I have used none of these things. And I have not written these things that they should be so done unto me: for it is good for me rather to die than that any man should make void my glory. 16. For if I preach the Gospel, it is no glory to me: for a necessity lies upon me: for woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. 17. For if I do this willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation is committed to me. 18. What is then my reward? That, preaching the Gospel, I may deliver the Gospel without charge, that I abuse not my power in the Gospel. 19. For whereas I was free from all, I made myself the servant of all, that I might gain the more. 20. And I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. 21. To those who are under the law, as if I were under the law (whereas I myself was not under the law), that I might gain those who were under the law. To those who were without the law, as if I were without the law (whereas I was not without the law of God: but was in the law of Christ), that I might gain those who were without the law. 22. I became weak to the weak, that I might gain the weak. I became all things to all men, that I might save all. 23. And I do all things for the sake of the Gospel, that I may be made partaker thereof. 24. Do you not know that those who run in the stadium, all run indeed, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain. 25. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. 26. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air. 27. But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.
Verse 1: Am I Not Free? Am I Not an Apostle?
1. Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? — You will ask: How do these words cohere with what precedes? for Paul seems here to speak abruptly.
I answer: Paul had said at the end of the preceding chapter that scandals were entirely to be avoided; here, in order to persuade them of this, he proposes himself as an example, in that he yielded his right by so many titles owed to him — both for the sake of avoiding scandal and for giving an example of rare virtue — being unwilling to receive the stipend of his preaching, but procuring food for himself by his own labor; so that the Corinthians too might forgo their own right, and especially not eat of things sacrificed to idols, for the sake of their neighbors, when they see them scandalized thereby, or led into the danger of sin. At the same time, however, Paul tacitly, and as it were doing something else, defends in this narration the sincerity and authority of his preaching against the false apostles, inasmuch as he had evangelized so laboriously without payment, while the false apostles snatched their gains from the Gospel. He therefore says: "Am I not free? am I not an Apostle?" as if to say: Am I not within my rights, that as Christ's Apostle I may demand and receive expenses and sustenance from you? Yet I do not do this, that I may show how greatly the salvation of one's neighbor is to be cherished, and consequently how much you ought to avoid scandals about meats offered to idols, and any others. So Chrysostom, whom see in his moral exhortation here, homily 20, On Avoiding Scandal.
Note: The Apostle here uses frequent interrogation, both from the manner of speech of the Hebrews, who delight in it when they wish to ingratiate themselves or to drive home a point; and for the greater emphasis and energy of the discourse.
Have I Not Seen Christ? Are Not You My Work? — as if to say: Hence it is plain that I am an Apostle, because I have seen Christ, and was sent by Him to evangelize, Acts IX, 5, and Acts XXII, 18. Secondly, because you are my work in Christ the Lord, that is, because I have begotten you in Christ through the Gospel; your Church was built by me, you are my edifice. He alludes to the Hebrew ben, that is, son: for ben is, as it were, binyan, that is, a building or edifice, from the root bana, that is, he built, as if the son were the building and edifice of the father, as if to say: You are my sons, my building, my edifice in Christ.
Verse 2: For You Are the Seal of My Apostleship in the Lord
2. For You Are the Seal of My Apostleship in the Lord. — "Seal," in Greek σφραγίς, a signet, that is, the testimony of my apostleship stands forth in you, namely in my preaching, in working miracles, in toil and dangers which I either undertook or performed among you for your conversion — by which, as it were by divine seals, I have stamped, confirmed and corroborated my apostleship. For these things clearly bear witness that I am a true Apostle, sent by God to teach and to save you.
Verse 3: My Defense with Those Who Question Me
3. My Defense with Those Who Question Me (who inquire about my vocation and apostleship), is this which stands in you, as I said in the preceding verse. So Anselm. But Chrysostom and Ambrose, no less aptly, refer these words to the following verse.
Note: "To interrogate," that is, to inquire, is a judicial term: for the Latins say, to interrogate someone according to the laws, that is, to examine according to the laws.
Verse 4: Have We Not Power to Eat?
4. Have We Not Power to Eat? — namely, at your expense, as if to say: This is my glory and defense, and that of my apostleship, that I evangelize for no price, as the false apostles do; nay, not even taking any expense, as the other Apostles do, but freely — even though I have the right and power to such expense, just as the others do.
Verse 5: Have We Not Power to Lead About a Woman, a Sister
5. Have We Not Power to Lead About a Woman, a Sister, as Well as the Rest of the Apostles? — "A woman, a sister," in Greek ἀδελφὴν γυναῖκα. Which Beza, Peter Martyr, Vatablus and Valla translate as "a sister-wife." Hence, they say, Paul was married. For although the Greek γυνή signifies both "woman" and "wife," yet here that it signifies "wife" is plain from the word "to lead about." For it is the business of husbands to lead about wives, not sisters.
But they err: for Christ led about women, not as a husband leads wives, but as a teacher leads disciples and as it were handmaids, or ministers of His life and sustenance, Luke viii, 3. Secondly, because it is awkward to say "sister-wife," and the word "sister" is redundant. Thirdly, because in the Greek there is no article τὴν designating a particular woman, namely a wife. Fourthly, because that Paul was a virgin is clear from chapter vii, verse 8. Thus St. Augustine, On the Work of Monks, ch. IV, expressly teaches and explains this passage; Jerome, Bk. I Against Jovinian; Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theodoret, Theophylact here and other Fathers throughout — except only Clement of Alexandria, Bk. III of the Stromata. Indeed St. Jerome teaches that among the Apostles only Peter had a wife, and that only before his conversion; the same is recorded by Tertullian, Bk. On Monogamy, before the middle: "Peter alone, I find to have been married."
I say therefore that "a sister, a woman" means a Christian matron (just as in the Acts of the Apostles it is said "Men, brethren," that is, Christian men), namely one who would supply Paul with necessities from her own means, as if to say: I could lead about a matron who would feed me, just as Peter does, but I will not — because this matter could offend the Gentiles, whose Apostle Paul was, and put a bad suspicion in their minds. So Ambrose, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Anselm.
You will say: St. Ignatius, in his epistle to the Philadelphians, places Paul among the married. Baronius rightly answers, A.D. 57, page 518, along with others, that the name of Paul was inserted there by later Greek clerics, that they might cloak their own marriage by Paul's example: for the most ancient and most correct copies of St. Ignatius's epistles — the Vatican, the Sfortian, and others — do not have the name of Paul.
You will say secondly: Clement of Alexandria, Bk. III of the Stromata, here by γυναῖκα understands Paul's wife. I answer firstly: That is true; but he adds that Paul, after his apostleship, did not have her as a wife, but as a sister: which is against the heretics. Secondly, against Clement stand all the Fathers.
The Brethren of the Lord. — It is a Hebraism: "brethren," that is, kinsmen of Christ, namely James, John, Jude. So Anselm.
And Cephas, — that is, Peter, prince of the Apostles and of the Church.
Verse 7: Who Serves as a Soldier at His Own Charges?
7. Who Serveth as a Soldier at Any Time at His Own Charges? — as if to say: As it is fair that soldiers be fed and live at their own pay; that the vinedresser be fed by the fruit of his vineyard, the shepherd by the milk of the flock which he feeds — so it is fitting that the heralds of the Gospel live by the Gospel, namely from their own vineyard, that is the Church, and from their own flock, that is the goods of Christians, receiving expenses and sustenance.
Here the Apostle begins to prove with many arguments his right to receive a stipend of preaching, so that all may know clearly that it is plainly owed to the preachers of the word of God, and that he may show by how great and how clear a right he himself yielded, when he refused these stipends for the Corinthians' sake, in order to entice them by this liberality and generosity of his to Christ, and to advance them toward salvation. I will collect and arrange all his arguments at verse 12.
Verse 8: Say I These Things According to Man?
8. Say I These Things According to Man? — that is, do I prove and confirm my words only by human reasonings and the comparisons already adduced of the soldier, the vinedresser, the shepherd? By no means. Rather I establish and corroborate those very things from the law and divine authority.
Verse 9: Thou Shalt Not Muzzle the Mouth of the Ox That Treadeth Out the Corn
9. It Is Written in the Law of Moses (Deut. XXV): Thou Shalt Not Muzzle the Mouth of the Ox That Treadeth Out the Corn, — because it is fair that the laboring animals should eat: hence I, God, forbid the mouths of threshing oxen to be closed with a halter, lest they eat of what they tread out. For in Palestine, as is still done now in the Canaries and some regions, by means of oxen which, being driven about, would tread out the grain with the hooves of their feet so as to shake out the kernels. Whence the poet:
... and they thresh with oxen.
That this is the literal sense is clear from the words, which urge this law upon the obstinate Jews.
You will say: The Apostle here seems to exclude this sense, for he says: "Doth God take care for oxen?" Abulensis answers, on Deut. xxv, that this sentence — "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn," Deut. xxv — has a twofold literal sense: First, the plain one about oxen, as the words sound, which I have already given, which however is the less principal. Second, that which the Apostle here brings forward about preachers, and that this is the principal and more intended by the Holy Spirit; as if to say: The Apostle is teaching that God's care for oxen is the lesser, but His chief care is for preachers, and therefore He more literally commanded that preachers be fed, rather than oxen, when He said: "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn."
But that both these are not the literal sense, but only the first, is clear. For "ox" does not literally signify "preacher," but only a real ox, while it signifies the preacher only typically. Otherwise every allegory would be the literal sense — which is plainly false. For the literal sense is that which is signified first by a sentence; the allegorical or typical, that which is signified secondarily, or by means of the literal sense. As, therefore, the shadow of a body is not the body, so the typical sense cannot be the literal, but only that which is foreshadowed by the literal sense.
I say therefore that the literal sense is what we have stated, while the typical or tropological sense is what the Apostle gives, namely that sustenance should be given to preachers, and they may live by the Gospel, just as the ox is fed by its threshing — and since God's chief care is for these, so that He chiefly intended by this law to signify typically that preachers are to be fed, hence the Apostle says: "Doth God take care for oxen?"
Where note: It is of faith that God has care of oxen; for God by His providence cares for and looks after the sparrows in their food and necessaries, Matt. x, 29, and the young ravens that call upon Him, Ps. cxlvi, and all animals and creatures, as the Psalmist teaches both elsewhere and in the whole of Ps. ciii. The Apostle's meaning therefore is, as if to say: God's chief care in this law was not for the oxen, but looked higher — namely that we and those like us, who are typical oxen laboring and threshing in the field and threshing-floor of the Lord, may live from the Gospel; and this is what he adds:
Verse 10: He That Plows Ought to Plow in Hope
10. Or Doth He Not Say This Altogether for Our Sakes? For These Things Are Written for Our Sakes. — The Apostle here, as often elsewhere, argues from a sense not literal but allegorical; or rather from the literal sense to the allegorical, by an argument from the lesser to the greater, as if to say: If the ox lives from threshing, then much more the Apostle from the Gospel. So Tertullian, Bk. V Against Marcion, ch. vii, and Theodoret, Question XXI on Deuteronomy. Where
Note, although the literal sense is first, yet the allegorical can be primary and chief — that is, more intended by the Holy Spirit — as happens here.
Because He That Ploweth Ought to Plow in Hope. — It is a new argument from the example of plowmen and threshers, as if to say: Those who plow and thresh, plow and thresh "in hope," namely hoping for a reward, and that they will share in their own harvest and threshing. Therefore the preacher too may hope for sustenance from his preaching. Beautifully Ovid sings of this hope, Bk. I From Pontus:
Hope cherishes the husbandmen, hope entrusts seeds to the plowed furrows, that the field may yield with great increase.
Hence by the proportion from lesser to greater it is deduced and shown to be an act of hope and virtue if anyone works in hope of an eternal reward, and consequently that this act is good and meritorious. Whence the Faculty of Paris, as Claudius Guiliaudus testifies, writing on this place, from this and similar sentences of the Apostle, defined this article of a certain man, "He who contends for the sake of a prize, not intending to contend unless he knew the prize would be given, defrauds himself of the reward," to be erroneous. The same is defined by the Council of Trent, Session VI, canon 31.
Verse 12: If Others Are Partakers of Your Power, Why Not We Rather?
12. If Others Are Partakers of Your Power, Why Not We Rather? — "Of your power," that is, of their right which they have over you. Hence in Greek it is more clearly said ἐξουσίας ὑμῶν, of your power, that is, the power they have over you. For "your" is taken passively, according to Canon 30, as if to say: If others have used the right of receiving sustenance which they have over you, why should not I also use it? Father Salmeron takes the Greek ἐξουσίας, that is "of power," for οὐσίας, that is "of substance," as if to say: If others are sharers of your substance, possessions and wealth, why not I as well? But I should like to see the passage and example where ἐξουσία signifies riches.
Note: The Apostle here proves by six arguments that it is lawful for himself and other ministers of God's word and of the Church to receive their expenses from their own people: first, by the example of the other Apostles, verse 5; secondly, by the similitudes of soldiers, shepherds, and farmers, verse 7; thirdly, from the Law of Moses, verse 9; fourthly, verse 13, from the example of the priests and Levites of the Old Testament, who lived from the victims and offerings of the altar at which they served; fifthly, verse 14, from the ordinance of God and of Christ; sixthly, verse 11, from the very nature of the thing, that is by right — not only by divine positive right, but also by natural right, which dictates that, as wages are owed to the laborer, so a stipend is owed to the minister of the word and of the Church, not as the price of a sacred thing (for this would be unworthy and simoniacal), but as what they call a stipend of sustenance, by which he may be sustained, that he may be able to perform his sacred functions for the people. Hence this stipend is owed him in justice. So Chrysostom.
But We Have Not Used This Power (the right of receiving a stipend): But We Bear All Things, — namely all want, and all labors which we undertake and endure by working with our own hands, that we may relieve our want.
Lest We Give Any Hindrance to the Gospel of Christ, — "Hindrance," in Greek ἐγκοπήν, that is interruption, interpellation, delay, as if to say: Lest by accepting expenses we give occasion which tenacious and indiscreet men may abuse, that they may delay the Gospel and speak against it. For that there was here no scandal given by the Apostles, but received from others; and that in the Apostle there was a work of free supererogation, since he refused to accept the stipend due to him, is clear from all that goes before, and from verse 15, where he says: "It is better for me (that is, I deem it better and more satisfactory) to die, than that any one should make my glory void (namely, that I evangelize freely and liberally)."
Verse 13: They Who Work in the Holy Place Eat the Things That Are of the Holy Place
13. Know You Not That They Who Work in the Holy Place (that is, in the temple) — that is, who perform sacred functions or assist therein, as priests and Levites — Partake with the Altar (that is, of the victims or revenues of the temple, namely tithes and firstfruits, and so) Eat? — Note the "they who work." For it was the priests' duty to slay, to skin, to cut up, to cook, to burn the victims: which is laborious, and is otherwise the work of butchers. The Greek now reads οἱ τὰ ἱερὰ ἐργαζόμενοι ἐκ τοῦ ἱεροῦ ἐσθίουσιν, "those who work the sacred things eat of the holy place." Our text and the Syriac have read more aptly, οἱ τῷ ἱερῷ ἐργαζόμενοι, "those who work in the holy place."
And They Who Serve the Altar. — In Greek τῷ θυσιαστηρίῳ προσεδρεύοντες, that is "those assisting at the altar," or "sitting beside it." He does not say, says St. Chrysostom, "priests," but "those who sit by the altar," that we may understand that an assiduous worship of sacred things is required of the ministers of the temple of Christ, who share in the goods of the temple. On the contrary, today none are more absent from the altar than some who are most of all sharers in the altars and tithes, whom the Council of Trent condemns.
Partake with the Altar (of the offerings of the altar). — It is a metonymy.
Verse 14: So Also the Lord Ordained That They Who Preach the Gospel Should Live by the Gospel
14. So Also the Lord Ordained That They Who Preach the Gospel Should Live by the Gospel. — For so Christ ordains, Luke x, 7: "In the same house, remain, eating and drinking such things as they have. For the laborer is worthy of his hire." Similar things has Matthew x, 10, 11 and 14.
Verse 15: It Is Better for Me to Die Than That Any Man Should Make My Glory Void
15. It Is Better for Me to Die, Than That Any Man Should Make My Glory Void. — "My glory," namely of evangelizing ἀδαπάνως, without expense; or "glory" concerning a work of liberality, undue and of supererogation, is clear from verse 18. Hence it is plain that it is an Evangelical counsel to evangelize freely without accepting expenses, which some Apostolic and Religious men today follow. So Theophylact, Theodoret, and Anselm. See Chrysostom and Anselm.
Note: For "glory," in the Greek there is not δόξα ("glory"), but καύχημα ("boasting"), namely the boast in which Paul could glory before God, or rather before men — especially the false apostles, who were burdensome and costly to the Corinthians — that he had preached the Gospel to them ἀδάπανον (without expense). Hence against these he glories in chapter xi of the second epistle, verses 7 and following, that he had been a burden to none in expense.
Woe Is Me If I Preach Not the Gospel. — Hence it is plain that it was commanded to the Apostles by a grave precept, Matt. xxviii, 19, that they should evangelize and teach all nations, so that, if they had neglected to evangelize, they would have sinned mortally: for upon such is threatened the woe of God's wrath and of hell. By the same precept Pastors, Bishops, Archbishops are now bound, as I said in chapter i, 17.
Verse 17: For If I Do This Willingly, I Have a Reward
17. For If I Do This Willingly, I Have a Reward, — that is, as Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Anselm say, if I preach voluntarily, liberally and freely, I have not just any kind of reward of a commanded work, namely of preaching, as the other Apostles do, but a reward by way of excellence, namely a copious glory for an undue and heroic work (such as it is to preach freely), and for a soul so spontaneously liberal toward God.
But If Against My Will. — In Greek ἄκων, not freely-willed, nor preaching liberally or freely, but as it were compelled by God's command, or by fear of punishment. For the Apostle opposes these two, ἄκων and ἑκών; and the latter in Greek is the same as to do something of one's own accord, by one's own will, choice, and self-motion: therefore ἄκων here is the same as commanded, moved, and as it were compelled to act by another's will and command.
A Dispensation Is Committed to Me, — as if to say: Then I do not have that singular glory, but neither do I sin, because I perform my office and do what I am commanded. For this dispensation, or administration of the Gospel, has been committed and entrusted to me. Then I do not sin, but act as a servant, just as a steward acts who handles what is committed to him not spontaneously, but on account of his master's command, being as it were driven thereto, because he has done what he was bound to do, as Christ says in the parable, Luke xvii, 8. So the Fathers cited, and it is clear from what precedes and follows.
Some explain it otherwise, namely thus: If I do this willingly, that is, I evangelize, I have merit and reward, because I fulfill Christ's command by free will: but if unwillingly, with my will resisting, I lack merit and reward, because I am compelled to it by a precept. For the "dispensation" of the Gospel "has been committed to me," entrusted and commanded, and thus through me, even unwillingly, the Gospel of Christ is dispensed and propagated, that I may profit others, even if not myself: because the words seem properly and simply to bear this sense. And this explanation is favored by St. Thomas, Lyra, and the commentary of Ambrose. But what precedes and what follows require the former sense, which is that of the Greeks and is the common one: for he does not call the reward "of any kind," but a "glory," that is, a glorious and singular reward from a work so heroic, undue, and liberal as is evangelizing gratis.
Verse 18: What Then Is My Reward?
18. What Then Is My Reward? — that glorious and singular one already mentioned.
Note: "Reward" is here put for merit, or for a heroic and meritorious work of great reward, by metonymy. For there follows: "That preaching the Gospel, I may set it forth without expense," deliver and announce it; in Greek ἀδάπανον, that is, free of expense, I will render the Gospel: for Cicero calls "immune" those cities which pay no tribute. Behold the reward, that is the merit, of Paul: namely to preach the Gospel without expense.
From this passage therefore it is plain that not all good works are of precept; but some are of counsel and of supererogation, and that such works merit a notable and illustrious glory and crown before God. Among Evangelical counsels the Apostle here places preaching freely, as I said in verse 10. So St. Chrysostom, Ambrose, and St. Augustine, Book On the Work of Monks, ch. v. See Bellarmine, Bk. II On Monks, ch. ix.
Note: The other Apostles, being equally full of zeal for God as Paul, would have evangelized freely, if they had hoped to gain a greater fruit of souls and glory before God thereby. But they did not hope this: for the faithful were liberal toward them, and the Jews were attached to them and willingly offered all they had to them, as is plain from Acts iv, 34. But Paul, as it were outside the order and number of the twelve Apostles, called to apostleship after Christ's death, had to win authority for himself, and judged it would be very useful for that purpose if he preached freely. Again, the Corinthians, though rich, were yet rather tenacious: lest, then, they should think Paul was seeking not them but their goods, for this reason Paul preached to them freely. From the Thessalonians and Philippians, being more liberal, he did accept sustenance, as we shall see below. Finally, by this means Paul wished to close the mouths of the Jews, to whom he was hateful, and of the false apostles. He himself assigns this cause in the second epistle, ch. xi, verse 12, where he says: "But what I do, I will also do (namely preach freely), that I may cut off the occasion from those who desire occasion, that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we."
That I Abuse Not My Power in the Gospel. — That is, that I may not use my highest right and liberty unto a lesser good of the Gospel. Not that to receive expenses for preaching is really an abuse, but because it is the use of a lesser good. Hence Theophylact rightly says: "I will abuse," that is, I will use altogether my whole right; for thus he put κατάχρησις for χρῆσις, "abuse" for "full use," in chapter vii, verse 31 in the Greek, as I noted there. So St. Paulinus takes the word "to abuse," epistle 11, when he says: "Therefore with the ready assent of the Emperor's son, the Augusta his mother, having opened her treasures unto good works, made use of (abused) the whole treasury."
You will say: Ambrose here understands "abuse" strictly, of such a use as is a sin, for he says: Those who use their right when it is not expedient, or when another suffers loss, become guilty; therefore they sin. I answer: This is true, when they can easily yield their right, and if they do not do so, others will suffer grave harm; for then charity bids them yield: which the commentary ascribed to Ambrose here seems to think had place in Paul and the Corinthians.
But the contrary is far truer; for it was very difficult for the Apostle to yield the right of sustenance owed him by the Corinthians, because by yielding he had to spend sleepless nights laboring with his hands, that he might procure food for himself and his companions, while the Corinthians, who were rich and very many, could easily have fed him: nor should they have been scandalized in him, because the other Apostles did so, and every law and reason dictates as most just that he who labors for another should be fed by him. The Apostle therefore wished to give an illustrious example of poverty, sincerity, and zeal, for the greater commendation and propagation of the faith and of Christianity among those tender in faith and the rich and miserly. But this so heroic work charity does not command but counsels. Hence in the following verse he says he was free in these matters.
Verse 19: I Made Myself the Servant of All
19. For Whereas I Was Free from All (free from all, as if to say: Since I was bound to no one), I Made Myself the Servant of All, — I lowered myself to all things, even to want and hunger, I accommodated myself to the infirmities of all, so that, when I saw the Corinthians slow and stingy in giving sustenance to the Apostles, I was unwilling to take anything from them for my expenses, that I might condescend to their infirmity, and so might gain all.
Verse 21: To Them That Were Under the Law, As If I Were Under the Law
21. To Them That Were Under the Law (the Jews, I became) As If I Were Under the Law, — namely the Mosaic. Paul became as one under the law when he circumcised Timothy, says Oecumenius, when, having been purified for a vow, he went up to the temple, Acts xxi, 26.
To Those Who Were Without the Law (the Gentiles, I became and showed myself), As If I Were Without the Law, — as if I followed nature alone as guide and light, as the Gentiles do. So Oecumenius, Theophylact and Chrysostom.
Verse 22: I Became All Things to All Men
22. I Became All Things to All Men, — not by an act of lying or sinning, but by an affection of compassion, so that, accommodating myself to the manners of all so far as honesty and God's law allow, I might cure the maladies of all. So St. Augustine, epistles 9 and 19: "Not by lying, but by compassion; not by the cunning of one who feigns, but by the affection of one who commiserates, Paul became all things to all men."
The Apostle therefore does not wish what politicians wish and do, namely that by fair means or foul they accommodate themselves to all, and feign themselves heretics with heretics, Turks with Turks, chaste with the chaste, lewd with the lewd. For Paul disapproves this in Gal. ii, 11 and following. Wherefore prudent is the maxim of St. Ephrem on the passage, "Take heed to thyself," ch. x: "Have charity with all, and abstain from all." And that of St. Bernard, which embraces every virtue: "Live cautiously toward thyself, usefully toward others, pleasingly toward God." St. Jordan, successor of St. Dominic in the Generalate of the Order, used to say, as his Life records: "If I had studied any branch of knowledge or discipline as much as I studied this sentence of St. Paul, 'I am made all things to all men,' I should be most learned and most eminent in it: for all my life I have studied to accommodate myself to everyone, that I might be a soldier with the soldier, a noble with the noble, a plebeian with the plebeian, always procuring in this way their amendment, and watching lest I should lose or hurt my own soul through the gain of another's."
Verse 23: I Do All Things for the Gospel's Sake
23. I Do All Things for the Gospel's Sake, That I May Be Made Partaker Thereof, — namely that I may receive in due time the fruit of the preached Gospel and share it with the other preachers. For in Greek, instead of "partaker" it is συγκοινωνός, as if to say: "co-partaker, fellow-sharer." Hence, secondly, Chrysostom says: "Of the Gospel," that is "of the faithful of the Gospel," as if to say: That I may be made partaker of the crowns laid up for the faithful. Where Chrysostom rightly notes the wonderful humility of Paul, in that he equates himself with others, even with the common faithful, when he had surpassed the labors not only of all the faithful, but even of the Apostles, as is plain from 1 Cor. xv, 10.
Verse 24: They Who Run in the Race, All Indeed Run, but One Receives the Prize
24. They Who Run in the Stadium, All Indeed Run, but One Receives the Prize, — as if to say: For this cause I evangelize without expense, for this cause I become all things to all men, for this cause I labor, because I run in this race, because I contend for the prize, even the first and the greatest.
One Receives the Prize, — as if to say: As in the stadium, so in the Christian way and life, not all who run will receive the prize, but only those who run well and rightly to the very goal. Rightly, I say, according to the laws of the stadium, which Christ the "president of the games" prescribed for the runners, and according to which He promised the prize to those who run rightly. When therefore he says "one," he does not deny that many receive the prize. For he does not mean, as St. Chrysostom rightly notes, that only one Christian, surpassing all others and more fervent in works of virtue, will receive the prize. For a comparison need not be alike in every respect, but only in that wherein the comparison is made: here, however, the comparison is made in this — that as in the stadium he who runs rightly receives the prize, so also he who runs rightly in Christianity receives the crown of glory. Which is clear because he himself explains, saying: "So run that you may obtain" — not one, but each. Add, in the stadium often not only does he who first reaches the goal and runs most swiftly receive his prize, but also the second, third, fourth.
The Apostle, however, says "one," not "three or four," because he properly looks to the bravium — that is, the "aureole" or excellent reward — which is given not to all the elect, but to the few who contend heroically, namely to those who follow not only Christ's precepts but also His counsels heroically. For Paul has in view that prize which he expects for himself from the fact that he, beyond all the Apostles, evangelized freely, with immense labor and charity, "becoming all things to all men," verses 18 and 22, as if to say: O Christians, run not only rightly, that you may obtain, but also as well and as swiftly as possible, that you may carry off the first and most noble prize of glory. For it is the mark of a sluggish soul to say: It is enough for me if I am saved, if I come to heaven. Each one must strive to be first in heaven, and to bear off the first prize there, says Chrysostom.
Others take this of the mansions, or crowns and prizes, prepared for each of the elect, as if to say: Let each one so run that he may obtain his own prize. But that is more subtle than simple. Anselm again puts it otherwise: There run, he says, the Gentiles, heretics, the reprobate, but only the people of Christians and elect receive the prize. But the Apostle speaks to Christians alone as runners, and incites them to run and obtain the prize, to which they are called through Christ's Gospel.
So Run That You May Obtain, — namely the crown of glory and the prize of victory. He alludes to the stadium-runners who, contending by running in the stadium, would seize with their hands by running the crown hung up on a height and set forth for the contestants, and so come off as victors and be crowned with it, as I showed from Peter Faber's Agonisticis, Bk. II, ch. vii, on Apoc. III at verse 11: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." The word "so" here notes rectitude, diligence, swiftness, and perseverance, which are above all required in the running for the prize. Such was Christ's course, which all Christians ought to set before themselves to imitate.
"He Himself," says Bernard, epistle 254 to Guarinus, "the author of man and of the age, while He conversed with men, did He ever stand still? Indeed, with Scripture as witness, He went about doing good and healing all. He passed through, then, not only fruitfully, but not slackly, not lazily, not at a slow pace, but as it is written of Him: He rejoiced as a giant to run the way. Moreover, he who does not himself run alike does not catch up with the runner: and what avails it to follow Christ, if one does not attain to follow Him to the end? Therefore Paul said: So run that you may obtain. There, O Christian, fix the goal of your race and progress, where Christ has placed His own. He was made, he says, obedient unto death. However much, then, you may have run, if you have not gone all the way to death, you will not seize the prize. The prize is Christ." Then he teaches that in the race of virtue, not to run but to stand still is to fail and to go backward. "For if, while He runs, you halt your step, you do not approach Christ, but rather draw farther away, and you must fear what David says: Behold, those who depart from Thee, O Lord, shall perish. Therefore, if to advance is to run, where you cease to advance, there too you cease to run; but where you do not run, there you begin to fail. Hence it is plainly gathered that not to wish to advance is nothing other than to fail. Jacob saw a ladder, and on the ladder angels, where none was seen sitting, none stationary; but all appeared to be either ascending or descending, that it might be openly given to understand that between progress and falling-back, in this state of mortal life, no middle is found: but as our very body always either grows or shrinks, so in this life it is necessary that the spirit too either ever advance or fail."
Verse 25: Everyone Who Strives in the Contest Abstains from All Things
25. Everyone Who Strives in the Contest (ἀγωνιζόμενος, that is, contending, fighting in the lists, exercising in the gymnasium), Abstains from All Things (namely those that hinder him in the contest). — Note: He alludes to the Olympic games and other contests of the Greeks, especially the Isthmian, which were celebrated at Corinth in honor of Neptune and Melicertes, in which the victor was presented with a crown of pine. Of which the poet Archias sings thus:
Through the Argive cities four sacred contests have been made, two for men, two for the heavenly ones; of Jove and Phoebus, of Melicertes and Archemorus the prizes: wild olive, apples, parsley, pine.
Hence, secondly, he consequently alludes to athletes, wrestlers, and boxers, who fought with fists; to stadium-runners, who contended by running in the stadium; to acrochiristae, who fought hand to hand at arm's length; to pancratiasts, who contended with the whole body, with hands and feet. Where
Note thirdly: All these abstained from delicate foods and used a certain necessary diet, which Aristotle calls ἀναγκοφαγίαν, as it were "necessity of taking food," and their bread was called κολίφιον, ἀπὸ τοῦ κώλου καὶ ἰσχύος, that is "from the strength of the limbs." Hence Juvenal:
Few women wrestle, few eat coliphia.
The same is taught by Budaeus in the Pandects, page 180, from Quintilian, Cicero, and Aristotle. Hence the "athletic diet" was so called, and the "pugilistic and athletic constitution," that is, the firmest. And this is what the Apostle says: "He who strives in the contest abstains from all things," in Greek πάντα ἐγκρατεύεται, "he is temperate in all things;" and, as Cyprian has it, "continent." Clement of Alexandria adds, Bk. III of the Stromata, following Plato, Bk. VIII On Laws, that athletes abstained from venery. For as lust enfeebles the body, enervates and exhausts it, so continence and chastity strengthen the body, and much more the mind. And so this saying of the Apostle, "from all things," that is, from all lust, "he abstains," St. Ephrem explains in his treatise on the Apostle's words: "It is better to marry than to burn."
Note fourthly: The stadium is the present life, or each one's state, especially that of preaching the Gospel; every Christian is a stadium-runner and pugilist. Whence St. Dionysius, in his book On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, ch. VII, p. 3, teaches that those who are baptized are anointed with oil, that they may understand by this sign that they are anointed as athletes of Christ, and consequently are called to undertake sacred contests for faith and piety; and he adds that oil also used to be poured on the dead, as upon athletes who had completed the contest in death. "And so at that time, the unction of oil was summoning the one to be baptized to the sacred contests; but now (in death) the oil that is poured on signifies that the one who has departed has fulfilled the same sacred contests, and so has been consummated."
Note fifth: In this stadium and contest the Christian's antagonist is the world, the flesh, the devil; the coliphium (training-diet) is sober fare and fasting; the combat is chastisement of the body and all the arduous offices of virtue, which are carried out with internal or external conflict; but especially such is the preaching and propagation of the Gospel — from these arises the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. The prize is the incorruptible crown, that is, eternal glory, toward which Paul, already as a panting victor, says in II Timothy IV: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to what remains, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me on that day." The penalty of the loser is reprobation and eternal confusion (last verse). As if to say: Just as the athlete subdues, exercises, and prepares his body by abstinence, training, and labor for the race and the wrestling, so that contending lawfully and nobly therein he may conquer and as victor obtain a corruptible crown — so much more do we Christians, and I above all your Apostle, subdue and exercise my body for the eternal crown by hunger, labor, and fatigue, harshly demanding of myself all the offices of pugilists, as an athlete of the divine contest; lest my body change the sinews of continence and a stricter life into delicacies, and waste away into the unwarlike weakness of a more licentious life. But rather, that, about to wrestle with the devil, the flesh, and the world, I may contend with athletic strength, conquer, and be crowned. Act then, O Corinthians, run with me in this stadium, and abstain not only from things sacrificed to idols on account of scandal, but also from delicacies, wine, and Venus, that you may carry off the victory and the prize. For on the occasion of the idolothyta — that the Corinthians might abstain from them — the Apostle says these things, and he ranges this far, as I said at the beginning of chapter VIII.
Tertullian admirably says, To the Martyrs, ch. IV: "If so much is permitted to earthly glory by the rigor of body and soul, that they despise the sword, fire, the cross, the beasts, and torments, under the reward of human praise; I may say: small are those sufferings for the attainment of heavenly glory. How much is glass worth compared with the true pearl? Who then would not most willingly spend as much for what is true as others do for what is false?"
Concerning Junius Brutus, who ordered his sons to be slain because they had conspired with the Tarquins against the Romans, Virgil said: "Love of country conquered, and the boundless desire of praise." Therefore for the Christian: "Let the love of Christ conquer, and the boundless desire of heaven." Let Christ's pugilist hear the trumpet-call of St. Chrysostom, in the Sermon On the Martyrs, vol. III: "You are a delicate soldier if you think you can conquer without combat, triumph without contest. Put forth your strength, fight bravely, contend fiercely in this battle. Consider the pact, attend to the condition, know the warfare: the pact you have pledged; the condition under which you came; the warfare to which you have given your name."
Hence it is plain, says Chrysostom, that faith alone does not suffice for salvation, but works are also required — indeed, athletic labors, and above all an extraordinary continence from all the enticements of the world. For, as St. Jerome says in epistle 34 to Julian: "It is difficult, indeed impossible, for one to enjoy both present and future goods, to fill the belly here and the mind there, to pass from delicacies to delicacies, to be first in both ages, to appear glorious in heaven and on earth."
Morally, St. Augustine piously consoles and animates the athletes of Christ in Sermon 103, where he says thus: "He helps those who contend, who has proclaimed the contest; God does not watch you contending in the arena as the people watches the athlete: for the people urges the athlete by shouting, but does not know how to help. He who proclaimed the contest can prepare the crown, but cannot supply the strength. God however, when He watches His contestants, helps them as they contend and call upon Him. For the very voice of the athlete is in Psalm XCIII: If I said, My foot is moved, Thy mercy, O Lord, helped me." And St. Dionysius, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, ch. II, near the end: "To those who contend, the Lord, as God, proposes prizes; but as the wise One He laid down the laws of the contest, and appointed for the conquerors fitting and most beautiful prizes: and what is in truth more divine, He Himself, since He is supremely clement and good, conquers in His warriors, dwelling in them and fighting for their salvation and victory against the empire of death and corruption."
Epaminondas, the Theban general, fighting most bravely in war, was wounded unto death; dying, he asked whether his shield was safe and whether the enemies were slain; and when he had heard that his shield was safe and that they were slain, he said: "Now is the end of my life: but a better and higher beginning has come: now Epaminondas is born, because he dies thus." So Valerius Maximus. If Epaminondas, for a temporary victory, for praise and corruptible glory, thus contended and thus joyfully and gloriously died, what shall the soldier of Christ do for an incorruptible crown, for everlasting glory?
Verse 26: I So Fight, Not as One Beating the Air
26. I so fight, not as one beating the air. — "I fight," that is, I do battle in war, says St. Thomas. But in Greek it is πυκτεύω, that is, I act the pugilist, I contend with fists. For he persists in the imagery of the wrestling-school and the athletes.
Not as One Beating the Air. — That is, laboring in vain and uselessly; but I beat the enemy, namely I subdue my body and flesh, which once subdued, the two remaining enemies, namely the devil and the world, are easily overcome. For neither the devil nor the world can attack, tempt, strike, wound, or kill us except through our body — namely through the eyes, ears, tongue, and the other senses.
Verse 27: But I Chastise My Body, and Bring It into Subjection
27. But I Chastise My Body, and Bring It into Subjection. — "I chastise," says Ambrose, "I afflict by fasts;" St. Basil, in his book On Virginity, "I afflict with stripes;" Origen, "I waste away." "The devil," says St. Augustine, On the Utility of Fasting, "often takes up the defense of the flesh against the soul, and says: Why are you doing this, that you fast? You inflict pain on yourself, you become your own torturer and murderer. Reply to him: I chastise, lest this beast of burden cast me down." For our flesh is an instrument, indeed "the snare of the devil," as St. Bernard says in Sermon 8 on Psalm XC.
In Greek ὑπωπιάζω, which Erasmus from Theophylact, and Paulinus in epistle 58 to St. Augustine translate, "I make black-and-blue," or "I bruise the eyes with the mark of bruise and blood." For the Greeks call the eyes ὦπας, and ὑπώπια such marks of the eyes, as Hesychius and Suidas attest. And in gymnastic games, the pugilist who threw his antagonist to the ground was said to "trip him up" (supplantare); and to "bruise" him (suggillare) when he had inflicted a notable mark on the face.
But all others take ὑπωπιάζω here more generally, so that it is the same as ὑποπιέζω, that is, I subdue, coerce, crush. Our "castigo" fits both senses, but better the second, which is plainer and simpler, and more agreeable to the Greek. For according to the former sense, ὑπωπιάζω would have to be written not with omicron but with omega: for it is derived from ὦπας, as I said. But now even the ancients commonly read here with omicron; Theophylact, however, Œcumenius, and Erasmus read with omega; and this reading aptly suits the pugilist.
Furthermore, the chastisement of the body is done through fasts, hair-shirts, humiliations, blows, and other macerations and afflictions of the flesh. Hence some judge that Paul inflicted blows and beatings on his body. For this is the proper meaning of "castigo," and of ὑπωπιάζω, which Beza, Melanchthon, Castalion, and Henricus Stephanus translate "I crush": but crushing does not occur without a striking and a blow, whether by a stick, by whips, or by some other instrument and manner in which it is done. And because fasting (which some — Ambrose, Gregory, and Chrysostom, soon to be cited — think this chastisement of Paul to have been) is not so much combat and wrestling as a preparation for wrestling; for of fasting he said: "Every one who contends in the contest abstains from all things." James Gretser proves this at length, in book I On Disciplines, ch. IV.
Again, as Anselm and St. Gregory note in the passage soon to be cited, the Apostle, while he chastises and scourges the flesh, by this very act simultaneously scourges and beats the devil — his antagonist, allied with our carnal concupiscence, lurking in the den of the flesh, and by means of it tempting and assailing us.
Lest I Myself Should Become Reprobate, — that is, rejected, as if to say: lest I be rejected and cast off by God and shut out from heaven. Maldonatus learnedly notes in his manuscript notes: ἀδόκιμον, that is "reprobate," I judge to be called in this passage one who is conquered in the contest, because the matter concerns pugilists, as if to say: lest, while I teach others to conquer, I myself be conquered. The Apostle is not speaking of eternal reprobation, which is in the divine mind, but of temporal reprobation, which is the execution of the eternal. For the word "efficiar" signifies this. He alludes to Jeremiah, ch. VI, last verse, where it is said: "Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord has rejected them," in Hebrew מאַס maas, that is "has reprobated them."
Whence it is plain that the Apostle is not speaking, as some wish, of the reprobation of men, of which he speaks in the second epistle, ch. XIII, v. 7, as if to say: What I teach, this I do, namely I do not live luxuriously, but I chastise my body, lest I be cast off and reprobated by men, as one who does not do what he teaches. For Jeremiah speaks plainly of a reprobation, not of men, but of God: and this is everywhere else what "reprobation" and "reprobate" signify, when the term is used absolutely and is not restricted to men, as it is restricted in the cited ch. XIII of the second epistle. Hence the uncertainty of grace and predestination is clear. Paul feared to be damned: shall you by faith believe yourself to be saved?
Secondly, from this it is gathered that Paul did not have a revelation about his own salvation. So St. Gregory, book VI, epistle 22 to Gregoria.
Thirdly, that he was not so confirmed in grace as to have been incapable of falling from it.
From this passage of the Apostle it is plain that the Christian's fight and wrestling consists, both in other conflicts and especially in the subduing and chastising of the body and flesh. For this is our internal and most grievous enemy, and therefore beyond all others the snares of the flesh are to be feared, as Origen says on ch. VIII of Romans, at the end. And we must prepare ourselves for this wrestling by the "coliphium," that is, by sobriety, and so begin this struggle in sobriety itself, and daily grow, be strengthened, and be perfected in it. The Christian must therefore begin with the conquering of gluttony: for once that is conquered, he will more easily put to flight the other vices, as Cassian and others teach. Hence it is plain that the Christian pugilist and soldier must chastise his body, lest its concupiscences sweep him along into perdition; and so the chastisement of the body through vigils, fasts, and other afflictions and austerities is the right way to salvation, and is the most fitting instrument for virtue and perfection and the full victory over vices — if it be discreet and proportioned to one's strength and health, as St. Thomas teaches in II II, Qu. CLXXXVIII, art. 7.
But let us hear the ancient Doctors of the Church on this matter. Ambrose, in his epistle to the Church of Vercelli: "I hear that there are men who say there is no merit in abstinence, and that those who chastise their flesh, in order that they may make it subject to the mind, are deranged — which Paul would never have done, nor written, if he had thought it folly (let our Novatores note this); but he glories saying: I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest, having preached to others, I myself be found reprobate. Therefore those who do not chastise their body, and yet wish to preach to others, are themselves reckoned reprobate. What new school sent these Epicureans, who preach pleasure and recommend delicacies? The Lord Jesus, willing to make us stronger against the temptations of the devil, fasted before contending, that we might know that we cannot otherwise overcome the enticements of evil. For what reason did Christ fast, let them say, unless His fasting was to be an example to us?"
St. Gregory, book XXX of the Morals, ch. XXVI: "The chief of the cooks (Nebuzaradan) destroys the walls of Jerusalem, because, when the belly is not restrained, it destroys the soul's virtues. Hence it is that Paul, contending against the walls of Jerusalem, withdrew the strength from the chief of the cooks (that is, the belly), when he said: I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection. Whence he had set forth: So I fight, not as one beating the air; because when we restrain the flesh, by the very blows of our abstinence we beat not the air, but the unclean spirits; and when we subdue what is within us, we deal blows to the adversaries set without. Hence it is that, when the king of Babylon orders the furnace to be kindled, he commanded a heap of tow and pitch to be supplied, yet this fire in no way consumes the abstinent youths: because the ancient enemy, although he sets innumerable cravings for foods before our eyes, by which the fire of lust may grow, yet to good minds the grace of the Spirit from on high whispers, that they endure unharmed by the heats of carnal concupiscence."
St. Basil, in his homily On Reading the Books of the Gentiles: "The body is to be chastised, and curbed like a kind of wild beast, and the tumults arising from it against the soul are to be checked by reason as by a scourge, lest, by relaxing the rein altogether to pleasure, the mind, like a charioteer, be carried off and snatched away by horses that are stubborn and in no way obedient; and among other things one ought to remember Pythagoras, who, seeing a certain man cosseting and fattening himself with rich exercises and lavishly served foods, said: Wretch, you do not cease continually to prepare for yourself a harsher prison! For this reason too they say that Plato, having recognized the harm that comes from the body, chose the Academy at Athens in a pestilent location, in order that he might cut off excessive bodily prosperity, like a vine luxuriating in shoots. And as for me, I have often heard from physicians that good health which is at its peak is deceptive. When therefore the very care of the body appears to be useless both to body and soul alike, to indulge this burden and to wait upon it would be manifest madness. But if we strive to despise this, we shall easily admire nothing else of human affairs." Likewise Basil, in his Greater Rules, Rule 17: "Just as the best physical condition and a good complexion distinguish the pugilist from others, so leanness of body and a fading pallor — which is, as it were, the attendant companion of continence — separate the Christian from others; for it is a sign that one is truly a pugilist of Christ's commandments, who in the infirmity of his body lays low his adversary in the wrestling; and how mighty he is in the contests of piety, he declares fittingly with those words: When I am weak, then am I strong."
St. Chrysostom here: "I chastise my body, as if to say: I sustain much labor that I may live soberly; for indeed desire is intractable, the gluttony of the belly is intractable; nevertheless I check it, and do not hand myself over to the passions, but I press the passions down, and I subdue nature itself by much sweat. And I say these things lest anyone despair of contending for virtue; for it is laborious. Wherefore, he says, I chastise and bring into subjection — he did not say, I destroy and punish, for the flesh is not an enemy; but, I chastise and bring into subjection, which is the part of a master, not of an enemy; of a teacher, not of a foe; of a trainer, not of an adversary; lest perchance, when I have preached to others, I myself be found reprobate. But if Paul feared this, when he was such a teacher, and after his preaching, and after he had undertaken the patronage of the whole world, he was afraid; what shall we say?"
St. Jerome against Jovinian the heretic, enemy of fasting, chastity, and austerity, marvelously defends and proclaims these very things, and so toward the end of book II: "That many acquiesce in your opinion, O Jovinian, is a mark of pleasure; and you reckon it as great wisdom if many swine run after you, whom you nourish for the slaughter (or, as others read, the burning) of Gehenna. Basilides, master of luxury and of most shameful embraces, after so many years has been transformed into Jovinian, as into Euphorbus, so that the Latin tongue too might have its own heresy. The standard of the cross, and the austerity of preaching (let the Novelizers note this) had destroyed the temples of idols. From the opposite quarter, the luxury of hams, of belly, and of gullet strives to overthrow the strength of the cross. False prophets always promise sweet things, and pleasing only mildly. Truth is bitter, and those who preach it are filled with bitterness."
Cassian, book V On the Institutes of the Renunciants, ch. XVII and following: "Do you wish to hear a true athlete of Christ, contending by the lawful right of the contest? 'So I therefore run, not as in uncertainty; so I fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest while I preach to others I myself become reprobate.' Do you see how he has placed in himself — that is, in his own flesh — the sum of the wrestlings, as upon some firmest base, and has placed the issue of the fight in the chastisement alone of the flesh, and in the subjection of his own body?" And shortly afterward, having repeated these words of the Apostle, he adds: "What pertains properly to the labors of continence and to bodily fasting and the affliction of the flesh: by this he describes himself as a kind of vigorous pugilist of his own flesh, and not in vain has he aimed the blows of continence against it, but has acquired the triumph of the palm by the mortification of his own body: by which, chastised by the blows of continence and crushed by the gauntlets of fasting, he conferred upon the victorious spirit the crown of immortality and the palm of incorruption." And, a few words interposed: "Thus he fights, namely by fastings and carnal affliction, 'not as one beating the air,' that is, not putting forth in vain the blows of continence, by which he was chastising not the empty air, but those spirits which are in it, by the chastisement of his own body. For he who says: Not as one beating the air, shows that, although he was not beating empty and idle air, yet he was beating some who are in the air."
Furthermore, that the body is to be chastised not only against lust, but also for breaking pride and all vices, and for acquiring all sorts of virtues, St. Jerome teaches in epistle 14 to Celantia: "Those who hold the virtue of abstinence with knowledge and judgment, afflict their flesh in such a way that they break the pride of the soul; so that, as it were, descending from a certain pinnacle of self-contempt and arrogance, they may fulfill the will of the Lord, which is brought to perfection chiefly in humility. Therefore they withdraw the mind from the various desires for foods, that they may occupy the whole strength of it in the desire of virtues. And the flesh now feels less the labor of fastings and abstinence, while the soul hungers for righteousness. For Paul also, the vessel of election, while he chastises his body and brings it into subjection, lest while preaching to others he himself be found reprobate, does this not for chastity alone, as some unlearned think; for abstinence helps not this virtue alone, but absolutely all virtues."
Finally, those most holy ancient fathers in the desert, through their zeal for perfection, so chastised the body that it almost seems incredible; and that this pleased God is plain from their life, both holy and long and happy. One may see this in Jerome's Life of St. Hilarion, of St. Paul, of St. Malchus; in Athanasius's Life of St. Antony; in Theodoret's Life of Simeon Stylites, who for 80 years stood continually night and day in the open air on a column, scarcely taking food or sleep; and many others. So much so, indeed, that it has been carefully observed by prudent men in the Lives of the Saints that scarcely any of the Saints have been illustrious for miracles and the glory of admirable deeds, except those who excelled in fasts and austerity of life, and who afflicted their body, or were afflicted by God with diseases, or by enemies and tyrants with torments and hardships; and that the rest of the Saints who led an ordinary life were indeed much profitable to themselves and to the Church, but performed either no miracles or only rare ones.