Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, he asserts that he did not come to them, lest it should be an occasion of sadness as much for himself as for them.
Second, in verse 6, he exhorts that they receive into grace the fornicator excommunicated by him in 1 Cor. 5, who is now penitent, and in verse 10 he absolves him from the excommunication and the penance.
Third, in verse 14, he teaches that he everywhere spreads the good fragrance of Christ, and that it is to the good and faithful unto life, to the evil and unbelieving unto death.
Vulgate Text: 2 Corinthians 2:1-17
1. But I determined this with myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow. 2. For if I make you sorrowful, who then is he that makes me glad, but the one who is made sorrowful by me? 3. And I wrote this same thing to you, that I might not, when I come, have sorrow upon sorrow from those of whom I ought to rejoice: trusting in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. 4. For out of much tribulation and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears: not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know what charity I have more abundantly toward you. 5. But if any one has caused grief, he has not grieved me: but in part, that I may not burden you all. 6. To him who is such a one, this rebuke is sufficient, which is given by many: 7. so that on the contrary you should rather forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. 8. Wherefore I beseech you, that you would confirm your charity towards him. 9. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether you be obedient in all things. 10. To whom you have forgiven anything, I also: for what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I done it in the person of Christ, 11. that we be not circumvented by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his thoughts. 12. And when I had come to Troas for the Gospel of Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, 13. I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but bidding them farewell, I went forth into Macedonia. 14. Now thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus, and manifests the odor of His knowledge through us in every place; 15. for we are the good fragrance of Christ unto God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish: 16. to the one indeed the odor of death unto death, but to the others the odor of life unto life. And for these things who is so sufficient? 17. For we are not, as very many, adulterating the word of God, but from sincerity, but as from God, before God, in Christ we speak.
Verse 1: But I Determined This with Myself
1. But I determined this with myself, — namely not to come to you and to spare you and your offenses, as I said in chapter 1, verse 23.
Verse 2: For If I Make You Sorrowful
2. For if I make you sorrowful. — That is, although I made you sorrowful by the first reproving epistle, nevertheless I now rejoice with you in the penitence and sorrow of the fornicator and your own. Note: the "si enim" (if for) is not causal, but conjunctive (συναπτικόν) and explicative.
And who is he that makes me glad, but the one who is made sorrowful by me? — As if to say: He most makes me glad who at my rebuke grieves and repents, namely that incestuous fornicator whom I excommunicated, 1 Cor. 5. So Ambrose.
Verse 3: That I May Not Have Sorrow Upon Sorrow
3. That when I come, I may not have sorrow upon sorrow. — As if to say: I wished by the preceding epistle to rebuke and correct you, lest I should be compelled to rebuke you face to face: which would be very sorrowful to me.
Trusting in you all, — I have been wholly confident that whatever you understood to displease me, you would at once remove: because you regard my joys as common to you, and consequently estimate my sorrows to be yours, so that what displeases me may also displease you. All these things tend to this, that meanwhile the Corinthians prepare themselves for Paul's coming, and amend themselves, lest, if he sees them not yet amended, he be exceedingly grieved.
Verse 4: What Charity I Have Toward You
4. What charity I have in you, — that is, towards you.
Verse 5: He Has Not Grieved Me, but in Part
5. He has not made me (namely alone) sorrowful, — the fornicator, of whom in 1 Cor. 5.
But in part, — because along with me he made many other good people sorrowful, says Anselm, who having been excommunicated by me, ejected him from their assembly with rebuke.
That I may not burden you all, — with this infamy and suspicion, as if I should think that there are not many who grieve on account of that incest. For in the first epistle, chapter 5, verse 2, he seemed to blame all, as if consenting to or dissembling that incest: "And you," he says, "are puffed up, and have not rather mourned."
Verse 6: This Rebuke Is Sufficient for Him
6. This rebuke is sufficient for him, — namely that public separation and confusion, by which the incestuous man was ejected from the whole Church. Hence it is clear that he repented after the excommunication. Whence the Apostle here loosens and absolves him.
Verse 7: So That You Should Rather Forgive
7. So that you should rather forgive, — that is, that you should remit to that incestuous man this longer canonical penance of his, by admitting him to your communion, and relaxing the delays of a more prolonged punishment; of which more in verse 10.
Verse 8: That You Confirm Charity Toward Him
8. That you confirm charity toward him, — that is, that by the public consent of the Church you may declare that you again embrace him as a brother. For in Greek, for "confirm," it is κυρῶσαι, that is, that you ratify and decree as it were by public assemblies of the Church his restoration: for κύρια are the assemblies and the appointed days of judgments. So Erasmus and Budaeus.
Verse 9: Therefore I Also Wrote
9. Therefore I also wrote, — namely this epistle, that you may confirm charity toward him, as preceded.
That I may know the proof, — that I may have proof of your obedience.
Verse 10: What I Have Forgiven, in the Person of Christ
10. To whom you have forgiven anything (to whom you have asked that grace and remission be made through Titus), I also, — namely, I ask that he be forgiven and pardoned: so Theodoret, and it is gathered from chapter 7, verse 7. See Canon 36. In Greek it is, ᾧ δέ τι χαρίζεσθε καὶ ἐγώ, "to whom you give, I also," namely give: for that this pardon had not yet been done is clear from verse 7, where he commands it to be done, as if to say: As when you and my spirit were gathered together, I excommunicated him, 1 Cor. 5: so now I join myself to you, that what at my exhortation you will pardon him, I also may pardon.
Note against Luther, that this is written to the Church's officers, or rather to the Church itself, not that the Church should exercise this power of absolving through all, even laypeople, but through Prelates; yet so that out of a certain humanity He wishes the laity to cooperate with this absolution, and by their consent, vote, desire, prayers, compassion, fellowship, somehow themselves also pardon this scandal given to themselves and to His Church, and its just penalty or canonical penance. See what was said at 1 Cor. 5:4. Hence follows: "For what I have forgiven, for your sake in the person of Christ." From which it is clear that Paul properly forgave by his power and jurisdiction as Christ's vicar; and that he ordered this to be publicly declared and promulgated in the Church of the Corinthians by the Bishop or other Prelate; but the Corinthians forgave only through prayers, consent, and execution of the Pauline sentence and absolution.
Chrysostom here clearly teaches this: "Just as," he says, "when he ordered the man to be cut off, he did not allow the authority of pardoning to be with them, saying: I have decreed to deliver such a one to Satan; and again he took them into partnership, saying: Being gathered together to deliver him, taking care of two things, that the sentence be pronounced, and that it not be done without them, lest he seem here to wound them by this act; and he neither pronounces it alone, lest the Apostle should seem to be obstinate and contemn them: he does likewise here too."
What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes in the person of Christ. — "I forgave," that is, I determined and asked that it be forgiven, in verse 7, and indeed now by these letters, and through the bearer of these, Titus, or whomever else, I forgive: see Canon 36; and it is a Hebraism, by which the past is put for the present, "I forgave," that is, I forgive: for the Hebrews lack the indicative, and use the past tense in its place.
It is asked what the Apostle forgave? I answer: Absolution from excommunication; and at the same time, indeed more, plenary indulgence for that incest, namely the remission of every penalty owed to him. It is clear, because this was the bond placed upon him, 1 Cor. 5, namely excommunication, and at the same time the penalty both of infamous ejection from the Church, and of the flesh, by which namely he was to be corporally afflicted by Satan. But here he absolves him from every bond by which he had bound him. So Ambrose, Anselm, Chrysostom, St. Thomas, Primasius.
Secondly, because we are properly said to forgive, that is, to pardon, and, as the Syriac, to remit, the fault or punishment; for of excommunication alone it is better said, "I absolve." So Ambrose. The Greek ᾧ δέ τι χαρίζεσθε signifies this more clearly: "to whom you grant some grace and indulgence."
Thirdly, because for the favor and zeal of the Corinthians, and on account of the fornicator's contrition, his punishment and shame, and, as he says in verse 6, the rebuke, he relaxes, lest from too much sadness he despair, as is clear from verses 6 and 7, and chapter 7, verses 7 and 11; therefore he gives him indulgences, and these the word "anything" signifies, when he says, "To whom you have forgiven anything, I also," as if to say: Some part of the penalty, which you have asked to be forgiven him, I also give and forgive.
Fourthly, because not only before the Church, as Calvin will have it, but in the divine judgment before God, he remits the penalty to him: for this is what "in the person of Christ" signifies; because otherwise no indulgence or mercy would have been shown here to the fornicator: for it is better here to be punished with infamy, and with any corporal penalty, than to be remanded to God's tribunal and to the fire either of hell or of purgatory.
Hence then St. Thomas and others rightly teach that the Apostle and the Church give Indulgences. So formerly Martyrs detained in prison would send the lapsed to Bishops, praying that they might relax the penalty for them, as is clear from Tertullian To the Martyrs, chapter 1, and Cyprian, epistles 11, 21 and 22; and the Council of Nicaea, chapters 11 and 12, grants that the Bishop may grant indulgence to the lapsed in proportion to the fervor of soul with which they undertake the imposed penalty: see Baronius, vol. I, page 592. Note, the cause of giving indulgence is lest the penitent despair. Hence formerly indulgence was not given unless a good part of the penance had been completed, and this lest the vigor of satisfaction, which is the third part of penance, and of discipline be relaxed: so St. Cyprian To the Martyrs, book III, epistle 6. And the Council of Trent, session XXV, in the decree on Indulgences, commands that moderation be applied in Indulgences according to the ancient usage of the Church, lest by too much facility ecclesiastical discipline be enervated.
If I have forgiven anything. — He modestly extenuates his liberality. Whence the Greek adds: εἴ τι κεχάρισμαι ᾧ κεχάρισμαι, "if I have forgiven anything to whom I have forgiven, in the person of Christ," namely this I did and forgave.
In the person of Christ. — In Greek ἐν προσώπῳ, which first can be translated, "in the face of Christ, before Christ." So Theodoret, Vatablus, which Calvin and Beza eagerly seize upon, as if to say: "Before Christ," from the heart, truly and not feignedly I forgive. Secondly, and properly, πρόσωπον is the true person, as if to say: I forgive in the place and authority of Christ, whose person I bear, who said: "Whatever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven," says Ambrose, Anselm, the Syriac, Theophylact, and Theodoret. Hence beautifully and forcefully Theophylact translates, ὡς ἀντιπρόσωπος ὢν Χριστοῦ, which his interpreter, by the testimony of Erasmus, rightly translates, as if Christ had forgiven him, since properly word for word it sounds, "as one existing as the person of Christ"; as a viceroy is said to be the king's viceroy and substitute-person, because in the place, authority, and as it were in the person of the king commands, sanctions, rules, orders, absolves, and remits. For just as Paul, in 1 Cor. 5:4, excommunicated this fornicator in the name and power of Jesus Christ, as he says there: so here he could not absolve the same except in the name, power, and person of Christ, just as one condemned by the viceroy, can be absolved only by the viceroy.
Verse 11: That We Be Not Circumvented by Satan
11. That we be not circumvented by Satan. — That we be not deceived, namely lest that fornicator from too much rigor be driven by Satan into despair. In Greek ἵνα μὴ πλεονεκτηθῶμεν, that we be not occupied and usurped as it were by Satan as an unjust possessor. For πλεονεκτεῖν is to defraud, extort, occupy what is not yours, as misers, usurers, and tyrants do. See Chrysostom and Theophylact. Whence Ambrose translates, lest we be possessed by Satan; for, says Theophylact, Satan does not seize what belongs to himself, but ours and what is Christ's, when he both takes and deceives souls. Hence for that which follows: "For we are not ignorant of his thoughts," Tertullian, in his book On Modesty, chapter 13, reads: "For we are not ignorant of his attacks," namely his rapines.
For we are not ignorant of his thoughts. — Thus formerly, by Plutarch's testimony in his Lacon., Chabrias said, and truly: "He is the best general who knows the enemy's affairs best." In like manner the best Christian leader and likewise soldier is the one who best knows the counsels and machinations of the enemies, especially of Satan: for he transforms himself into an angel of light, that what is the counsel and suggestion of the enemy and devil may seem to us to be that of a friend and angel. We often experience that sinister suspicions, bitterness of soul, anger, harmful sorrows, pusillanimities, etc. are suggested to us, and we think we are moved by just cause and reason, and that these come from us, when they come and are suggested by the devil for our ruin. Wherefore let the Christian in such matters reflect, whether such suggestions are according to charity, humility, patience, grace, and the law of Christ; and if he sees they are contrary to these, let him know they are of the devil: if he doubts, let him confer with a Superior, confessor, or prudent man. By long experience St. Anthony learned and taught this, who therefore was accustomed to assiduously uncover and explain to his disciples these thoughts and tricks of the devil, and to suggest the manner of dissipating them, as is clear from his Life by St. Athanasius. The same St. Francis often did, and so freed many of his own from diabolical temptation, as St. Bonaventure relates, in book I of his Life, chapter 11.
Thus then Satan here was inciting the leaders of the Corinthian Church to anger and indignation against this fornicator, as one who had stained the first brightness of his Church with this so foul a mark, that they should show themselves harsh and rigid to him; and so he himself, destitute of all consolation and hope, might lose heart and despair. This counsel of Satan Paul saw, and he discusses it here, warning them to receive him into favor, and to grant pardon and remission to him now penitent.
Verse 12: When I Had Come to Troas
12. When I had come to Troas, and a door (a great access) was opened to me in the Lord (in the Lord's business, namely for propagating His Gospel: so Anselm), 13. I had no rest for my spirit (in spirit, that is in my soul) because I did not find Titus, — my interpreter, says Jerome to Hedibia, who would explain the majesty of my divine senses with a worthy speech of Greek eloquence. There was also another reason why Paul went from Troas to Macedonia to meet Titus: namely that from Titus, whom he had sent down to Corinth, he was eager to know the state of the Corinthians, before he returned to Corinth, as he had promised. Whence in chapter 7, verse 6, he says he was consoled in Macedonia at the arrival of Titus reporting the weeping of the Corinthians and their longing for Paul. It seems however that Titus reported back to Paul that the time was not yet ripe for returning to Corinth. Whence Paul deferred his journey to the Corinthians, and sent ahead this epistle to them, which would prepare the way for himself to them, and would correct the failures of the Corinthians.
Verse 14: Who Always Causes Us to Triumph in Christ
14. Thanks be to God, who always causes us to triumph in Christ. — "He triumphs," that is, He causes to triumph, see Canon 32. So Ambrose, Anselm. Here belongs the Syriac and Theophylact's version: "He triumphs us," that is, He makes conspicuous and displays us; for a triumph is called the procession of a victorious general through the middle of the city with trophies and other signs of victory: so also God makes us as it were to triumph by being made conspicuous by victory and trophies brought back from the devil; for the things that seem to be sufferings and insults, are our glory and triumph, says Theophylact. Secondly, the same Anselm: "God triumphs us," that is, over us, or through us He celebrates a triumph over the demon, Col. 2:15. So also the Greeks.
The Apostle seems to have endured sharp persecutions in Macedonia; whence in chapter 7, verse 5, he says he there suffered every tribulation: without fightings, within fears; but by God's grace he overcame all these with glory and triumph. Beautifully St. Jerome, epistle 150 to Hedibia, Question 11, teaches that the Apostle here gives thanks to God, that He chose him as worthy, in whom He should celebrate the triumph of His Son in the victory of so many persecutions and evils, which he underwent in the conversion of the Gentiles to Christ. "For God's triumph," says Jerome, "is the passion of the Martyrs for Christ's name, the shedding of blood, and joy amid torments. For when anyone has seen the martyrs stand with such perseverance and be tortured, and glory in their torments, the odor of the knowledge of God is disseminated to the Gentiles, and a silent thought arises, that, unless the Gospel were true, it would never be defended with blood." So therefore the preaching of the Gospel triumphs in the Apostles, in which faith conquers infidelity, truth conquers lying, the charity of Christ conquers the hatreds of the malevolent, patience conquers all crosses, persecutions, and deaths.
And He manifests the odor (the fame and most sweet knowledge) of His knowledge.
Verse 15: We Are the Good Odor of Christ
15. We are the good odor of Christ, — we spread abroad the good fame of Christ by word and example to the honor of God.
Note: A good odor is exhaled from outstanding herbs, or precious aromatics. Such is the fame, glory, and honor of the Apostles and preachers, sprung from their virtues, and owed to their merits. Hence the Spouse, that is the Church, Cant. 7:1, compares herself to little beds of aromatic spices, in which is seen the loveliness, pleasantness, and beautiful order of springing herbs and fragrant flowers, from which fragrant spirits are exhaled. And this is what Christ commands, Matt. 5:16, when He says: "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father," where by another metaphor He calls glory and good fame the splendor flowing and produced from the light of good works.
Excellently St. Bernard, sermon 12 on the Canticle: "Paul," he says, "the vessel of election, truly an aromatic vessel, an odoriferous vessel, filled with every pigment-powder; for he was the good odor of Christ in every place. Truly far and wide that breast spread fragrance of much sweetness, which the solicitude of all the Churches had so affected. For see what kinds and aromas he had heaped together for himself: 'Daily,' he says, 'I die for your glory.' And again: 'Who is weak, and I am not weak?'"
Note secondly: Just as aromatics the more they are crushed, the greater fragrance they breathe forth: so Christ, the Apostles, the Martyrs, and all the Saints, the more they were pressed and as it were crushed by persecutions and tribulations, the sweeter odor of their virtue they spread abroad.
See Ambrose and Anselm, see also Bernard, sermon 71 on the Canticle, on the spiritual color and odor of the virtues, on this: "I am the flower of the field, and the lily of the valleys." "Morals," he says, "have their colors, they have also their odors; let them have their odor in fame, their color in conscience. Color is given to your work by its goodness and the intention of the heart; odor, by the example of modesty and virtue. The just man is a lily white in himself, but fragrant to his neighbor: for to our neighbor we owe fame, to ourselves we provide conscience." Alluding to this, St. Jerome: "Such," he says, "ought to be the conversation and life of a Pontiff (Pastor and teacher), that all his motions and steps, and all his works should breathe the heavenly grace."
Indeed even profane writers occasionally use the metaphor of odor in censuring morals. So Martial: "Postumus, he does not smell well, who always smells well": insinuating that he is suspect of chastity who, with always a foreign perfume, sought to dissipate the stench of his shameful disease. Certainly we have received it about St. Catherine of Siena the virgin, that she was accustomed to close her nostrils when by chance someone more obscene and given to venereal crimes met her, so heavy was to her even the very odor of these crimes, with God permitting this in that most chaste virgin.
St. Basil reports, epistle 175, that certain bird-catchers were accustomed to dye the feathers of tame doves with a certain odor most pleasing to other doves, by which most being enticed are led into the trap. So a Christian must do, that by the odor of his virtues he may lead the lost to Christ. Just as the virgin Cecilia gained her bridegroom Valerian for Christ, when on the first night of the wedding he smelled the most fragrant odor of chastity, like vernal roses, in his bride's chamber.
Verse 16: The Odor of Death Unto Death, the Odor of Life Unto Life
16. To the one indeed the odor of death unto death, but to the other the odor of life unto life. — As if to say, says Theophylact: "We are truly the royal censer (incense-burner), and wherever we go, we carry around the odor of spiritual unguent, namely with the good incense of the knowledge of God we breathe upon men in every place." Again, "as the fragrance of unguent invigorates the dove, kills the beetle," says Oecumenius from the Nicene; "and as the light of the sun refreshes healthy eyes, hurts weak ones; fire purges gold, consumes stubble: so Christ is to the wicked unto ruin, to the good unto resurrection." The Apostles were to the good the odor of life; to the wicked, the odor of death; and the Eucharist "is death to the wicked, life to the good." Note the Hebraism: Odor of death unto death, that is, mortiferous odor, bringing death; odor of life unto life, that is, vital odor, bringing life. For the fragrance and fame of life, of the preaching and conversion of the Apostles, breathed life to the good, death to the wicked: because the wicked, not bearing such brilliance of sanctity, hardened themselves more in their wickedness, envy, or hatred. Further Clement of Alexandria, in book II of the Paedagogus, reads, odor from death, and odor from life, as if to say: The preaching of the cross and death of Christ is to unbelievers an odor from death, which arises from the death of Christ, and tends to the destruction of those who consider the death of Christ only as death, to whom that seems to be folly or a scandal: but to believers it is an odor from life, because they themselves embrace the life set forth in this death. For this death in Christ was the cause of resurrection to glorious life, but in us is the cause of resurrection to the life of grace in this age, and to the life of glory in the future.
And for these things who is so sufficient? — As if to say: How few such fit ministers, who everywhere are the good odor of Christ! So Ambrose.
Verse 17: We Are Not, as Very Many, Adulterating the Word of God
17. For we are not, as very many, adulterating the word of God. — The word "for" signifies that Paul with a few other Apostles is by God's grace a fit minister of Christ, who everywhere disperses the good odor of the Gospel, as preceded, while very many others are unfit heralds of the Gospel, of bad odor and fame.