Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, from the fact that he taught in chapter 3 that the office of preaching the Gospel is so noble and glorious, in this chapter 4 he infers, and asserts that he preaches it chastely, sincerely, and clearly: and therefore that it is known and manifest to all, except to those whose minds are blinded.
Second, at verse 7, he asserts that he and the Apostles suffer many adversities for the sake of the Gospel, and yet do not succumb, but bravely always carry about in the body the mortification of Jesus, on account of the hope of a better life and of the resurrection.
Third, at verse 17, he teaches that his and our momentary and light tribulation works an eternal weight of glory.
Vulgate Text: 2 Corinthians 4:1-18
1. Therefore, having this ministry, according as we have obtained mercy, we faint not; 2. but we renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3. And if our Gospel be also hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4. in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine unto them. 5. For we preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ our Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus: 6. because God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus. 7. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. 8. In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed: we are straitened, but are not destitute: 9. we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken: we are cast down, but we perish not: 10. always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies. 11. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake: that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 12. So then death works in us, but life in you. 13. But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written: I believed, for which cause I have spoken: we also believe, for which cause we also speak: 14. knowing that He who raised up Jesus, will also raise us up with Jesus, and place us with you. 15. For all things are for your sakes: that the grace abounding through many, may abound to the glory of God in thanksgiving. 16. For which cause we faint not: but though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17. For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, 18. while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Verse 1: Therefore Having This Ministry
1. Therefore having this ministry. — τὴν διακονίαν ταύτην, such a ministry, namely of the apostolate of the New Testament, concerning whose excellence I have spoken hitherto, to which God by His mercy freely chose us, unworthy as we were.
We faint not. — οὐκ ἐγκακοῦμεν, we do not yield, we are not broken by evils and afflictions, we do not grow weary, we do not slacken, as Erasmus translates; for κακία (kakia) sometimes signifies the sluggish and slothful.
Verse 2: We Renounce the Hidden Things of Disgrace
2. But we renounce (in Greek ἀπειπάμεθα, we abnegate, we renounce; the Syriac, אסלינן aslinan, that is, we abhor) the hidden disgraces and crimes: for baseness loves hiding-places, so much so that even the unchaste have this on their lips when seeking it: "If not chastely, at least cautiously," as if to say: I admit nothing, not even secretly, that could be blamed; I am no hypocrite, as many false apostles are. So Ambrose. The same beautifully says, in book II On Duties, chapter 3, alluding to the ring of Gyges, by which he himself, seeing all and seen by none, defiled the queen and slew the king, and thus obtained the kingdom of Lydia: "Give," he says, "this ring to a wise man, that by its benefit he might be able to hide when he had transgressed; he would no less flee the contagion of sins than if he could not hide. For a hiding place is not for the wise man the hope of impunity, but of innocence. Finally, the law is not laid down for the just, but for the unjust: for the just man has the law of his own mind and the norm of his equity and justice." Hence that golden saying of Seneca: "Even if I knew that men would not know, and God would forgive, yet I would not wish to sin because of the baseness of sin." Add to this, even if when sinning we hide from men, yet we cannot hide from God, the most all-seeing judge and avenger. Hence let everyone with Paul renounce from himself the hidden things of disgrace, and so live chastely and keep a chaste mind, as if he were standing in the presence of God.
Commending ourselves to every conscience. — As if to say: Those who attend to conscience, and judge things according to conscience, see that I speak the truth, so that, if they were willing to say what they feel, they could not deny that I preach sincerely, and as it were in the presence of God, as though I were everywhere beholding and revering God as inspector, witness, and judge.
Verse 3: If Our Gospel Be Hid
3. And if our Gospel be also hid (so that it is not understood, not believed). — He alludes to the veil of Moses, of which in chapter 3, verse 13; this is an anticipation (occupatio), as if to say: Someone will say: If you, O Paul, manifest, as you say, the word of God in truth, commending yourself to every conscience: how then does it come about that this word of God of yours is not manifest to all? Why do not all believe it? He answers that it is manifest to the good and the faithful, but hid and unknown to the impious and the unbelieving, as being lost and reprobate.
Gospel. — Not the Scripture of the Gospel, as the heretics would have it, as though that were clear to all the elect; but the mysteries of the Gospel, or the articles of faith obvious and known to every Christian, such as that Christ was born, suffered, rose again, etc., which Paul and the Apostles preached even before the Gospels were written: just as when Paul was writing these things, some were not yet written.
To them that are lost. — Among the reprobate and unbelievers, as if to say: This is the sign and cause of their reprobation, according to place, time, and persons they teach one thing and another. These three things Luther did remarkably. First, he falsified Romans 3:28: "We reckon that a man is justified by faith," by adding "alone;" and that of II Peter 1:10: "Be the more diligent, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election," by removing "by good works." Second, he twisted the word of God to his own desires, when he tried to persuade a certain little woman that, with her husband asleep, she could lie with him, thus explaining that of I Corinthians 7: "But if her husband sleep, she is freed." Third, according to place, time, and persons he expounded the words of consecration in different ways; so that Gaspar Querhamer the Saxon, in his Table of Luther's Contradictions, published thirty-six contradictions of his concerning the single matter of Communion of the Eucharist alone, gathered from his works, even while Luther was still living.
Not walking in craftiness. — That we should show one thing openly, and do another secretly. He notes the lusts of the false apostles, and their hidden pleasures. For, as he says at Ephesians 5:12: "For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of."
Nor adulterating (in Greek δολοῦντες, dealing with deceit; Erasmus, falsifying) the word of God. — As the false apostles do, namely because they mix it with the law of Moses and with Judaism, or because of them, that they have the veil of blindness and unbelief upon their heart, so that they neither see nor believe Christ and His mysteries proposed so clearly and evidently in the Gospel and in the New Testament.
Verse 4: The God of This World Has Blinded Their Minds
4. In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers. — You will ask, who is called "the god of this world?" First, Marcion in Chrysostom from this taught that there is a certain god who is just, but not good, who is the maker of the world. Second, the Manichaeans answered that it is the devil, for he is the maker of the world and of bodily things. Third, Chrysostom, Anselm, Theodoret, and Theophylact arrange it thus: God, namely the true God, who has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world; or, the true God, the author and maker of the world, has blinded the minds of unbelievers. Fourth, Œcumenius and St. Thomas say: "The god of this world" is the devil, who is the god of those living worldly lives, not by creation, but by his own perversity, example, command, and suggestion; and this seems most simple: for he does not call him "God," but in an estranged sense "the god of this world," that is, of worldly people, who prefer temporal and perishable things to heavenly and eternal goods. Similar is Ephesians 6, verse 12. Fifth, St. Thomas: "the god of this world" is mammon, or wealth and pomps, in which the worldly place their final end and every good as in a god. So at Philippians chapter 3, verse 19, it is said: "Whose god is their belly."
Of unbelievers. — Refer this back to "in whom"; it is a Hebraism, as if to say: "Of unbelievers, whose minds the god has blinded." For the Hebrews often repeat and join the antecedent with the relative which preceded it. So therefore connect these thus: The Gospel in those unbelievers who are lost is hid; in whom, that is, whose minds the god of this world has blinded.
That the light of the Gospel should not shine unto them. — For "shine," in Greek it is αὐγάσαι (augasai), let it irradiate; the Syriac, let it rise; αὐγή (auge), say Chrysostom and Theophylact, is something faintly luminous and a foretaste of clear light, or φωτισμοῦ (photismou), that is, the illumination and divine glory which will be revealed in the heavens. For just as the dawn and the morning star, or the star of Venus, goes before and shines before the sun: so faith in this life as a morning star goes before and shines before the most clear glory and vision in the heavens. Similar is II Peter 1:19.
Of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ. — This is an apposition: for the Gospel is called the glory of Christ, because by it Christ is glorified — the redemption of Christ, the resurrection, the divinity. So Anselm.
Who is the image of God. — Note first: it is proper to the Son that He should be and proceed from the Father as the image of the Father. Second, He is called the image because He is so produced from the Father that by the very force of His production He is most like the Father, and most perfectly represents Him. For He is the divine Word, or the term of the Father's intellection, by which the Father notionally understands Himself; and the word of the mind is the concept and image of the thing understood, and so He is distinguished from the Holy Spirit, who though most like the Father, yet does not have this from the force of His procession; for from that He has only that He is notional love, that is, the term of the will and love of the Father and the Son. Third, the Son is the image of the Father by reason of the divine essence, inasmuch namely as the Son receives it from the Father: for inasmuch as He receives it from the Father, He is really diverse from Him, as an image is diverse from its exemplar; but inasmuch as He has the same essence with the Father, He is most like Him and represents Him in all things. See the Scholastics, Part I, Questions 27 and 29.
Note the profundity of the Apostle, as if to say: The world receives the light of faith from the Apostles; these from Christ, as Moses from the Angel, who was a type of Christ; Christ from the Father, as light from light, and as a ray emanates from the sun.
Of God. — The Complutensian editions add, τοῦ ἀοράτου, invisible.
Verse 5: Ourselves Your Servants Through Jesus
5. But ourselves your servants through Jesus. — διὰ Ἰησοῦν, on account of Jesus (so the Syriac, Œcumenius, Ambrose); supply: "we present"; or rather, repeat: "we preach ourselves as your servants." For although the Greek διὰ with the accusative in Attic signifies "through," yet commonly it signifies "on account of."
Verse 6: God, Who Commanded Light to Shine Out of Darkness
6. Because God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts. — "Who said," namely Genesis 1:2: "Let there be light." Note that in Genesis and in the creation of the world, before all things light was formed, because light is the noblest, most pleasant, most joyful, most commodious, most efficacious, and most powerful quality. See Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 4, where he recounts thirty-four properties of light and fire wonderfully fitting to God and divine things. What and of what sort this light was, I have said at Genesis 1:2.
Allegorically, Hugh, in the book On the Sacraments, part 1, chapter 10, and others note that on the first day, when light was made and divided from the darkness, the good angels were confirmed in the good, the evil in evil, and were segregated from the good; and thus what was being done in the sensible world was an image of those things which were being done in the intelligible world; nay rather, Augustine often holds that this sense concerning the angels is the literal one.
Tropologically, the Apostle here explains this light, as if to say: As God once produced light out of darkness, so now He has made us, who were unbelievers, into believers, and has illumined us with the light of faith. So Augustine also, book I Against the Adversary of the Law, chapter 8, by this fact — that to darkness, or night, which was prior to light, light and day succeeded, and to this in turn darkness succeeded — teaches that there is signified what spiritually happens in man, namely that grace succeeds to sin, and sin to grace, when we fall back into it. See St. Dionysius above.
To give the light (namely, that we may be illuminated by God: so the Greeks; and conversely, that we may also illuminate others, as Ambrose says) of the knowledge (and cognition) of the glory (that is, the clear and glorious) of God (that is, which is concerning God, which shines forth) in the face of Christ. — That is, in the clear, or through the clear cognition of Christ and of His redemption; for commonly each person is clearly known through his face. Hence to know in the face means to know clearly and openly. As, then, by night a torch or kindled flame illumines all dark places, and therefore is carried before those walking, that it may go before and illuminate the way: so also Christ as a torch illumines us in the night of this world, that we may know God certainly and manifestly, and may make our way to seeing Him, to that blessed life I say, into heaven. Whence the Gloss explains it symbolically thus: "In the face of Christ Jesus, that is, through Christ Jesus, who is the face of the Father; because without Him the Father is not known." He continues in the allusion to the veil and to the veiled face of Moses, and the open face of Christ, of which in chapter 3, verse 15. So Chrysostom. The Greek ἐν προσώπῳ, which Our (Latin translator) here and in the previous chapter, verse 8, rightly translates "in the face," can be translated with the Syriac as "in the person," that is, in the name, place, and authority of Christ, as His vicars, we illuminate others. So Gagneius, Faber, and others. Whence St. Cyril, in the book On the Faith to the Emperor Theodosius: "He shined," he says, "in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Christ Jesus. Behold, openly and evidently the illumination of the knowledge of God the Father shone forth in the person of Christ."
Verse 7: We Have This Treasure in Earthen Vessels
7. But we have this treasure. — That is, the ministry and preaching of the Gospel entrusted to me by God. This is plain from the beginning of the chapter, verse 1, and because he treated of this immediately before, verses 5 and 6.
In earthen vessels. — In Greek ὀστρακίνοις, of clay (or earthenware), that is, in a body of clay, fragile and perishable, as if Paul were saying: Our body is an earthen vessel. For as an earthen vessel is nothing other than clay baked by fire; so our body is nothing other than clay solidified by the heat of the soul. Take away the soul, and the body will return to the clay from which it was formed: "He knoweth," says David in Psalm 102, "our frame; He hath remembered that we are dust." So Chrysostom. Or secondly, "in earthen vessels," that is, in us, who, although we are Apostles, are nevertheless men and persons of clay and fragile, both in soul and in body, and who, like earthenware vessels, are cheap, ignoble, poor, abject, despised, trampled upon, and exposed to the injuries of all.
This sense is supported by what follows. For there follows: "In all things we suffer tribulation, we are straitened, we are perplexed," etc. So in the first epistle, chapter 1, verse 27, he says that God chose the Apostles as the weak, ignoble, and contemptible things of the world. And in chapter 2, verse 1, Paul says that he came to the Corinthians not in loftiness of speech or wisdom, but in weakness, fear, and trembling. And in chapter 4, verse 9, he says: "I think that God hath set forth us Apostles, the last, as it were appointed to death: even unto this hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted," etc.
Symbolically, Origen, homily 9 on Numbers: This treasure is the grace of the Holy Spirit hidden "in earthen vessels," that is, in the rude, unpolished, and inelegant words of the Law and the Gospel.
That the excellency may be of the power (δυνάμεως, that is, of the might and strength) of God, and not of us. — For "that the excellency," Ambrose reads "that the eminence"; and so often does Augustine: for in Greek it is ὑπερβολή, as if to say: For this reason God wills me to have this treasure in an earthen vessel, that the excellence which is in me, and the fruit which I produce in the conversion of so many nations, may be ascribed not to me, but to the power and efficacy of God, and to the grace of Christ. St. Jerome in the Dialogue against the Pelagians reads: "that the abundance of our strength may be from God." See Chrysostom here in the moral application.
Verse 8: We Suffer Tribulation but Are Not Distressed
8. In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed. — For "we are not distressed," in Greek it is οὐ στενοχωρούμενοι, not narrowed, not made anxious; otherwise it is necessary that he who is pressed should be driven into a narrow place, and be straitened: but for the Apostle, in narrow circumstances, the mind was broad, ample, and lofty. The Syriac translates: we are pressed, but not suffocated. So also David sings, Psalm 4: "When I called upon Him, the God of my justice heard me; in tribulation Thou hast enlarged me."
We are perplexed, but not destitute. — That is, as Ambrose, Theophylact, Erasmus, and Cajetan say, we are pressed by the want of all things, but not overwhelmed. This is plain from the Greek ἀπορούμενοι, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐξαπορούμενοι; it is a paronomasia, which Budaeus imitates when he renders it: in want, but not succumbing to want. For want, in a soul that is patient, wise, tranquil, and fixed on God, produces rest, sufficiency, indeed even abundance. To pass over Christians, this was taught by the philosopher Favorinus in Gellius, book IX, chapter 8: "It is true," he says, "as wise men have said by observation of the use of things, that he who has many things lacks many things; and a great indigence arises not from great poverty, but from great abundance. For many things are needed to maintain the many things you have. Whoever therefore, having many things, wishes to take care and to look ahead lest he lack or want anything, has need of loss, not of gain, and must have less so that less may be lacking."
Secondly, the Greek words just mentioned can also be rendered thus: We are without counsel and perplexed in the midst of evils and difficulties; yet neither by these nor by anxiety and weariness are we conquered; we do not despair, but in God we hope for, find, and conquer counsel, remedy, and a way out. So Theophylact, Chrysostom, Œcumenius, and this is what the Greek "we are perplexed" rather signifies. For aporia is want not only of body, but also of mind, namely a want of counsel, doubt, and perplexity, when the mind, seeing itself hedged about on all sides by evils, hesitates anxiously and knows not what counsel to take, what to attempt. But God comes to the aid of the Apostles and His own in this perplexity, and suggests a way of escape. That he and his own experience this in the conversion of the Indians, witnesses are St. Xavier and Gaspar Barzaeus, often saying that in India the Holy Spirit teaches more in any matter and doubt than among us all the doctors and wise men can teach.
Verse 9: We Suffer Persecution but Are Not Forsaken
9. We suffer persecution, but are not forsaken. — Acutely and piously St. Gregory of Nyssa in his book On the Beatitudes, explaining the last beatitude, which is: "Blessed are they who suffer persecution," weighs that word "persecution," which belongs to runners, indeed to those who run ahead. He sets therefore before our eyes the pious man and tribulation as it were two runners running together; but since the pious man does not yield to tribulation, he as a victor goes before and runs ahead: tribulation, however, follows from behind the pious man, and runs after him, and therefore is called persecution (per-secutio = following after), not consecution, because it pursues the pious man, but does not catch him up. He teaches therefore that by this word it is indicated that the Saints by patience run most swiftly to the prize of glory, and that the vigor and fortitude of the Saints in running shines forth most in persecutions: "Martyrdom," he says, "shows us the stadium, and designates the course of faith: for persecution signifies a vehement zeal of speed, indeed it also indicates victory in running: for one cannot conquer in running otherwise than by leaving behind him him who runs along with him? Therefore since he who is harassed by an enemy for the sake of the prize has a pursuer at his back (and these are they who complete the course of martyrdom in contests undertaken for piety, whom enemies indeed pursue, but do not catch), it seems that he has set as the head and sum, in the hope of the proposed beatitude, as it were a kind of crown, in his last words: Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice's sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
We are cast down, but we perish not. — He alludes to the earthen vessels of which he spoke at verse 7, which is wonderful that they should be cast down from a very high tower, and yet not be broken, not perish, as if to say: Although we are earthen vessels, and are cast down from the highest towers as it were of persecutions, yet we are neither broken nor perish: because, baked, hardened, and solidified by the fire of charity from God, we cannot be broken and perish. Some add: "We are humbled, but not confounded;" but the Greek does not have this, nor the Roman Latin.
Verse 10: Always Bearing About the Mortification of Jesus
10. Always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus. — In Greek νέκρωσις, that is, death, as Ambrose reads it; or rather, as Our (translator) renders it, mortification of Jesus is a suffering of death similar to the passion of Jesus Christ, which is the way and beginning of death, and so a long and living death, or a dying in becoming, not in being completed. This is the suffering of which at verses 8 and 9 he says: "We suffer tribulation, but are not distressed," etc., namely external suffering, and inflicted by another, although it can also be extended to any chastisement of mind and body voluntarily undertaken. So Anselm. It is therefore called "the death," or "the mortification of Jesus," because by His example it is endured; second, because it is undergone for His faith and Gospel; third and best, as Ambrose says, because the very death and passion of Christ we, His ministers, bear and carry about in our body as it were by a kind of representation, as servants bear the insignia and brand of their lord, Galatians 6:17. So at Hebrews 11:26, he says that Moses bore the reproach of Christ, and loved that more than the treasure of the Egyptians. See what is said there. "There is no doubt," says Ambrose, "that in the Martyrs Christ is slain, and in those who suffer chains or stripes for the faith, Christ also suffers the same in them."
Here Paul gives the reason why in tribulation and mortification he is not distressed and does not die, but is enlarged and lives. The reason is this: that by tribulation he becomes like Christ both as crucified and mortified, and as raised and vivified: and so in it he rejoices and is pleased with himself.
Hence morally Salvian, in book I On the True Judgment and Providence of God, teaches that no one is wretched who is content with his own wretchedness; rather he is happy in it, because by his own choice he lives in wretchedness. For labor, fasting, poverty, humility, infirmity, persecution are not troublesome to those suffering them, but to those unwilling to suffer. So even to the pagans Fabricius, Fabius, Regulus, and Camillus, poverty and affliction were not burdensome. "No one," he says, "is wretched by the judgment of others, but by his own; and therefore those cannot be wretched by a false judgment who are truly happy in their own conscience;" and again: "None, in my opinion, are happier than those who act according to their own knowledge and choice. Religious are humble, this is what they wish: they are poor, they delight in poverty: they are without ambition, they reject ambition: they are unhonored, they reject honor: they mourn, they desire to mourn: they are infirm, they rejoice in infirmity. When I am weak, says the Apostle, then am I strong. And so whatever happens to those who are truly religious, they are to be called blessed: because amid however many hardships, none are happier than those who are what they wish to be."
That the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies. — "The life," namely both future, as namely when we shall rise with Christ unto glory, as follows at verse 14; and present, namely that after the manner of Christ's resurrection our bodies, though afflicted, may become more vigorous from the Spirit on account of the hope of resurrection and the help of God, by which He frees and strengthens us from so many daily dangers. Whence it follows:
Verse 11: For We Who Live Are Always Delivered Unto Death
11. For we who live are always delivered unto death. — As if to say: In the midst of this life of ours, such as it is, we are exposed to perpetual perils and miseries of death. So Chrysostom.
Note: Psalm 115 [116], which Paul here cites, is a Eucharistic [psalm of thanksgiving], in which David gives thanks to God his deliverer. Whence it begins, "I believed," as if to say: When I David was placed in the midst of dangers and evils, on this side from Saul with his men persecuting me, on that side from Achish and the Philistines seeking my head, and seemed destitute of all human help and as if despairing; nevertheless I believed in God, who promised me salvation, indeed even the kingdom through Samuel: wherefore I spoke this very thing intrepidly, namely that I believed, nor doubted, that God would deliver me from all these evils and would advance me to the kingdom He had promised, just as in fact He has now delivered me, and either has advanced me to the kingdom or is disposing me toward it. Whence he adds: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints," as if to say: Rare, and of great weight and price before God, is my death and that of the other saints; and therefore it is His care and concern that God scarcely and rarely permit it for me and the other saints, nor without great cause and gain, but that He marvelously bless and protect us everywhere: just as I David experienced in the cave, and often elsewhere, when I was hemmed in by the hands of Saul and other enemies; and therefore with praise and thanksgiving I exclaim: "What shall I render to the Lord for all things that He has rendered to me? I will take the chalice of salvation;" or, as it is in Hebrew, "the chalice" ישועות iescuot, that is, of salvations, namely of many; that is, a chalice which would be a witness and public profession that I have obtained many salvations from God, and that I have very often been saved by God from death and from the perils of death, "I will take."
This therefore is what animates, consoles and strengthens us in every tribulation, namely that we consider that in it we are conformed to Christ suffering and dying and rising again. For just as in our body afflicted and mortified the death of Christ is represented; so in the same body delivered, saved and strengthened, the life and resurrection of Christ are represented: as when we are thrown to lions and other beasts, as if most certainly to be devoured by them, they however spare us and fawn on us: when we are cast into fire, the fire itself flees from us, indeed it refreshes us with a gentle breeze: when we are cast into the sea to be drowned, the sea sustains us and keeps us safe; when I was stoned at Lystra and left for dead, soon however I was found alive, Acts 14:18. In these, I say, and similar blows and afflictions I am partaker, conformed, and represent the body of Christ suffering, dead and buried: which however was soon recalled by the power of God to life, and that a blessed and glorious life. And for this reason in every tribulation I am strong, indeed I rejoice and glory. For from these I conceive a sure hope of the future immortal and glorious life. "Therefore," says Œcumenius, "he is permitted by God to be given over to death, in order that it may be made manifest that Christ has risen from death. For He who daily raises us up, certainly also raised Himself up, and one day will plainly raise us up to immortality."
That the life also of Jesus (both holy here, strong, joyful and eager, from a strong and vigorous spirit; then blessed in heaven; thirdly, peaceful, or salutary for peace and the heavens, as I said in the preceding verse) may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Verse 12: Death Works in Us, but Life in You
12. Therefore death works in us, but life in you. — As if to say: Your spiritual life through faith and grace, that is, the salvation of your soul, is procured by our bodily death. So Ambrose. For the passion and death of the Apostles and martyrs is the life of the Church: "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians," says Tertullian. Otherwise Chrysostom, as if to say: You live quietly, nor do you sustain those persecutions for the faith which I do; and therefore you seem to live, but I seem to die daily.
Verse 13: Having the Same Spirit of Faith
13. Having however the same spirit of faith. — As if to say: Just as David, immersed in temptations and rescued by God alone, said: "I believed," that is, I believe, that God according to His promises will always deliver me from my evils. Whence the same one boldly: "I have spoken, and even now I speak forth." So also we believe and hope, and bravely profess, that the help, strength, deliverance and resurrection are promised to us by God, and so also will most certainly be granted. So Theophylact, Chrysostom, Œcumenius.
Tropologically this chalice is martyrdom and afflictions, and persistent striving, says Basil in Psalm 115, by which sin is resisted even unto death: for Paul, says the same Basil, ardently thirsted for martyrdom; whence he calls it not a cross but a chalice of salvation, as if to say: I will readily drink whatever the Lord may send me, even death and martyrdom; and therefore knowing, says Augustine, that martyrdom is not of my own virtue but of God's grace, I will therefore call upon it through the name of the Lord, or, as the Hebrew אקרא ecra may be more aptly translated, "I will call," with public voice I will preach and celebrate the grace and name of the Lord. In a similar way Christ calls His passion and death a chalice, which He offers to the Apostles, Martyrs, and all of us, Matt. ch. 20, v. 22, and Matt. 26:42. Therefore, just as any Christian offers to Christ his deliverer in thanksgiving the Eucharistic chalice and sacrifice, so Paul here pours out and sacrifices to the same Christ his sufferings, mortifications and death as a most pleasing chalice; as the Martyrs, by professing with the mouth the faith of the heart and dying for it, all poured out and consecrated to the same Christ the chalice of their martyrdom.
I believed. — האמנתי heemanti, that is, I believed in the past, and I believe in the present: for the Hebrews lack a present tense, and use the past for it. Secondly, "I believed," or "I believe," that is, I continue to believe; for David had already long ago believed in God. "I believe" therefore signifies not so much an act begun as one continued, as I said in Canon 32; especially because David said "I believed" not only in his own person, but also in Paul's, as is clear here, and in that of us all, and proposes his "I believed" for us to imitate and repeat at every time.
Verse 14: He Will Set Us With You
14. Will set us with you. — In glory with you when raised up. Note: Out of modesty he says, not "You with us," but "We with you," because you are the cause and object both of my Gospel and of my glory.
Verse 15: That the Grace Abounding May Redound to the Glory of God
15. That the grace abounding (refer to: may abound to the glory of God) through many in thanksgiving. — That is, through the thanksgiving of many, or while many give thanks to God for that grace. Whence the Greek more clearly has it thus: ἵνα ἡ χάρις πλεονάσασα διὰ τῶν πλειόνων τὴν εὐχαριστίαν περισσεύσῃ εἰς τὴν δόξαν τοῦ Θεοῦ, that the abundant grace, through the thanksgiving of many, may overflow to the glory of God; and the Syriac, that when grace abounds through many, the thanksgiving may likewise be multiplied to the glory of God.
Verse 16: The Outward Man Is Corrupted, the Inward Renewed
16. On account of which we faint not. — We do not yield, we do not succumb to afflictions; the Syriac, "we do not weary." See what was said on verse 1.
But though he who is without, our man, is corrupted: yet he who is within is renewed from day to day. — That is, as Theophylact, Ambrose, Anselm: although the external man, that is, the body, is corrupted by pressures, blows, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness, scourges and diseases; yet "he who is within," that is, the soul and spirit, is renewed and profits in faith, hope, charity, alacrity of mind, and emerges stronger and more brilliant, like gold in fire, says Chrysostom.
Note that this is taken otherwise in Rom. 7:22; for there the external man is concupiscence, or the man given to concupiscence; the inner is charity and spirit, or the man renewed in spirit; but here the external man is the body, the internal is the mind. Or more appositely: the external man is the bodily man himself, insofar as he is visible in body, tangible, passible, and susceptible to injuries inflicted from without; the inner man, however, is the same man animated, or insofar as he consists of an invisible soul and mind, by which he bravely and eagerly sustains the afflictions inflicted on the body: for since man consists of two parts so contrary, namely an external body and an internal soul, and the soul itself in man seems to be as it were twofold (for insofar as it animates and shows itself externally in the body through operations and passions, it appears external, animal and corporeal; insofar however as it stands in itself and is intent on the mind and on internal mental operations, it appears internal and invisible), hence the man composed of this twofold part is, according to the former, external, and according to the latter, internal, and is so called.
From this it is clear, against Illyricus, that original sin and concupiscence are not an evil substance formed from man by the demon, joined to man's substance as a kind of form: for this would have to be the inner man, and that one most corrupt in itself, so that it could not be renewed; the contrary of which the Apostle here says.
Wrongly also from this Tertullian, says St. Thomas, judged the soul to be corporeal, and to have its own figure and members after the manner of the body, so that the inner man might correspond to the outer. So John Huarte the physician recently in his Examination of Talents judged that the souls of the damned are tormented by fire, because, he says, they have as it were their members or images of members, they have their senses and sensations. Hence the rich Epulo says he is tormented in his tongue, Luke 16.
But this concerning members is false: for as the soul is not corporeal, so properly speaking it has no members; but concerning sense and sensation it is probable. For the rational soul, since it is at the same time sensitive, has in itself the root of sense and sensation, e.g. of touch, so that it may feel heat, fire, burning and the pain of it: which sensation, though it cannot naturally be exercised without the body, nevertheless God can supernaturally bring forth this sense and sensation in a separated soul: for the soul has and retains in itself its root and inception. So now many subtle Philosophers judge; and by this reasoning they easily explain how fire acts on the soul. And reason favors it: because the whole sensation is in the soul; for when we see with the eye, hear with the ear, touch with the hand, the very vision, hearing and perception of touch is not in the eye, ear, hand, but in the soul. For it is not the body, but the soul, which sees through the eye, hears through the ears, and feels through the hand; why therefore should not the soul separated from the body be able to elicit and receive the same sensations through God's power and omnipotence? For although the eye, ear, hand is an organ and required condition for sensation to occur naturally, nevertheless God can supernaturally supply it: as He can supply the presence and proximity of an object, so that someone with a bodily eye may see through a wall those things which are done in a closed chamber, or those things which are done remotely in India; as we read was granted to St. Anselm and other Saints.
From day to day. — As if to say: Just as the external man, that is, the body, daily through so many blows and hardships fails and grows old: so the inner, that is, the mind, daily is renewed and grows young, and this on account of the hope of the resurrection. Whence he adds: "For that which at present," etc. So Abbot Barnabas in Sophronius's Spiritual Meadow, ch. 10, drove a thorn into his foot, and would not have it taken out; hence the foot rotted; to those wondering, he said: "The more the outer man suffers, the more the inner flourishes." In the same place, ch. 8, Myrogenes the dropsical: "Pray," he says, "for me, fathers, that the inner man may not become dropsical; for I pray God that I may endure longer in this infirmity." No doubt these saints rightly adapted this general saying of the Apostle to diseases and to mortification.
So that admirable Martyr Clement of Ancyra, with Agathangelus under the Emperor Diocletian, when he was tortured with every kind of torment, although broken in body, yet in soul he became daily stronger and more vigorous, so that he always sought new torments, and to receive these he asked God and obtained that his life be prolonged as long as possible, namely to twenty-eight years, in which he was continually tortured and torn in flesh: and when Diocletian and the magistrates were astonished at such fortitude and greatness of soul of the Martyr, and asked him how he was faring in the torments, how he could endure them? He replied this saying of Paul: "Although he who is without, our man, is corrupted: yet he who is within is renewed from day to day."
This St. John Chrysostom was thinking when he was being led into exile to Cucusus. Whence with a weak and infirm body, feverish, by night and day he was forced by the soldiers to travel continuously for seventy days (who wished to wear him out and kill him in this way, in order to gratify the Empress Eudoxia, just as they did wear him out and kill him, so that he is truly a Martyr), in extreme hunger, thirst, poverty, the heats of the sun, the dangers of the Arabs; all these he overcame eagerly and generously, so that, forgetting himself, he consoled and lifted up noble matrons, Olympias, Pentadia and other friends afflicted on his account, to bravely endure prisons and any hardships for Christ. He also wrote then that divine treatise, That no one is harmed except by himself, in which he surpassed himself. For with living arguments he shows that the whole cause and matter of true sorrow proceeds not from another, but from ourselves. Because the matter and cause of true sorrow is only sin (for this alone is the true evil, and therefore one ought to grieve only over it), which no one admits except by his own free will. For the other evils and sorrows, whatever there are in the world, if compared with sin, are not true but only painted and feigned, as being light, slight and brief; since sin brings the most grievous, the most numerous and the eternal.
Verse 17: A Momentary and Light Tribulation Works an Eternal Weight of Glory
17. For that which at present is momentary and light of our tribulation. — In Greek τὸ γὰρ παραυτίκα ἐλαφρὸν τῆς θλίψεως ἡμῶν, that which is light in a moment, or, more literally, the momentary lightness of our affliction; so that τὸ ἐλαφρὸν stands for a noun substantive, and is the same as "lightness"; and τὸ παραυτίκα serves in place of an adjective, and is the same as "momentary": which is very familiar to the Greeks. So Demosthenes says: ἡ παραυτίκα ἡδονή, that is, momentary pleasure.
Where note: "At present" is not expressed in the Greek, but is tacitly included in "in a moment," or "momentary." Secondly, ἐλαφρὸν, says Erasmus, that is, lightness, is here said of the affliction, not as if it were light to bear, but because it passes lightly and quickly. So also βάρος, that is, weight, which he opposes to lightness; he does not call that which weighs down, but that which is solid and remains. For thus among the Greeks ἐλαφρὸς is so called as if from ἔλαφος, that is, a stag, as if to say: light and swift like a stag. But thus the Apostle would commit a tautology, and what he said more clearly, "Momentary and eternal," he would repeat in the same obscurer words, saying and explaining "momentary" by "light," "eternal" by "weight." Whence ἐλαφρὸν here more aptly signifies, as also often elsewhere, that which in itself is easy and light; for it is opposed to the heavy, or weight. So ἐλαφρὰ κάβις is called a light garment, not a weighty one, in Xenophon. So the Greeks say ἐν ἐλαφρῷ ποιεῖσθαι, that is, to count light, to esteem little, as if to say: All our tribulation is momentary and light, if compared with that eternal and most weighty weight of glory, just as if you were to compare a single feather, or the lightest spark, with the lead of the whole universe.
Hence beautifully St. Augustine on Psalm 59, explaining that saying of Christ: "For My yoke is sweet, and My burden (for which Augustine reads, 'pack') light," thus says: "Another (worldly) burden presses and weighs you down, but Christ's burden lifts you up; another burden has weight, Christ's burden has wings. For if you pull off the wings of a bird, you take away as it were a burden, and the more you take away the burden, the more it will remain on the ground: let the burden return, and it flies. Such is the burden of Christ."
The Apostle declares that what he endures is momentary and light: and certainly you have not yet received from the Jews five times forty stripes save one, you have not yet labored more than all, finally you have not yet resisted unto blood: see therefore how the sufferings are not worthy [to be compared] to the glory.
Above measure in sublimity. — As if to say: Anselm says: That he may be raised on high to the height of heavens and angels. But note: in Greek it is καθ' ὑπερβολὴν εἰς ὑπερβολήν, according to excellence to excellence, that is, excellently excelling, says Theophylact; or marvelously and above measure exalted, sublime and immense, namely the weight of glory. So Œcumenius. For thus the Hebrews by the doubling of a word signify intensity and the superlative, as מאד מאד meod meod, that is, very very, that is, above measure, and exceedingly, as if to say: Incomparably greater and more excellent is the weight of future glory than the tribulation which we suffer here.
Chrysostom and Theodoret note with a beautiful antithesis, that to the momentary is opposed the eternal, to the light is opposed weight, τὸ "at present" to τῷ "in sublimity," to tribulation not only rest, but also glory. So in the next verse he opposes τὰ βλεπόμενα καὶ τὰ μὴ βλεπόμενα, the things which are seen, and the things which are not seen; πρόσκαιρα καὶ αἰώνια, temporal, that is, lasting for a time, and eternal. So to the Maccabees, Vincent, Lawrence, Stephen, the stones, gridirons, racks and all the torments were, before the heavenly glory, as a moment compared to infinite time; as a feather, or a most light bubble, compared to heaven, or some leaden universe, or rather golden; as a point, compared to the whole world.
Beautifully St. Augustine on Psalm 93 says that God says: "I have something for sale; what, Lord? The kingdom of heaven; with what is it bought? The kingdom by poverty, joy by sorrow, rest by labor, glory by lowliness, life by death." For it is written: "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted: blessed are they who hunger, for they shall be filled," etc. Aptly therefore Paul assigns weight to glory, lightness to tribulation: to the latter, momentary duration, to the former, eternity: to the latter, present time and place, to the former, sublimity and perennity: to the latter, that the tribulation is ours, since we as it were grasp it with our hand and enclose it in our fist; but to the former, that above measure and above every measure, without any intermission, it works in us.
An eternal weight of glory (the Syriac, an infinite glory unto ages of ages) works. — Not physically and efficiently, but morally and meritoriously. Hence the merits of good works are evident. Calvin denies it, and after him Beza, and only says that here is signified an order, or the way by which one comes to glory, namely through tribulations. But this is too frigid: for a journey, or way is not said to work the very end of the journey, unless by "journey" you take, not the way, but the journeying itself, or going forth: which indeed is the cause of the end, not only morally, but also physically, and properly efficiently: which if Calvin would concede in good works and merits with respect to the eternal reward, he would give them more than the Catholics give, who attribute to them not a physical and proper, but only a moral and meritorious causality and efficiency. Furthermore, that not only an order is here signified is clear from the Greek κατεργάζεται, that is, works thoroughly, accomplishes, perfects: which assuredly signifies a cause not of any sort, but a powerful and efficacious one. So Ambrose, and especially Chrysostom in the moral [section]: "God," he says, "a just judge, in the same way renders to the just blessedness, as to the wicked hell;" but to the wicked he renders hell as the deserved penalties of crimes: therefore he also renders to the just blessedness as a reward and prize deserved for good works. And St. Bernard, on Psalm 90, sermon 17: "He did not say," he says, "He will reward, but, An eternal weight of glory works in us. Glory lies hidden, my brethren, it is hidden from us in tribulation: in this momentary, eternity lies hidden, in this light, a sublime weight above measure," as if to say: In the light tribulation lies hidden and is contained the weight of glory, just as the harvest lies hidden and is contained in the seed: whence when this exerts its power, then it works and produces that. Whence he adds: "Meanwhile therefore let us hasten to buy ourselves that field, to buy that treasure, which is hidden in the field. Let us count it all joy when we fall into various tribulations. Let us say from the heart: It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting."
You will say, how then does he call the sufferings light, and elsewhere says: "They are not worthy [of comparison]?" I respond: They are not worthy, insofar as they are sufferings or insofar as they are penal works of nature, because thus they have no proportion with such great glory: yet they are worthy, insofar as these sufferings are borne out of grace and charity; for thus they are works of grace and charity; for this grace is the seed of glory. Therefore as the seed is worthy of and commensurate with the harvest, so also is grace with glory. Secondly, they are worthy, insofar as they are sufferings of Christ, that is, proceeding from Christ's merits, and subordinated to them: for Christ merited for us this patience of sufferings and afflictions, and likewise He merited that by this our patience as if His own, and remaining from Himself and His merits, we might merit eternal glory.
Excellently St. Bernard, sermon 1 De Diversis, urging each word of the Apostle: "Go on then," he says, "murmur and say: It is long, it is heavy, I cannot bear such immense and such long-lasting things. From the Jews you have received five times forty stripes save one, you have not yet labored more than all, finally you have not yet resisted unto blood: see therefore how the sufferings are not worthy [of being compared] to the glory. First, why do you number the days and hours into uncertainty? The hour passes, and the penalty passes: they do not approach each other, but rather give way and succeed one another. Not so glory, not so the reward, not so the very wage of labor: it knows no vicissitude, it knows no end, it remains all at once, and it remains forever. Secondly, the penalty is drunk drop by drop, taken sip by sip, passes by minutiae. For in the reward there is a torrent of pleasure, and the rush of a river, a torrent overflowing with gladness, a river of glory, and a river of peace. Thirdly, for to us is promised not a glorious garment, not a glorious house, but glory itself. For in truth the expectation of the just is not something joyful, but joy itself. Men rejoice in foods, rejoice in pomps, rejoice in riches, rejoice also in vices: but mourning seizes the end of such joys. But for us God has stored up not a honeycomb, but the purest and most liquid honey, plainly joy itself, life, glory, peace, pleasure, pleasantness, happiness, delight and exultation: the Lord our God has stored up for us: and all these are one, that there may be a participation in Jerusalem in the very same thing. And this one and the same is none other than Himself, the Apostle saying: For God will be all in all. This is our reward, this is our crown, this is our prize: to which would that we may so run, that we may attain!"
Morally, the author of the book On the Soul and Spirit, which exists in volume III of the works of St. Augustine (Trithemius thinks it is the work of Hugh of St. Victor, for that it is not of St. Augustine is clear from ch. 37, where he cites Boethius, who was later than Augustine), graphically depicts the weight of glory, and these joys of the Blessed, ch. 57 and following: and first, he describes the mutual charity of all the Blessed, and from this the mutual joy, by which each will rejoice not only in his own beatitude, but also in that of each of the others, and will be blessed not once, but a hundred thousand times. Secondly, he describes the delight which the Blessed will perceive from the vision of God. Thirdly, he sets before our eyes their fullest peace and sweetness. Fourthly, in ch. 64, he extols the possession of the immense good, which is God Himself. Fifthly, he brings forward the abundance and affluence of beauty, health, wisdom, melody, honor, riches and all goods, which here we can either taste or conceive. "In heaven," he says, "is whatever you love, whatever you desire. If beauty delights, the just will shine as the sun; if swiftness or strength, they will be like the angels of God; if long and healthful life, there is sound eternity, and eternal health; if satiety, they will be satisfied when the glory of the Lord shall appear; if inebriation, they will be inebriated from the abundance of the house of God; if melody, there the angels sing to God without end; if any worldly pleasure, the Lord will give them to drink from the torrent of His Godhead; if wisdom, all will be taught of God; if concord, the will of God will be their food; if power, they will enter into the powers of the Lord, and will be omnipotent of their own will, as God is of His: for as God will be able to do what He wills through Himself, so they will be able to do what they will through Him; if honor and riches, God will set His good and faithful servants over many things; if true security, certainly they will be so certain that that good will never fail them, as they will be certain neither that they themselves will lose it of their own will, nor that the loving God will take it away from His lovers against their will." From all which St. Gregory rightly infers, hom. 32 on the Gospels: "To great rewards," he says, "one cannot come except through great labors. Whence also Paul, the excellent preacher, used to say: He shall not be crowned, except he strive lawfully. Let therefore the magnitude of the rewards delight the mind, but let not the contest of labors deter it." For the present time, as one of the Saints says, is of labor and penance: but the future will be of rest and joy.
Verse 18: The Things Seen Are Temporal, the Unseen Eternal
18. For the things which are seen are temporal: but the things which are not seen are eternal. — Excellently St. Augustine in the Sentences, no. 270: "Between temporal things and eternal," he says, "there is this difference, that temporal things are loved more before they are had, but become worthless when they have come. For nothing satisfies the soul, except the true and certain eternity of incorruptible joy. But the eternal is loved more ardently when obtained than when desired. For no one esteems it more than he has of himself, so that it should become more worthless because it was hoped for as more. But such is the excellence there, that charity will obtain much more than either faith believed, or hope desired." See St. Gregory, homily 36 on the Gospels, at the beginning, where he assigns the same distinction between carnal and spiritual pleasures and treats it more fully.