Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, he continues to exhort the Ephesians to imitate Christ as sons, and to flee from lust, scurrility, foolish talk, and other works of darkness, as sons of light.
Second, at verse 15, he urges them to redeem the time by doing God's will, and by being filled, not with wine, but with the Holy Spirit, in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles.
Third, at verse 22, he wills wives to be subject to their husbands, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church: for they are two in one flesh, and this Sacrament is great: But I say, he says, in Christ and in the Church.
Vulgate Text: Ephesians 5:1-33
1. Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children: 2. and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. 3. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becomes saints: 4. or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks. 5. For know you this and understand, that every fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things comes the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. 7. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. 8. For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk then as children of the light: 9. for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth: 10. proving what is well pleasing to God; 11. and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. 13. But all things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light: for all that is made manifest is light. 14. Wherefore he says: Rise, you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you. 15. See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly: not as unwise, 16. but as wise: redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17. Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. 18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury: but be filled with the Holy Spirit, 19. speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, 20. giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father. 21. Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. 22. Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: 23. because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church, He is the savior of His body. 24. Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things. 25. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, 26. that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life, 27. that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. 28. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves himself. 29. For no man ever hated his own flesh: but nourishes and cherishes it, as also Christ does the Church; 30. because we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. 32. This is a great Sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church. 33. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear her husband.
Verse 1: Be Ye Therefore Followers of God, as Most Dear Children
Be ye therefore followers of God, as most dear children. — The Syriac translates: be ye therefore מתדמין metdammin, that is, conformed to God. This sentence depends on the end of the preceding chapter, where he said: "Forgiving one another, as God also in Christ has forgiven you." To which he immediately subjoins the beginning of this chapter: "Be ye therefore followers of God"; namely, that just as God pardoned your offenses, so also you should pardon your neighbors the things in which they have sinned against you; and just as God, says Jerome, makes the sun to rise and rains upon the good and the evil, so you also should pour out your goodness upon all men. He adds the reason and motive saying: "As most dear children," as if to say: It is the part of children to imitate their parents; otherwise they will be reckoned degenerate and spurious; but our Father, namely God, is most clement and most kind to all, and most easily pardons our offenses: therefore we also, who are His children, ought to be most clement, most ready to pardon offenses against us, and most beneficent to our brothers and neighbors; whence explaining he adds:
Verse 2: And Walk in Love, as Christ Also Has Loved Us, and Has Delivered Himself for Us, an Oblation and a Sacrifice to God for an Odor of Sweetness
And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us. — It is a great dignity to imitate God; and "this is," says Ambrose in book I of On Abraham, chapter II, "what is celebrated as great among the sayings of the seven sages: Follow God. Thus Abraham anticipated by deed the sayings of the sages, and following God went out of his land and from his kindred." Again, says Jerome, we cannot imitate God in power, magnificence, and other such things: but we can follow and imitate Him from afar in humility, meekness, and charity. Hence "Christ," says St. Augustine in sermon 10 On the Words of the Lord, "cries out: Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, not to fashion the world, not to create all things visible and invisible, not in the world itself to do wonders and raise the dead; but because I am meek and humble of heart." St. Thomas wrote Opuscule 62 On the Divine Morals, in which he beautifully teaches which characteristics of God we ought to imitate, and how, and which we ought not. First, he says, we ought to imitate God's immutability through constancy in adversity and prosperity; His foreknowledge, through providence for last things; His equanimity, that we be not disturbed by any sad event; His truthfulness, sincerity, patience, clemency, charity, etc.
Second, there are other characteristics of God in which He is not to be imitated, but admired: namely, first, that He alone searches the secrets of hearts; second, that He alone perfectly knows, loves, enjoys, and praises Himself; third, that He alone is sufficient for Himself and needs nothing extrinsic; fourth, that from Him alone all good proceeds, and the blessedness of all consists in Him alone; fifth, that He alone has immortality, and dwells in inaccessible light; sixth, that He alone made something from nothing, and He alone preserves all things in being; seventh, that He alone forgives sins; eighth, that He alone knows the day of judgment and the number of the elect. To Him alone be honor and glory forever. Amen.
Finally, he says, nothing is more worthy than that a man should be an imitator of his Creator, and an executor according to the measure of his own ability.
As Christ also has loved us, and has delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. — St. Cyril at the Council of Ephesus presses the "for us" against Nestorius. For citing these words of the Apostle, from them he draws his tenth anathematism, saying: "If anyone shall say that Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice not only for us, but also for Himself (for He needed no oblation, who knew no sin), let him be anathema." Note also the delights of the love of Christ: "He loved us," he says, most tenderly and most effectively, not in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth: because out of this love toward us, spontaneously and most freely He "delivered," not His wealth or His garments, not His brethren or kindred, not His angels, but "Himself," wholly God and man, all of Himself, that He might keep nothing of Himself for Himself, but might give and deliver all of Himself "for us" sinners and His enemies, "for us," I say, that is, as a ransom and expiation for our sins; "an oblation," not dry and bloodless, as was of old the oblation of fine flour and loaves; but bloody, as of old sheep and oxen were slain and offered to God; namely a "sacrifice," that is a victim, both peaceful and for sin, and which was likewise a holocaust, and was wholly immolated on the Cross, consumed, and yielded up to God, just as of old the burnt offering wholly ascended to God by fire and smoke, that God might be appeased by its odor and offering, and as it were fed, and might accept it "for an odor of sweetness," that is, for a most acceptable and most pleasing odor.
From what has been said, it is clear that the Apostle is alluding to the ancient sacrifices both of the victims, which were immolated in the kind of holocausts, and of the incense, which was burned to propitiate God on the altar of incense, which was in the Holy Place, before the Holy of Holies; so that the smoke and fragrance of the incense ascended to the Holy of Holies, and God, residing in the Holy of Holies above the propitiatory, would receive that fragrance and as it were smell it, and so be appeased and reconciled.
Hence note secondly: "For an odor of sweetness," that is, sweet or most sweet. In Lev. I, 9, and elsewhere, the Hebrew has לריח ניחוח lereach nichoach, that is, for an odor of rest. The "odor of rest" is called the most sweet odor on which the sense of smell most sweetly feeds, so that it may rest in it most agreeably and most peacefully. Hence the Septuagint and from them Paul translates εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας, that is, for an odor of fragrance or good aroma, as St. Jerome translates in the preface to Zechariah: for the sense of smell feeds on such, and in such most sweetly rests, is refreshed, and is reconciled.
Furthermore note thirdly: The sense of smell is attributed to God anthropopathically, by which He may be fed as it were with a most pleasing odor by the sacrifices: because these sacrifices rendered God appeased, and calmed His anger and made it to rest, and so they expiated sins through faith in Christ, whom they declared as the future mediator, and whose sacrifice they foreshadowed by their own sacrifices; and these sacrifices were quite acceptable to God not from the work performed (ex opere operato), as is the sacrifice of the new law, but from the work and devotion of the one performing them. For they were the most noble acts of obedience and worship, by which God was as it were fed with a most fragrant odor. Hence the Chaldee, instead of "oblation for an odor of sweetness, or sweet fragrance," translates it as "that the oblation may be received by God with goodwill." Thus in Gen. VIII, 20, it is said of Noah: "He offered holocausts upon the altar, and the Lord smelled a sweet savor, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man"; as if to say: The smoke and odor of this sacrifice of Noah, which ascended with the smoke, in the likeness of a sweet odor, pleased God, as it were took away the stench of the sins of men from the nostrils of God, so that being plainly appeased thereby He decreed, on account of the sins of men, no longer to bring a flood upon the earth. Hence Chrysostom thus expounds the passage "The Lord smelled an odor of sweetness": Because, he says, the virtue of just Noah made the smoke and odor of his victim an odor of fragrance to God. Thus Plato and Lucian represent the gods of the Gentiles as if sweetly smelling the sacrifices and rejoicing in their savor. This therefore is the sense and mind of the Apostle, as if to say: Just as Christ loved us, so as to give Himself for us as a victim most pleasing, most sweet, and most acceptable to God to be immolated on the Cross: so we ought to love one another, and not only to forgive mutual injuries, but to expose our goods and our life for the salvation of our neighbors; and just as that victim of Christ was most sweet and most pleasing to God: so this our offering, by which we offer and expend ourselves and our possessions for the salvation of our neighbors, will be most agreeable to God, and will wipe away every stench of our sins from the nostrils of God. For charity covers a multitude of sins.
Verse 3: All Uncleanness, or Covetousness, Let It Not So Much as Be Named Among You, as Becomes Saints
3. All uncleanness. — Any obscenity and lust of touches and unclean works. "Unless," says Jerome, "certain Cynic Philosophers had likewise existed, who would teach that every titillation of the flesh and emission of seed coming from any kind of friction or touch is not to be avoided in time, and certain wise men of the world had consented to this shameful and disgraceful heresy, the holy Apostle, writing to the Ephesians, would never have joined every uncleanness to fornication."
Or covetousness. — In Greek πλεονεξία, an excessive desire of having. What it is, I shall say at verse 5.
Let it not so much as be named among you (μηδὲ ὀνομαζέσθω, let it not even be named), as becomes saints, — that is, Christians, who by calling, baptism, and profession are, that is, ought to be, saints; as if to say: So far should Christians be removed from all uncleanness, since they are saints and consecrated to God, that not even the name of uncleanness or of any unclean work should be heard among them.
Verse 4: Or Obscenity, or Foolish Talking, or Scurrility, Which Is to No Purpose; but Rather Giving of Thanks
4. Or obscenity, — that is, as the Syriac has, obscenity, namely of words; and thus it is distinguished from uncleanness, which is of works.
Or scurrility. — In Greek εὐτραπελία, that is, urbanity, which Aristotle in book IV of the Ethics, chapter VIII, and St. Augustine, and from these St. Thomas, II II, Question CLXVIII, article 2, teach to be a virtue which moderates and tempers the seriousness and the rigor and vigor of the spirit (lest namely the spirit too intently occupy itself with serious things, and weaken and exhaust both itself and the body) by means of decent jests and games, accomplishing namely first, that the games and jokes should be honest; secondly, that they should be becoming and suitable to the person, place, and time: for one kind of jest befits a layman, another a priest and a monk; one at table, another in the school, another in the bedroom; thirdly, that they should be moderate, lest they dissolve the harmony of the mind, says Ambrose. Hence Aristotle opposes to the virtue of eutrapelia, or urbanity, by way of excess, the vice of βωμολογία, that is, scurrility, namely when a jest is excessive, or untimely, or indecent, namely because it is foolish, or biting, or slanderous, or filthy, or exciting laughter and dissoluteness, or unbecoming, as when one abuses the words of Sacred Scripture for trifles and jests: which is the greatest and gravest scurrility, and has joined to it irreverence toward God, and the word of God: hence the Council of Trent, session IV, forbids it in grave words. By way of defect Aristotle opposes to eutrapelia the vice of ἀγροικία, that is, rusticity. For those who are too grave and severe, and admit no jokes or games, are either Catos, or rustics, too austere, boorish, morose, and melancholy.
On the other hand, St. Chrysostom here in his moral commentary denies that eutrapelia, that is, urbanity, is a virtue among Christians, and teaches in many ways that jests do not become a Christian, but rather mourning and weeping; thus also the Apostle here pursues eutrapelia as a vice. But they understand eutrapelia not as the moderate sort already mentioned, but as the immoderate, namely βωμολογία, that is, scurrility; which Aristotle confesses is also called eutrapelia by the common people who are addicted to excessive jests and witticisms. That this is the mind of the Apostle, and consequently of Chrysostom, is clear from the words of the Apostle which follow, when he says: "Which are to no purpose," in Greek τὰ οὐκ ἀνήκοντα, that is, which are not becoming. Therefore the Apostle here forbids only indecent and unbecoming wittiness, or urbanity. That such jocularity, which only moves laughter in those who hear it, exists among Christians, Jerome teaches here. "For this," he says, "must be driven out by our saints, for whom it is more fitting to weep and mourn. In the Hebrew Gospel also we read the Lord saying to the disciples: And never, He says, be glad, except when you have seen your brother in charity." But lest this make anyone scrupulous, understand that the jocularity which becomes Christians is not that which has no aim but to excite laughter. For if it is referred further to something else, e.g., to honest recreation, gladness, lifting the spirit, preserving the health of the body, namely so that a man may become more lively, more vigorous, and more apt for his duties and the service of God, it is honest, and becomes Christians. Thus Paul, Anthony, Hilarion, and other Hermits had their jests, but Christian and seasoned with salt.
But rather giving of thanks, — supply, let it be named among you, who are Christians and saints, as if to say: At table, at banquets, in conversations, in recreations, do not feed and delight yourselves by speaking shameful, foolish, and scurrilous things: for the Gentiles do this, who do not acknowledge God and Christ; but rather speak about Christ, the grace of Christ, your calling, and the immense benefits bestowed upon you, that thereby you may mutually rouse one another to the giving of thanks. Hence that expression once familiar to Christians, as it now is to the Religious, in every greeting and meeting: Thanks be to God. "For what better thing," says St. Augustine in epistle 77, "can we both bear in our soul, and bring forth from our mouth, and express with our pen, than: Thanks be to God? Nothing can be said more briefly, nor heard more joyfully, nor understood more grandly, nor done more fruitfully. Thanks be to God, who has enriched you with so faithful a breast," etc.
Verse 5: For Know You This and Understand, That Every Fornicator, or Unclean, or Covetous Person, Which Is a Serving of Idols, Has No Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God
5. For know you this and understand, that every fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person, which is a serving of idols, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. — Note: in the Greek our translator reads ἥ ἐστιν εἰδωλολατρεία, that is, the vice of covetousness with which the avaricious man labors, and which lies hidden and is contained in him, is a service of idols, or is idolatry. Now the Greek reads ὅ ἐστιν εἰδωλολάτρης, that is, who (namely the avaricious man) is a servant of idols; or, word for word, is an idolater.
You will ask: what kind of covetousness is here understood? First, St. Jerome here at verse 3 understands an insatiable desire not of money, but of carnal pleasures, or of lusts, by which the soul, insatiable, runs through every kind of obscenity, and through all the modes of luxury, that he may glut his desire with every lust. And St. Jerome's reason is that covetousness is here placed by the Apostle among lusts, as also in the preceding chapter, verse 19. And the Greek πλεονεξία is an immoderate eagerness to have, to usurp, to occupy more than is fitting for one, whether in wealth, or in honors, or in wives, or in pleasures. This is the service of idols, because the fornicator and obscene man, equally as the merchant serves his profits, the proud man honors, the gluttonous man his belly, serves his mistress and his own member as it were as his idol. Adam adds that here the most filthy obscenities of Simon Magus and his followers are reproved, who referred their lusts to the honor of God, indeed offered them as a sacrifice to the Father of all things: for thus in truth they were worshipping not God, who execrates lusts, but the demon, who delights in them. For they were worshipping as the Father of all things him who is delighted with lusts and worshipped through them, who is none other than the demon, and consequently they were committing idolatry. For idolatry signifies the worship not only of idols, but also of demons, and indeed of any thing which is not truly God.
But more plainly secondly, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Cyprian, who for "covetous" translates "defrauder," and others, indeed Jerome himself at last inclines to this in this verse; these, I say, properly take covetousness for an immoderate desire of wealth, by which the covetous man heaps up wealth by fair means and foul. For here covetousness is taken in the complete act, and then it is a mortal sin, and excludes from the kingdom of God, as the Apostle here says. This is clear, because if by covetousness he understood lust, he would have said equally of fornication and uncleanness as of covetousness, that they are a service of idols. For both the fornicator and the unclean man have their venery for God, just as the gluttonous man has his belly for God. But now the Apostle says of covetousness alone that it is the service of idols; therefore he distinguishes covetousness from fornication, uncleanness, and lust.
Secondly, because the Greek πλεονεξία, and the Latin "avaritia," properly and commonly signify this desire of gold and silver, especially when it is separated from the desire of venery and of other things, as it is here separated by the disjunctive conjunction. It is otherwise in the preceding chapter, verse 19; for there covetousness is joined to and qualifies uncleanness; for he says: "To the working of all uncleanness, with greediness," that is, that they may work all uncleanness greedily and avidly.
Thirdly, because in Col. III, 5, distinguishing covetousness from lust and evil concupiscence, he says that it is a service of idols; therefore he takes covetousness properly: if there, then here also. For there he says the same thing in almost the same words as here.
You will ask secondly: Why is covetousness said, beyond other vices, to be "a service of idols," that is, idolatry? I answer first, because covetous men place all hope of life and sustenance in their wealth; therefore they hold it as it were for God. For this is God to anyone, from whom he hopes for and expects life and the necessities of life.
Secondly, because, as idolaters worship golden and silver images, so the covetous worship their stamped effigies of gold and silver. Hence Theophylact beautifully says: "What David said in Psalm CXIII: The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold; this Paul with great wisdom inverts, saying: Silver and gold are the idols and images of the covetous."
Thirdly, because this covetousness is insatiable, and while other desires are settled by their very use, and at least temporarily satisfied, e.g., the desire of gluttony is satisfied by food and drink, and turns into loathing; the desire of venery is satisfied by fornication, and turns into nausea and a failure of strength and spirits: yet covetousness alone is settled by no wealth, but is rather inflamed. "For the love of money grows as much as the money itself grows." And, "the more waters are drunk, the more they are thirsted for." Hence covetousness absorbs and claims the whole heart and mind of man, so that the covetous man neither thinks nor dreams night or day of anything but acquiring and increasing his profits, and immolates to them and to mammon his body through constant labors and cares, and his soul through frauds, usuries, and other crimes. Therefore the covetous man, beyond others addicted to their gluttony or venery, is called an idolater, and has his wealth as God, because he gives and spends himself wholly upon it beyond all others. For this is God to anyone, what he always has in mind, what he turns over in his soul, on which he is wholly intent, what he has as his last end, on which he fixes his whole heart and love, to which he refers all his studies, thoughts, and actions, on which he expends all his cares, labors, and life itself. See Chrysostom here in his moral commentary teaching at length that the covetous are not by hyperbole but truly are and are called idolaters. "For just as," he says, "idolaters reverence idols, and do not dare to touch them out of reverence: so the covetous man reverences his money as an idol, and does not dare to touch it, but is delighted only with the empty sight of it." The same in homily 64 on Matthew: "As a stone idol," he says, "is in temples, so the covetous fence in their gold with bolts and bars, preparing a chest as a temple: then they themselves adore what they have shut up, and prefer that their eyes and soul should perish than their treasure." These are called by Herodes the sophist "Aloadae," who, after they had imprisoned Mars, sacrificed to him. So Philostratus in his Herodes.
Verse 6: Let No Man Deceive You With Vain Words; for Because of These Things Comes the Anger of God Upon the Children of Unbelief
6. Let no man deceive you with vain words, — let not the Philosophers, not the lascivious Poets seduce you, not Simon Magus, who requires no good works, but teaches that faith alone suffices for salvation. From which Luther and Calvin have borrowed this same dogma. For this empty, trifling, deceitful, and fraudulent dogma seduces men, so that they let loose the reins to all their lusts and vices, and so perish and are damned.
For because of these things (namely fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness) comes the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. — "Comes," in Greek ἔρχεται, that is, "comes" in the present tense, not the past. It is a Hebraism. "Comes," that is, is wont to come, "anger," that is, vengeance, which is the effect of anger, "of God upon the children of unbelief," ἀπειθείας, that is, of disobedience, or "of incredulity"; or, as Jerome has it, of being unpersuadable, and, as St. Cyprian has it, of obstinacy; as if to say: Upon disobedient, incredulous, unpersuadable, intractable men, as I said in chapter II, verse 2, who, when they are warned or hear that the previously mentioned shameful acts are foul and unlawful, either do not believe, or do not obey one rightly teaching and warning them. Whence God justly exercises His vengeance upon them, often in this life by pestilence, famine, sword, and a thousand hardships; but after death always punishes them with eternal death and fire, unless they first repent.
Verse 7: Be Ye Not Therefore Partakers With Them
7. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. — In Greek συμμέτοχοι, that is, fellow-partakers, as if to say: Do not communicate with and participate in their crimes already mentioned.
Verse 8: For You Were Heretofore Darkness, but Now Light in the Lord. Walk Then as Children of the Light
8. For you were heretofore darkness, — that is, you were full of darkness. It is a metonymy with emphasis. For just as we call a wicked man "wickedness," so here he calls "darkness" those darkened and shadow-dwellers in unbelief and ignorance, both of God and of the things to be done. For you were ignorant that fornication, uncleanness, and like things were such great and grave sins.
Note: Eusebius, lib. VI De Praeparatione, and Theodoret, De Curand. Graecan. affect., demonstrate at length how great was the blindness and perverse judgment of the Gentiles in heathenism, even with regard to those things which natural reason and the law of nature dictate. For, they say, the Persians joined themselves in unspeakable marriages with their sisters, mothers, and daughters; the Scythians fed on human flesh and immolated their sons; the Massagetae ate their kindred when old; the Hyrcanians cast their old men to be devoured by birds, the Caspians by dogs; the Lacedaemonians praised theft as an ingenious and clever thing; others granted their wives to guests as a token of hospitality, to be defiled by adultery. How great were the crimes of the Canaanites is clear from Lev. XVIII, and Deut. X and XVI. Consider how wicked the laws of the divine Plato are concerning not aiding the sick, lying freely, killing infants, and the community of wives. Lycurgus by his laws orders strangers to be driven from the borders, boys to be prostituted with impunity, women to be freely exposed. These and many more things from Theodoret and Eusebius. Rightly St. Augustine in the Sentences, sentence 343: "Let us follow," he says, "Christ the true light, and not walk in darkness. But the darkness to be feared is that of morals, not of the eyes; and if of the eyes, not of the outer, but of the inner, by which is discerned, not white and black, but just and unjust."
But now (you are) light in the Lord. — As if to say: Now that you have been made Christians you are full of light: because you have been illumined by the faith, grace, and doctrine of Christ, that you may know both the true God, three and one, and the things which are to be done, that you may please that true God. Therefore:
Walk as children of the light. — That is, live in the manner in which it befits those to live who have obtained such great light, that is, the knowledge of God, of the divine will, and of the things to be done. Make sure that this knowledge be not idle, nor lurk asleep in the soul, but flow forth into the will and into works, so that the works of faith, as it were offspring, may answer to their mother.
Note, sins are called darkness: first, because sinners hate the light and seek darkness: for they are ashamed to do such shameful things and to sin in the light openly before men; secondly, because sins blind the judgment of reason. Hence Prov. XIV, 22, it is said: "They err that work evil." For sin always arises either from error, or from imprudence, lack of consideration, and some inadvertence of reason and intellect: and again while it is committed, it increases the same and darkens the right judgment of prudence and conscience by the inclination to repeat the same sin, which it engenders in the soul.
On the other hand, virtue and good works are called light: first, because they love the light, the sight of God and of men; secondly, because they flow from light, that is, from the dictate of faith and prudence; thirdly, because they increase that same light; fourthly, because they illumine others, and, as it were, the light of holy example shines forth before others; fifthly, because they originate from God, who is the first and uncreated light transcending all things, illumining, warming, animating, vivifying, sustaining, and as it were a sun turning all things to Himself, says St. Dionysius in On the Divine Names, chapter IV. See Rom. XIII, 12.
Verse 9: For the Fruit of the Light Is in All Goodness, and Justice, and Truth
9. For the fruit of the light is (that is, is situated) in all goodness, and justice, and truth. — The Greeks now corruptly read καρπὸς τοῦ πνεύματος, that is, the fruit of the spirit. For it should be read, the fruit τοῦ φωτός, that is, of the light, as our translator, the Syriac, and the ancients commonly read. For he was speaking before of light, not of spirit; therefore the fruit of light, that is, of faith, prudence, and Christian virtue, is situated "in all goodness," ἀγαθωσύνη, that is, kindness and beneficence, of which I have spoken at Gal. V, 22: this he opposes to wrath, harshness, and malice; "and justice": this he opposes to frauds; "and truth": this he opposes to lying and hypocrisy. So Chrysostom, as if to say: From the fruits of light you will show that you are children of light, if namely you show yourselves not wrathful, harsh, malicious, but kind and beneficent; not fraudulent, but just; not liars and hypocrites, but sincere and truthful.
Verse 10: Proving What Is Well Pleasing to God
10. Proving (δοκιμάζοντες, examining, searching out) what is well pleasing to God. — Indeed this ought to be the first endeavor of a Christian, that he search out what God requires of him, in what matter he can most please God, how he may acknowledge and fulfill His holy will and good pleasure. This is the sum, this is the summit of Christian perfection: that with St. Paul, not only in choosing a state of life, but in every matter, he should say: Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And with Christ: Thy will be done concerning me, in me, through me, around me, both in life and in death, both in time and in eternity.
Verse 11: And Have No Fellowship With the Unfruitful Works of Darkness, but Rather Reprove Them
11. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, — have no commerce with, nor mingle yourselves with, the works of sinners and the sinful, who like creatures of darkness flee the light. For these works bring no fruit except late and useless repentance and remorse of conscience.
But rather reprove them. — As if to say: Reprove their darkness, that is, their shameful lusts and sins, both by word and by example of a pure and holy life.
Verse 12: For the Things That Are Done by Them in Secret, It Is a Shame Even to Speak Of
12. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. — "By them," namely by the sons of disobedience and of darkness, of whom he spoke in verses 6, 7, 11. So Jerome. He notes the obscenity both of the pagans and especially of Simon Magus and the Gnostics, concerning whom Epiphanius narrates abominable things, and he cites this passage of the Apostle.
Verse 13: But All Things That Are Reproved Are Made Manifest by the Light
13. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. — He looks back to what he said in verse 11: "But rather reprove them," namely the lusts and vices already mentioned in verse 3. For that the Apostle is referring to this in verse 13 is shown by the Greek. They do not have τὰ πάντα καί, but τὰ καὶ πάντα, that is ταῦτα πάντα, that is, "all these things," namely fornication, uncleanness, scurrility, which I have already mentioned and reproved; and, as Jerome reads, the things which are reproved by me, are reproved and made manifest, that is, ought to be reproved and made manifest by the light. As if to say: When I say that you ought to reprove the wickedness already mentioned, I am at the same time admonishing that, in order rightly to reprove those creatures of darkness and the darkness of the wicked deeds already mentioned, you must bring forth the light of holy doctrine and life.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. — For the light must make manifest the dark sins which we reprove. For just as the night and darkness of unbelief or impiety conceal and hide their sins from sinners themselves, so the light of holy doctrine and life, brought by the sons of light, that is, by Christians, throws back, exposes, and makes manifest those same sins to them. Hence in place of what follows: "For all that is made manifest is light," it can be translated from the Greek, with the Syriac, Erasmus, and Vatablus: "For everything that makes manifest (the darkness of sins just mentioned) is light"; for the Greek φανερούμενον is of middle voice and signifies as much that which makes manifest as that which is made manifest. Yet our translator more significantly renders it "that which is made manifest." For the Apostle proves that what is reproved must be made manifest by the light: because, he says, that which is reproved, and by being reproved is made manifest, and by being made manifest is amended through repentance (for the verb "is made manifest" signifies this by metalepsis), is light, that is, becomes luminous, and casts off the darkness of sins. Thence it rightly follows: Therefore that same thing must be made manifest by the light. For nothing becomes luminous and casts off darkness unless it is illuminated and manifested by light. As if to say: See therefore, O Christians, how, as sons of light, you ought to walk, how much light you ought to bring forth, namely so much that it not only uncovers the darkness of paganism and impiety, but also illumines them, makes them luminous, indeed transforms them into the light of Christianity. Again, lest you think your reproof and illumination would be in vain. "For all that is made manifest is light." Whatever, namely, shall be made manifest, reproved, and amended by you, the sons of light, is light: that is, will receive the light of faith and a holy life, and will become luminous; and thus from those in darkness you will make them luminous, from pagans you will make them Christians, from the obscene you will make them chaste, when, seeing your pure and holy life and doctrine, they shall abandon their errors and lusts, in order to emulate you and your faith and sanctity. So Theophylact.
Verse 14: Wherefore He Saith: Arise, Thou That Sleepest, and Arise From the Dead, and Christ Shall Enlighten Thee
14. Wherefore (namely, in order to make manifest and illumine the creatures of darkness and the darkness already mentioned) He saith — some say it is Isaiah, chapter LX, verse 1: "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." But this saying of Paul, "Arise, thou that sleepest," etc., differs much from that of Isaiah. Therefore, with St. Jerome, I say: this saying of Paul is not found in the Scriptures; yet it alludes to the passage of Isaiah just mentioned. Hence St. Thomas says that the Apostle did not take these words from any apocryphal book, nor did he utter them in a prophetic spirit, but as it were expounded the aforesaid sentence of Isaiah by mixing in some words of his own: "Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem," etc.
Therefore what Paul says, "He saith," that is, He cries out — supply: the Holy Spirit, and our God — both inwardly in the soul of every sinner through holy inspirations and stirrings to repentance; and outwardly through me, Paul (in this place and elsewhere) and other preachers, addressing each one existing in sin: "He saith," I say, and cries out what follows: "Arise, thou that sleepest," etc.
Arise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. — That is, thou, O sinner, who sleepest in slumber, and art dead by the death of sins and of vicious habit, awaken thence and arise.
Note first, the sinner sleeps as it were in darkness, as was just said, and dwelling in night, and sin is as it were a slumber. For the sinner, as Chrysostom and Theophylact say, is idle and lacks honorable action, nor does he understand the things that pertain to salvation, just like one sleeping; again, he sees dreams, and imagines pleasures and riches which have no substance, just like one sleeping. "They have slept their sleep," says the Psalmist, "and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands."
Secondly, sin is the death of the soul, and the sinner is dead; because he lacks every vital sense and motion of grace, and the spiritual soul itself, that is, grace; and he stinks before God and is of poisonous odor, says Theophylact, just like a dead corpse.
Hence thirdly, the necessity of prevenient and arousing grace is clear, that it may rouse a man from this slumber and death of the soul. For just as one sleeping cannot wake himself from sleep, nor a dead man raise himself from death, so neither can a sinner raise himself from sin, but must be roused by God and by God's grace. As a type and symbol of this, Christ, about to raise the dead Lazarus (who bore the image of a sinner), called out to him with a mighty voice: Lazarus, come forth. This one cry ought to be the voice of all preachers as much as of Paul's: "Arise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead"; this alone ought to be their study — not that they may tickle ears, not that they may win a reputation for learning, not that they may hear: How well, how eloquently he spoke! — but that, like hammers shattering rocks and the hard hearts of men, they may with vehement spirit and zeal rouse sinners from the slumber and death of sin, and call them back to the light and life of grace.
Morally, St. Augustine, on that verse of Psalm CXXXI, "If I shall give sleep to my eyes": "All these felicities of the world that are seen," he says, "are the dreams of those asleep. And just as one who sees treasures in dreams is rich while sleeping, but will awake and be poor, so all these vain things of this world, in which men rejoice, they rejoice in sleep: they will awake when they will not, if they do not awake now while it is useful; and they will find that those were dreams and have passed, as Scripture says: As the dream of one rising. And in another place: They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands. This man, therefore, who wishes to find a place for the Lord, also said: If I shall give sleep to my eyes. But there are certain ones who do not sleep, but doze: they withdraw themselves a little from the love of temporal things, and again roll back into it, and as if dozing nod their heads frequently. Awake, shake off slumber, by dozing thou art about to fall. The Psalmist does not wish to give sleep to his eyes, nor slumber to his eyelids, who wishes to find a place for the Lord."
And Christ shall enlighten thee. — He alludes to one sleeping in much light: for the one rousing him is wont to say: Arise, it has long been day, awake, behold the splendid sun. In like manner Paul, and any preacher, rouses sinners from the sleep of sin, saying: Arise, it is the day of grace, Christ the Sun of justice has now shone forth, and has illumined with the light of His grace and justice all who, awaking from the sleep of sins, have opened their eyes and risen up: arise, awake thou also, open thine eyes, and He will likewise enlighten thee. So he says in Rom. XIII, 11: "It is now the hour for us to arise from sleep. The night is past, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light."
Note: In place of "shall enlighten thee" the Greek has ἐπιφαύσει σοι, that is, "shall shine upon thee, Christ shall arise for thee"; so that, as the sun does to the moon, He may communicate to thee His light of grace, by which, made a mirror of divine light, thou mayest both illumine others, and make manifest those drawn out of the darkness of sins, lead them into the light, and make them luminous.
Jerome notes that some, instead of ἐπιφαύσει, read ἐφάψεταί σου ὁ Χριστός, that is, "Christ shall touch thee," and so reads Ambrose, and Augustine on Psalm III. Indeed Chrysostom presents both this and the former reading, as if this discourse were addressed to Adam (and consequently to us, sons of Adam, who were contained in Adam, and by his sinning have died) buried on Mount Calvary, whom Christ, crucified there, touching with His blood dripping from the cross, redeemed and brought back to light and divine life.
"I know," says Jerome, "that I heard a certain man disputing on this passage in the Church: who, for a theatrical marvel, presented to the people a form never before seen, in order to please them: This testimony, he said, is addressed to Adam, buried in the place of Calvary, where the Lord was crucified. Which place is called Calvary because the head of the ancient man was buried there. Therefore at that time when the crucified Lord hung above his sepulcher, this prophecy was fulfilled, saying: Arise, Adam, thou who sleepest, and arise from the dead: and not, as we read, ἐπιφαύσει σοι ὁ Χριστός, that is, 'Christ shall arise for thee'; but ἐφάψεται, that is, 'Christ shall touch thee': because, namely, by the touch of His blood and of the body hanging there he is to be vivified and rise up: and then also that figure was fulfilled in truth by which Elisha, dead, raised up the dead. Whether these things are true or not, I leave to the reader's judgment." Where note: although Jerome here and elsewhere seems to mock this opinion concerning Adam buried on Mount Calvary and there raised up by Christ's blood, nevertheless the Fathers commonly teach and hand down that opinion. Whence St. Augustine, sermon 71 On the Time: "And truly, brothers," he says, "it is not incongruously believed that the physician was set up where the sick man lay, and it was fitting that where human pride had fallen, there divine mercy should bend down; and that that precious blood is believed to have redeemed even bodily the dust of the ancient sinner, since it deigned by dripping to touch it." So also Tertullian, in book II of his Verses against Marcion, chapter IV.
"Here we have received that the first man is buried. Here Christ suffers, the earth is moistened with His holy blood, That the dust of ancient Adam, mingled with the blood of Christ, May be washed by the virtue of the dripping water."
Origen, Epiphanius, Athanasius, Cyprian, and the Fathers everywhere teach the same thing, with the sole exception of Jerome, as I said on Matt. XXVII, 33, and it seems to be a common tradition. For this reason also painters depict beneath the cross of Christ a skull (of Adam), as Molanus noted from Albertus Magnus, chapter LXVIII On Images.
But as for the present passage, the common and true reading is ἐπιφαύσει, that is, "shall shine forth," not ἐφάψεται, that is, "Christ shall touch thee." For so reads our Latin translator, the Syriac, and now everywhere the Greek manuscripts and Greek Fathers. Therefore it is clear it must be read so from what precedes: for thus far, from verse 8, he has been treating of light and illumination, not of touch. Finally it is most fittingly said to one sleeping and dead: Arise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee, that thou mayest behold the Sun of justice; but it is less rightly said: And Christ shall touch thee.
Add that the Apostle is not speaking of Adam, but of any sinners whatever; for he cries out to every sinner: "Arise, thou that sleepest," etc.
Verse 15: See Therefore, Brethren, How You Walk Circumspectly: Not as Unwise
15. See therefore, brethren (constituted now not in darkness, but in the clear day and light of the Gospel, when there is the faculty of living and discerning), how you walk circumspectly (ἀκριβῶς, that is, diligently, with circumspection, accurately, knowing and considering that you yourselves and all that is yours are seen and noted by all in such great light), that you converse not as unwise. — For very unwise are they who shut their eyes to this Sun of the Gospel, or beneath it commit shameful deeds, as if they were still in the night and darkness of the ignorance of God. But most unwise are they who squander this brief time granted us for obtaining blessed eternity — indeed, they so abuse it as to bring upon themselves eternal misery. Hence follows:
Verse 16: Redeeming the Time, Because the Days Are Evil
16. Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. — Anselm explains, as if the Apostle were saying: Redeem the time and the sins of past life by weeping and repenting. So that the Apostle is looking back to verse 8: "For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord"; whence immediately before he had set down: "See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly, not as unwise," inasmuch as you are now made light in the Lord, "redeeming the time," so that what was once lost in luxury and sins you may now recover, and expend it so much the more diligently and fervently as you formerly squandered it the more negligently and licentiously, that you may by this diligence and fervor mend and redeem its loss: for this is properly to redeem. But thus the Apostle would rather have said: Redeeming the past time; but now saying only, "Redeeming the time," he seems to mean the present. For there follows: "Because the days are evil"; otherwise he would have said: Because the past days were evil; unless you take "are" broadly for both "were and are"; for as they were evil, so they are even now evil. This exposition is therefore probable as well as moral and pious. For it stirs up those who in unbelief, luxury, and sins, or in sloth and lukewarmness, have lost much time and many years, that they may recover this loss with new fervor, by intensifying, doubling and tripling their acts of abstinence, mortification, charity, and other virtues, in the little of life that remains to them, so that in the few years that remain until death, they may by their own zeal acquire as much merit as others who have served God from boyhood, and as much as they themselves would have acquired had they spent their earlier years fervently in faith and obedience to God. This is according to the Latin version; for the Greek ἐξαγοραζόμενοι signifies not "redeeming," but "buying," and literally "buying out," of which presently.
Secondly, others expound it thus: God, they say, often diminishes for sinners the time they should live according to the course of nature, on account of sins, according to Psalm LIV, 24: "Men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days." For which reason He took ten years away from those 120 years which He had prescribed for men until the Flood, Gen. VI. Since therefore God is wont to diminish the time of life on account of sins, he who acts well is rightly said to redeem it, because that span of life which would otherwise, if he sinned, have been taken from him by God's judgment, he as it were redeems by good works, and he fills out all the days defined for him by nature for living, and so he dies full of days like Abraham.
Thirdly, St. Augustine, sermon 24 On the Words of the Apostle, asserts that he redeems time who takes it away from worldly business in order to enjoy his quiet and to be free for God: "When," he says, "someone brings a lawsuit against you, lose something so that you may be free for God, not for lawsuits: for what you lose is the price of time. For as you give coins and buy bread, and so you lose something and acquire something, so lose coins to buy yourself quiet, that is, time to be free for God: for this is to redeem time."
Again the same Augustine wrote on this saying of the Apostle in homily 10, among the 50, vol. X, from which take these little flowers: "Two things make evil days, wickedness and misery. We who are regenerated lead evil days until the punishment of mortality is ended, and the grace of the highest happiness succeeds. Let no one say: Our parents had good days, we have evil ones. This sentence of the Apostle was recited to them too. From the time that Adam fell and was cast out of paradise, the days have never been other than evil. Let us ask these children who are born, why they begin with weeping, who can also laugh. Tears are witnesses of misery." And below: "To redeem time is this, when someone brings a lawsuit against you, lose something to redeem the time in which you are free for God: for thus when you buy a garment, you lose coins, you acquire a garment. It is a Punic proverb: To have quiet time, lose something. The plague comes before the door, and asks for a coin: give him two, and let him be off. The plague is a wicked man, a litigant, a calumniator, a traitor. Such a one is like an evil pustule on the body, which you remove together with a small particle of the body, lest the poison occupy the whole body and attack the soul. In a lawsuit you are upset by your thoughts, you are irritated against your adversary: behold, you have lost time. How much better that you should lose a coin and redeem time? But this calumniator does not rejoice. He who has redeemed time from you in order to avoid calumny endures evil days here: but you who feed on calumnies, both have evil days here, and after these very days you will have worse on the day of judgment."
Fourthly, St. Jerome holds that time, since it was given by God so that it might serve men in good works, is held as it were captive when it is spent on evil works; and therefore must be redeemed by good works, and as it were vindicated from captivity into liberty. "When," he says, "we consume time in good, we buy it and make it our own, which had been sold by the wickedness of men: and so we turn evil days into good, and make them belong not to the present age, but to the future." Properly therefore St. Jerome takes "to redeem" as if it were to buy again that which had been sold. Thus Nazianzen says, ἐξηγοράσατο κόσμον μεγάλης τιμῆς, that is, He redeemed the world for a great price: for Christ by the price of His blood redeemed it from the captivity of sin and the devil.
But note: "To redeem" here means the same as "to buy"; so we call buyers of taxes their "redeemers." For in Greek it is ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρόν, that is, trafficking and buying the occasion and opportunity, or this opportune time for acting well, for obtaining heavenly gains. As if to say: Studiously buy the opportunity of advancing in the way of God and virtue, and of accumulating good works and merits: buy it, I say, even at the loss of any sort of things. So Theophylact: for example, by the sacrifice of banquets and recreations, buy time for studying, praying, doing good. Whence St. Augustine, homily 1 among the 50: "What is it," he says, "to redeem time, except, when need is, even at the loss of temporal advantages, to obtain spaces of time for seeking and grasping eternal things?"
Do you wish to know how precious this time is, do you wish to know its price? Ask the damned, they know it by experience. Let one rich Dives come forth from the abyss. Tell us, O Dives, what would you give for one year, for a day, for an hour of this time? "I would give," he says, "the whole world, I would give a thousand worlds if I had them; I would give all delights, all riches, all torments. Oh, if there were given even a moment for repenting, for doing penance, for earning pardon: I would buy it with all the labors, penances, afflictions which men have ever endured, or even now endure in Purgatory or in hell, even if they were to last a hundred thousand, indeed a thousand million years!"
Ask the souls in Purgatory. They will say: If we could return to the time of meriting and making satisfaction, we would buy it not with gold, not with the jewels of the whole world, but with blood and life, indeed with a thousand deaths.
Ask the Blessed. They will say: Blessed mortals! oh, if you knew what merits, what gains of glory you could obtain in each moment of time, you would buy them with all sweat and pain. Oh if it were permitted us to return to the time of meriting, we would buy a single hour with all racks, fires, beasts, martyrdoms, and we would desire to suffer those things which Saints have ever suffered up to the day of judgment. Oh if it were permitted to return, we would expend it otherwise than we expended it: we are now among the Angels, we would exert our utmost power that we might deserve to be enrolled among the Seraphim and Cherubim. O precious moment, on which eternity hangs! As many moments as you here lose in idleness, so many eternities of glory which you could have acquired by laboring, suffering, converting souls, do you lose, and irrevocably lose: so that, if you could repent in heaven, you would repent of nothing else than time lost, or less strenuously expended.
Because the days are evil. — That is, because the days of this life are wretched, exposed to many troubles, dangers, and temptations, which either take away the opportunity of acting well, or lessen it, or expose it to peril, says Anselm. For so the Hebrews call "good" what is pleasant, and "evil" what is sad and wretched. Thus Christ, Matt. VI, 34, says: Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof, that is, its affliction and misery.
Again, the days are evil, that is, uncertain, unstable, brief, as well as full of cares, distractions, and snares of sin and damnation. For among the other evils — that is, miseries — of the days of this life are their uncertainty, instability and brevity, as well as their trouble, cares and anguish; according to what Jacob said to Pharaoh: "The days of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years, few and evil," Gen. XLVII, 9. Paul alludes to this here, as if to say: Buy the time of acting well and meriting, because the days of this life and time are uncertain, unstable, and brief, as well as troubled and anxious; uncertain, unstable, and brief is the time you have for procuring eternal salvation: see therefore that you well expend this moment of time, on which your eternity hangs. Thirdly, the days are properly evil because they are full of unbelief and sins. "Two things make evil days," says St. Augustine in the cited passage, "wickedness and misery. For from the time that Adam fell and was cast out of paradise, the days have never been other than evil." Just as, when heresy or drunkenness and lust rage (as happens in bacchanalia), preachers say: O Christians, beware in this time, because the days are evil — as if to say: Redeem this time, nor allow yourselves to be led away by the common throng of men to gluttony and lust, lest you lose time together with your soul. So says St. John, 1 epistle, chapter V, verse 19: "The whole world is set in wickedness"; for in Paul's time all things were full of unbelief and crimes, of unbelievers and criminals. The Apostle therefore teaches that these are to be fled and shunned as it were thieves of most precious time: just as a Philosopher said with a stern face to a certain friend who wished to waste time with him in idle tales: "Get away from here, thief of time." Let us say the same when some teller of tales, prattler, or similar time-waster invades us, and solicits us to his idleness and trifles: for the thief of time is worse and more harmful than the thief of money, by as much as the time he steals is more precious than money. But here the Apostle especially rebukes the Simonians and Gnostics, impious and impure heretics, of whom I spoke at verse 11: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For the things that are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of." As if to say: In so great a calamity and wickedness of the times, when on the one hand infamous and filthy heresies rage, urging that time be spent in the delights of lust and the belly; and on the other hand unbelief, idolatry, lusts, drunkenness, brawls, and all crimes prevail and grow: you, O Christians, do not listen to them, nor with them squander your time along with your soul; but rather redeem it, and devote it to God and to the pursuit of wisdom and Christian virtues, and namely at any price and any loss redeem time, by being free for prayers and the praises of God, and for receiving His holy inspirations, by which God inwardly enlightens, knocks at, rouses, and inflames your mind to greater holiness, that you may please Him more and stride forward with great steps toward perfection. Whence follows: "Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God. And be not drunk with wine wherein is luxury; but be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things." Behold, this is to redeem time, when what others give and lose in carousing and luxuries, the faithful give to prayer, to psalms, hymns, spiritual canticles, etc.
Note first: The Greek ἐξαγοραζόμενοι is a verb of merchants, who carefully consider all wares so as to buy the better ones for profit, on which alone they are intent, and which they prefer to all delights and banquets: with such zeal it befits us to seize the occasion and the merchandise of good works.
Secondly, just as these merchants by buying wares make them their own and proper to themselves, so we as it were appropriate time to ourselves when we take it up and expend it for the proper gains of good works and merits. Time is not stable for us, says Oecumenius; for we are strangers. Buy it therefore and make it your own, namely by doing good in this time, which will glorify you in the future.
Thirdly, the present time is called καιρός, that is, occasion and opportunity, namely for trading and increasing our gains, just as at fairs there is an occasion for merchants of buying and selling their wares. "Our life," says Nazianzen in his Sentences, "is like a market, the day of which when it has gone by, there will no more be time to buy what you wish," so that each one may remember that this occasion must be eagerly and zealously seized and embraced: for occasion has hair in front, but is bald at the back. When this occasion has passed, when this fair, this time of your life has flowed by, you will not have a single moment for repenting, for acting well, for trading, and for obtaining heavenly gains. Live therefore in such a way, do such and so great things, as you will wish to have done when this time shall have elapsed; what kind and how much you will wish and desire to have done when you shall stand in eternity. For what you now do and work shall profit you through all eternity, and shall produce great wealth and glory for you: what you now neglect, you neglect and lose irreparably, so that through all eternity you cannot recover and redeem this negligence, this neglected time.
This goad of opportunity and time the Apostle often applies to us, Rom. XIII, 11: "And this," he says, "knowing the time, that it is now the hour for us to arise from sleep." Gal. VI, 10: "While we have time, let us do good to all." 1 Cor. VII, 26 and 29, where he calls this time brief and the present necessity. See what is said there. The Wise Man applies the same goad, Eccles. IX, 10: "Whatsoever thy hand is able to do," he says, "do it earnestly: for there shall be no work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge in hell, whither thou art hastening." Oh how wise, how prudent is he who thinks these things, who does them, who lives in such a way as he will wish in the hour of death he had lived, who now does those things which, established in eternity, he will rejoice to have done!
Verse 18: And Be Not Drunk With Wine, Wherein Is Luxury: but Be Filled With the Holy Spirit
18. And be not drunk with wine, wherein (namely with wine, or wherein, namely in being drunk, as if to say: in drunkenness) is luxury. — Note: In place of "luxury" the Greek has ἀσωτία, that is, luxury, lasciviousness, such as is found in those who continually drink and feast, so that they are almost always intoxicated. For these wallow in all ἀσωτία, that is, in drunkenness, filthiness, lewdness, and vileness. "I would not," says Cicero, in book II On Ends, "imagine to myself profligates who vomit on the table, and are carried away from banquets, and undigested again gorge themselves." Thus in Latin "luxuria," as our translator renders it, signifies not only sexual matters but also this excess, says Erasmus.
Secondly, however, ἀσωτία, with Theophylact and others, can be taken for luxury and lust. For the belly inflamed with strong wine foams forth into lust, as it were into ἀσωτίαν. In this sense Martial plays on Sota in book IV, epigram 9: "Sota, you, the wife of Clinicus Labulla, Forsaking your husband, follow Clitus. You give gifts, and love — there is your ἀσωτία." For Sota means "sparing": yet Labulla was an asota, that is, prodigal, lost, luxurious, having abandoned her husband to follow an adulterer. Clement of Alexandria, in book II of his Paedagogus, chapters 1 and 11, holds that ἀσώτους are so called as if ἀσώστους, that is, deprived of salvation, because they lose and squander both wealth and the salvation of body and soul.
Truly St. Jerome on chapter I to Titus, verse 7: "Wherever," he says, "there is fullness and drunkenness, there lust dominates: look at the belly and the genitals — such as the order of the members, such also is the order of the vices. I shall never consider a drunken man chaste, who, though he sleeps overcome by wine, could yet have sinned through wine. Let anyone say what he will, I speak my own conscience. I know that abstinence has harmed me when interrupted, and profited me when resumed." The same Jerome, epistle 83 to Oceanus: "Violence," he says, "belongs to buffoons and revelers, and the belly inflamed with strong wine quickly foams forth into lusts." And below: "Noah, in the drunkenness of a single hour, uncovers his thighs which he had covered with sobriety for six hundred years. Lot through drunkenness unwittingly mingles incest by lust, and him whom Sodom did not conquer, wines conquered." Hence Plato, in book II On Laws, near the end, decrees thus concerning wine: "In the city let no slave or maidservant ever taste wine, nor even the magistrates themselves in the year in which they hold office: nor let governors or judges, while exercising their office, in any way taste wine." Indeed most true is that adage of Heraclitus: "A dry soul is the wisest." Which Galen beautifully explains and demonstrates in his book whose title is: That the manners of the soul correspond to the temperament of the body. And Clement of Alexandria, in book II of the Paedagogus: "It is a brightness," he says, "that a dry soul is the wisest and most penetrating, and is not soaked by the breath of wine, growing thick like a cloud." The same in book VII of the Stromata: "Wine," he says, "and the fattening of meats indeed bring strength to the body, but make the soul languid." For, as St. Ephrem says, in the treatise On the Fear of God, at the beginning of volume III: "He who delicately nourishes the flesh of his body, feeds evil concupiscences."
But be filled with the Holy Spirit, — as if to say: Strive to be filled not with wine, but with the grace of the Holy Spirit. He adds the manner and the way, saying:
Verse 19: Speaking to Yourselves in Psalms, and Hymns, and Spiritual Canticles, Singing and Making Melody in Your Hearts to the Lord
19. Speaking to yourselves (namely when you assemble together, either in the temple for prayer and agape, or in the house for table and food) in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. — St. Jerome distinguishes hymns from psalms and canticles thus: "Hymns," he says, "are those which proclaim the strength and majesty of God, and always wonder at His benefits or deeds: which all the psalms contain, to which the Alleluia is either prefixed or subjoined. But psalms properly pertain to the ethical realm, that we may know through the instrument of the body what is to be done and what is to be avoided. But he who disputes about higher things, and as a subtle disputant expounds the harmony of the world, and the order and concord of all creatures, that one sings a spiritual canticle."
Again, in the Ecclesiastical Office it is now easy to distinguish hymns from psalms and canticles.
Note first: Here the Apostle teaches what the agape, the table and banquets of Christians ought to be: namely, not that they should overwhelm body and mind with meats and wine; but that with spirit and with spiritual and holy conversations and hymns, especially concerning Christ and the benefits of Christ, they may delight, feed, and fill one another, and so apply themselves to drunkenness — not bodily but spiritual. Again, that they may refresh themselves with songs not lascivious but pious and sacred, and praise God. For in banquets the spirit is wont to be aroused, to grow cheerful, and to be loosed into wit and song. Hence Zeno, when asked why, although by nature a slave and by sect a Stoic, he yet grew cheerful at banquets? answered: Even the lupine, though by its own nature bitter, yet when soaked in water becomes sweet: so it is natural, when the body is moistened with food and drink, that sadness be dispelled. Witness is Laertius, book VII, chapter I.
Hence note secondly, that the most ancient Hebrews were accustomed at banquets to employ music for common recreation. "Wine," says Ecclesiasticus, chapter XL, verse 20, "and music (behold, he joins music with wine, namely at banquets and symposia) gladden the heart, and above both is the love of wisdom." And chapter XLIX, verse 2: "In every mouth his (Josiah's) memory shall be sweet as honey, and as music at a banquet of wine." The same yet more beautifully, chapter XXXII, verse 7: "A little jewel of carbuncle in an ornament of gold, and the comparison (that is, the composition and harmony: for this is the Greek σύγκριμα) of musicians at a banquet of wine. As in the working of gold the seal is of emerald, so is the number (that is, the numbered melody of musicians) in pleasant and moderate wine." As if to say: As the golden ring is adorned by setting and carbuncle, or the seal, in Greek σφραγίς, of an emerald, so the banquet is adorned by music. The same testifies David, Psalm LXVIII, verse 13: "They that sat in the gate spoke against me (that is, the judges and elders of the people, who used to sit in the gates for the purpose of exercising public judgments), and they that drank wine sang against me" — as if to say: Everywhere in their drinking parties they reviled me with their insulting songs. More clearly Isaiah teaches this, chapter V, verse 12: "The harp and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine in your feasts." Following this custom of His people, Christ, after the last paschal supper, going forth to His passion to the Mount of Olives, sang a hymn with the Apostles to God, Mark chapter XIV, verse 26.
Hence thirdly, the Apostles imitating Christ, as is clear from this passage of Paul, and the first Christians at their agapes and banquets employed music and songs — not lascivious nor profane, but sacred, namely hymns in praise of God. Witness is Cyprian, in his epistle to Donatus: "And since," he says, "now there is festal quiet, and the time is leisure, whatever remains of the day with the sun already inclining toward evening, let us spend this day joyful, nor let any hour of the banquet be without heavenly grace: let the banquet sound with psalms, a sober life, however tenacious your memory may be, however hoarse your voice, undertake this duty as is customary"; he exhorts everyone, even farmers, craftsmen, sailors, weavers and seamstresses, to sing psalms and other pious songs together. "For," he says, "this kind of delight is closely akin and familiar to our soul, lest the demons by introducing wanton and meretricious songs overthrow everything; God established the psalms, that from this thing both pleasure and utility might be derived." And after much about the utility of singing psalms, he adds these things: "I say these things, not that you alone may praise, but that you may teach your children and wives to sing such songs, not only while weaving or doing some other work, but especially at the table. For since the devil mostly lies in wait at banquets, when he uses the help of drunkenness and gluttony, profuse laughter, and a relaxed mind, then it is most necessary, both before the meal and at the meal, to fortify oneself with the protection of psalms, and together with one's wife and children, rising from the banquet, to sing sacred hymns to God."
Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, — as if to say: Let these spiritual songs, these psalms, come forth not from the lips alone, but from the depths of the heart. The Apostle therefore exhorts Christians to spiritual joy and exultation, that they may always rejoice and exult in their vocation and in Christianity, give thanks to God, serve Him in joy and love, and stir others up to the same joy, love, and giving of thanks. For these are the signs of the Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart, who breathes this spirit upon them with His own joys. Blessed are they who enjoy Him and stir Him up and increase Him. To them nothing is difficult, nothing sad happens, but with a joyful spirit, lively and great, they overcome and transcend all hard and sorrowful things. St. Augustine expressed these words of the Apostle in elegant verse with antitheses, when he said:
"Not the voice, but the vow; not the musical string, but the heart; Not the one singing, but the one loving, sings in the ear of God."
"Let them hear," says St. Jerome, "those whose office it is to sing psalms in church, that one must sing to God not with the voice, but with the heart; nor must one anoint the throat and jaws in the manner of tragedians with sweet ointment, that theatrical strains and songs may be heard in church, but in fear, in work, in knowledge of the Scriptures."
Verse 20: Giving Thanks Always for All Things, in the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father
20. Giving thanks always for all things, — for the graces, gifts, and benefits received from God. "Whatever wisdom, whatever virtue you trust yourself to have, attribute to God's power and God's wisdom, to Christ," says St. Bernard, sermon 13 on the Canticle. See concerning thanksgiving the things I said on 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Beautifully also St. Jerome here: "It is properly the virtue of Christians," he says, "even in those things which they think adverse, to give thanks to the Creator: for to rejoice in the benefits of God which happen to us, this both the Gentile and the Jew do. But according to the Apostle this is the greatest virtue, that in the very perils and miseries thanks be given to God, and that we always say: Blessed be God; I know not how to bear lesser things than I deserve; these are small in comparison to my sins, nothing worthy is rendered to me. This is the spirit of a Christian, this man taking up his cross follows the Savior, whom neither bereavement nor losses weaken, who, as Horace says: Though the broken world should fall in upon him, the ruins will strike him unafraid."
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, — through the name of Jesus Christ, that is, through Christ, who promises and obtained for us these gifts, graces, and benefits. It is a metonymy. For "name" is put for the thing signified by the name. So elsewhere we are often commanded to invoke the name of the Lord, that is, the Lord signified by His name.
To God and the Father. — Refers to "giving thanks." For He commands that we give thanks "to God and the Father," that is, as the Syriac has it, to God the Father. Yet He says "to God and the Father" to suggest two titles by which we are bound to God for thanksgiving. The first is that He is our God, from whom we have received body, soul, grace, and all good things. The second is that He is Father, who with paternal affection feeds and inebriates us, as His own sons, with all His good things.
Hence it is that the royal Psalmist so often invites all to the praise of God and to thanksgiving: hence so often he sings and re-echoes Halleluia, that is, praise God. For this is the heavenly canticle and jubilation of the Blessed. Thus St. John, Apoc. ch. XIX, verses 1, 3, 4, 6, heard the twenty-four elders and all the Saints in heaven repeatedly resounding Halleluia. Hence the Church in the paschal season constantly rejoices with Halleluia. Of old also, as St. Jerome attests, virgins and monks were summoned at night by this word Halleluia to prayer and to praise God in the temple.
Francisco Álvarez in his Ethiopian Legation, ch. XLI, relates that in the territory of Torretana there is a monastery of religious visited, named Halleluia from this event. An ascetic had lived nearby, devoting himself constantly to vigils, fasts, and prayers: he had often heard from the blessed minds in heaven Halleluia repeated with most sweet harmony: and reporting that voice to the prefect of the monastery, he was the author for that monastery, then being newly begun, of being called by this name, that it should be called Halleluia.
This word Halleluia, as if breathed from heaven, of old animated the athletes of Christ to martyrdoms and to undergoing the most bitter torments with joy. Read the acts of Saints Felix, Fortunatus, and Achilleus, martyrs, on April 23. Finally, in the public and most grave plague which befell Rome in the year 591, when St. Gregory the Pontiff had instituted a public supplication to quell it, and had carried around the image of the Blessed Virgin with the litany, with an angel from heaven singing to it, Queen of Heaven, rejoice, Halleluia, the pestilence was completely quelled: and another angel was seen brandishing a drawn sword over men, putting it back into the sheath: he was seen, I say, on the mole of Hadrian, which from then on has been called the Castle of St. Angelo, as Sigonius relates in book I On the Kingdom of Italy; St. Antoninus, part IV, vol. XV, ch. XXIV, § 2; Peter Canisius, book V of the Marial, ch. XXII.
Verse 21: Being Subject One to Another, in the Fear of Christ
21. Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. — This is a new ethical maxim. For the Apostle, as I have said elsewhere, hands down precepts about Christian morals and life through sayings, after the manner of the ancients, not connected but disparate.
Note: This indefinite maxim must be understood as accommodated to individual persons — namely, that those should be subject who are not superiors but inferiors, whose duty it is to obey. In like manner, the word "one to another" is to be taken; for he does not wish that each should in turn be subject to the other: for thus parents would have to be subject to children, kings in turn to the people. But "one to another," that is, as the Syriac translates, one to another; let one (e.g. the inferior) be subject to another, namely to the Superior. For, as Jerome teaches, the Apostle here lays down a general principle of Christian polity — namely, obedience — so that they may be subject to and obey their individual Superiors; and he explains this in what follows by species and parts, when he commands wives to be subject to husbands, children to parents, servants to masters.
Note: That he adds, "in the fear of Christ," signifies that we ought to be subject to our Superiors not from fear of punishment or of men, but from fear of Christ: namely because we revere Christ and fear to offend Him, as if to say: From a filial fear, that is, from love of Christ, obey your Superiors, who are vicars of Christ: so that, when you obey them, you cast your eyes upon Christ and think you are obeying Christ; when you hear them, see them, you may think you are hearing, seeing Christ; and thus you may do the prescribed work, not because this man prescribed it, but because Christ, speaking and commanding through this man as His vicar, prescribed it. Thus it will come about that you show reverence and obedience not so much to the man who is Superior, as to Christ in the man who is Superior.
Verse 22: Let Wives Be Subject to Their Husbands, as to the Lord
22. Let wives be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, — that is, as some explain, let wives obey their husbands as if their lords. For thus Sarah calls her husband Abraham "lord," Genesis 18:12: "My lord," she says, "(my husband Abraham) is grown old." But then it should have been said: As to lords; whereas now the Apostle says: "As to the Lord." Add that in the Greek there is the demonstrative article τῷ Κυρίῳ, as if to indicate the common Lord of us all, as the Syriac translates. Therefore "As to the Lord" means, as to Christ. So the Greeks. For He explains what He said in the preceding verse: "Subject one to another in the fear of Christ." Namely, that for the sake of Christ and of fear, reverence, and love of Christ, wives may be subject to husbands as if to Christ Himself, whose place and person husbands represent.
Aristotle also, in book I of the Economics, ch. IV, and book II, ch. I, II, and III, gives these precepts to the wife and mother of the family.
First, "The wife ought entirely to put off her own will, that she may obey her husband; and let the husband be as her heart, eyes, and tongue: let her smile with him when he smiles, sympathize with him when he is sad, not in the manner of a flatterer or chameleon, but as a companion and the half of his body, and one spirit with him."
Second, "Let the wife never be idle from work, nor let her fingers be away from the distaff, weight, or web, nor let her allow the company of maidservants and daughters to be idle; for this pertains to increasing the family estate, and draws the mind back from adulteries and erotic things, which easily insinuate themselves into the idle."
Third, "Let her allow no one to enter the house without her husband's order. Let her not lay open the secrets of the house."
Fourth, "Let her instruct sons and daughters, nor allow them to wander or to depart far from her side: let her forbid all immodest words and songs in others, and not lead them in singing."
Fifth, "Let her not meddle in the affairs of the republic."
Sixth, "Let her not be quarrelsome with the household or with neighbors; not curious, not slanderous, not stubborn with her husband; not given to wine or to gluttony, not unkempt, not too dressed up: for she is then a beautiful spectacle to others, but a wretched one to her husband."
Therefore let the wife not be noisy with her husband, but submissive and consonant as Echo, that this riddle of hers may adorn her:
"A virgin most modest, I keep well the law of modesty. I am not bold of mouth, nor reckless of tongue; I do not wish to speak unbidden, but I give answers to one speaking."
Verse 23: He Is the Savior of His Body
23. He (Christ) is the Savior of His body. — Note "His," that is, His own. It is a Hebraism: for the Hebrews have the same pronoun for the absolute and the reciprocal. The Greek and Syriac do not have "his," but only "of the body." For Christ's body, that is, the Church, is by antonomasia called "the body," as if to say: Christ gives salvation to His own body, that is, to the Church, just as the head, which contains all the senses, gives salvation to the body by flowing into it and directing it through sight, imagination, and reason. So Theophylact.
Verses 25 and 26: Christ Loved the Church and Delivered Himself Up for It, That He Might Sanctify It, Cleansing It by the Laver of Water in the Word of Life
25 and 26. Christ loved the Church and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing (it) by the laver of water (the sacrament of Baptism, by which the body is washed by water, the soul by the grace of the Holy Spirit) in the word of life, — that is, by the sacred and life-giving form of the words of baptism, not deprecatory or hortatory, but consecratory and sacramental; namely this: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," which as the instrument of God sanctifies and gives life to the soul. So Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ambrose, Anselm, St. Thomas.
Wherefore Beza, Vatablus, and the Novatians wrongly take it to mean the word of the Gospel, which promises gratuitous justification and spiritual life through Christ, and they say that, if you believe in Him, He will by this very fact confer that life on you. For the Apostle here attributes to the laver of water and to the word of life — that is, to the matter and form of baptism — that they sanctify and cleanse the Church, that is, that out of an unclean and sinful Church they make her clean and holy: but the laver of water and the very washing of baptism do not sanctify or cleanse the Church by preaching to her and promising holiness and cleanness in their preaching, but by really, ex opere operato, conferring holiness and cleanness on the Church: therefore neither does the word of life or the form of baptism sanctify and cleanse by preaching, but by really conferring holiness ex opere operato. For the Apostle attributes this sanctification equally and in like manner to the word of life and to the laver of water.
Second, according to the Novatians, faith alone is what justifies; baptism however effects no justice, but is only a sign of the justice received through faith, and seals it as a seal; but if the Church is sanctified and justified before baptism through faith: then it is false that baptism sanctifies and cleanses her; which however the Apostle here says.
Third, "the word of life," or the form of baptism, is no other (as is clear both from Matthew 28:19 and from the tradition and practice of the whole Church) than this: "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"; but these words are not hortatory: for then it would have to be said: I exhort thee that thou mayest wish to be baptized, that thou mayest wish to believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; but they are practical and operative: for they signify, I baptize thee in body with water, and through this in soul, and wash thee from sins: if they signify this, then they do and effect the same; otherwise these words would be false, and the form of baptism would be a lie.
Fourth, in infants this is most clear. For they are justified not by the word of the Gospel and of preaching — since they do not understand it — but by the consecratory form of baptism.
You will say: St. Jerome here takes "word" to mean the word of doctrine. I reply that this sense is tropological, as Jerome himself admits.
You will say secondly: St. Augustine, tract 80 on John: "The word," he says, "is added to the element, and a Sacrament is made: whence comes this such great power of water, that it touches the body and washes the heart, except by the working of the word — not because it is spoken, but because it is believed?" therefore he understands that in the Sacraments there is a hortatory word which excites faith and is believed by faith.
I reply: This passage is for us. For Augustine does not say: The word is added to the element, and a sermon is made; but, "a Sacrament is made," that is, a sacred sign, signifying and effecting what it signifies, e.g. the washing of the soul in baptism. For these words clearly signify this: "Whence comes this such great power of water, that it touches the body and washes the heart, except by the working of the word?" For it is not the hortatory word, but the sacramental word that makes the water of baptism wash the heart, that is, the soul. What therefore Augustine adds: "Not because it is spoken, but because it is believed," is just as if he were to say: The word added to the element, that is, the Sacrament, e.g. of baptism, works and washes the soul, "not because it is spoken," that is, not because it is pronounced, not on account of the external sound of the words, as magical incantations also do and operate; "but because it is believed," that is, on account of the energetic, efficacious, and operative meaning and signification of the words, which is not perceived by the eyes but believed and grasped by faith by the Church and Christians.
Note: "In the word of life," that is, in the vital, life-giving word, which confers life — that is, spirit and grace — to the soul. The Greek text and the Greeks no longer have "of life," nor does Jerome, nor Ambrose.
Verse 27: That He Might Present It to Himself a Glorious Church, Not Having Spot or Wrinkle, or Any Such Thing, but That It Should Be Holy and Without Blemish
Verse 27. That He might present (Greek παραστήσῃ, that is, as the Syriac, that He might set up, raise up, place, and by placing as it were join and unite as a bride) it to Himself (not only clean and pure, but also) glorious (Greek ἔνδοξον, distinguished by much beauty and glory), the Church, not having spot (of sin), or wrinkle (of age), or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish, — as if to say: Christ renewed, sanctified, made glorious the Church (that is, the faithful) by His spirit and grace, and removed from them the stains of sins and the wrinkles of age.
You will say: If in the Church there is no spot or wrinkle, but the whole Church is holy, then only the holy and just are in the Church; but the unjust, though faithful and believing in Christ, are excluded from her.
I reply that the Church is said to be "holy," without spot or wrinkle, not because all who are in her are such; but because the principal part of the Church, which most closely adheres to Christ — namely the Saints, who are endowed not only with faith but also with the grace and charity of Christ — is such.
Therefore the whole Church is said to be "holy," first, because the head of the Church, namely Christ, and her principal members are holy. Hence sometimes the Saints alone are called the body of Christ (which is the Church), understood as the most perfect and most chief, as I said in the preceding chapter, verse 16. Just as the whole man is said to reason, see, hear, namely through the head, because not the foot or hand, but the head alone properly reasons, sees, hears: so the whole Church is said to be holy through its head and neck, that is, through Christ and the Saints, who adhere to her as the neck to its head. So Antwerp is said to be wealthy, namely because of the merchants in it who are wealthy, although many others in it are poor. So the University of Louvain is said to be learned, because it has Doctors who are remarkably learned, even though many others in it are not so learned.
Second, the Church is said to be "holy" because she has holy Sacraments, holy laws, the holy blood of Christ; and Christ, as far as concerns His part, has fully sanctified her, because He has given her all the means of sanctity.
Note: By spot and wrinkle He alludes to husbands, who take care to marry such wives, or to make their wives such, that they may be without all spot and wrinkle: but by "spot and wrinkle" the Apostle here understands sins — not light and venial sins (for these are in the Church and the Saints in this life), but deadly ones. Add that just as the Church, so also the purity and sanctity of the Church is begun in this life, but will be perfected in heaven. Whence St. Augustine, in book II of the Retractations, ch. XVIII, teaches that the Church is without all spot and wrinkle, not because she is such in this life, but because she will be such in heaven.
Note secondly: The Apostle compares the husband to Christ, the wife to the Church, and teaches that the love and the other things which Christ has shown to the Church, the husband ought to show to his wife; and consequently, just as Christ cleansed and sanctified the Church, so husbands ought, by their holy conversation, to cleanse their wives from all levity, sharpness of speech, pride, and other vices of women, that they may become wholly holy, not having spot and wrinkle. Whence the Apostle adds: "So (namely as Christ loved the Church, as I have already said) ought husbands also to love their wives."
Verse 28: Husbands Ought to Love Their Wives as Their Own Bodies
28. Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. — A second reason by which He moves husbands to the love of their wives. He says: Each one does not hate, but loves, nourishes, and cherishes his own body and flesh, and so himself; but the wife is, as it were, the flesh and body of the husband; for it is written Genesis 2:24: "They shall be two in one flesh," that is, the two — namely husband and wife — shall be one flesh, that is, one man, and one civil person, as I said on 1 Corinthians 6. Therefore the husband ought to love, nourish, and cherish his wife, "as Christ" loves, nourishes, and cherishes by His grace and Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, "His Church," as His own flesh and body.
Verse 29: For No One Ever Hated His Own Flesh
29. For no one ever hated his own flesh. — But the wife is the flesh of the husband, just as the Church is the flesh and body of Christ. For it is written: "They shall be two in one flesh." Prudently St. Bernard on Psalm Qui habitat, sermon 10: "Otherwise," he says, "let the soul love the flesh in such a way that it not be thought to have itself passed into the flesh, and it be said to it by the Lord: My spirit shall not remain in man, for he is flesh. Let the soul love its flesh, but let it preserve much more its very own soul: let Adam love his Eve, but not love her in such a way that he obey her voice more than the divine. Finally, it is not even expedient for her herself to be so loved, that, namely, while you spare her the scourge of paternal correction, you treasure up for her the wrath of eternal damnation."
Verse 30: Because We Are Members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones
30. Because we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. — Here He proves that the Church, that is, we the faithful, are the body, or from the body of Christ, and in like manner the wife is the body, or from the body of the husband: because just as woman, namely Eve, was formed from the flesh and bones of Adam, so the Church is formed from the flesh and bones of Christ; and consequently is, as it were, the flesh, bones, and members of Christ. Whence He infers: As Christ loves His Church as His own bones, flesh, and members, so husbands ought to love and cherish their wives as their own bones, flesh, and members.
Note: The Apostle alludes to — indeed cites — those words of Adam concerning Eve formed from his side and rib, Genesis ch. 2: "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman," in Hebrew אישה issha from איש ish, as if to say vira, as the ancient Latins of old said, according to Festus Pompeius: vira, I say, from vir, as Symmachus translated in Greek ἀνδρὶς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνδρός, because she was taken from man. These words the Apostle here explains in the allegorical sense concerning Christ and the Church, as if Christ had said about the Church formed from Himself: "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh."
It is asked here first, regarding the literal sense, how those things that are narrated in Genesis 2 about this formation of Eve from Adam are to be understood, in these words: "The Lord," it says, "cast a sleep upon Adam, and when he had fallen asleep, He took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh in its place; and the Lord God built up the rib, which He had taken from Adam, into a woman, and brought her to Adam, and Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," etc.
I reply first, not parabolically or metaphorically — as Origen and Cajetan would have it — are these things said, but they are to be taken properly, as the words sound. So the Fathers and Interpreters generally.
You will say, then Adam was monstrous before the rib was taken away, or certainly after its removal he remained maimed and mutilated of one rib.
Catharinus replies that God, together with the flesh, restored another rib to Adam. Second, and better, St. Thomas, part I, Question 92, art. 3, replies that this rib was like seed which is superfluous to the individual, but is necessary for the generation of offspring. So also this rib of Adam was superfluous as he was a private person; yet it was necessary for him insofar as he was the head of nature and the seedbed of all men, from whom both Eve and the rest of men would be produced.
I say secondly: God seems together with the rib to have also taken from Adam the flesh adhering to the rib: for He says here in verse 23: "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh." Therefore Eve was formed not only from the bone and rib, but also from the flesh of Adam adhering to the rib.
I say thirdly: Out of this fleshy rib, as it were a foundation, by mixing other matter with it — either by creation, as St. Thomas above holds, or rather from the surrounding air (since after the first true creation God produced no new portion of matter) — by a wonderful artifice He fashioned the woman.
I say fourthly: From verse 22 of Genesis 2, God seems to have taken this rib to another place a little separated from the sleeping Adam, and there to have built Eve out of it, and to have filled her with knowledge and grace, just as He had filled Adam, and there to have conversed with Eve. Then, when Adam was awakened, He brought Eve to him as to a bridegroom, that He might join them — that is, the one and the one — in indissoluble matrimony. Whence Adam wondering, as if in a rapture, that the rib should be taken from him, and that out of it Eve should be formed, said: "This now is bone of my bones," etc., that is, this Eve was made from one of my bones.
Finally, why Eve was made from the rib and side of Adam, St. Thomas above gives beautiful reasons in articles 2 and 3.
Note: This formation of Eve from Adam allegorically signified the formation of the Church from Christ, as the Apostle here sufficiently signifies. Whence it is asked secondly, how is it true that the Church, that is, we the faithful, are formed from the flesh and bones of Christ? St. Jerome and Irenaeus, book V, ch. II, reply first that it is true because we are of the same nature as Christ, because we have human flesh and bones similar to Christ's. This sense does not quite satisfy. For thus in like manner we could say that we are formed from the flesh and bones of Moses, Jeremiah, Pharaoh, and any other man, because we have the same human flesh and bones with him, which however no one would concede.
Secondly, others explain it thus, as if to say: "of the flesh," that is, of infirmity and passions; "of the bones," that is, of the divinity of Christ, we participate through the communication of grace. But this is mystical.
I say thirdly, with Cajetan and others: Just as from the side and rib of the sleeping Adam Eve was formed, so from the flesh and bones of Christ — sacrificed on the cross and sleeping (that is, dying) — the Church was formed. Understand this with Cyril and Chrysostom symbolically and meritoriously, namely because through the price and merit of the flesh, blood, and bones of Christ sacrificed on the cross, the Church was instituted and sanctified.
Whence as a symbol and signification of this thing, from the side of the dead Christ flowed blood and water: that the water might signify baptism, which is the beginning of the Church and of the Sacraments, that it flows from the blood and death of Christ and draws its efficacy thence; that the blood might signify the Eucharist, which is the complement and end of all the sacraments, likewise flowing from the blood and death of Christ. Under which two all the other sacraments are comprehended: for all the others are referred to these two, and are enclosed by these two as by a beginning and an end. Hence St. Augustine, tract 120 on John, says that all the sacraments flowed from the side of Christ: which I understand not concerning merit (for Christ was already dead, who could do or merit nothing), but mystery, symbol, and signification, as I have said.
Hence fourthly, Irenaeus, book V, ch. II; Cyril, book X, on chapter 23 of John; Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Nyssen explain it concerning the Eucharist, through which we are really joined to the flesh and bones of Christ and as it were incorporated, that we may become of the flesh and bones of Christ, and members of Christ.
Where note the words of Nyssen in his tract on those words, "Blood and water came forth": "A few drops," he says, "of the blood of Christ, restoring the whole world, become for men as it were the rennet of milk, gathering them together and joining them into one." Namely, because by the merit of the blood of Christ we are gathered and joined into one Church, which is the body of Christ, just as milk is curdled and joined by rennet into one cheese.
Second, and rather, because through the Eucharist we are all really joined in the very body of Christ which we eat. This sense is symbolic: for the Eucharist is properly the food of the Church, not its mother; whence it does not form or generate the Church and the faithful, but feeds and nourishes them. The third sense, therefore, is the literal and genuine one.
Verse 31: For This Cause Shall a Man Leave His Father and Mother, and Shall Cleave to His Wife; and They Shall Be Two in One Flesh
31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh. — The Apostle proceeds to cite the words of Adam concerning Eve, Genesis 2, but in the literal sense. For from the allegorical sense of the preceding sentence, "This now is bone of my bones," etc., as I said there, he here returns and falls back to the literal sense, in order to prove that husbands ought to love their wives as Christ loved the Church: Because, he says, the wife is, as it were, bone, flesh, and member of the husband, inasmuch as she is formed from him. Whence he adds: "For this cause," namely because the woman is flesh from the flesh of the husband, and bone produced and created from his bones, so that she might be united to him by the bond of matrimony, "shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave (Greek προσκολληθήσεται, that is, shall be glued) to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh." By which words He clearly signifies that among human relationships the bond of matrimony is the most close-knit and inviolable: and that God therefore made Eve from Adam's rib, that He might signify that husband and wife are not so much two as one man (for this is what "They shall be two in one flesh" signifies, as I said on 1 Cor. 6), and consequently they ought to be one in love and will, and so much so that, if necessary, the spouse should leave father and mother for the sake of the spouse, that he or she may cleave to the spouse. Morally, see Chrysostom, who here in his moral homily 20 prescribes beautiful laws to the newly-married bridegroom and bride.
Allegorically: "The first prophet Adam," says Jerome, "prophesied this concerning Christ — namely, that Christ left His Father, God, and His mother, the heavenly Jerusalem, and came to the earth for the sake of His body (the Church), and from His side fashioned her, and for her sake the Word was made flesh."
Verse 32: This Is a Great Sacrament; but I Speak in Christ and in the Church
32. This is a great Sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church. — You will ask, what is this Sacrament, or what does the pronoun "this" indicate. First, Luther, Calvin, Erasmus, and Beza wish it to indicate the matrimony and joining not of Adam and Eve, but of Christ and the Church, as if they say: The joining of Christ and the Church is "a great Sacrament," that is, a great and sacred secret, and, as it is in Greek, a mystery. But the pronoun "this" totally opposes this exposition, which indicates what preceded — namely, the matrimony of Adam and Eve, explained by those words of Genesis: "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh," as if to say: This — that the man cleaves to his wife, and that the man and the wife are two in one flesh — this, I say, is a great Sacrament. So Chrysostom, Jerome, Theophylact, Œcumenius, and the Fathers generally, who here take "Sacrament" not for the sacred thing signified, but for the sign of the sacred thing — namely, that which signifies the joining of Christ and the Church; for this is what the Apostle adds: "But I speak in Christ and in the Church," as if to say: This Sacrament is great, not in itself as it is a Sacrament and a sign; but in what it signifies, namely Christ and the Church: for inasmuch as it signifies that great and admirable union of Christ and the Church, to that extent it is a great Sacrament — great, I say, in its signification and representation of a great thing.
Second, the Master of the Sentences in book IV, dist. XXVI, and there Dominic Soto, and elsewhere others (and St. Thomas and Ambrose favor it, indeed the Council of Florence in the Instruction of the Armenians) teach that the pronoun "this" indicates the matrimony of which it spoke before, not of Adam or of any particular person, but in any kind whatsoever, provided that it be of the new law. For the Apostle speaks to the Christians of Ephesus, and through them to all married persons of the new law, as if to say: Matrimony, now in the Church of Christ, is a great Sacrament, because it most perfectly signifies the union of Christ and the Church already accomplished, and so is one of the seven Sacraments of the Church properly so called. Whence the phrase "in Christ and in the Church" may be taken thus, as if to say: In Christianity and in the Christian Church, the Sacrament of matrimony is great.
But this exposition seems to be opposed by the same thing which I said opposed the earlier opinion. For the pronoun "this" refers to and indicates what immediately preceded, namely: "A man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife"; which are the words of Adam, Genesis 2. But Adam was speaking not of a matrimony to come so many ages later in the new law; but of the matrimony which then was, and which he himself was then contracting with Eve. Therefore the pronoun "this" indicates that joining of Adam and Eve, or the first institution of matrimony, but not the Sacrament of matrimony in the new law.
I say therefore thirdly: The pronoun "this" primarily and properly indicates the matrimony of Adam and Eve, or rather the institution of matrimony in the marriage of Adam and Eve; and the sense is, as if to say: This first institution of matrimony in Adam and Eve, and every matrimony thereafter, is a great Sacrament — that is, as the Greek has it, a mystery (and, as the Syriac, a secret), an allegory, a type of a sacred thing, namely of the joining of Christ and the Church, who as it were left God His Father and His mother the Synagogue, that He might cleave to the Church His bride; and vice versa, the Church.
Erasmus objects that in the Greek it is not "Sacramentum," but "mysterium"; therefore the Apostle cannot be understood concerning a properly so-called Sacrament. I respond, I deny the consequence: for the Greeks call Sacraments mysteries, just as they call the mysteries of the body of Christ the Sacrament of the Eucharist. He objects secondly: St. Augustine, in tract. 9 on John, and in book On Marriage and Concupiscence, ch. 22, says that the greatness of this Sacrament is not to be looked for nor seen in individuals: for in this way it is the smallest Sacrament; but in Christ and the Church. I respond: Augustine wishes to say that the greatness of this Sacrament is not so much to be looked for in the very nature of the Sacrament insofar as it is a sign, as in the very signification of the Sacrament, that is, in the very thing signed and signified, as if to say: It is not so great a Sacrament that two faithful spouses should be joined into one flesh by the Sacrament of matrimony, as it is great that they should signify the conjunction of Christ and the Church. Indeed, the Novatians want the pronoun "this" to point to the marriage, not of Adam, but of Christ. They will therefore concede to us that the pronoun "this" rather points to the marriage of Christians than of Adam. For of this marriage of Christians it is most truly said: "This is a great Sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church." Finally, the Apostle writes these things to the Christian Ephesians, and incites Christian spouses to mutual love through the fact that their marriage is a Sacrament of Christ and the Church: therefore he designates and points out the marriage not only of Adam, but also of themselves. For from this he concludes that Christian spouses ought to love one another mutually, in the manner that Christ loved the Church: because, namely, by their marriage they analogically represent this love of Christ and the Church. From all of which I conclude that the fullest meaning will be if both, that is, both the second and the third, are joined together, as if the Apostle were saying: The marriage of Adam and of others before Christ was a Sacrament, that is, a type of the future union of Christ and the Church; but the marriage of the faithful of the new law after Christ, who, dying on the cross, formed from Himself the Church His spouse, is a Sacrament, that is, a most perfect sign of the same union now made, and therefore properly so called, instituted by Christ in the Church, conferring on the spouses grace and this mutual love, and this so that this true and perfect love may be a type of the love of Christ and the Church. Hence I, Paul, exhort you Ephesians and other faithful spouses to stir up and foster this love, lest this Sacrament in you be false and deceptive, and lest you falsely represent this love and concord of Christ and the Church, so that, while Christ agrees most excellently and most lovingly with the Church, you should quarrel, brawl, and be discordant with your wives. That this is the meaning is indicated by the Council of Trent, sess. 24, at the beginning, the Council of Florence, in the place cited, Augustine soon to be cited, and Catholic Doctors everywhere.
It is not otherwise that Augustine wishes [to be understood] is clear. For ch. 10, book On Marriage and Concupiscence, he teaches that the Sacrament of marriage is commended to the faithful married by the Apostle in the epistle to the Ephesians, namely in this place. Therefore in the very nuptials and matrimony of the faithful he acknowledges this great Sacrament to be, which the Apostle here commends.
But I say, in Christ and in the Church. — Supply: to be signified and represented through marriage, as if to say: The Sacrament of matrimony is great, not insofar as it is the conjunction of two human spouses; but insofar as it signifies and represents Christ and the Church as spouses, and their spiritual conjugal union. Hence by a Hebraism, more briefly secondly, you may explain it thus: "in Christ and in the Church," that is, of Christ and of the Church. For "beth," that is "in," among the Hebrews is often taken in place of the regimen, that is, the genitive: "in Christ," that is, of Christ; "in the Church," that is, of the Church, as if to say: This Sacrament of marriage is great, not as it is of two spouses, but as it is the Sacrament of Christ and the Church, that is, a sacred sign.
I say fourthly: Since the pronoun "this" points to the institution of matrimony, or matrimony in genus, hence secondarily and consequently it points to the matrimony of the new law: for Christ recalled this to the first institution of matrimony in Genesis, and abolished polygamy, and divorce permitted by the old law; so that in the new law marriage is as it were the same as that which was between Adam and Eve. Add secondly, the matrimony of the new law is far better and more perfect than the matrimony of Adam, since it signifies the conjunction of Christ and the Church. Indeed, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, so the husband ought to love his wife. Hence Christ left His Father, namely the synagogue (or rather the assembly of the unfaithful) which He had had in gentilism, that is, the devil, and His mother, namely the assembly of the unfaithful, in order that He might cleave to His spouse the Church. Thus Jerome, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Anselm, St. Thomas here, and Augustine on Psalm 138.
It can thirdly, with the Syriac, clearly be translated, This Sacrament is great, but I speak of Christ and the Church (for among the Hebrews "beth," that is "in," is sometimes put for "min," that is "of"); or, as it is in Greek, εἰς Χριστόν καὶ εἰς τὴν Ἐκκλησίαν, into Christ and into the Church, that is, insofar as this Sacrament of matrimony refers to Christ and the Church and represents them, to that extent it is a great Sacrament. Our Interpreter however also correctly translates, "in Christ and in the Church," because the Greek εἰς is often taken for ἐν. Which can be taken in two ways: First, "in Christ and in the Church," namely to be signified, as I have already explained. Secondly, "in Christ and in the Church," that is, in the Church of Christ (so that it is a hendiadys); or "in Christ," that is, in Christianity (according to Canon 37), "and in the Church," namely of Christ and Christian, this Sacrament of matrimony is great and properly so called.
Note: When the Apostle here speaks and inculcates the union of Christ with the Church, he primarily speaks of and understands the proper and real union, which was made through the incarnation, by which Christ, that is, the divine Word, united and married to Himself human nature, and consequently human beings and the Church of human beings. For this is the closest union and the origin of the others, and Adam's marriage with Eve signified this. Secondarily, however, he speaks of and understands the mystical union, by which Christ is coupled to the Church through grace and charity. For to this he had exhorted Christian spouses in the preceding verses by Christ's example.
Hence St. Jerome notes secondly, and with him Augustine, St. Leo, and other Fathers, that Adam was the first prophet who prophesied of Christ and His cross, and of the Church to be formed from the side of the crucified Christ, and that Adam knew all these things in sleep, or as the Septuagint translates, in ecstasy (in which God formed Eve from Adam's side). From this, however, it does not follow that the cause of all these things, namely his fall and sin, ought to have been revealed or was revealed by God to Adam while still innocent and holy.
Verse 33: Nevertheless
Verse 33. Nevertheless. — πλήν, which Erasmus poorly translates as "although": for properly it signifies "nevertheless," "truly indeed," as if to say: And so you also, O Christian spouses, in whom this Sacrament of matrimony is most perfect, and who most perfectly represent in your marriage the union of Christ and the Church already made, see to it that the Sacrament which you represent and bear, you may actually present and express, namely that each husband should love his wife as his own flesh, indeed as himself, just as Christ loves the Church, and that each wife should fear, that is, reverence, says Jerome, her husband, just as the Church reverences and worships Christ.
For this is the conclusion, as even Beza acknowledges, of all the duties of husband and wife, by which the Apostle in one word concludes and teaches what the husband owes the wife, what the wife owes the husband, and he infers it both from the other things said before, and from this great Sacrament of matrimony, which he had inculcated immediately before. Note: To the husband as head belongs love; to the wife as subject is fitting fear and reverence. From this passage wives are taught not to speak back to their husbands brashly and shamelessly, but to revere them, and to address them with reverence: just as disciples reverently address their teachers, as Sarah reverenced her husband Abraham; and let them learn with Sarah to have and to call their husbands their lords, Gen. 18, v. 12.
An illustrious example of this marital love and reverence, says Plutarch, was given by the wife of Phocion, who used to call her husband her wealth, her world, and her treasure. But more illustrious was the wife of Tigranes, king of Armenia, who, as Xenophon reports, when she had returned from the court of Cyrus, king of the Persians, to her husband, and was asked by him what she thought of Cyrus and the beauty of Cyrus, replied: From you, O husband, I call the gods to witness, I never turned my eyes anywhere; and so I am wholly ignorant what the form of Cyrus is. But most illustrious was St. Monica, of whom St. Augustine, in book IX of the Confessions, ch. IX, says: "Brought up modestly and soberly, and rather subjected by You to her parents than by her parents to You, O Lord (for he addresses God), when she became of marriageable age in fullness of years, given to a husband (the unbeliever Patricius) she served him as a master, and busied herself to win him to You, speaking to him about You by her conduct, by which You were making her beautiful and reverently lovable and admirable to her husband."
Beautifully the Wise Man thus decrees concerning conjugal love, Proverbs 5:19: "Let your wife be to you most dear as a hind, and a most pleasing fawn." Where note, marital love is fittingly compared to the love of stag and hind: for, as Aristotle, Aelian, Pliny, and Oppian teach, first, the love of stag and hind is unique; secondly, the hind is lovable and a delight to man; thirdly, stag and hind are without gall: in like manner, in marriages of old those sacrificing to Juno the matron used to remove and cast away the gall, to designate marital charity, says Plutarch; fourthly, stag and hind mate chastely, and only in secret; fifthly, they are very swift in helping one another; sixthly, the love of stags for hinds is as most ardent, so also most strong. Hence Seneca sings of them: "If they have feared for their mate, The timid stags demand battles. And by their bellowing the conceived Give signs of fury." Seventhly, hinds are faithful to their mate, until he is overcome by another challenging stag and falls, whence Nemesianus: "The hind follows her male." Eighthly, the stag immediately after coupling hides himself in a hollow, as if ashamed of his lust, until washed by rain, and as it were purified, he returns to the pastures. Ninthly, stag and hind after conception abstain from coupling, as if the Wise Man were saying: Let such, O man, be your marriage, such your wife, as I have just described the hind, namely unique, lovable, sincere, gentle, chaste, cooperative, ardent, strong, faithful, modest. Thus the Venerable Bede on Proverbs 5.
But what if the wife is ill-mannered, harsh and quarrelsome? Let the husband bear with her or convert her by his prudence, gravity, and patience; let him do that of the Apostle: "Bear one another's burdens." Thus Christ bore the burdens and sins of the Church His spouse, and expiated her by His blood. Socrates also had a quarrelsome wife named Xanthippe, who always stirred up quarrels, so that while he was studying, she would overturn the table. Once after long quarrels, moved by anger because he was silent, she poured a cup of water over his head. "I was not unaware," said Socrates, "that rain would follow the thunder." To whom Alcibiades, a nobleman of his household: "How," said he, "do you put up with this quarrelsome wife, and not throw her out of the house?" to whom Socrates: "He who wishes to eat eggs ought not to be offended by the cackling of the hens. Indeed, I am thus learning patience at home, that I may be able to exercise it better outside." So Laertius in his Life, and A. Gellius, book I, ch. XVII. It is therefore fitting for each man to tolerate inconveniences, and to rejoice in the Lord, by which they will be rendered lighter. For, as Virgil says, "Each man suffers his own ghosts." Varro too in the Menippean Satire which he wrote on the duty of a husband: "The vice of a wife," he says, "is either to be removed or to be borne. He who removes the vice makes the wife more agreeable; he who bears it makes himself better." Whoever therefore you have chosen as a wife, and you find her quarrelsome, think of "woman," think of Xanthippe: be Socrates, indeed be Christ, think that you have a domestic exercise of patience, so that you may learn to bear and overcome other things more easily. Many seek crosses outside; you have one at home — she will teach you patience: and patience has a perfect work, as St. James says.