The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. I understood as a child, or felt as a child ; for children have not wisdom, but feeling. In other words, when a child I thought, and understood, and felt as a child, but when I became a man I thought and understood as a man does. So, when that which is perfect is come, i.e., perfect wisdom in heaven, partial and imperfect knowledge , as we have it in this life, shall fail ; so that we who here are boys in knowledge are to be men in heaven. S. Paul leaves the remaining part of the likeness to be supplied from the verse before.
Ver. 12. — For now we see through a glass in an enigma : but then face to face . We see, i.e., God and heavenly things, by which we may be saved and be happy, as appears from what follows. You will say : If we see God here in a mirror, we see Him clearly and not in an enigma, for a mirror exhibits to the eyes, not an image of the object, as is commonly supposed, but the very object itself. I reply : It is true that a mirror exhibits to the eyes the object itself, yet it does so, not by a direct ray but reflected; and therefore it represents the object, not properly, clearly, distinctly, but as from a distance, obscure and confusedly. Such is the knowledge of God and of Divine things which we have in this life, but in heaven we shall see God as He is, face to face, directly, closely, clearly.
Secondly, the Greek word denotes that which we look through as a means of seeing anything, such as the spectacles of old men, an eye-glass, or green glass which is placed over a writing, that it may help weak eyes in reading, nevertheless, it makes things look green, dark, and obscure. Such a glass, properly speaking, makes the letters to be seen, not in themselves immediately, but by an obscure medium and by a shadowy likeness, or, as the Apostle says, in an enigma. Such a glass may be meant here.
Thirdly, some interpret the word, “through a screen ; ” for, as merchants show their wares in their shops through glass screens to those who pass by, not close at hand and distinctly, but from a distance, in the mass and confusedly, so does God show Himself to us in this life.
You will ask, What is this mirror by which we see God and Divine things here in an enigma? I reply, Firstly, the creatures which act as a mirror to represent their Creator. So S. Thomas teaches. Secondly, the phenomena of nature, which are the mirrors of realities. Thirdly, the humanity of Christ and its mysteries, which veil and set forth His Divinity. Again, the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies. So S. Theodoret says : “ In holy baptism we see a figure of the resurrection ; there we shall see the resurrection itself. Here we see the symbols of the Lord’s body; there the Lord Himself ; for so the words face to face imply . We shall see , however, not His Divine nature , which no eye can take in , but that which was assumed of us.” In these last words of Theodoret an error of his must be guarded against, for he seems to say that in heaven we shall see the humanity only of Christ, because he says the Divine nature cannot be seen. But the excuse can perhaps be made that he is speaking only of corporal vision, of which it is true to say, that with the eyes of the body we shall see the humanity only of Christ. But this is outside the mind of the Apostle, for he is treating of the beatific vision, especially of the Divinity.
In an enigma , i.e., according to Anselm, by an obscure speech, thought, or imagination. For an enigma is a question which is proposed in involved terms.
Then face to face. He alludes to Moses (Exod. xxxiii. 2 ; Num. xii. 8).
“ Now I know in part” (imperfectly, as I have said, ver. 9), “ but then shall I know even as also I am known,” That is, then in heaven I shall perfectly know and see God, as He is in His essence, and all other mysteries of God and the faith, even as He knows me and sees what I am in my essence. So Anselm, Theophylact, Cajetan, Ambrose , and Theodoret. “I shall know,” he says, “even as I am known,” as a well-known and familiar friend clearly sees the face of his friend.
S. Augustine extends these words of the Apostle to a knowledge also of what takes place here on earth, and of what relates to the state of any saint. Hence he proves from this place that the saints understand in heaven our affairs more perfectly than they once did on earth ; whence it follows that they hear the prayers with which we invoke them (de Civ. Dei, lib. xxii. c. 29). Chrysostom and Œcum. understand it otherwise. Then, they say, shall I know what concerns action : I shall hasten to Him through love and righteousness, even as He prevented and went before me with His grace. Thirdly, others interpret it thus : Then shall I know with that degree of perfection to which I was known and predestinated for eternity by God. But the first sense is the genuine one ; for he opposes knowledge, which is clear and full, to that which is in part, i.e., imperfect and enigmatical.
Ver. 13. — Now abide faith , hope, charity. S. Paul in this chapter clearly teaches that faith, hope, and charity abide in this present life, but charity alone in our heavenly country. So the Fathers hold. See Gregory de Valentia, disp. qu. 5 de Subjecto Fidei, part 2).
You will say, Irenaeus (ii. c. 47), Tertullian (de Patientia, c. xii.) understand “now” of heaven; therefore in heaven there will be, and will abide, both faith and hope.
I reply : These Fathers understand by faith all sure knowledge, such as the vision of God ; by hope, a firm adherence to God, as the object of love, which is the enjoyment of God. For this is what Tertullian says : “ There abide faith, hope, love : faith which the patience of Christ had begotten ; hope which the patience of man waits for ; love which, with God as her teacher, patience accompanies .” But these are not to the purpose of the Apostle, as is evident.
The greater of these is charity. Greater, i.e., the greatest. So Catullus : —
“ O Hesperus , light more fair, which shinest in heaven,” that is, fairest star.
Hence it is plain that faith is not the confidence of heretics in the remission of their sins; for that confidence is nothing else but a strong hope : if it is more it is properly called faith, by which you believe most firmly that you have been justified and saved, as you believe that God is; then hope is superfluous. For what you firmly believe you do not, nor can hope for, as, e.g ., you do not hope that God is, that Christ suffered for us. For hope which truly is hope is allied to fear and dread as its opposites ; there is nothing of this kind in faith. The Apostle just above distinguishes hope or confidence from faith, and requires in this life hope as well as faith ; therefore faith is not that confidence of which heretics make their boast.
Lastly, it is plain that of all virtues charity is the greatest and most eminent; for, as fire among the elements, gold among the metals, the empyrean among the heavens, the sun among the planets, the seraphim among the angels, so shines charity as the queen among virtues. For charity is the celestial fire which kindles the souls of all around it : the most glittering gold with which we purchase our heavenly inheritance; the highest heaven in which God and the blessed dwell; the sun which illuminates, fertilises, quickens all ; the seraphic virtue which makes the seraphim glow. (See on Deut. vi. 5.) Beroald says: “As is the helmsman in a ship, the ruler in a state, the sun in the world, so is love among mortals. Without a helmsman the ship is shattered, without a ruler the state is endangered, without the sun the world is darkened, and without love life is no life. Take love from men, you take the sun from the world.” Plotinus happily calls love a purifying God, that is, making all things pure and beautiful.