The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Ver. 10. — And herein I give my advice . Bede takes this : “ Herein I give my opinion,” but wrongly; for advice is here contrasted with precept.
Not only to do but also to be forward. Or “ to be willing,” i.e., of your own accord, no one forcing you. This, as S. Paul hints, is more than to do it when asked (Anselm). Gregory (Hom. 18 in Ezek.) says: “ This very exhortation contains a reproach. “ A year ago ,” he says . They did well, then, but slowly. Their teacher, therefore, while he praises, chides. He is a physician who applies to the wound a remedy which both soothes what has been already cleansed, and bites the parts that are found unsound.”
Ver. 11. — So there may be a performance. Lucian’s lines are well known : —
“ Sweeter is grace that is prompt ;
If slow is the hand that bestows.
Its grace becomes empty and vain
And title to grace must resign.”
And again : —
“ He double gives who promptly gives.”
Ver. 12. — It is accepted according to that a man hath. In other words, “ Give what you can” (Ambrose, Chrysostom, Anselm). Observe here i. that the perfection and merit of almsgiving and of every virtue consists in the readiness of the will and not in the greatness or the number of the gifts; and, therefore, before God, when this readiness is greater then the virtue is greater, even if, on account of poverty or some other cause, the wish is unable to issue in the external act of giving. Hence S. Paul says that the willing mind is accepted, not the gift. Cf. S. Mark xii. 43.
2. Notwithstanding, in order that this readiness be accepted before God, says S. Thomas, as true, earnest, and efficacious, it must issue in act according to what it has, i.e., give of what it has according to its power ; otherwise it would be merely a wish, not an earnest and ready will. It is not expected to give what it has not, as S. Paul says. “Let him who has,” says Theophylact, “ carry out his work ; he who has not has already carried it out.” S. Leo (Serm. 4 de Jej. Dec. Mensis) says : “Unequal expenditure may give equal merits; for the intention may be the same, though the incomes be widely different ; ” and Anselm says : “ Here all, whether poor or rich, give equally, if each gives in proportion to what he has.”
3. It follows that amongst those who are equally rich or equally poor that one is the more liberal and has more merit who gives more. Amongst those, however, whose wealth is unequal , that one merits more who gives the more in proportion to his means, although absolutely he may give less than his richer neighbour. Cf. Tob. iv. 9. S. Augustine ( Enarr . in Ps. civ.) says: “ If you can give , give. If you cannot , give courtesy. God crowns the goodness within when He finds not means without . Let no one say , ‘ I have not .’ Charity is not paid from the pocket
Ver. 13. — For I mean not that other men be eased , and ye burdened. I do not enjoin on you such liberal almsgiving as to enable the poor to live in luxury and you in need, but I wish every one to think of the necessities of others according to his power, without neglecting his own (Theophylact). S. Paul does not enjoin this, but he counsels it. It is, say S. Thomas and Anselm, an evangelical counsel, and, therefore, a sign of greater perfection, to give all your goods to the poor and become wholly poor yourself. “ If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor,” said Christ (S. Matt. xix. 21). This can be done not only by those who are going to devote themselves to the religious life, but even by those who remain in the world, as, e.g., by the poor widow (S. Mark xii. 43). Do not mistake me : any one may do this provided he do not bring himself into extreme necessity, and if he has no family, for whom he is bound to provide. Theophylact adds that in the next verse the Apostle exhorts the Corinthians to give beyond their strength, when he says “ that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want,” meaning : If you wish for a great reward, give liberally ; if for the whole reward, give your all. He takes abundance to mean profuse almsgiving, abounding beyond their strength, such as S. Paul praised in the Macedonians. The reason is this, that such an act is one of supreme, heroic almsgiving, poverty, fortitude, and hope in God.
We have a striking example of this in S. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, who, after spending all his goods on the poor, at last gave himself up to the Vandals to be enslaved in the place of the son of a widow. His self-abnegation is praised by S. Augustine (de Civ. Dei , lib. i. c. 10). The event showed that his action was pleasing to God, for, when he was living as a slave, he was recognised by the Vandals under the inspiration of God, and was honourably treated and sent back home. S. Paula, again, was so liberal to the poor that her frequent prayer was heard, and, according to her wish, she had to be buried at the expense of others, and in another’s garments. S. Jerome, in his Life of her, praises her warmly for this. S. Martin, S. John the Almoner, and many others are examples of the same liberality. But abundance in this verse more properly denotes the abundant wealth of the Corinthians ; for S. Paul contrasts it with the poverty of the Christians of Jerusalem, and desires that one may relieve the other.
Ver. 14 . — But by an equality . I do not command so large almsgiving that your homes be pauperised while the poor have ample, but of your superfluity, which supplies the proper matter of almsgiving , I beg you to communicate with the poor, and supply their want, so that you may both have the necessities of life, and may each hold the mean between the two extremes of poverty and abundance. Let there be nothing superfluous in the means of them that give, and nothing deficient in the way of the necessaries of life to them that receive (Theophylact).
That their abundance also may be a supply for your want. So their abundant supply of faith and hope and all graces will, by their prayers and merits before God, assist your spiritual poverty in this life, and in the other life they will, when you die, receive you into everlasting habitations. The kingdom of heaven is the possession of Christ's poor (Anselm).
That there may he equality . By an interchange of spiritual goods as well as temporal.
Ver. 15. — As it is written . Exod. xvi. 18. Paul applies what is said of the gathering and eating of manna, to show that God wishes men to strive after equality in communion of goods.
He that had gathered much . He that gathered much had no more than he that gathered little, and vice versa . The passage quoted from Exodus declares that by a continuous miracle God rained down manna for forty years in the wilderness on so many hundreds of thousands of Jews, in such a way that the greedy who gathered much, and the idle who gathered little, both found, when they returned home and measured what they had got, that they had but an homer full, or enough for a day's food for each. If they collected either more or less, God or an angel subtracted from it or added to it invisibly, to bring all to an equality. So, then, an homer was the measure for men, women, and children, and it contained as much only as a man would ordinarily eat in a day (Nyssen, de Vita Moysis , Chrysostom, Anselm, Vatablus, Theophylact).