The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
This ecstasy of love may almost be said to have changed the heart of Paul into the heart of Christ, just as we read about S. Catherine of Sienna, that her ardent love for Christ made her ask Him to remove her own heart and give her His ; whereupon He granted her petition, and in place of her own gave her a new Christlike heart. So too S. Chrysostom (Horn. 23 in Ep. ad Rom.), after quoting these words of Paul's, went on to say: “ And so the heart of Paul was the heart of Christ, the tablets of the Holy Spirit, a roll written on by charity. A little before he had called the heart of Paul “ the heart of the world ,” and given this explanation of the term : “ His heart was so enlarged that in it was room for whole cities and peoples and tribes. For ‘ my heart ,’ he says , ‘ is enlarged .’ Nevertheless , however large it was , the love which enlarged it often brought it anguish. ‘ Out of much tribulation and sorrow ,’ he says, ‘ have I written unto you ;’ and I would fain see that heart melted, burning with love of them that are perishing, bringing forth children. A heart that sees God is higher than the heavens, wider than the world , brighter than the rays of the sun, hotter than fire, harder than adamant, that sends forth streams of living water, a springing well, that waters not the face of the earth but the souls of men .”
This ecstasy has often been experienced by saints who have been overcome by the love of Christ. S. Dominic, when elevating the Body of Christ in the Mass, was carried aloft, and his body, catching the fire with which his soul was consumed, was kindled as it were into a flame, whilst he ascended to be united to Christ, his love. S. Francis too conceived in his mind such ardour, as S. Bonaventura says, from the seraph who appeared to him at night, that his body was wonderfully changed from that of an earthly man to a heavenly spirit, and into an image of the Crucified : bearing the five wounds of the Saviour, and the five marks burnt into him by the fire of the love of Christ, he became a marvel to the world.
Well too says S. Gregory of Nyssa ( Horn . 15 in Cant.): To me to live is Christ . By these words the Apostle not only exclaims that in him live no human affections , such as pride , fear, lust , grief, anger , timidity , audacity , recollection of injuries, envy , desire of revenge, of money , of honour, or of glory, but that, all these being killed, He only remains who is none of these, who is sanctification, purity, immortality, and light and truth, who feeds among the lilies in the glories of His saints.”
So did Andrew the Apostle joyfully embrace the Cross. When he was condemned by Ægeas, Proconsul of Achaia, to be crucified for preaching the Cross, he exclaimed, as he approached the cross prepared for him : “ O noble cross, long desired, ardently loved, ever sought, already foreseen, gaily and gladly do I come to thee ; may my Master, who hung on thee, welcome me, His disciple, that through thee I may come to Him who through thee redeemed me.” So saluting the cross, and making his prayer, he stripped off his garments and surrendered himself to his executioners, who thereupon tied him with ropes to the cross and raised him aloft. There he hung for two days and taught the people, till, finally, after having asked the Lord that he might not be taken down from the cross, he was surrounded with a glorious light from heaven, and when the light departed he gave up the ghost. All this is related in his Acts, which are thoroughly trustworthy.
So too S. Peter, when condemned by Nero to the cross, asked and obtained that he might be crucified, not like his Master, but with his head downwards.
S. Philip the Apostle preached the faith to the Scythians at Hierapolis, a city of Asia, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius ; and having baptized many of them, he was at length crucified by the heathens and stoned, and so died a blessed martyr, as Eusebius relates, and, following him, Baronius.
When S. Bartholomew the Apostle had spread the Gospel through Lycaonia, in Greater Armenia, when Astyax was king, and had converted a temple of Ashtaroth in Lower India into a temple of the true God, and had baptized King Polemius and all his subjects, he was seized shortly afterwards, and after being beaten with sticks was crucified, and then flayed alive. On the twenty-fourth day afterwards he was beheaded, and so died.
At Rome, when Decius and Valerian were emperors, Pope Xystus was thrown into the Tullian prison and afterwards crucified. Prudentius (Hymn. 2 de S. Laurentio) thus alludes to this : “ When Xystus was already fastened to the cross he said prophetically to Laurence, when he saw him standing weeping at the foot of his cross : ‘ Cease to weep for me; I go before thee , my brother. In three days thou shalt follow me.’ ”
S. Dionysius the Areopagite was scourged at Paris in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, then tortured by fire and thrown to the wild beasts, without suffering any harm. He was then raised on a cross, from which he was taken down and again scourged, after which his head was cut off and he carried it in his own hands for two miles. Baronius (in Martyrol. Oct. 9).
When S. Calliopus, a devout youth, was invited to a banquet spread in honour of the gods, he replied: “ I am a Christian ; I worship Christ with fastings , and it is not lawful for a Christian mouth to receive what has been offered to infamous and unclean idols.” The governor, on hearing this, ordered him to be cruelly scourged, and then bade him give up his foolish craze, obey the decrees of the emperors, sacrifice to the gods, and so save his life, otherwise he should be crucified like his Master. Calliopus replied: “ I wonder at your impudence; you have been repeatedly told that I am a Christian, and that when a Christian dies he will live with Christ , yet you impudently fight against the truth . Hasten for me the same death as my Master bare.” When the governor saw that he was not to be shaken from his purpose, he gave sentence that he should be crucified on the Friday in Holy Week. When his mother heard of this, she bribed the soldiers to crucify her son with his head downwards, which was done. When he died a voice was heard from heaven : “ Come, thou citizen of Chrisfs kingdom and fellow-heir of the holy angels .” All this is related in his Life by Surius.
Wonderful, too, was the love of the Cross shown by a mere boy, S. Werner, and wonderful was his martyrdom by crucifixion. Having confessed and made his Communion, he was secretly taken by the Jews, and on Good Friday, in imitation of Christ, and out of hatred to Him, tied to a wooden pillar. There he was cruelly scourged, cut about with a knife in every part of his body, tortured with pincers, so that he seemed to be dead. The holy boy, however , lingered three days, hanging from the pillar, till the blood ceased to flow, when, after bearing his sufferings with the utmost patience, he gave up his spirit to Christ, crucified to the glory of God. See the account of him in Surius (April 2). For similar cruelties on the part of the Jews, see Socrates (Hist. lib. vii. c. 16).
Ado (Martyrol. May 22), and, following him, Baronius ( a . d . 440), relates a similar story of a holy maiden named Julia, who was before Felix, and urged by every blandishment to sacrifice to idols. On her refusal she was beaten by the hands of the servants, tortured by means of her hair, scourged, and crucified. When she gave up the ghost a dove left her mouth and flew to heaven. Who shall find a brave woman ? Her price is far off, yea, from the ends of the earth.
Lately in Japan six Franciscans, three of our Order, and seventeen Japanese laymen, among them a lad, Aloysius, of twelve years, and another, Antonius, of thirteen, were, by order of King Taicosama, crucified, and pierced with a sword in the right side. They thus joyfully suffered the agonies of martyrdom.
Who loved me and gave Himself for me. Note the use of the singular. It is not us nor for us , but me and for me. Paul speaks thus : (1.) because of the greatness and the sweetness of his love ; (2.) because he felt himself the first of sinners ; (3.) because each one owes thanks to Christ for His death, just as though Christ had died for him only. “ Happy , thrice happy he” says S. Jerome, “ who can say , because Christ lives in him , in every thought and work , ‘ I live in the faith of the Son of God , who loved me and gave Himself for me .’ ”
Ver. 21. — I do not frustrate the grace of God. I do not reject or spurn, or, as S. Ambrose renders it, “ I am not ungrateful to the grace of God." S. Augustine takes it as in the text. They frustrate the grace of God, says S. Jerome, who seek for justification through the law, and those who after baptism are polluted by sin. But this is a moral interpretation ; that first given is the literal meaning.
For if righteousness come by the law , then Christ is dead in vain. Since Christ gave His life as the price of our justification, He would have given it in vain if we could gain that justification through the law. This is a third argument, ex impossibili. No one is so mad as to say that Christ suffered in vain; but He did suffer for our justification ; therefore we are justified by Christ, not by Moses — by faith, not by the law.