The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
“ You have to meet an attack not only from the wiles of the devils but also from within yourself— against your bad habits , against your old evil life, which is ever drawing you to its wonted courses . On the other hand you are held back by the new life , while you still belong to the old. Hence you are lifted up by the joy of the new, you are weighed down by the burden of the old. The war is against yourself ; but just where it is irksome to yourself it is pleasing to God, and where it is pleasing to God you gain power to conquer, for He is with you who overcometh all things. Hear what the Apostle saith: ‘ With my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.’ How with the mind? Because your evil life is hateful to you. How with the flesh? Because you are beset by evil suggestions and delights. But from union with God comes victory. In part you go before; in part you follow after. Betake yourself to Him who will lift you up. Being weighed down with the burden of the old man, cry aloud and say : ‘ O wretched man that I am ; who shall deliver me from the body of this death, from the burden which is weighing me down’—for the body which is corrupted weigheth down the soul. But why is this warfare permitted to last so long, even till all evil lusts are swallowed up? It is that you may understand that the punishment is in yourself. Your scourge is in yourself , and proceeds from yourself , and therefore your quarrel is against yourself. This is the penalty imposed on any one who rebels against God, that as he would not have peace with God he shall have war within himself. But do you hold your members bound against your evil lusts. If anger, for example, is roused, remain close to God and hold your hand. It will not do more than rise if it finds no weapons. The attack is on the side of anger ; the arms, however, are with you ; let the attacking force find no arms, and he will soon learn not to rise if he finds that his rising is to no purpose .” Cf. my comments on Rom. vii. in fine.
These are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. You would wish to be free from the feelings of lust, anger, and gluttony, so as not to be hindered from charity, temperance, chastity, and prayer ; and yet you are not free, nor can be free in this life. Or, on the other hand, you would wish to do cheerfully heroic deeds of virtue, but often you cannot, because the flesh is contrary. Anselm well says : “ Your lusts do not allow you to do what you wish ; do not permit them to do what they wish , and then neither you nor they will attain your ends . Although lusts rise in you, yet they are not consummated if you withhold your consent. In the same way, though there may be in you good works of the Spirit , yet they are not consummated either, because you cannot do them cheerfully and perfectly, while you have the pain of resisting your lusts."
Ver. 18. — But if ye are led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law . This anticipates a possible objection of the Galatians that they had apparently only exchanged one yoke for another heavier one, under which they had constantly to fight a tedious and irksome battle. The Apostle replies to this that if they were led by the Spirit they were not the slaves of concupiscence but its masters, and so were not under the law, inasmuch as they kept its provisions not from fear, but by spontaneously doing what it bade, and restraining the motions of concupiscence forbidden by it.
The Galatians were not, says S. Paul, under the law as a compelling force, still less under it as accusing and condemning, but they were under it as binding the conscience. Even so, however, they kept the law of their own accord, and so might be said to be outside the law, or above the law ; not under it, but rather under the Spirit. This is why, after enumerating the fruits of the Spirit, he adds, Against such there is no law.
Ver. 19. — The works of the flesh are manifest. The works that spring from the flesh, i.e., from concupiscence, as I said in the note
Fornication. On the works of the flesh in detail, see Jerome, Anselm, and S. Thomas.
Uncleanness. Effeminacy. The effeminate are guilty of mutual pollution, contrary to the instincts of nature.
Lasciviousness. Any wanton, and, according to Jerome, extraordinary form of lust. He adds : “ The works of the married even, if not done with delicacy and modesty , as in the sight of God, and if merely for the procreation of children , come under the Apostle’s description of uncleanness and lasciviousness.” This, of course, must be understood of mortal sin ; cf., e.g., the act of matrimony is performed otherwise than nature dictates, or if its consummation is purposely prevented ; for then both are guilty of mortal sin, excluding them from the Kingdom of heaven. Otherwise lust in the married is only venial.
Ver. 20. — Wrath . Anger is the desire for revenge, and is a deadly sin when a bitter revenge is sought, or an object on which to bestow the angry feelings. It is venial only when it is instinctive , or when it aims at some slight revenge. The Apostle, therefore , is dealing here with the various sins enumerated in their highest and extremest form, for it is then only that they exclude from the Kingdom of heaven (ver. 21).
Heresies . Acts of private judgment against the teaching of the Church. These evince great temerity and presumption.
Ver. 21. — Revellings . This seems to teach that immoderate indulgence in the pleasures of the table is a mortal sin, as it excludes from the Kingdom of heaven. On this I remark that some theologians hold from this verse that gluttony and lust are mortal sins, not only if they impair the use of reason, but if they be excessive . They rely on the case of the rich man in the parable, who was condemned, not because he was a drunkard, but because he fared sumptuously every day; on the words of Isaiah (v. 22), where woe , i.e., eternal damnation, is threatened against those who are mighty to drink strong drink ; on the fact that excess in eating may be more than bestial ; and they ask why should gluttony, so degrading to reason as it is, not be a mortal sin, if pollution is.
But the common opinion of doctors is in favour of a milder view, viz., that excess in eating is not a deadly sin, except when it seriously impairs the health, or causes some disease ; or when a man eats with the object of vomiting, so as to commence again — and even this some hold to be not a deadly sin.
1. Note that revellings represents the Greek word κῶμοι, which stands for the lascivious words and actions of drunkards, for obscene songs, dances, and kisses. Hence Bacchus is called Comus, and κωμάζειν is to revel, or to be wanton. Cf. notes to Rom. xiii. 13.
2. If the word is to be understood of banquetings, then it must be also understood of them in their most extreme and finished form, when men sit at table till they are overcome with excess. Cf. Isa. xxviii. 8. As in the preceding words the Apostle subjoins variance to wrath, and heresies to seditions, and murders to envyings, so here he subjoins revellings to drunkenness, the second member in each case showing what the first tends to end in. Cf. Prov. xxiii. 20.
1. As to the opinions referred to above, I remark as follows : (a) to fare sumptuously is by itself a venial sin, and becomes mortal only when it leads to vomiting and similar excesses. ( b ) It also becomes a mortal sin per accidens , i.e., when it is united to drunkenness , lust, slander, cruelty, and contempt for the poor. This last was the sin of Dives.
2. The denunciation of Isa. v. 22 is directed against those who mix their drinks so as to make them more intoxicating, and who make a point of making themselves and their guests drunken, and think their hospitality disgraced if they fail in this.
3. Undoubtedly gluttony is a base thing in itself, but so are all our bodily functions ; but they are not entirely contrary to right reason, unless indeed they deprive reason of its power to act. The case is different with aberrations of the generative powers. The act of copulation is ordained for a special end, and in its proper method. To defeat this, or to elude the end, is to go contrary to the workings of God, and is therefore a deadly sin.
Ver. 22 . — But the fruit of the Spirit is love . The works of the Spirit are opposed to the works of the flesh, i.e., those works which are performed through the influence of the Holy Spirit, by which we merit that kingdom from which the works of the flesh exclude those who do them.