The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
Although every sin is here called a burden, yet the Apostle specially refers to that of Judaism, which was called a yoke of bondage in chap. v. 1. Hence the exhortation, strictly speaking, is that if any one be found sinking under the burden of Judaising ceremonies, he is not to be harshly censured, but gently and sympathetically lifted up, and restored to the Church. Just as an ass that has fallen under its load is able to rise when the load is taken from its back, so the sinner is able to rise from his sin when another, by his gentleness and kindness, shares the burden with him, and so removes it from him. So says S. Basil : “ We remove this burden one from another as often as we take the trouble to bring to a better mind those who have sinned and fallen .” Cf. Isa. liii. 4.
We bear our neighbour's burden then — (1.) by sympathetic correction of him; (2.) by prayer that God will take it from him; (3.) and most completely by penances, when, after Christ's example, we bear others' sins by undergoing in expiation of them voluntary fasts and hair-shirts, and other modes of discipline.
1. Sin is the heaviest burden man can be called on to bear. S. Augustine ( Horn . 22 in Loco ) says: “ See the man laden with the burden of avarice ; see him sweating under it, gasping, thirsty, and making his load the heavier. What do you look for , O miser, as the reward for this so great labour of yours? Why do you toil thus? What do you long for? Merely to satisfy your avarice . It can oppress you, but you cannot satisfy it. Is it by any chance not grievous? So much so that you have even lost the power of feeling? Is not avarice grievous? If not, why is it that it wakes you from sleep, and sometimes prevents you from sleeping at all? Perhaps too with it you have a second load of indolence, and so two most evil burdens pulling you in different directions . They do not give you the same orders . Indolence says, ‘ Sleep ’ ; avarice says, ‘ Rise!’ Indolence says , ‘ Avoid the cold ’ ; avarice says, ‘ Bear even the storms of the sea!’ The one says , ‘ Rest ’ ; the other, so far from allowing rest, bids you cross the sea, and venture on unknown lands!’ S. Augustine adds that Christ takes away this burden of lust, and puts in its place His own yoke of charity, which does not weigh down, but, like wings added to a bird, enables its possessor to rise.
2. It is the proper office of charity to teach us how to bear these burdens in turn, as S. Augustine points out from the beautiful image of stags (Horn. 21 in Eadem Verba) : “ It is the office of love to bear others' burdens in turns . It has been said that stags when crossing water are accustomed to help each other , by those in front carrying the weight of the heads of those behind. The foremost stag , having no one on whom to rest his head, is relieved in turns by some stag who is less fatigued. Bearing one another’s burdens , in this way they cross over the water, and so reach dry land once more. Perhaps Solomon was alluding to this peculiarity of stag-life when he said, ‘ Let the friendly stag, and the young of thy thanksgiving, speak with thee ; for nothing is such a test of a friend as his willingness to bear his friend's burdens.’ You will bear your friend’s bad-temper by being not angry with him ; and then when you are in your turn vexed, he will remain undisturbed. So too if one has mastered his own loquacity but not his obstinacy , while another on the other hand has overcome his own obstinacy but not his loquacity , let each bear the other’s burdens until both be healed. So too did S. Paul write : ‘ Look not every man on his own things , but every man also on the things of others,’ adding: ‘ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,’ meaning that, as the Word became incarnate and took our sins upon Him, so should we, like Him, bear the burdens of others. Let us then show to those who are in trouble what we should wish shown to us, if our positions were reversed. ‘ I am made all things to all men, that I might gain all,’ says S. Paul. He was made all things to all men by regarding it as possible that he himself might have been in the position of the man he was anxious to set free.”
Those who support the weaknesses and burdens of others are happily compared to bones by S. Basil, when explaining the words of Ps. xxxiv. 20 : “ He keepeth all His bones : just as bones are given us to support the weakness of the flesh, so in the Church there are some whose functions it is by their fortitude to strengthen the weaker . And as the bones are fitly jointed, and formed into a unity by nerves and ligaments, so in the Church of God does charity bind all together into a perfect whole. It is of the solution of this continuity that the Prophet speaks when he cries, ‘ All my bones are out of joint.' And again it is of some internal weakness that he complains when he prays, ‘ Heal me, O Lord ; for my bones are sore troubled.’ And it is of their preservation that he says , ‘ Not one of them shall be broken.’ And when they are worthy to give honour and praise to God, he exclaims , ‘ All my bones shall say , Lord, who is like unto Thee?’”
3. From this it follows that those who feel for others’ woes are strong in virtue, like bones, and have, therefore, the tokens of a perfect Christian, while, on the contrary, those who are devoid of sympathy are self-convicted of some concealed viciousness of character. This is what Cassian says ( Collat . xi. c. 11): “ It is an evident mark of a soul not yet freed from the dregs of wickedness that it does not compassionate the sinner, but judges him harshly. For how can he be perfect who wants that which fulfils the law, which bears others’ burdens, which is not wrathful, is not puffed up, which thinketh no evil, which beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things ? The righteous man hath regard for the life of his beasts , but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Therefore it is certain that the monk who judges others harshly is himself under the power of the same sins as the man he condemns .” For other illustrations of this subject, see the notes to Num. xi. 12.
And so fulfil the law of Christ. The law of Christ is love. Cf. S. John xiii. 35; xv. 12. The most difficult act of love, and the one most expected by Christ, is that we bear one another’s burdens. If we do this, we do our duty to our neighbour, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Again, we fulfil this law when we supply by charity and sympathy others’ defects in the law. If one breaks the law by the use of angry words, let another supply his defects, and keep the law in his stead. Or, what is more to the immediate purpose of the Apostle, if any bear with a Judaiser and bring him to a better mind, he supplies what the latter lacks, and so fulfils the law of Christ. S. Bernard (de Praecept. et Dispens.) says that a man who has sinned and then repented, and prayed for forgiveness, fulfils the law which he had previously broken.
Ver. 3. — For if a man think himself to be something, &c. If a man is proud of his superior spirituality, and despises his brother, and treats him harshly for sinning — especially for Judaising — he is nothing, and so he deceiveth himself.
Ver. 4. — But let every man prove his own work . Let no one treat his neighbour as the Pharisee the publican, but rather take heed to his own works, and see whether the motive of them be pure. He will probably find many faults, and so will not think himself to be something. But even if he finds none, or very few, then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone — that is, in his own conscience — and this will be in the Lord, who gave him the power to do all his good deeds. He will not rejoice because he finds himself good by comparison with others, i.e., he will not have rejoicing in another, as S. Paul expresses it. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm.