The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
Would that we would reflect how short is the time of our trial, how time flies never to return, how on each moment hangs eternity ! How zealous should we then be in all good works. What we now neglect, we shall never regain; for in a short time all opportunity for living, acting, meriting, will vanish away. Cf. Rev. x. 6. When time shall be no more, eternity will be with us. “ Short is the time given us in this present life. Unless we employ it on needful things , what shall we do when we pass into the next world ? ” (S. Chrysostom , Horn. 17 in Joan.). The pagan Seneca (Ep. i.) can say the same : “ It is a disgrace to lose time through mere carelessness ; and if you will notice it, you will see that a great part of life glides by with those who do evil , the greatest part with those who do nothing, and the whole with those who do anything else."
S. Gregory Nazianzen says, in his Iambics , that life is a market in which we can procure all wealth, all virtues ; but when it is closed, there remains no more chance of buying. The time for buying is short, nay, it is a single day, when compared with eternity.
Ver. 11. — Ye see how large a letter, S. Chrysostom and Theophylact understand this to mean : You see what misshapen letters I have formed, but your love for me will excuse their imperfections. S. Augustine : Ye see how freely and openly I have written, without any fear of the Judaisers. S. Hilary, and others following him : Ye see what lofty ideas I have put before you. S. Jerome, however, thinks that the words show that up to this point S. Paul had used an amanuensis, but that from here to the end he wrote himself, to prevent any one from objecting to the genuineness of the Epistle.
The best explanation is that which sees an allusion to the length of the letter, and a reference to S. Paul’s affection for the Galatians, which had made him dispense with his usual amanuensis, and write a long letter with his own hand.
Ver. 12. — As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh. This is a reference to the Judaisers, and their desire to commend themselves to their kinsmen after the flesh. Or the meaning may be that they desired to please by the observance of carnal circumcision. This latter is supported by the use of the term flesh in the next verse.
They constrain you to be circumcised. Because they hope to be secure from the persecutions of the Jews, who were bitterly hostile to the Cross of Christ, and all who preached it.
Ver. 13. — For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law. They do not proselytise from zeal for the law, for they do not themselves observe it, but to obtain the praise of the Jews for having converted you to Judaism. Many other religious teachers unhappily pursue the same policy, and strive for their own glory, and gamble for others’ skins, nay, rather for their very souls.
Ver. 14. — But God forbid that I should glory, &c. The adversative but marks a contrast between the glory of the Judaisers in circumcision and the glorying of S. Paul in the Cross. The Cross of course stands for itself and all the redemptive benefits it bestows, and in it is shown the greatness of man’s sin and the depth of God’s love. S. Augustine (Serm. 20 de Verbis Apost.) says: “ The Apostle might well have gloried in the wisdom of Christ, or His majesty, or His power ; but it was the Cross he specified. The philosopher’s shame is the Apostle’s boast. He glories in his Lord. What Lord ?
Christ crucified. In Him are conjoined humility and majesty , weakness and power, life and death. Would you come to Him? Despise not these ; be not ashamed ; you have received the sign of the Cross on your forehead as on the seat of shame."
S. Bernard (Serm. 25 in Cant.) says: “He thinks nothing more glorious than to bear the reproach of Christ. The shame of the Cross is pleasing to him who is not unpleasing to the Crucified."
And again he writes ( Serm . 1 de S. Andrea ) : “ The Cross is precious , capable of being loved, and is a cause of exultation . The wood of the Cross puts forth blossoms , bears pleasant fruit , drops the oil of gladness, exudes the balsam of temporal gifts . It is no woodland tree, but a tree of life, to those who lay hold of it. It bears lifegiving fruits , else how should it occupy the Lord’s land, that most precious soil, to which it was affixed by nails which were, as it were, its roots?”
So (in Ep . 190 ad Innocent. Pont.) he says : “ I see three principal things in this work of our salvation : the form of humility, in which Christ emptied Himself; the measure of charity, which stretched itself even to death, and that the death of the Cross ; the sacrament of redemption, whereby He bore that death He vouchsafed to take upon Him.”
By whom the world is crucified unto me. As the world shrinks from the Cross or any crucified corpse, so do I shrink from the pomps and vanity of the world. Whatever, as S. Bernard says, the world thinks of the Cross, that do I think of worldly pleasures ; and whatever the world thinks of pleasure, that do I think of the Cross.
A simpler explanation, however, is to take crucified in the general meaning of death, that being the consequence of crucifixion. The Apostle used the term crucified to maintain the continuity of his subject. Being crucified with Christ, he says, I am a new creature, a new life. I am dead to the worldly things clung to by the Jews (he still has these in his mind) ; I am not held by them or by the opinions, applause, or hatred of anybody whatsoever, as the Judaisers are. And by consequence all worldly things are, so far as I am concerned, dead — they have no power to affect me. The world is crucified to me ; it cannot hold me. I am crucified to the world ; I do not regard it. The world cannot hurt me, nor do I desire anything from it. S. Ignatius, writing to the Romans, said : “ My love is crucified, and hence corruptible food and worldly pleasure delight me not. I long for the bread of God, that bread which cometh down from heaven, which is the flesh of Christ. With Him I am crucified.”
Cassian (de Institut. Renunt. iv. 34, 35) relates the beautiful description of the monastic ideal given to a novice by Abbot Pinusius. He put before him Christ crucified : “ Renunciation of the world is nothing but the choice of the Cross and the mortified life. You know, therefore , that this day you have done with the world its activity and its delights , and that as the Apostle says , you are crucified to the world, and the world to you . Consider , then, the conditions of life under the Cross, under the shadow of which you are henceforth to dwell. For it is no longer you that live, but He liveth in you who was crucified for you. As He hung on the Cross, so must we be in this life, mortifying our flesh in the fear of the Lord, with all its affections and lusts; not serving our own wills, but nailing them to His Cross. So shall we fulfil the Lord's command, ‘ He that taketh not up his cross and followeth not after Me is not worthy of Me.' " He then describes in detail the way we should be crucified with Christ: “If it be asked, How can a man take up his cross and be crucified while still living, I reply : Our cross is the fear of the Lord ; as the crucified man has no power over his own members , so are we to order our wills, not after our own desires, but according to the fear of the Lord, which constraineth us. And just as the man fastened to a cross regards not things present, studies not his own feelings, is not anxious about the morrow, is stimulated by no worldly desires, grieves not over present injuries, thinks not of the past, and, while still breathing, holds that he has done with the elements of this world, sending on his spirit thither where he will soon be, so must we be crucified by the fear of the Lord to all these things, not only to sins of the flesh, but to all earthly things, keeping our eyes intent on the land to which we hope every moment to travel."