The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Epistle to the Galatians
The Apostle here is speaking not only to religious, but to all Christians, who by baptism have renounced the world, with its conventional ideals and low code of honour. The world may say : “Go to market — adapt yourself to everybody; be a heretic with heretics, a politician with politicians ; and when you dine with them, eat flesh as they do, even on a fast day.” But the Christian will reply that he is dead to a life of this sort, and is bound to live the Christ life. Though he be called Papist, hypocrite, Jesuit, he will care nothing. The world scorns a man who refuses to fight a duel when challenged. The Christian will be content to know that duelling is forbidden by the law of Christ, and will despise the stupid opinions of a stupid world, preferring to follow the wisdom of Christ, which condemns all duelling as wicked and foolish. He will recollect that Christian fortitude is seen in bearing injuries in the defence of our country or ourselves, not in the retaliation of insults and injuries.
S. Bernard (Serm. 7 in Quadrag.) says that there are three steps in the way of perfection through crucifixion to the world. “ The first is to bear ourselves as pilgrims who , if they see men quarrelling, give no heed; if they see men marrying or making merry , pass by as pilgrims who are longing to reach their country , and who , therefore , decline to trouble themselves with anything but food and raiment. The second is to bear ourselves as though we were dead, void of feelings, knowing no difference between praise or blame , between flattery or calumny , nay , deaf to everything , even as a dead man . Happy is the death which thus keeps us spotless , nay, which makes us wholly foreigners to this world. But as the Apostle says , he who lives not in himself must have Christ living in him. All else must find him dead ; the things of Christ alone must find him living. The third is that He be not merely dead but crucified. Sensual pleasure, honours , riches, fame — all that the world delights in must be a cross to us. All that the world regards as painful must be gladly chosen by us and clung to.”
S. Bernard then adds a figurative explanation of this passage: “ The Apostle might not improperly be understood to mean that the world was crucified to him so far as its character was concerned, it being bound by the chains of its vices , and that he was crucified to the world by the pity he felt for its condition.”
And I unto the world. Blessed Dorotheus ( Biblioth . SS. Patrum, vol. iii.) asks : “ How is the world crucified to any one? When he renounces it and lives a life of solitude , having left father and mother and all earthly possessions. How is a man crucified to the world? Again , by renunciation ; when any one , after retiring from the world, strives against his own lusts and his own will, and subdues the motions of the flesh within. We religious seem to ourselves to have crucified the world because we have left it and retired to our monasteries ; but we are unwilling to crucify ourselves to the world. Its blandishments still have power over us ; we have still a lurking love for it; we hanker after its glory , its pleasures , its gaiety , and for these vile things cherish the passions which once swayed us. What madness is this to leave what is precious and worry ourselves over what is despicable. If we have renounced the world we ought also to have renounced all worldly desires as well."
This explanation is, however, too narrow. The Apostle is speaking to all, and not to religious alone. Moreover, crucifixion to the world and crucifixion of the world are not two distinct things, as Dorotheus seems to think, but two sides of the same thing.
Ver. 15 . — In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything . Whether you be Jew or Gentile matters nothing ; neither brings you nearer Christ. What is of importance is a new creature, i.e., a soul regenerated in baptism, and fortified by grace to walk in newness of life. Cf. Rev. iii. 14, where Christ is called “the beginning of the creation of God,” and Isa. ix. 6, where He is called “the Father of the world that is to be” (Vulg.), for from Him began a new creation. Cf. too Virgil (Eel. iv. 8), where Virgil transfers to Salonius, the newly born son of Asinius Pollio, Roman Consul, the predictions by the Cumaean Sibyl of the birth of Christ, in which the Christian era is described as a golden age.
Ver. 16. — And as many as walk according to this rule. The rule laid down by S. Paul as to justification, and the relation of Judaism to Christianity.
Peace be on them , and mercy , and upon the Israel of God. On Jews and Gentiles alike who believe on Christ, according to Ambrose ; but comparing this verse with Eph. i. 1 and Col ii. 8, it is better to explain the Israel of God as those who are Israelites indeed, i.e., who have embraced Christianity and renounced whether Gentilism or Judaism. Not those who are descended from Jacob according to the flesh are the Israel of God, but those who have his faith. These find peace within, and on them God plentifully bestows His grace.
There may be a reference to the meaning of Israel, i.e., he who sees God, says Theophylact. They who see Him by faith here will see Him under a fitting image in heaven. Or Israel may mean “he who has power with God,” according to Gen. xxxii. 28. As Jacob by his prayers obtained success against Esau, so the people of God are by His grace masters over the world and all its lusts, and over Judaism. So S. Thomas and Haymo.
Ver. 17. — From henceforth let no man trouble me . Let no Jew trouble me in future by asking whose servant I am. He bears the marks of circumcision, I the marks of Christ. Maldonatus takes the words as a defence of his apostleship.
For I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus . The Greek word used here denotes marks burnt in, like those impressed on slaves. It also stands for the scars left by wounds. S. Paul gives reasons for believing that he bore these latter in 2 Cor. xi. 23. As soldiers are proud of their scars gained in honourable warfare, so does S. Paul point with pride to those he had gained in the service of Christ.
S. Ambrose (in Ps . cxix. 120) writes: “ That man is pierced with the nails of God’s fear who bears in his body the mortification of Jesus. He merits to hear his Lord saying: ‘ Set Me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thine arm.’ Place then on thy breast and on thy heart the seal of the Crucified ; place it too on thy arm , that thy works may be dead unto sin. Perchance not only fear but love also will pierce thee with its nails, for love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. May our souls be wounded by these nails of charity, that they may cry out : ‘ We bear the wounds of charity.”’
In the same way did Blessed Theodorus Studita rejoice in the wounds he received in defence of the sacred images when they were assailed by Leo the Armenian, in a.d. 824. Baring his body to the scourge, he said : “ Delightful to me is the scourging of this vile body , and delightful will it be to lay it aside altogether, that my liberated soul may flee to Him whom it thirsts for.” And when the scourging was over, he wrote joyfully to Naucratius: “Is it not more glorious to bear the marks of Christ than to wear earthly crowns?” See Baronius, Annals for that year.
They bear the marks of Christ, says S. Jerome, who for love of Christ afflict their bodies, or who are afflicted with illness. S. Francis of Assisi, as S. Bonaventura relates in his Life of him (c. 13), received from a seraph nails in his hands and feet, out of his intense love of Christ crucified. These nails were not of iron but of hard, dead flesh, having their heads projecting, and the sharp end turned inwards, so that it was with pain and difficulty that he could walk. Pope Alexander IV. testified that he saw these nails himself with his own eyes after the death of S. Francis, and from him S. Bonaventura learnt the fact.
Let the impious blasphemy of Beza then do its worst, which speaks of this as a “ stigmatic idol,” fondly and fraudulently fashioned. S. Paul, however, is not claiming here such marks for himself, nor do the oldest likenesses of him show any of the sort. Indeed Sixtus IV., in a Bull quoted by Henry Sedulius, in his “ Notes to the Life of S. Francis,” forbade, under pain of excommunication, any other saint but S. Francis to be so painted. The Dominicans, who have lately depicted S. Catherine of Sienna in this way, claim a special privilege given them for the purpose by Pius V.
God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Jesus Christ.
The Cross is the ladder of blessed Eternity.
O long and blessed Eternity!