CHAPTER 13 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER i. He points out that of all gifts and graces, charity is the first, and that without charity no gift or virtue is of any use. II. He enumerates (ver. 4) the sixteen conditions of charity, or the modes of its manifestation towards our neighbours. III. He shows... [ Continue Reading ]
_Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing._ Erasmus thinks that this is a hyperbolic fiction, as though he should say, "Charity by far excels faith," just as we say, "Virtue alone is the only nobility." But this is far too cold; for in the followi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Charity suffereth long and is kind._ Ambrose reads: "Charity is high-souled" (so also S. Cyprian and Tertullian, _de Patientiâi_, c. 12, read), "and is pleasing." Note, charity is long-suffering, not formally, but in the way of cause, because it produces patience and kindness; because patience, as... [ Continue Reading ]
_Is not ambitious._ Ephrem translates it: " _Does not commit what is shameful_." Clement (_Pædag_. lib. iii.c. 1). " _Doth not behave itself unseemly._ " Our translator with Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Œcumenius, takes it thus: Charity thinks that nothing is dishonouring or unbecoming to it,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rejoiceth in the truth. In the truth_, not so much of speech and mind as of life, _i.e._, of righteousness. In other words, charity, when it sees its neighbours living justly and rightly and making advance, does not envy them, but rejoices and is glad, as though it were its own advance, as Anselm s... [ Continue Reading ]
_Beareth all things._ Like a beam which sustains an imposed weight, or rather, like a palm-tree, which does not yield under its own weight, but, like an arch, is the more strong. Rightly says Augustine (_in Sententiis_, sec. 295): " _The fortitude of the Gentiles comes from wordly lust, but the fort... [ Continue Reading ]
_Charity never faileth._ It suffers no death; it will never cease: other gifts will cease in the heavenly glory. Heretics infer from this that, if charity never faileth, he who has it cannot sin, and is assured of his salvation. I reply, I deny the consequence. For charity never faileth, viz., by it... [ Continue Reading ]
_For we know in part and we prophesy in part, i.e._, imperfectly. Ephrem turns it. "We know but little of much;" for the Apostle opposes what is little and imperfect, what we know partly by reason, partly by prophecy, to what is perfect (ver. 10), _i.e._, to the perfect vision and knowledge of God i... [ Continue Reading ]
_When I was a child_, that is, one who is now beginning to say, think, plan, attempt, study, play, and do anything, as our children are wont to do. _I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child._ I understood as a child, or felt as a child; for children have not wisdom, but fee... [ Continue Reading ]
_For now we see through a glass in an enigma: but then face to face._ We see, _i.e._, God and heavenly things, by which we may be saved and be happy, as appears from what follows. You will say: If we see God here in a mirror, we see Him clearly and not in an enigma, for a mirror exhibits to the eyes... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now abide faith, hope, charity._ S. Paul in this chapter clearly teaches that faith, hope, and charity abide in this present life, but charity alone in our heavenly country. So the Fathers hold. See Gregory de Valentia, disp. qu. 5 _de Subjecto Fidei_, part 2). You will say, Irenæus (ii. c. 47), T... [ Continue Reading ]