Bible in a Year with Fr Paul

Those who have chosen to live the glorious and beloved way of life devised by Christ must first be adorned with simple and unblemished faith, and then add virtue to their faith. When this has been done, they must strive to enrich their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and ascend to the most complete understanding of him—St Cyril of Alexandria

Paul is speaking here to bishops who have the power of placing presbyters in the individual towns, so that they would hear clearly by what kind of rule correct church order should be maintained.… Originally the churches were governed by a common council of the presbyters. But after one of their number began to think that those whom he had baptized were his and not Christ’s, it was universally decreed that one of the presbyters should be elected to preside over the others, to whom the care of the whole church should pertain, that the seeds of schism might be alleviated—St Jerome

There is a distinction between the death of the body and the death of the soul. There is no reproach in the death of the body as such and hence no moral danger since there is no reproach. The body’s death is merely a matter of nature, not of choice. This death had its origin in the transgression of the first human being, and thereafter it has had its subsequent effect on nature. Its release will be swift. But the death of the soul is the result of free choice. Hence it entails reproach, from which there is no easy release. It is a much weightier task to heal a deadened soul than to raise a dead body, as Paul has already shown. Yet this is what has now happened, incredible as it may be—St John Chrysostom

“And they shall be scattered on the merchant ships of foreigners and together plunder the sea.” [Is 11:13 (LXX).] For they, in their wanderings among the nations, had to make use of the passage through the sea, just as though they were flying on it, they made a swift course through the sea so that they might proclaim the gospel to most nations in a short time. Sometimes they went by foot, sometimes through the sea, but instead of employing Jewish ship captains, they hired those who had received the message of Christ. At the same time, they plundered the sea, that is the islands, through which they passed and made known to their inhabitants the salvific teaching. So you may understand this passage, here is one example. The apostle Paul, being one of those whom this passage prophesies, took a course through the sea on his way to Rome, and when he was shipwrecked on the island called Malta he worked a miracle of great astonishment to the inhabitants, and by healing the physically ill, he so amazed the onlookers that he plundered many and drew them to the salvific teaching—Eusebius of Caesarea

Knowledge therefore comes through faith, and without faith there is no knowledge. How so? It is only through faith that we know the power of his resurrection. For what reasoning could demonstrate the resurrection to us? None, but it is through faith. And if the resurrection of Christ in the flesh is known through faith, how can the nativity of the Word be comprehended by reason? For the resurrection is far more plausible to reason than the virgin birth—St John Chrysostom

Because they saw that the followers of the new grace were less diligent about observing the rituals of the law and the rites of the temple, they became afraid, as we read in the Gospel, that the Romans would come and take away their place and their people. [Jhn 11:48.]—The Venerable Bede

Note how this analogy is different from the subject it refers to. Paul says that the husband dies, so that the woman, freed from the law of her husband, can marry whomever she likes. Paul compares the soul to the woman and thinks of the husband as the passions of sin which work in our members to produce the fruits of death, which are the offspring worthy of such a marriage. The law is given not to take away sin nor to deliver us from it but to reveal what sin is before grace comes. The result is that those who are placed under the law are seized by an even stronger desire to sin and sin even more because of the trespass. But in making this triple analogy—the soul as the woman, the passions of sin as the man and the law as the law of the husband—Paul does not conclude that the soul is set free when its sins are put to death in the way that the woman is set free when her husband is dead. Rather, he says that the soul itself dies to sin and is set free from the law in order that it might belong to another husband, who is Christ. The soul has died to sin, but in a sense sin is still alive. Thus it happens that although desires and certain encouragements to sin remain in us, we do not obey or give in to them because we have died to sin and now serve the law of God—St Augustine

Thus also the apostle Paul, after shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many grievous tortures of the flesh and body, says that he was not harassed but was corrected by adversity, in order that while he was the more heavily afflicted he might the more truly be tried. There was given to me, he says, a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me lest I be exalted. Concerning this thorn I asked the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me: “My grace is sufficient for you: for power is made perfect in weakness.” When, therefore, some infirmity and weakness and desolation attacks us, then is our power made perfect, then our faith is crowned, if though tempted it has stood firm.… This finally is the difference between us and the others who do not know God, that they complain and murmur in adversity, while adversity does not turn us from the truth of virtue and faith but proves us in suffering—Cyprian of Carthage