Homilies on First Corinthians 30

'For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body;'

Having consoled them by saying that the thing given is a gift of grace, by their all receiving from one and the same Spirit, by its being given with a view to what is profitable, by the manifestation coming through the lesser gifts, and along with these having also stopped their mouths by the necessity of yielding to the authority of the Spirit;

'For all these,' he says, 'one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to each one severally as He willeth;'

wherefore neither is it lawful to be a busybody about it.

And thereupon he consoles them by yet another common example, and takes refuge in nature herself, which is his customary practice.

For indeed, when he was discoursing about the hair of men and of women, among his other arguments he instructed them from this consideration also, saying:

'Doth not even nature herself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a dishonour to him; but if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her?' And when he spoke concerning things offered to idols, forbidding them to touch such things, he also pressed his argument from examples drawn from without, making mention of the Olympic games, and saying that 'They that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize.'

And he established these points from shepherds and soldiers and husbandmen.

Wherefore here too he brings forward into the midst a common illustration, by which he strives and contends to show that no one is inferior—a thing which was both marvellous and paradoxical to have been able to establish, and sufficient to win back the simpler sort—I mean the illustration of the body.

For nothing so consoles the faint-hearted man who thinks himself inferior, and persuades him not to grieve, as to learn that he is not inferior at all.

Wherefore he too, in establishing this very point, speaks thus:

'For as the body is one, and hath many members.'

Didst thou see his exact discernment? The same thing he shows to be both one and many.

Wherefore he also adds, contending yet more strongly for the point before him:

'But all the members of the body, being many, are one body.'

He said not, 'Being many, they belong to the one body,' but, 'The one body itself is many, and those many members are this one.'

If then the many are one, and the one is many, where is the difference? where the superiority? where the inferiority? For 'all,' he says, 'are one'; and not simply one, but when examined according to that which is most fundamental—namely, according to their being a body—they are all found to be one.

But when one considers each part singly, then comes the difference; and the difference is alike in all.

For none of them by itself can constitute a body.

But each alike falls short of making up a body, and there is need of the coming together.

For when the many become one, then it is one body.

Wherefore also, hinting at this very thing, he said:

'But all the members of the body, being many, are one body.'

And he said not, 'The superior and the inferior,' but, 'Being many,' which is common to them all.

And how is it possible to be one? When, casting out the difference of the members, thou considerest the body.

For what the eye is, that also is the foot, in respect of being a member and constituting a body;

for there is here no difference at all.

Nor couldst thou say that one of the members constitutes a body by itself, while another does not;

for all are equal in this respect, seeing that all likewise are one body.

And having said this, and clearly demonstrated it from the common suffrage of all, he added:

And whereas he ought to have said, 'So also is the Church' (for this was what followed in due order), this he does not say; but instead of her he sets down Christ, raising the discourse to a loftier height, and abashing the hearer the more.

'So also is the body of Christ,' which is the Church.

As body and head are one man, so he affirmed the Church and Christ to be one.

Wherefore also he set down Christ in place of the Church, thus naming His body.

'Just as, then,' he says, 'our body is some one thing, even though it be composed of many parts;

so also in the Church we all are some one thing.'

For even though she be composed of many members, yet these many become one body.

Having therefore restored and raised up him who seemed to be inferior, by means of this common example, he again lets go the common analogy, and passes to another spiritual head, one that brings greater comfort and is indicative of much equality of honour.

What manner of thing is this? 'For indeed,' he says, 'in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free.'

That which wrought us to become one body, and regenerated us, is one Spirit;

for it was not in one Spirit that this man, and in another that that man, was baptized.

And not only is that which baptized us one, but also that into which He baptized us—that is, the end for which He baptized us—is one.

For it was not that we might become diverse bodies, but that we might all preserve towards one another the exactness of one body, that we were baptized;

that is, to this end were we baptized, that we all might be one body.

So that both He who framed us is one, and that into which He framed us is one.

And he said not, 'That we might become of the same body,' but, 'That we all might be one body';

for he ever strives to employ the more emphatic expressions.

And well did he say, 'We all,' adding even himself.

'For neither have I, the apostle, aught more than thou in this respect,' he says;

'for thou too art a body even as I, and I even as thou; and we all have the same Head, and we all underwent the same birth-pangs;

wherefore also we are the same body.'

'And why do I speak of Jews?' he says; 'for even the Greeks, who stood so far apart from us, He brought into the exactness of one body.'

Wherefore, having said, 'We all,' he did not stop there, but added:

'Whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free.'

But if before this, being so far apart, we were united and became one, much more, after having become one, should we have no just cause to be grieved and downcast;

for the difference hath no place.

For if He deemed Greeks and Jews worthy of the same things, and bond and free, how, after having deemed them worthy, should He divide them, when by the abundant supply of the gifts He hath bestowed the exactness of union in fuller measure? 'And we were all made to drink into one Spirit.'

'For the body also is not one member, but many.'

That is, we came to the same initiation into the mysteries, we partake of the same table.

And wherefore did he not say, 'We are nourished with the same body, and drink the same blood'? Because, by saying 'Spirit,' he indicated both the blood and the flesh;

for through both of these we are made to drink of one Spirit.

But to me he seems here to be speaking of that visitation of the Spirit which comes to be in us from baptism, and before the mysteries.

And he said, 'We were made to drink,' because the metaphor of the word was exceedingly suitable to him for the subject before him;

as though, speaking of plants and of a garden, he should say that, 'From the same fountain all the trees are watered, seeing that they are watered from the same water';

even so here also, 'We all drank the same Spirit, we all enjoyed the same grace,' he says.

If then one Spirit both fashioned us, and gathered us all into one body;

for this is the meaning of, 'We were baptized into one body';

and gave us one table, and bestowed on all the same watering;

for this is the meaning of, 'We were made to drink into one Spirit';

and united us who were so widely separated—and the many then become a body, when they have become one—

why dost thou keep turning up and down for me the difference? But if thou sayest, 'The members are many and diverse,' learn that this very thing is the marvel, and the peculiar excellence of the body, when it makes the many and diverse into one;

for if they were not many, it would not have been so marvellous and paradoxical a thing, its being one body;

nay rather, it would not even have been a body at all.

But this he sets down afterwards.

For the present, however, he proceeds to the very members themselves, speaking thus:

'If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not

of the body; is it therefore not of the body?' For if the being inferior in one and superior in another does not permit a member to belong to the body, then the whole is done away with.

Do not, then, say, 'I am not the body, because I am inferior.'

For the foot too holds an inferior rank, yet it belongs to the body.

For the being of the body or not being of the body does not come from the one lying in this place and the other in that;

for this only makes a difference of place;

but it comes from being joined together or being separated;

for the being or not being a body results from being united or not united.

But do you consider his discernment, how he attaches their words to our own members.

For just as above he said, 'These things I have transferred in a figure unto myself and Apollos,' so also here, in order to make his discourse inoffensive and readily acceptable, he introduces the members speaking;

so that, when they hear nature herself answering them, being convicted by that very experience and by the common verdict, they may no longer have anything to say in reply.

For even though you say this very thing, he means, and even though you murmur, you cannot be outside the body.

For just as the law of nature does, so, and much more, the power of grace preserves and maintains all things.

And observe how he preserved conciseness, not exercising his argument upon all the members, but upon two only, and those the extremes.

For he set down that which is most honorable of all, the eye, and that which is meanest of all, the feet.

And he does not make the foot converse with the eye, but with the hand which is a little higher, and the hearing with the eyes.

For since we are wont to envy, not those who greatly excel us, but those who are a little above us, on this account he too thus makes the comparison.

'If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?' For since, having entered upon the difference of the members, and having spoken of feet and hands and eyes and ears, he had led them to the thought of inferiority and superiority;

observe how he again consoles them, showing that it was thus expedient, and that this very fact of their being many and diverse is what most of all makes a body.

For if all were one, they would not be a body;

wherefore he says, 'But if all were one member, where were the body?' But this indeed he says afterwards;

here, however, he shows something even more, that not only is it impossible for them to be a body, but the rest cannot even exist.

'For if the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?' he says.

Then, since even so they were still troubled;

the very thing he did above, this also he now does.

For just as there, having first exhorted by means of what is expedient, he afterwards also stopped their mouths vehemently, saying:

'But all these worketh that one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one severally as he will';

so also here, having laid down reasonings by which he showed that it was expedient for all things to come to be thus, he again refers the whole to the will of God, saying:

'But now hath God set the members, each one of them in the body, even as it pleased him.'

As he said concerning the Spirit, 'As he will,' so also here, 'As it pleased him.'

Do not, then, henceforth inquire into the cause, why thus, and why not thus.

For even though we should have ten thousand arguments to allege, we shall not be able so to show that it is well done, as when we say that as the all-wise Artificer willed, so it came to be;

for as it is expedient, so he wills.

But if in this body we do not busy ourselves curiously about the members, much more should we not in the Church.

And observe his discernment;

for he does not lay down the difference which is from nature, nor that which is from function, but that which is from the position of places.

'For now,' he says, 'hath God set the members, each one of them in the body, even as it pleased him.'

And well did he say, 'Each one,' showing the advantage that belongs to all.

For you could not say that this indeed he appointed, but that not;

but each, according to his will, is thus placed.

So that it is expedient for the foot too to be thus ordered, and not for the head only;

and if it should exchange its rank, and, leaving its proper place, come to another, even though it seem to have come to a greater one, it has ruined and destroyed the whole;

for it both falls from its own place, and does not attain to the other.

'But if all were one member, where were the body? But now there are many members, yet one body.'

For having sufficiently stopped their mouths from the ordinance of

God, he again lays down reasonings;

and he neither does this always nor that, but by alternating he diversifies his discourse.

For he who only stops the mouth troubles the hearer, while he who accustoms him to demand reasons for everything injures him in respect of the doctrine of faith.

For this reason then Paul continually does both, that they may both believe and not be troubled;

and after stopping their mouths he again also supplies a reason.

And consider his eagerness for the contest, and the abundance of his victory.

For from the very things by which they thought they were not of equal honor, because there was much difference among them, from these he shows that on this very account they are of equal honor.

'If all were,' he says, 'one member, where were the body?' And what he means is this:

If there were not much difference among you, you would not be a body;

and not being a body, you would not be one;

and not being one, you would not be of equal honor.

So that then, if you were all of equal honor, you would not be a body;

and not being a body, you would not be one;

and not being one, how could you be of equal honor? Now, however, since you are not all having one and the same gift, on this account you are a body;

and being a body, you are all one, and differ nothing from one another in respect of being a body.

So that this very difference is what most of all produces the equality of honor;

wherefore also he added, 'But now there are many members, yet one body.'

Considering these things, therefore, let us also cast out all envy, and neither grudge those who have greater gifts, nor despise those who have obtained the lesser;

and if you are still troubled, consider that your work is often one that the other cannot accomplish.

So that even though you be inferior, in this you have the advantage;

and though he be greater, in this he is inferior, and thus equality comes about.

For in the body too the small members seem to contribute no small thing, but often even do harm to the great ones when they are removed. For what is meaner in the body than hairs? Yet if you take away these mean things from the eyebrows and the eyelids, you have marred the whole beauty of the countenance, and the eye will no longer appear equally fair;

and yet the loss is about a trifling thing, but nevertheless even so all the comeliness was destroyed;

and not only the comeliness, but also much of the usefulness of the eyes.

For each of our members has both its own function and a common one, and beauty likewise is in us both particular and shared.

And these things seem to be divided, yet they are precisely interwoven, so that when one is destroyed the other perishes along with it.

Let there be eyes that shine, and a cheek that smiles, and a red lip, and a straight nose, and an arching brow;

yet all the same, if you mar even any chance one of these, you have marred the common beauty of them all, and everything appears full of gloom, and all that was beautiful before now looks unsightly.

For if you crush only the tip of the nose, you have poured great deformity over the whole, and yet the mutilation is of but one member;

and it is the same with the hand: if you remove the nail of a single finger, you will see the same thing happen.

And if you should wish to see the same thing occurring in the matter of function, take away one finger, and you will see the rest more sluggish and no longer performing their tasks as before.

Since, then, the loss of a member is a common disgrace, and its preservation a common beauty, let us not be lifted up nor trample upon our neighbors.

For it is because of that small member that even the great one is fair and comely, and by means of the eyelashes the eye is adorned.

So that he who wars against his brother wars against himself;

for the harm does not reach only so far as that other, but he himself too will sustain no small loss.

In order, then, that this may not happen, let us care for our neighbors as for ourselves, and let us now transfer this image of the body to the Church as well, and take thought for all as for members of our own household.

For indeed in the Church too there are members many and diverse;

and some are more honorable, others of lesser account;

such as are the choirs of virgins, and the assemblies of widows, and the fellowships of those who shine in chaste marriage, and many are the degrees of virtue.

And in the matter of almsgiving again it is likewise;

for one has emptied out all that he had, while others take thought only for their own sufficiency and seek nothing beyond their need, and others again have given out of their abundance;

yet all the same, all these adorn one another; and if the greater despise the lesser, he has done himself the utmost harm.

For the virgin, if she insults the married woman, has cut off no small portion of her reward;

and he who has emptied out all that he had, if he reproaches him who has not done this, has emptied out much of his own toils.

And why do I speak of virgins and widows and men without possessions? For what is meaner than beggars? Yet all the same these too fulfill a most necessary office in the Church, fixed fast at the doors of the temple, and furnishing a most great adornment; and without these the fullness of the Church could not be completed.

Which very thing the apostles too, perceiving it from the beginning, ordained by law—as they did all other things—so also this, that there should be widows;

and they showed such zeal about the matter that they even appointed seven deacons over them.

For just as, in reckoning up the members of the Church, he counts bishops and presbyters and deacons and virgins and those who practice self-restraint by number, so also widows.

For it is no ordinary office that these fulfill.

For you indeed come whenever you will;

but these both day and night sing psalms and are present, not doing this for the sake of the alms alone;

since, if this were what they wanted, it was open to them to walk about the marketplace and to beg in the alleys;

but they have also no small measure of piety.

See, then, in how great a furnace of poverty they are.

And you would never hear them blaspheming, nor giving way to impatience, as many of the wealthy do.

And some of them have often gone to sleep hungry, and others pass their days continually numbed by the frost; yet all the same they live in thanksgiving and in doxology.

And if you give an obol, they give thanks and invoke countless blessings upon the giver;

and if you give nothing, they are not vexed, but even so they bless and love you, content with the food of a single day.

"For even if they were unwilling," one says, "necessity compels them to bear it."

For what reason did you utter this bitter word? Are there not shameful trades, which bring gain even to those grown old, both men and women? Could they not, if one were willing to be careless of living decently, from that source support themselves in great abundance? Do you not see how many of those at this age, becoming panderers and procurers, and ministering to other such things, are both fed and live luxuriously? But not these women; rather they choose to perish of hunger sooner than to disgrace their own life and betray their salvation;

and they sit the whole day through preparing for you a medicine of salvation.

For not so does the physician, stretching out his hand and applying the knife, cut away the putrefied parts of wounds, as the poor person, stretching out his right hand and receiving alms, takes away the bruises of your wounds.

And what is truly marvelous is that they work this good healing without pain or anguish.

And while we who preside over the people and exhort you to what is profitable speak to you, that man who sits before the doors of the church discourses no less through his silence and his very look.

For indeed we too din these things into your ears every day, saying:

Be not high-minded, O man; the nature of men is swift to fall and easily overturned; youth hastens toward old age, beauty toward deformity, strength changes into weakness, honor into contempt, health into sickness, glory into meanness, wealth into poverty;

our affairs resemble a violent torrent that is willing to stand still nowhere, but rushes headlong toward the downward slope.

The same things, and more than these, do those men also counsel through their appearance, and through experience itself, which is indeed the plainer exhortation.

For how many of those now sitting outside once flourished in their youth and accomplished great things? How many of these unsightly ones surpassed multitudes in bodily strength and in the bloom of their appearance? But do not be incredulous, nor scoff;

for life indeed teems with countless such examples.

For if kings have often, and many of them, arisen from mean and lowly estate, what wonder if from great and glorious men some have become lowly and mean? For that former case is by far the more paradoxical;

but this is among the things that are always happening.

So that we ought not to disbelieve if some of these too once flourished in trades and in military service and in an abundance of riches; but rather to pity them with much compassion, and to fear on our own behalf, lest we too should ever suffer the same things.

For we too are men, and we lie subject to this swift-turning change.

But perhaps some one of the ungrateful and of those accustomed to mock will find fault with what has been said, and will altogether make a comedy of us, saying:

"How long will you not cease forever bringing paupers and beggars into your discourses, and prophesying calamities to us, and proclaiming poverty beforehand, and being eager to make us poor?" It is not because I am eager to make you poor, O man, that I say these things, but because I am hastening to open to you the wealth of heaven.

Since he too who to a healthy man makes mention of the sick and recounts their pains, does not say it in order to make him diseased, but in order to preserve him in his health, cutting off his sloth by the fear of what befalls those others.

Poverty seems to you to be something fearful and dreadful, even to the very naming of it.

For this is the very reason we are poor, that we dread poverty, even though we should have countless talents.

For it is not he who has nothing that is poor, but he who shudders at poverty;

since even in misfortunes it is not those who suffer great evils that we weep over and count wretched, but those who do not know how to bear them, even should they chance to be small;

inasmuch as he who knows how to bear is worthy both of praises and of crowns.

And that this is so, whom do we praise in the contests? Those who are much beaten and yet feel no pain, but hold their neck high, or those who flee at the first blows? Do we not crown the former as brave and noble, but laugh at the latter as unmanly and cowardly? Let us therefore do the same in the affairs of life as well;

let us crown the man who bears all things with ease, just like that noble all-round wrestler;

but let us weep over this man who dreads and trembles at hardships, and who before receiving a blow has already died of fear.

For indeed in the contests, if anyone, before raising his hands, on seeing his adversary merely stretch out his right hand, should flee, even though he receive no blow, he will be a laughingstock, as spineless and soft and inexperienced in such toils;

such is the case also with these men who dread poverty and cannot bear even the expectation of it.

It is not, then, we who make you wretched, but you yourselves.

For how will the devil not henceforth make sport of you, when even before the blow he sees you fearing and trembling at the mere threat? Nay rather, when you count this a threat, he will no longer even need to strike, but leaving you to keep your wealth, by the mere expectation of its removal he will make you softer than any wax.

For it is our nature, so to speak, that the very things we dread, after we have suffered them, we do not think so fearful as we did before and prior to the experience.

In order, then, that you may not acquire even this virtue, he holds you in the grip of a fear at its very height, before the experience, melting you down like wax by fire through the fear of poverty.

For indeed such a man is softer than any wax, and lives a life more wretched than Cain himself, fearing on account of what he grasps for in his greed, and grieving on account of what he does not have;

and trembling again on account of what he has, inasmuch as he holds his wealth shut in within him like an ungrateful runaway slave, and is besieged by manifold and monstrous passions.

For indeed monstrous desire and manifold fear and anguish and trembling storm upon them from every side;

And they resemble a ship driven on every side by contrary winds and enduring many a mountainous wave.

And how much better it were for such a one to depart, than to bear a perpetual tempest! Since even for Cain it had been more tolerable to die than to tremble continually.

In order, then, that we too may not suffer these things, let us laugh to scorn the devil's contrivance, let us tear asunder his cords, let us cut off the point of that grievous spear, and wall off his every assault.

For if you scorn riches, he has no place to strike, no hold whereby to lay upon you;

for you have plucked up by the root the source of evils;

and, this being gone, neither shall any wicked fruit spring up.

These things let us say continually, and in saying them let us not cease;

and whether by our speaking we accomplish anything, that Day shall declare—the Day that is revealed in fire, that proves each man's work, that shows forth the lamps, both the bright and those that are not such.

Then both he that has the oil and he that has it not shall be made manifest.

But God grant that no one then be found destitute of this comfort, but that all, bringing with them abundant lovingkindness and having their lamps shining bright, may enter in together with the Bridegroom;

for nothing is more terrible and more grievous than that voice, which they who depart without abundant almsgiving shall then hear from the Bridegroom, saying, 'I know you not.'

But may we never hear that voice, but rather that most sweet and most longed-for one: 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'

For thus shall we both live the blessed life, and enjoy all those good things which surpass even the human mind;

which may it be granted us all to attain, by the grace and lovingkindness [of our Lord Jesus Christ], and so forth.