Homilies on First Corinthians 31

And the eye cannot say unto the hand, 'I have no need of you;'

nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'

Having repressed the envy of the lesser members, and removed the despondency which it was likely they had, from others being deemed worthy of greater gifts, he next abases also the pride of those who had received the greater gifts;

doing this indeed even in what he said to those others (for to say that it is a gift, and not an achievement, this was the mark of one making that plain);

but now he does it yet more vehemently, still keeping to the same image.

For from the body, henceforth, and from the unity that thence proceeds, he passes on to the very comparison of the members;

which was the very thing those persons most sought to learn.

Since it was not so much sufficient to comfort them that all are one body, as to learn that even in those very things which they had they were in no great degree the losers.

And the eye cannot say unto the hand, 'I have no need of you;'

nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'

For even if the gift be less, yet it is necessary;

and just as, that member not existing, many things are hindered, so also without this the fullness of the Church is lamed.

And he said not, 'It will not say,' but that, 'It cannot say.'

So that even if it should wish, even if it should say so, it is not admissible, nor does the matter have such a nature.

For this reason, taking each of the two extremes, in these he exercises his argument: first upon the hand and the eye, secondly upon the head and the feet, heightening the illustration.

For what is meaner than the foot, or what more honorable and more necessary than the head? For this, the head, is most especially the man.

Yet nevertheless it is not self-sufficient, nor could it accomplish all things by itself;

since if this were so, the feet would have been added to us superfluously.

And he did not stop even at this, but seeks yet another point beyond;

which he always does, not contending merely to the point of equality, but advancing even further.

Nay, much rather those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary;

and those which we think to be less honorable of the body, upon these we bestow more abundant honor;

and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness;

everywhere placing the addition on the side of the body, and thereby both comforting the one and repressing the other.

For I do not say this, he means, that the greater have need merely of the lesser, but that they have much need.

For if anything in us is weak, if anything is without honor, this both is necessary and enjoys the greater honor.

And well did he say, 'those that seem,' and 'those which we think,' showing that the verdict is not from the nature of the things, but from the surmise of the multitude.

For nothing in us is without honor;

for what of the generative members among us seems more without honor?

And yet nonetheless it enjoys greater honor;

and those who are exceedingly poor, even if they have the rest of the body naked, would never endure to show those members bare.

And yet this is not the rank of things without honor; rather, they ought to be despised more than the others.

For indeed in a household the dishonored servant not only enjoys no greater attendance, but is not even deemed worthy of the same.

So that if this member too were without honor, it ought not only not to enjoy greater care, but not even the same;

but as it is, it enjoys greater honor, and this the wisdom of God has wrought.

For to some members He gave, in their nature, that they should have no need;

but to others, since He gave it not in their nature, He constrained us to supply it.

since even the beasts have in their nature that which is self-sufficient, and most of them need neither garments, nor shoes, nor roof;

yet not for this reason is our body more without honor than theirs, because it has need of all these things.

For indeed if one should examine accurately, even in their very nature these members are both honorable and necessary;

which very thing he too hinted at, adjudging it to them not from our care and from their enjoying greater honor, but also from the nature of the things themselves.

Wherefore, when he speaks of the weak and the without honor, he says, 'those that seem;'

but when he speaks of the necessary, he no longer adds 'those that seem,' but himself declares, saying that they are necessary;

for indeed they are useful both for the begetting of children and for the succession of our race.

For this reason the lawgivers of the Romans also punish those who mutilate these members and make eunuchs, inasmuch as they injure the common race and do outrage to nature itself.

But away with the licentious, who slander the works of God's creation!

For just as many have cursed wine on account of the drunken, and the nature of women on account of the adulteresses;

so also they have deemed these members to be shameful, on account of those who use them not as they ought.

For sin is not allotted to the nature of the thing, but is born from the deliberate choice of him who dares the transgression.

But some think that what is said by Paul concerning the weaker and less honorable and necessary members, and those enjoying greater honor, is spoken of the eyes and the feet; and that he calls the eyes both weaker and necessary, because, though inferior in power, they have the advantage in usefulness, and the feet the less honorable;

for indeed these too enjoy much provident care.

Then, lest again he should produce some other excess, he says:

But our comely parts have no need.

For lest anyone should say, 'And what sort of reasoning is this—to despise the honorable, and to attend upon the less honorable?' it is not out of contempt that we do this, he says, but because they themselves have no need.

And see how great a commendation he inserted in brief, and passed on, doing this profitably and usefully.

And he is not even content with this, but adds also the cause, saying:

But God has tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to the part that lacked, that there might be no schism in the body.

And if He tempered them together, He did not suffer the less honorable to appear as such;

for that which is blended becomes one, and it does not appear what it was before this;

since otherwise we could not even say that it had been blended at all.

And observe how he continually passes lightly over the defects, saying, 'to the part that lacked.'

He did not say 'to the dishonorable' or 'to the unseemly,' but 'to the part that lacked.'

'Lacking' — in what way? According to nature.

And to what end? That there might be no schism in the body.

For since, though enjoying countless consolations, they nevertheless grieved as having received the lesser part, he shows that they were in fact the more honored;

for 'to the part that lacked,' he says, 'He gave more abundant honor.'

Then he adds the reason as well, showing that it was to their profit that He both made it to lack and honored it the more greatly.

And what is the reason? 'That there might be no schism,' he says, 'in the body.'

And he did not say 'in the members,' but 'in the body.'

For there would have been great inequality, if some parts were cared for both by nature and by our own forethought, while others were cared for from no quarter at all;

and they would have been torn away from one another, being unable to bear the bond of union;

and once these were torn away, harm would have come to the rest as well.

Have you seen how he showed that greater honor was necessarily given to the part that lacked? For if this had not been done, the ruin would have been common to all.

For even if these had not enjoyed much forethought from you, they would have been injured, not having the help that comes from nature;

and being injured, they would have perished;

and having perished, they would have rent the body;

and the body being rent, the rest would have perished too, even those far greater than these.

Do you see that the care of these is bound up with the forethought bestowed on those greater ones? For they do not so possess their being in their own nature as they possess it in being one in the body.

For this reason, if the body perishes, the health of each individual part profits them nothing;

but whether the eye abides, or the nose preserving its own function, once the bond is dissolved there will thenceforth be no benefit at all;

whereas if, this remaining, those parts are injured, they are both borne up and quickly return to health.

In the case of the body this has its reason, that the part which lacks received more abundant honor; but in the case of men how could this appear? Nay, it is in the case of men especially that you would see this coming to pass.

For those hired about the eleventh hour received their wage first;

and the sheep that had wandered persuaded the shepherd to leave the ninety and nine, and to run after it, and being found it was carried, not driven;

and the prodigal son enjoyed greater honor than he that had been well approved;

and the thief was crowned and proclaimed before the apostles.

And in the matter of the talents also you would see this happening.

For both he that received the five talents and he that received the two were counted worthy of the same things, and by the very fact of receiving the two he enjoyed the more of forethought.

For if the five had been entrusted to him, being unable to manage them, he would have fallen away from the whole;

but having received the two, and having supplied from his own effort the full return, he was counted worthy of the same things as he who had worked with the five, having the advantage in this — that he obtained the same crowns from lesser labors.

And yet he too was a man, just as he that had the five;

but nevertheless the Master reckons nothing strictly against him, nor compels him to do the same things as his fellow-servant, nor says, 'Why can you not work the five?' — though He might justly have said it;

but He crowned him also.

Knowing these things, then, do not you that are greater trample upon those that are less, lest you injure yourselves before them;

for when they are torn away, the whole body is corrupted.

For what else is a body, than the being of many members? As he himself also says, that 'The body is not one member, but many.'

If then this is a body, let us take care that the many remain many;

for unless this is preserved, the blow falls upon the vital parts.

Wherefore he himself also requires not this only, that we be not torn away from one another, but that we be very closely joined together.

Accordingly, having said, 'That there might be no schism in the body,' he was not content with this, but added,

'That the members might have the same care one for another;'

adding this also as another reason why the lesser parts enjoy the more of honor.

For not merely that they might not be torn from one another did God so order it, but that there might be much love also and concord.

For if the very being of each lies in the salvation of his neighbor, do not talk to me of the less and the more;

for here there is no more and less.

For while the body remains, it is possible even to discern the difference;

but it will perish, unless the lesser parts also remain.

If then the great parts also will perish when the small are torn off, they ought in like manner to care for the small, and that as for themselves, seeing that in the salvation of these the greater parts also abide.

So that though you say ten thousand times over that the member is dishonorable and inferior, yet if you do not care for it in like manner as for yourself, but neglect it as inferior, the harm will pass over upon you.

For this reason he did not say, 'That the members might merely care one for another,' but he added, 'That they might have the SAME care one for another;' that is, that the small might enjoy the like and the same forethought as the great.

Say not, then, 'This man is a mere nobody,' but consider that he is a member of that body which holds the whole together;

and just as the eye does, so also does he make the body to be a body.

For wherever the body is being built up, no one has anything more than his neighbor; for neither does this make a body — that one part be greater and another less — but that they be many and diverse.

You, since you are greater, have constituted the body; so also does he, since he is less.

So that his inferiority, when the body must be built up, becomes of equal honor with you toward this good contribution;

Let there be no member less and greater, nor honorable and less honorable, but let all be an eye, or all a head;

will not the body perish? It is surely plain to everyone.

Again, if all be lesser, the same thing will result;

so that in this way too the lesser parts are made equal.

But if one must say something further, in order that it may remain a body, the lesser is lesser;

so that it is for your sake that he is lesser, that you may remain being great.

For this reason also He requires the same forethought from all;

and having said, 'That the members might have the same care one for another,' he interprets this same thing again, saying:

'And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it;'

'or whether one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.'

For this reason, he says, He also made the forethought common, having fashioned unity amid so great a diversity, that there might be much fellowship also in the outcomes.

For if care for one's neighbor is a common salvation, then of necessity both the glory and the dejection must also be common.

Three things, therefore, He requires here:

that there be no division, but rather a careful and exact union; that we provide for one another alike; and that we regard what befalls each as common to all.

And higher up he says that God gave more abundant honor to the member that lacked, because of its need, showing that the very fact of being inferior became the occasion of greater honor;

but here he also equalizes them according to the principle of mutual care exercised by one for another.

For on this account, he says, He caused it to enjoy greater honor, that it might not enjoy less care.

And not from this alone, but also from the pleasant and painful things that befall them, the members are bound together with one another.

For indeed, when a thorn is often driven into the heel, the whole body is aware of it and is concerned: the back bends, the belly and the thighs contract, and the hands, going forward like guards and attendants, draw out what is embedded; the head stoops down, and the eyes look on with much anxious care.

So that even if the foot has the disadvantage of not being able to come up, yet by bringing the head down it obtains equality and enjoys the same honor—and especially when the feet bring the head down not as a favor but as a debt owed.

So that, if the head has the advantage of being more honorable, yet in that, even being such, it owes honor and solicitude to the inferior, and in that it likewise suffers together in the same way, it displays great equality.

For what is meaner than the heel? And what more honorable than the head? Yet the head goes to that member and moves everything together with itself.

Again, if the eyes suffer anything, all the members are in pain, and all are idle: neither do the feet walk, nor the hands work, nor does the belly enjoy its accustomed things;

and yet the suffering belongs to the eyes.

Why do you waste away the belly? Why do you hold back the feet? Why do you bind the hands? Because it is bound together with them, and the whole body suffers unspeakably.

For if it did not suffer together, it would not have consented to share in the care.

Wherefore, having said, 'That the members should have the same care one for another,' he added:

'Whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it;

or one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it.'

And how does it rejoice with it? one may ask. The head is crowned, and the whole man is glorified;

the mouth speaks, and the eyes laugh and are gladdened;

and yet the good esteem belongs not to the beauty of the eyes, but to the tongue.

Again, when the eyes appear beautiful, the whole woman is adorned;

and just as these do, so also when a straight nose and an upright neck and other members are praised, they are glad and become cheerful; and again they weep with much abundance in their pains and misfortunes, even though they themselves remain unharmed.

Considering, then, all these things, let us imitate the love of these members, and let us not do the contrary—trampling upon our neighbor's misfortunes and envying our neighbor's good things;

for this belongs to the mad and those out of their senses.

For indeed, the man who gouges out his own eye brings forth a very great proof of insanity;

and the man who devours his own hand furnishes evidence of manifest madness;

and this same thing, done likewise upon the brethren as upon the members, fastens on one the reputation of insanity and brings no ordinary harm.

For as long as that man shines, your own comeliness also appears, and the whole body is adorned;

for he does not confine his beauty to himself alone, but gives you also to take pride in it;

but if you extinguish him, you have wrought darkness common to the whole body, and you have brought the calamity upon all the members;

just as, on the contrary, if you keep him shining, you preserve the bloom for the whole body entire.

For no one says, 'The eye is beautiful,' but what? 'So-and-so is beautiful';

and if the eye itself is praised, it is praised after the common commendation.

So it happens also in the Church;

for if there are some who are held in good esteem, the whole reaps the good repute.

For our enemies do not divide the praises, but join them together.

And if anyone is brilliant in speaking, they do not praise him alone, but the whole Church as well.

For they do not say only that 'So-and-so is admirable,' but what? 'The Christians have an admirable teacher';

and they make the possession common.

Then, while the Greeks join together, do you divide, and war against your own body, and set yourself against your own members? Do you not know that this overturns everything? For, He says, a kingdom divided against itself shall not stand.

And nothing so divides and separates as envy and malice—this grievous disease, deprived of all pardon, and in some respect worse than the root of evils.

For the covetous man rejoices when he himself receives;

but the envious man rejoices when another does not receive, not when he himself receives;

for he counts the misfortune of others as his own benefit, not his own prosperity—a sort of common enemy going about against the nature of men, and smiting the members of Christ. What could be more frenzied than he? The demon indeed envies, but men, not any demon;

but you, being a man, envy men, and set yourself against your own kind and kindred, which not even the demon does.

And what pardon will you obtain, what defense, when you look upon a brother prospering and tremble and turn pale, whereas you ought to be crowned and to rejoice and exult? But if you also wish to be zealous, I do not forbid it;

be zealous, but so that you may become like him who is in good repute;

not that you may bring him down, but that you may attain to the same summit, that you may display the same virtue.

This is a good zeal—to imitate and not to war, not to grieve at others' good things, but to be stung at one's own evils;

of which envy does the very opposite;

for, neglecting his own evils, it pines away over the good things of others.

For indeed, the poor man is not so stung by his own poverty as by his neighbor's abundance. What could be more grievous than this? For in this respect, as I said before, such a man is even worse than the covetous;

for the one, whenever he himself receives something, rejoices;

but the other is gladdened whenever another does not receive.

Wherefore I exhort you, forsaking this wicked way and turning to a good zeal (for such zeal is vehement and hotter than any fire), to reap from thence great goods.

Thus also Paul led those from among the Jews by the hand to the faith, saying:

'If by any means I may provoke to jealousy my own flesh, and may save some of them.'

For he who is zealous in this way, as that man desired, does not pine away when he sees another in good repute, but rather when he sees himself falling behind.

But the envious man is not so; rather, he pines when he sees another faring well;

and like some drone, he is one who ruins the labors of others, himself never being eager to rise up, but weeping whenever he sees another risen, and doing everything so as to cast him down.

To what, then, might one liken this passion? It seems to me to be like this: as if a sluggish ass, weighed down with much flesh, yoked together with a winged horse, were neither willing to rouse itself, nor to attempt to drag that horse down by the weight of its flesh.

For indeed this man too neither thinks nor is eager at all how he himself might be released from this deep sleep;

but he does everything so as to trip up and cast down the one flying toward heaven, becoming an exact emulator of the devil.

That one, seeing the man in paradise, was not eager to change himself, but to cast that man out of paradise;

and again, seeing him seated in heaven and the others hastening thither, he holds to the same pursuit, tripping up those who press on to that place, and thereby heaping up for himself a greater furnace.

For indeed this happens everywhere;

for the man who is envied, if he is vigilant, becomes more illustrious;

but the man who is malicious gathers to himself more evils.

So it was also with Joseph: he became illustrious.

For the plotting of the envious made God Himself give sentence in his favour once and again, and caused the rod to bud forth.

Thus did Jacob enjoy great abundance, together with all his other blessings.

Thus did the envious impale themselves upon ten thousand evils.

Knowing all this, let us flee such jealousy.

For tell me, on what account are you envious? Because your brother received a spiritual gift of grace? And from whom did he receive it? Tell me.

Was it not from God? Then it is against Him, the Giver of the gift, that you take up your hostility.

You see whither the evil creeps, and what a crowning height of sins it brings on, and how deep a pit of punishment it digs? Let us therefore flee this passion, beloved, and neither let us envy, but rather let us pray earnestly even for those who envy us, and let us do all things so as to quench their passion.

But let us not suffer the same as fools do, who, in their wish to exact vengeance on them, do everything so as to kindle their flame the more.

But let us not be so; rather let us weep over them and lament them.

For it is they who are the wronged, having a worm perpetually gnawing through their heart, and gathering within themselves a fountain of venom more bitter than any gall.

Let us therefore beseech the God who loves mankind both to change their passion, and that we ourselves may never fall into the malady.

For heaven is inaccessible to the man who has this wasting sickness within him;

and even before heaven, the present life itself is made unliveable.

For not so does the moth settling in wood and wool, and the worm, wont to eat through them, as the fever of envy devours the very bones of the envious, and ravages the soul's temperance.

In order therefore that we may deliver both ourselves and others from ten thousand evils, let us drive away from us this wicked fever, which is more grievous than any wasting disease;

that having taken up spiritual strength, we may both accomplish the present contest and attain the crowns that are to come;

which may it be granted to us all to attain, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honour, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.