From: 1 Corinthians 1:1-3
Greeting
[2] To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus,
called to be saints together with all those who in every place call on the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
[3] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Commentary:
1-9. With slight variations almost all St Paul’s letters begin in the same kind of
way: there is a greeting (vv. 1-3), which carries the name of the writer, information
on the addressee(s), and the conventional phrase; and an act of thanksgiving to
God (vv. 4-9), in which the Apostle refers to the main qualities and endowments
of the Christians to whom he is writing. By comparing his letters with other let-
ters that have come down to us from the same period, it is quite apparent that
St Paul usually begins his letters in the style of the time. Yet he does not entire-
ly follow this rigid pattern: he changes the usual opening—”Greeting!” (cf. Acts 15:
23; 23:26)—to this more personal one, which has a pronounced Christian stamp:
“Grace to you and peace.” Also, the way in which he introduces himself and de-
scribes those he is addressing tells much more than a simple “Paul to the Corin-
thians: greeting!” Even his words of thanksgiving convey tenderness and warmth
— and their tone is not merely human, for he attributes to God the virtues he prai-
ses in the faithful.
The Fathers of the Church have drawn attention to this characteristic of Paul’s
letters — the way he manages to convey a deep doctrinal message in a familiar
style, nicely suited to whomever he happens to be addressing: “A doctor”, St
John Chrysostom explains, “does not treat the patient in the same way at the
start of his illness as when he is recovering; nor does a teacher use the same
method with children as with those who need more advanced tuition. That is how
the Apostle acts: he writes as suits the needs and the times” (”Hom. On Rom”,
Prologue).
1. St Paul attaches to his name three features which identify him — his divine
calling; his office as Apostle of Jesus Christ; and the will of God, the source of
his apostolic vocation.
“Called”: this is a carefully chosen word designed to convey the vigorous and per-
sonal way God called him. He calls all men to faith, to grace, to holiness, and to
heaven (cf., e.g. Rom 1:7; 1 Cor 1:2; 1:26; 7:20; Eph 1:18). By defining himself
as “called” (cf. Rom 1:1), St Paul is very probably referring to the episode on the
road to Damascus (cf. Acts 9:1-19), when Christ changed his life, as he had ear-
lier changed the lives of the Twelve.
“Apostle of Christ Jesus”: Paul can find no stronger expression than this to de-
scribe his mission: he is forever applying this title to himself—thirty-five times by
our reckoning. This fact of his apostleship is the basis of his authority — authority
to praise, teach, admonish and correct orally and in writing. He is so totally iden-
tified with this mission that he has no other purpose than to pursue it; his life is
dedicated to this end; all his thoughts, words and actions are aimed at achieving
it. Humbly (because he once persecuted the Church: 1 Cor 15:9) and yet forth-
rightly (cf. 1 Cor 9:1-2) he puts himself on the same level as the Twelve as far as
vocation and apostleship are concerned.
“By the will of God”: the Apostle’s energy and vitality are ascribable not to him-
self but to God, who had plans for Paul ever since he was in his mother’s womb
(Gal 1: 15); so much so that later in this letter he actually says, “If I preach the
Gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me.
Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).
“Our brother, Sosthenes”: it is uncertain whether this was the same person as
the ruler of the synagogue in Corinth mentioned in Acts (18:17). The prominent
position given him here suggests that he was someone well-known to the com-
munity at Corinth, either for his ministry among them or because he often ac-
companied St Paul; he may have been the secretary, or scribe, who actually
wrote the letter down (cf. 16:21).
2. “The church of God at Corinth”: the addressee of the letter. The very grammar
of the phrase emphasizes the fact that the Church is not the totality of the local
communities: rather, each local community—here, the Christians of Corinth — re-
presents the whole Church, which is one and indivisible: “The Apostle calls it
[the community] ‘the church of God’ in order to show that unity is one of its es-
sential and necessary characteristics. The Church of God is one in its members
and forms nothing but a single Church with all the communities spread through-
out the world, for the word ‘church’ does not mean schism: it means unity, har-
mony, concord” (St John Chrysostom, “Hom on 1 Cor”, 1, “ad loc”.).
In another three brush-strokes St Paul here describes those who make up the
Church — those sanctified in Jesus Christ, those called to be saints, those who
invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Those sanctified in Christ Jesus”: the faithful receive at Baptism the grace which
makes them a holy people (cf. Ex 19:6; 1 Pet 2:9); the participle “sanctified” im-
plies something stable, such as is the intimate union between the individual Chris-
tian and Jesus. The formula “in Christ Jesus” here refers to the fact that the bap-
tized are grafted on to Christ like branches attached to a wine (cf. Jn l5:1ff); this
link with Christ is what makes them saints, that is, sharers in God’s own holiness;
and it involves a duty to strive for moral perfection. “As those who profess any art,
even though they depart from its rules, are still called artists, so in like manner
the faithful, although offending in many things and violating the engagements to
which they had pledged themselves, are still called holy, because they have been
made the people of God and have consecrated themselves to Christ by faith and
Baptism. Hence, St Paul calls the Corinthians sanctified and holy, although it is
certain that among them there were some whom he severely rebuked as carnal,
and charged with grosser crimes” (”St Pius V Catechism”, I, 10, 15).
“Called to be saints”: through faith and Baptism “all Christians in any state or
walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love”
(Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 40).
“Those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”: this cir-
cumlocution describes Christian believers (cf. Acts 9:14, 21; 22:16; Rom 10:12);
what makes them different from others is that they worship Jesus Christ as Lord
and God, in the same way as the faithful of the Old Covenant invoked the name
of Yahweh. To be a member of the Church of God, therefore, it is essential that
a person believe that Christ is God. “We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the Son of God. He is the eternal Word of the Father before time began, one in
substance with the Father, “homoousios to Patri”, through whom all things were
made. He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit and
was made man. ‘Equal, therefore, to the Father according to his divinity, less
than the Father according to his humanity, his unity deriving not from some im-
possible confusion of substance but from his Person”’ (Paul Vl, “Creed of the
People of God”, 11).
3. Peace of soul, that “serenity of mind, tranquility of soul, simplicity of heart,
bond of love, union of charity” of which St Augustine spoke (”De Verb. Dom.
Serm.”, 58), originates in the friendship with God which grace brings with it; it
is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22-23). This is the only true kind
of peace: “There is no true peace, just as there is no true grace, other than the
grace and peace which come from God,” St John Chrysostom teaches, “Pos-
sess this divine peace and you will have nothing to fear, even if you be threa-
tened by the direct danger, whether from men or even from the demons them-
selves; whereas see how everything is a cause of fear for the man who is at
war with God through sin” (”Hom. on 1 Cor”, 1, “ad loc”.).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: John 1:29-34
The Witness of John (Continuation)
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Commentary:
29. For the first time in the Gospel Christ is called the “Lamb of God”. Isaiah had
compared the sufferings of the Servant of Yahweh, the Messiah, with the sacrifice
of a lamb (cf. Isaiah 53:7); and the blood of the paschal lamb smeared on the door
of houses had served to protect the firstborn of the Israelites in Egypt (cf. Exodus
12:6-7): all this was a promise and prefiguring of the true Lamb, Christ, the victim
in the sacrifice of Calvary on behalf of all mankind. This is why St. Paul will say
that “Christ, our Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The ex-
pression “Lamb of God” also suggests the spotless innocence of the Redeemer
(cf. 1 Peter 1:18-20; 1 John 3:5).
The sacred text says “the sin of the world”, in the singular, to make it absolutely
clear that every kind of sin is taken away: Christ came to free us from Original
Sin, which in Adam affected all men, and from all personal sins.
The Book of Revelation reveals to us that Jesus is victorious and glorious in Hea-
ven as the slain lamb (cf. Revelation 5:6-14), surrounded by saints, martyrs and
virgins (Revelation 7:9, 14; 14:1-5), who render Him the praise and glory due Him
as God (Revelation 7:10).
Since Holy Communion is a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ, priests say these
words of the Baptist before administering it, to encourage the faithful to be grate-
ful to our Lord for giving Himself up to death to save us and for giving Himself to
us as nourishment for our souls.
30-31. John the Baptist here asserts Jesus’ superiority by saying that He existed
before him, even though He was born after him. Thereby he shows us the divinity
of Christ, who was generated by the Father from all eternity and born of the Virgin
Mary in time. It is as if the Baptist were saying: “Although I was born before Him,
He is not limited by the ties of His birth; for although He is born of His mother in
time, He was generated by His Father outside of time” (St. Gregory the Great,
“In Evangelia Homiliae”, VII).
By saying what he says in verse 31, the Precursor does not mean to deny his
personal knowledge of Jesus (cf. Luke 1:36 and Matthew 3:14), but to make it
plain that God revealed to him the moment when he should publicly proclaim Je-
sus as Messiah and Son of God, and that he also understood that his own mis-
sion as precursor had no other purpose than to bear witness to Jesus Christ.
32-34. To emphasize the divinity of Jesus Christ, the Evangelist includes here the
Precursor’s testimony regarding Jesus’ Baptism (cf. the other Gospels, which de-
scribe in more detail what happened on this occasion: Matthew 3:13-17 and para-
graph). It is one of the key points in our Lord’s life, in which the mystery of the
Blessed Trinity is revealed (cf. note on Matthew 3:16).
The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, of whom it is said in Genesis 1:2 that He
was moving over the face of the waters. Through this sign of the dove, the Isaiah
prophecies (11:2-5: 42:1-2) are fulfilled which say that the Messiah will be full of
the power of the Holy Spirit. The Baptist points to the great difference between
the baptism he confers and Christ’s Baptism; in John 3, Jesus will speak about
this new Baptism in water and in the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:5; Titus 3:5).
“The Son of God”: it should be pointed out that in the original text this expression
carries the definite article, which means that John the Baptist confesses before
his listeners the supernatural and transcendent character of Christ’s messiahship
— very far removed from the politico-religious notion which Jewish leaders had
forged.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.