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NAVARRE BIBLE COMMENTARY (RSV)

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)

From: 2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1, 3-6

Christian Ministry is Superior to that of the Old Covenant
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[15] Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds; [16] but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed. [17] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. [18] And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

St Paul's Sincere Conduct
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[1] Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. [3] And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. [4] In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. [5] For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. [6] For it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

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Commentary:

12-18. In these verses St Paul continues to stress that the apostolic ministry is superior to that of Moses; he recalls the veil with which Moses covered his face after he had been speaking to Yahweh. The Apostle declares that this event was a symbol: the veil served Moses not only to hide the radiance of his f or of the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament, brings with it the freedom of the children of God obtained by Christ, who has freed us from sin and from the Old Law (cf. Rom 8:1-17; Gal 4:21-31).

Christian freedom does not mean ignoring any bond or law; it means accepting God's commandments not in a servile way, out of fear of punishment, but rather as children who strive to do what pleases their Father God. St Augustine explains this as follows: "That person lives under the weight of the law who avoids sin out of fear of the punishment which the law threatens, rather than because of any liking for righteousness [...]. If you let yourselves be led by the Spirit, you will not be under the weight of the law; of that law which is considered to inspire fear and terror, and does not instill charity or a taste for goodness; charity which has been poured into our hearts, not by the letter of the law, but by the Holy Spirit, who has been given us. That is the law of freedom, not the law of slavery, for it is the law of charity, not that of fear" ("De Natura Et Gratia", LVII, 67).

18. The teaching expounded in the previous verses leads to this final joyous declaration, in which St Paul sums up the Christian's spiritual itinerary. Just as Moses' face reflected the splendor of Yahweh after he had been speaking to him on Sinai, Christians in their lives reflect the splendor of Christ, whom they contemplate in faith: "The Christian who has been cleansed by the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of regeneration", St John Chrysostom comments, "is changed, as the Apostle puts it, into the likeness of Jesus Christ himself. Not only does he behold the glory of the Lord but he takes on some of the features of God's glory [...]. The soul who is regenerated by the Holy Spirit receives and radiates the splendor of the heavenly glory that has been given him" ("Hom. on 2 Cor.", 7).

Moreover, whereas the radiance of Moses was a passing thing, that of Christians steadily increases the more they become identified with Christ through docility to the influence of grace on their souls: "Docility, because it is the Holy Spirit who, with his inspirations, gives a supernatural tone to our thoughts, desires and actions. It is he who leads us to receive Christ's teaching and to assimilate it in a profound way. It is he who gives us the light by which we perceive our personal calling and the strength to carry out all that God expects of us. If we are docile to the Holy Spirit, the image of Christ will be formed more and more fully in us, and we will be brought closer every day to God the Father" (J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 135).

1-6. St Paul here stresses one of the main points he makes in this part of the letter--the sincerity and genuineness of his conduct, and therefore his rejection of anything to do with lies or underhand ways (cf. 1:12, 17; 2:17; 3:1). Unlike the false apostles, his own aim in preaching is to teach the truth of Jesus Christ without any dilution or compromise (cf., for example, 1 Cor 1:18-25; Gal 2:11ff). If, in spite of everything, there are still some who cannot see the truth of the Gospel, the reason lies in their bad dispositions, which allow the devil--the god of this world (cf. Jn 12:31; 14:30; Eph 2:2)--to darken their minds. That is why they fail to recognize the divinity of Jesus Christ, who is the perfect image of God the Father (vv. 4-6).

The Apostle's approach to preaching as here described reminds us of the need to speak out clearly, very conscious that we have been entrusted by God with a treasure which we must respect and venerate and pass on in all its fullness. "Every evangelizer", Pope Paul VI teaches, " is expected to have a reverence for truth, especially since the truth that he studies and communicates is none other than revealed truth and hence, more than any other, a sharing in the first truth which is God himself. The preacher of the Gospel will therefore be a person who even at the price of personal renunciation and suffering always seeks the truth that he must transmit to others. He never betrays or hides truth out of a desire to please men or in order to astonish or to shock, nor for the sake of originality or from a desire to make an impression. He does not refuse truth. He does not obscure revealed truth by being too idle to search for it, or for the sake of his own comfort, or out of fear. He does not neglect to study it. He serves it generously, without making it serve him" ("Evangelii Nuntiandi", 78).

1. "By the mercy of God": as the RSV note points out, this in Greek reads "as we have received mercy", or "by the mercy which has been done unto us", which goes back to a Jewish turn of phrase designed to avoid mentioning the name of God. St Paul also speaks in the plural, out of modesty.

4. "To keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel": this is what the Greek text means. The New Vulgate translation is somewhat different, but it can be interpreted as meaning the same.

Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, is the perfect likeness of God (cf. Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). "For something to be a perfect image of something else," St Thomas explains, "three things are needed, and all three are to be found perfectly in Christ. The first of these is likeness; the second is the origin; and the third, complete equality. For if there were any dissimilarity between the image and him whose image it is, or if the image did not have its origin in the other, or if there were not perfect equality, given that both have the same nature, there would be no perfect image [...]. Since all three are to be found in Christ--he is the likeness of the Father, he proceeds from the Father, and he is equal to the Father--he is called the image of God in the fullest and most perfect sense" ("Commentary on 2 Cor, ad loc."). Moreover, as perfect man he is the visible likeness of the invisible God: "No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (Jn 1:18).

5. St Paul often calls Jesus "Lord" (cf., e.g., Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 5:6; 12:3; Phil 2:11). This is a clear assertion of Christ's divinity, for "Lord" is the word the Greeks normally use when translating "Yahweh" (cf. note on 1 Cor 8:4-6).

This faith in Christ's divinity is so basic to Christianity that St Paul can sum up the essence of his preaching in these words: we preach Christ as Lord.

6. Contrary to what happens in the case of those who resist belief (v. 4), God has enlightened the hearts of Christians with the light of faith. St Paul recalls the moment when God created light (cf. Gen 1:3), as if to refer to the new creation resulting from the infusion of the light of faith (cf. 2 Cor 5:17), which only happens with God's intervention: for "no one can 'assent to the Gospel preaching as he must in order to be saved without the enlightenment and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who gives all men their joy in assenting to and believing the truth' (Second Council of Orange). Hence, faith itself [...] is essentially a gift of God; and the act of faith is a work pertaining to salvation. By this act man offers to God himself a free obedience inasmuch as he concurs and cooperates with God's grace, when he could resist it" (Vatican I, "Dei Filius", chap. 3).

Commenting on this passage of the epistle, St Thomas Aquinas gives a beautiful description of the way faith works in the soul of St Paul, and in that of every Christian: "Previously, that is, before being converted to Christ, we were dark, like you and like those in whom the brightness of Christ's glory does not shine. Now, however, after Christ calling us through his grace, the darkness has been taken away from us, and the power of the glory of the clear light of Christ is shining in us. It shines so powerfully in us that not only are we given light to let us see: we also have light for giving to others" ("Commentary on 2 Cor, ad loc."). A Christian should not hide the light of his faith but should use it to enlighten those around him.