A
Father’s Counsel
to his Child
June 24, 2009
The Text
II Corinthians
11:2-4
2 “I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God.
For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you a
chaste virgin to Christ.
3 But I
fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtility, so your minds
should be corrupted, and fall from the simplicity which is in Christ.
4 For if
he that cometh preacheth another Christ, whom we have not preached; or if
you receive another spirit, whom you have not received ; or another
gospel, which you have not received: you might well bear with him.”
The Commentary
VER. 2.
With the jealousy of God, or that came from God: it may also signify a
great, or godly jealousy. - To present you, that is, the Church of Corinth,
a chaste virgin to Christ, as the whole Catholic Church is called the chaste
spouse of Christ. See Matt. ix. 13.
Fr. George Leo Haydock
- p. 1531
The
Church of Corinth can represent every individual Baptized soul - child of
God.
A
wise little girl was once asked: “Do you know what it means to be pure?”
The little one answered; “I
do, yes, I do. To be pure in body means to preserve chastity. To be pure in
soul means to avoid sin, not to look at what would be sinful, not to steal,
never to lie and always tell the truth even when it is hard. Whoever does
not fulfill promises made to Our Lady will not be blessed in life.”
(Blessed Jacinta Marto, age – 7 -
to whom the Mother of God appeared!)
Apoc. xxi. 2.Wi. - I cannot suffer these false prophets thus to destroy
what has been prepared with so much labour, but I am not jealous for my own
sake; it is for the honour of God; for I do not wish to prepare this spouse
for myself but for God. Tirinus. - It is a duty incumbent on me to preserve
you in the purity of the faith you have received, to present you to him as a
virgin, holy, and free from every spot or blemish, and hence arise my fear
and solicitude, lest by insinuating and designing men, you suffer yourselves
to be drawn away from the simplicity of your faith in Christ Jesus, the
Lord.
VER. 3. So your minds should be corrupted by those false teachers, from
the simplicity in Christ, from the sincerity and purity of the gospel
doctrine. Wi.
Fr. George Leo Haydock
- p. 1531
“But I fear” say’s St. Paul – because he knows we are children of
Eve and have inherited from our 1st parents concupiscence… It
was not time yet for the Mother of God to be made manifest as the great
Mediatrix of Grace as we know Her to be today, for the reasons St. Louis
Marie De Montfort states in his “True Devotion To Mary”. Therefore
St. Paul referred them solely to Our Lord’s teaching.
Gospel Doctrine is the salt of the earth:
“Salt is good: but if the salt shall lose its savour, wherewith
shall it be seasoned? It is
neither profitable for the land, nor for the dunghill, but shall be cast
out. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
2-3.
The simile of the husband and wife is often used in the Old Testament to
describe the relationship between God
and his people (cf. Is 62:5; Jer. 3:6ff; Ezek
16:8ff). God--who says of Himself,
"I the Lord your God am a jealous God" (Ex 20:
5)--tells his people, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your
heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your
might" (Deut 6:5; cf. Mt 22:37). In the New Testament Christ is the
husband and the Church his bride (cf. Eph 5:25ff; Rev 21:9; 22:
17), "whom he redeemed with his blood, and he gave the Holy Spirit to her
as his
pledge. He saved her from the slavery
of the devil; he gave his life for her sins and
he arose for her justification"
(St Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 8, 4).
St Paul acts the part of the
bridegroom's friend (cf. Jn 3:29) whose duty it is to
protect the virginity of the bride, and
he sees the danger she is in from the snares
of her enemies.
"The Apostle", St Thomas
comments, "is saying that the Church is like Eve; the
devil sometimes attacks her openly by
the actions of tyrants and powers, in which
case he is 'like a roaring lion (who)
prowls around seeking some one to devour'
(1 Pet 5:8). At other times he molests
her in a hidden way through heresies which
promise the truth and pretend to be
sound--in which case he is like the serpent
who seduces in an astute way, promising
things he cannot give" ("Commentary
on 2 Cor. ad loc.").
The Navarre Bible –
Texts and Commentaries CORINTHIANS, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1997, pp.
228-9
VER. 4. You might well bear with him. These new teachers pretended at
least to preach only the doctrine of Christ. S. Paul tells them, they might
in some measure be excused, if they preached a new doctrine, or another
gospel that brought them greater blessings, or another Spirit accompanied
with greater spiritual gifts, than they had already received by his
preaching. But I think, and may say, I have done nothing less than the
greatest apostles, and you have received the same blessings from me, as
others from them. Wi.
Fr. George Leo Haydock
- p. 1531
4. It is not possible to say exactly
whether the Apostle is referring to something
which actually happened, or whether he
is proposing an absurd hypothesis. If the
first, he may be referring to the
teachings of the Judaizers, who were arguing that
in order to be saved it was necessary
to keep the prescriptions of the Old Law -
which meant substituting the spirit of
sons of God for the spirit of slavery, thereby
undervaluing the person of Christ and
his work of salvation.
If he is proposing a theoretical case,
what he means is that if anyone preaches
to them a more sublime Gospel than the
one he has preached they would do well
to listen to that preacher; but that
could not happen, because there is only one
Jesus and only one Gospel (cf. Gal 1:6-9), and, moreover, as he goes on to
tell
them in detail, he is in no way
inferior to these intruders who are making out that
they are apostles.
"Another Jesus": this follows
the Greek text. The New Vulgate has "another
Christ".
The Navarre Bible –
Texts and Commentaries CORINTHIANS, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 1997, p.
229
I, child of God, was raised by a pure father, likewise
by a pure mother. I was taught from my youth to meditate, from a little book
– a gift from my grandmother – “The Imitation of Christ.”
Many thoughts are highlighted in my memory, here are two:
“Simplicity aims at God, purity takes hold of Him
and tastes Him.”
“A pure heart penetrates Heaven and
hell.”
Thank you, Faith of our Father’s, for your good
counsel.
Grateful for the graces of this year of St. Paul, to
his honor! Deo Gratias!
s.m.mi.
p.s. If
you would , please offer a Hail
Mary for my daddy, his name is Paul.
p.p.s. One
for my Gramma too, today is her birthday, and she is Home now forever!
