The Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]
January 30, 2011
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
After showing that the method of teaching
according to eloquent wisdom does not suit Christian doctrine by reason of its
subject matter─the cross of Christ─the Apostle now shows that the same method
is not suitable for Christian teaching by reason of the teachers according to Proverbs
(26:7): “A parable is unseemly in the
mouth of fools” and Sirach (20:22): “A
parable out of a fool’s mouth shall be rejected.” Therefore, because the first teachers of the faith
were not wise in carnal wisdom, it was not suitable for them to teach according
to eloquent wisdom.
In
regard to this he does [three] things:
·
first, he shows how the first teachers of the faith were not versed in carnal
wisdom and suffered from a defect in human affairs;
·
secondly, how this defect was made up for them by
Christ;
·
thirdly, he assigns the reason.
26 For
consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly
standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;
He says, therefore: It has been stated that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men” and you can consider this in your
own life; for consider
carefully your call, brethren,
i.e., how you were called:
for you did not approach him by yourselves but you were called by him: “Whom
he predestined he also called” (Romans 8:30); “He called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter
2:9). But he urges them to ponder the manner of their calling by considering
the ones by whom they were called, as Isaiah (51:2) says: “Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bore you.”
From these ministers of our calling he first of all excludes wisdom
when he says: Not many of those by whom you
were called were wise according to worldly standards, i.e., in carnal and earthly wisdom: “For this is not wisdom descending from above:
but earthly, sensual, devilish” (James 3:15); “The children of Hagar also, that search after the wisdom that is of
the earth” (Baruch 3:23). He says, not many, because some few had been instructed even
in worldly wisdom, as he himself and Barnabas, or in the Old Testament Moses,
of whom Acts (7:22) says that he had been instructed in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians. Secondly, he
excludes worldly power when he says: not many powerful, namely, according to the world; hence it
says in John (7:48): “princes of nations? They are cut off and
are gone down into hell.” Thirdly, he excludes lofty birth when he says: not many were of
noble birth. Yet some of
them were noble, as Paul himself, who said that he had been born in a Roman
city (Acts 22:25), and others referred to in Romans (16:7): “They are men of notes among the apostles.”
27 but God
chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in
the world to shame the strong,
Then when he says, But God chose,
he shows that they were lowly according to worldly standards. First, he shows that they lacked
wisdom when he says: what is foolish in the world, i.e., those whom the world would consider
foolish, God chose for the offices of preaching, namely, ignorant fisherman: “Understanding that they were illiterate and
ignorant men, they wondered” (Acts 4:13); “Where is the learned? Where is he that ponders the words of the law?”
(Isaiah 33:18). And this to shame the wise, i.e., those who trusted in the
wisdom of the world, whereas they themselves did not know the truths revealed
to the simple: “Thou had hidden these
things from the wise and understanding and revealed to the simple” (Matthew
11:25); “Where then are your wise men?
Let them tell you what the Lord of hosts has purposed” (Isaiah 19:12).
Secondly, he shows that they lacked power, saying: what is weak in the world, i.e., men with no power in the world, such as peasants, plebeians, God
chose for the office of preaching: “I
will deliver them into your hand by the servants of the governors of the
districts” (I Kings 20:13); and in Proverbs (9:3) it says that “wisdom has sent out her maids to call from
the highest places in the town.” Weakness is designated by both of these
shortcomings in the first preachers; and this to shame the
strong, i.e., the powerful of
this world: “The haughtiness of man shall
be humbled, and the pride of men shall be brought low” (Isaiah 2:17).
28 God chose
what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to
nothing things that are,
Thirdly, he mentions a defect splendor of rank,
which is implied in the word “nobility.” Opposed to these he says: and despised in the world, i.e., men looked down upon by the world: “We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those
round about us” (Psalms 79:4), God has chosen for the office of preaching. Opposed to [the grand opinion men have of the
nobility] he says: and things that are not, i.e., men who seem to be nothing in the
world: “The strength of whose hands was
to me as nothing, and they were thought unworthy of life itself” [Job 30:2],
has God chosen for the office of preaching. This He did to bring to naught things that are, i.e., those who seem to be something in
this world: “The Lord of hosts had
purposed it, to defile the pride of all glory, to dishonor all the honored of
the earth” (Isaiah 23:9).
29 so that no
human being might boast in the presence of God.
Then
he reveals the cause of all this,
saying: He has not chosen the great but the lowly, so that no human
being might boast in the presence of God, i.e., that no one may glory in his own worldly greatness as compared
with the Lord: “Let not the wise man
glory in the wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the
rich man glory in his riches” (Jeremiah 9:23). For inasmuch as God did not
subject the world to His faith by employing the great ones of the world but the
lowly ones, man cannot boast that the world was saved by employing worldly
greatness. However, since it might appear that worldly greatness did not
originate from God, if He never employed it for His purposes, God employed a
few and later a great number of the worldly great for the office of preaching.
Hence a Gloss says that if the faithful fisherman had not come first, the
humble orator could not have come later. Furthermore, it pertains to God’s
glory to draw the great of the world by means of the lowly.
30 He is the
source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our
righteousness and sanctification and redemption;
Then when he says, He is the source,
he prevents the preachers of the faith, since they were not the worldly great
but the lowly, from being regarded as contemptible, by showing how God supplied for their defects. In regard to this he does three things.
First,
he indicates who deserves the honor for the world’s salvation, which was procured by the ministry of
preaching. He says: You have been called not by the great of this world but by
the lowly; consequently, your conversion should not be attributed to men but to
God. In other words, He is the source of your life, i.e., by God’s power are you called in Christ Jesus,
i.e., joined to Him by grace: “We are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10).
[Secondly,]
he shows how God supplies for the deficiencies of his preachers by means of
Christ:
first, as to their lack of wisdom when he says: whom, namely, Christ, God made for us, who preach the faith, and by us unto all
the faithful, our wisdom, because by adhering to Him Who is the
wisdom of God and by partaking of Him through grace, we have been made wise;
and this is our God, Who gave Christ to us and few us to Him, as it says in John
(6:44): “No man can come to me, except
the Father who has sent me draw him”; “This
is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of nations” (Deuteronomy 4:6).
Secondly, as to their lack of power he says: our righteousness, which is called a breastplate because of
its strength: “He will put on
righteousness as a breastplate” (Wisdom 5:19). Now Christ is said to have
been made righteousness for us, inasmuch as we are made righteous by faith, as
it says in Romans (3:22): “The
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
Thirdly, as to their lack of nobility he says: and
sanctification and redemption,
for we are sanctified by Christ, inasmuch as it is through Him that we are
joined to God, in Whom true nobility is found, as it says in I Samuel (2:30): “Those who honor me I will honor, and those
who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” Hence it says in Hebrews (13:12):
“Jesus suffered outside the gate in order
to sanctify the people through his own blood.” But He has been made our redemption,
inasmuch as we have been redeemed by Him from the slavery of sin, in which true
baseness consists; hence it says in Psalms 31 (v.6): “Thou hast redeemed me O Lord, faithful God.”
31 therefore,
as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.”
Thirdly,
he assigns the cause of the above
when he says: Therefore, as it is written,
Let him that boasts, boast of the Lord (cf. Jeremiah 9:24), where our version has: “Let him that glories, glory in this that he
understands and knows me.” For he is saying: If man’s salvation does not
spring from any human greatness but solely from God’s power, the glory belongs
not to man but to God, as it says in Psalms 115 (v. 1); “Not to us, O Lord, not to us; but to thy name give glory”; “To him that gives me wisdom will I give
glory” (Sirach 51:23).
