Cornelius a Lapide

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. That is, say Ambrose and Anselm, the foolishness and weakness of God, or what men think is foolishness and weakness in God and in Christ incarnate and suffering, as eg.. His humanity, mortality, Passion and Cross, was just that by which Christ, when seemingly conquered, yet most wisely and most powerfully conquered men, Satan, and the whole world. In other words, God’s wisdom and power were most plainly seen in His overcoming all wisdom and strength by what was foolish and weak, viz., the Cross. And therefore Jerome and S. Augustine vol. 1. B l8 FIRST EPISTLE TO TIIE explain the passage of Habakkuk (iii. 4) was it not to us the way of prudence , the form of righteousness , the example of holiness t Therefore the Apostle also adds , i The foolishness of God is wiser than men . 9 Death then set us free from deaths life from error , grace from sin. And truly His death won the victory through His righteousness ; because the Just One , by paying what he never took 9 rightly recovered all that He had lost : 9 Hence it is that Francis and the greatest Saints have sought to be considered foolish by the world, in order that they might the rather please God. Some religious Orders, indeed, so regard this as the height of perfection and Christian wisdom that they enjoin their members to love, desire, and embrace contempt, ridicule, insults, and injuries, and to long to be considered fools, just as eagerly as worldly men seek for a reputation for wisdom, for honour, and renown. They do this to teach them in this way (1.) to utterly despise the world ; (2.) to humiliate themselves and uproot their innate desire of honour, praise, glory, and high position ; (3.) to be more like Christ, and to clothe themselves with His garments and His marks, who for our sakes, and to give us an example of virtue and perfection, chose these things Himself, willed to be considered foolish, and became a scorn of men, and the outcast of the people. They say, therefore, with S. Paul, “ God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.” All this does the Cross of Christ teach if you often meditate on it ; nay, the Cross is the fount of wisdom. S. Bonaventura, when asked where he had drunk in so much wisdom, showed a crucifix almost worn away by kisses. S. Jacoponus, a man of good birth and of great learning, after having learned from the Cross of Christ to become foolish to the world, was asked by Christ, who appeared to him in a friendly and familiar way, why he was so enamoured of 20 FIRST EPISTLE TO THE this foolishness, and he answered with his customary pious pleasantry, “Because Thou, Lord, hast been more foolish than I.” In short, S. Chrysostom (. Horn , 4 on the Cross and the Robber ) sums up the power and praise of the Cross as follows : “ If you wish to know the power of the Cross , and what I have to say in its praise , listen .* The Cross is the hope of Christians , the resurrection of the dead the way of them that despair ; the staff of the lame, the consolation of the poor, the curb of the rich, the destruction of the proud, the punishment of them that live badly, victory over the demons, subjugation of the devil, the instructor of the young, nourishment of the needy, hope of the hopeless, the rudder of seafarers, haven to the storm-tost, wall to the besieged, father of the fatherless, defender of widows, counsellor of the just, rest to the weary, guardian of little ones, head of men, end of the aged, light to them that sit in darkness, the magnificence of kings, an everlasting shield, wisdom of the foolish, liberty to the slaves, a philosophy for kings, law to the lawless, the boast of martyrs, the self-denial of monks, the chastity of virgins, the joy of priests , the foundation of the Church, the destruction of temples, the rejection of idols, a stumblingblock to the Jews, perdition to the ungodly, strength to the weak, physician to the sick, bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, 1 *