Cornelius a Lapide

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus . The death of Jesus, according to S. Ambrose, but the Greek is rather dying or mortification. The dying meant is the suffering of death like to the suffering of Jesus Christ, which is the road to and the beginning of death, a long and living death. This is the suffering spoken in vers. 8 and 9, suffering inflicted from without, though it may be extended also to any voluntary mortification of mind and body. It is called “ the dying of Jesus,” (1.) because it is borne by JOY IN SORROW 49 His example ; (2.) because it is undergone for His faith ; (3.) because we, His servants, bear about in our body, by a kind of representation, the very death and Passion of Christ, just as slaves carry the badge and token of their master. Cf. Gal. vl 17. So in Heb. xi. 26, it is said that Moses bore the reproach of Christ, and preferred it to the riches of Egypt (see note there). “ There is no doubt ? says Ambrose, “that in His martyrs Christ is slain , and that in them that suffer chains orscourgings for the faith , Christ suffers the samel 9 Paul gives here the cause why, in the midst of trouble and distress, he is not crushed and destroyed, but is instead raised up and quickened. It is because by tribulation he is made like Christ crucified and smitten, and then raised and quickened ; and, therefore, he rejoices in tribulation. Salvianus (de Vero Jud. et Provid. Dei , lib. i.) says that no one is miserable who is content in the midst of misery, rather he is happy, because it is of his own devotion that he lives in misery. Toil, fasting, poverty, humility, weakness, persecution are not grievous to those that endure them, but to those that kick at them. Among the heathen, Fabricius, Fabius, Regulus, Camillus found poverty and affliction no burden. " No one? he says, “is made miserable b^ other people's opinion but by his own, and therefore false judgment cannot make them miserable whose conscience approves them . . . . None, I think, are happier than they who act according to their own knowledge and wish. Religious are of low estate , but they wish it so ; they are poor , but pleased with poverty ; they have no ambition, for they scorn it; they mourn, but they rejoice to mourn ; they are weak, but they delight in weakness. 4 When I am weak / says the Apostle, 1 then am I strong.' And so, no matter what may happen to those that are religious indeed, they are to be called happy . None are more joyous in the midst of all kinds of adversity than those who are in a state of their own choosing? That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. This is that future life when we shall rise with Christ to glory (ver. 14) ; and also the present life, when, after the pattern of the risen body of Christ, our afflicted bodies become more lively VOL. II. D 50 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE through the operation of the Spirit, on account of our hope of the resurrection and through the power of God, which delivers us from so many dangers every day and strengthens us against them. Ver. 1 1. — For we which live are alway delivered unto death. In the midst of a life such as ours, we are exposed to constant danger of death and to every kind of trouble. The thought, then, that in all our tribulation we are made like to Christ in His Passion and resurrection is what animates, comforts, and strengthens us. As in our afflicted and mortified body the death of Christ is visibly set forth, so in its deliverance, salvation, and strengthening do we see the life and resurrection of Christ When we are thrown to the lions and other wild beasts, to be, as all expect, surely devoured by them, they spare us and fawn upon us ; when we are cast into the fire it shrinks from us, nay, with genial warmth refreshes us; when we are thrown into the sea to be drowned, the sea bears us up and preserves us from all hurt ; when I was stoned at Lystra and left for dead, I was soon after found to be alive. In all these and similar persecutions and afflictions I have fellowship with, I am made like, and I set forth the suffering, death, and burial of Christ, which by the power of God, were but the glorious prelude to the life of bliss. And for this reason I am strong, nay, I rejoice and glory in all my tribulations; for they give me a sure and certain hope of an eternal life of glory. “ Therefore ,” says CEcumenius, t( was Christ permitted by God to be delivered to deaths that His resurrection might be made manifest to all He who daily raises us certainly raised up Himself also , and will in good time raise us up to eternal life?