1 Cor 1:10-13 “I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing and that there be no schisms among you, but that you be made perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment”. Let us be one among ourselves. Unanimity belongs to those who are one in Christ Jesus. His very name is the bond of unity and fellowship. There is unity of nature and communion of persons in the Holy Trinity; unity of person and an indivisible communion of natures in the Incarnation; unity of the Spirit and communion of goods, both good and evil, in the Church. These things ought to urge Christians to flee schisms and dissensions and to pursue unanimity and concord. The son of peace must seek peace and follow it; he who knows and loves the bond of the Church must restrain his tongue from evil. The sons of God ought to be peace-makers, gentle in heart, simple in speech, concordant in affection, faithfully bound to one another by the bonds of unanimity.
Neither Peter, nor Apollos, nor Cephas—no human being at all—is to be clung to for his own sake, but only Christ Jesus. To adhere to servants while neglecting the Lord is an injury to the Lord. He alone died for us; by His blood we have been redeemed, by His baptism we have been regenerated and sanctified. From Him alone we await the fullness of every good. “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:13).
From this we understand that even good pastors seek not their own interests but those of Jesus Christ (cf. Augustine, Ep.). And good sheep, although they imitate the deeds of good pastors, nevertheless do not place their hope in them, whose ministry they use while they are gathered together, but rather in the Lord, by whose blood they were redeemed. Thus, if at times they should encounter bad pastors who preach sound doctrine but perform evil works, they should do what they say, but not what they do (cf. Matt 23:3), nor for the sake of the sons of iniquity should they abandon the pastures of unity.
1 Cor 1:17-18 “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to evangelize—not with wisdom of word, lest the cross of Christ be emptied”. Preaching is the principal function of the Apostles and of the bishops who succeeded them. This part of the sacred ministry they must themselves exercise, not only by sending evangelical laborers into the vineyard of the Lord. “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” says the Apostle elsewhere; “for necessity is laid upon me” (1 Cor 9:16). Yet the preaching of the Gospel must not be adorned—or rather adulterated—by the cosmetics of human wisdom or the blandishments of secular eloquence. This is a pernicious abuse, contrary to the spirit and counsel of the Christian religion, and therefore to be avoided.
First, lest occasion be given for people to adhere more to the ministers of the truth than to the Truth itself, and to human learning rather than to the truth preached through them. Second, lest the cross be defrauded of the honor of converting the world, when that honor is attributed to human learning and worldly eloquence. How greatly preachers of our time must fear lest, in the divine judgment, they be found guilty of having deprived the cross of Christ of the praise of its virtue and power by converting people through the glory of their own talents. “Not with wisdom of word, lest the cross of Christ be emptied.”
Third, because God has placed the grace of the conversion of unbelievers and sinners in the cross of Christ, and has willed that His power should shine forth for the salvation of His elect through the cross. Woe to preachers who strive more to please lovers of the world than to care for the salvation of the elect of God. “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved—that is, to us—it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). It is no wonder that unbelievers consider the mystery of the cross foolishness, since they are deprived of true wisdom, which comes from faith. We should pity them far more than friends pity the frenzied who insult the power attached to the cross, perhaps even striking it with blows (cf. Chrysostom, Hom.). We should lament their misery, for they are ignorant of the common salvation.
We should not love wife or any human good so much as to neglect drawing all people to salvation. Rather, let us give thanks to God, who has manifested His wisdom and power to us in the cross and has given us the gift of faith. Let the weakness of human reason—which often stumbles even in matters of nature—yield to the infinite wisdom and power of God. For the cross is above reason and of ineffable power. To be superior to evils while being in evils, and to conquer after engaging in battle with them, is a sign of infinite power. Thus, in the three youths, it was more marvelous that they trampled the flames after entering them than if they had not entered the furnace at all; and in Jonah it was far greater that he suffered no harm after falling into the beast than if he had never fallen into the whale. So also in Christ it was more marvelous that, having died, He shattered death, than if He had never died.
Do not say, therefore, “Why did He not help Himself on the cross?” For it was by death itself that He wished to engage in combat. He did not come down from the cross, not because He could not, but because He would not. For He whom the tyranny of death could not hold—how could the nails of the cross have held Him? But these things are known to us, not to unbelievers. Hence the Apostle says: “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18).
1 Cor 1:19-20 “For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the prudence of the prudent I will reject” (Isa 29:14). By the preaching of the cross God has shown the vanity of worldly wisdom and of the learning and genius of philosophers, accomplishing what they could never achieve by the reasonings of false wisdom and the force of eloquence. “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Cor 1:20).
The sum of the glory of Christ Jesus is this: that He entrusted the admirable preaching of His Gospel to unlearned, ignoble, and poor fishermen, and by them subjected philosophers, orators, barbarians, Gentiles, Jews, peoples and kings, and the whole world, to the yoke of faith—despite resistance, despite ancient custom and long-standing pagan practice fiercely opposed, despite demons armed and the devil standing in battle array, stirring everything against it. If twelve men ignorant of warfare, not only unarmed but even weak in body, had charged into an innumerable armed host and suffered no harm, nor been wounded by countless weapons, but had slain some and led others captive without themselves receiving wounds, one might say the deed was not human. Yet the trophy of the Apostles is far more marvelous. That an unskilled, unlearned fisherman should overcome the wisest and most eloquent men of the world, undeterred by poverty, danger, entrenched custom, daily slaughters, the multitude of the deceived, or the authority of the deceivers—this was far beyond expectation, far more astonishing than merely not being wounded. Truly, God has made foolish the wisdom of this world.
1 Cor 1:21 “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.” The Creator had first established another way to salvation, by which human beings, using reason and contemplating the wisdom poured out upon His works, might be led to the knowledge of God (cf. Rom 1:20). This was the way of the innocent human being. But when humanity, through the vanity of its heart, deviated from right knowledge of God, the Redeemer, having pity, established another way by which He would lead humanity to saving knowledge of Himself: namely, the word of the cross—by the subjection of reason, the obedience of the will, and the teachings of faith. This is the way of the restored human being.
Without the grace of the Savior, the former way would not only have been useless but dangerous, because of human pride and curiosity. For minds darkened by the habit of the darkness of sins and vices cannot safely direct the gaze of reason toward the clarity and holiness of truth. Therefore it was most salutarily arranged that authority should lead the wavering eye into the light of truth (cf. Augustine, De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae). “It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe.” This “foolishness of preaching,” this “foolishness of God which is wiser than men” (1 Cor 1:25), draws many to salvation, so that not only those who cannot yet clearly comprehend the divine nature they hold by faith, but even those who cannot yet in their own soul distinguish the incorporeal substance from bodily things with the same certainty by which they know that they live, know, and will—are not excluded from salvation, which that foolishness of preaching bestows upon the faithful.
For if Christ had died only for those who can grasp these matters with clear understanding, our labor in the Church would be almost in vain. But since the infirm multitude of believers runs to the Physician to be healed through Christ and Him crucified, then “where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:20), in wondrous ways, according to the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God and His unsearchable judgments. Thus some, who can distinguish incorporeal realities from bodies, seeing themselves as great, mock the foolishness of preaching by which believers are saved and wander far from the only way that leads to eternal life; while many, glorying in the cross of Christ and not departing from that way, even if they are ignorant of the most subtle distinctions, nevertheless reach the same eternity, truth, and charity—that is, stable, certain, and perfect happiness—where all things are everlasting for those who abide, see, and love.
1 Cor 1:22-24 “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.” Where the grace of Christ is present, false wisdom is absent. The false wisdom of the Gentile and the proud knowledge of the Jew, and even the dead wisdom of faith misused by a bad Christian, alike lead away from salvation. The Gentile, puffed up by his own opinion of wisdom; the Jew, testing God and seeking signs; and the bad Christian, abusing the power and wisdom of God who is Christ—all perish together. We must fear lest we be found guilty of all these crimes before God: lest we resemble the Gentiles by abusing the Gospel as Adam did the natural knowledge of creatures; lest we resemble the Jews by abusing the Gospel of Moses—that is, the Law, promises, and word of God—through unbelief and distrust; lest we be bad Christians by abusing the Gospel and the mysteries of Jesus Christ through ingratitude, violation of His law, and contempt of the cross.
1 Cor 1:25-27 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Who is wiser: the one who persuades many, or the one who persuades few—or rather none? The one who persuades about the greatest matters, or about the least and those useless for the conduct of life and salvation? How much labor did Plato expend on lines, angles, points, even and odd numbers, equal and unequal things, and the like—no more useful to life than spider webs! How much he labored to show the soul immortal, yet saying nothing evident and persuading no hearer, he departed thus. But the cross persuaded through unskilled men; it persuaded the whole world—not about trivial matters, but about God, true piety and religion, evangelical conduct of life, and the future judgment—and it made rustics and the unlearned philosophers. You see how what is foolishness of God is wiser than men, and what is weakness is stronger.
How stronger? Because it spread through the whole world and conquered all people. And when countless attempts were made to extinguish the name of the Crucified, the opposite happened: the cross flourished and the Christian religion grew greater, while its adversaries perished and were destroyed. Truly, “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
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