Tag Archives: St. Augustine of Hippo

Rich By His Poverty

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One of the greatest existent examples of Norman architecture, the cathedral in Monreale, Sicily was begun in 1174 by William II of Sicily. In 1182 the church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, was complete. The stunning mosaics were added one hundred years later.


For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, so that you might become rich by his poverty …. For if that desire is present, the gift will be acceptable according to what one may have, not according to what one does not. (2 Cor. 8:9, 12)

St. Paul is raising money to aid the parish in Jerusalem because there is a famine there, adding to the political troubles facing the area which would soon boil over into open revolt against Rome and cause the Romans to tear down the Temple. He’s saying that the Corinthians will get “credit” from God based on what they want to give, even if their actual financial situation does not allow them to be as generous as they would like to be.

It’s always tricky to talk about God giving “credit” to humans. But we understand that impulse because we honor the intention if the person is unable to follow through, through no fault of their own. It’s a different situation if the person promises what they know they cannot deliver, raising hopes that can never be achieved.

God acknowledges–gives “credit”–our faith, our hopes and trust in him, and in our brothers and sisters. So this passage of 2 Corinthians is about more than fundraising. St. Paul is also talking about how we become rich through Christ’s poverty even if we don’t always follow through on being poor in spirit, forgiving as we have been forgiven, sharing our resources with those who have less–less time, less cash, less emotional bandwidth to bear whatever their current situation is. If we WANT to be as forgiving and as poor in spirit, etc. that’s at least a start. It’s something. Even if we don’t always live up to our intentions. But as the famous Easter sermon says,

… the Master is gracious and receives the last, even as the first; he gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, just as to him who has labored from the first. He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first; to the one he gives, and to the other he is gracious. He both honors the work and praises the intention.

Paschal Homily, attributed to St. John Chrysostom

Christ takes off all his clothes in order to wear a towel and wash our feet. He hangs naked on the Cross. Holy Week makes us rich. The point of wealth is to share it. How can we share some of what we are given during Holy Week? Even if we can’t do everything we want to make those riches accessible to ourselves or others, we can at least do something. We can do a little bit more than we did last year. We can be present. We can at least begin to want to intend to receive those riches and then share them with someone else.

What human being could know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed under the poverty of his humanity? … When he assumed our mortality and overcame death, he manifested himself in poverty but he promised riches–though they might be deferred; he did not lose them as if they were taken away from him. How great is the multitude of his sweetness which he hides from those who fear him but which he reveals to those who hope in him!

St. Augustine of Hippo, On the Nativity 194.3

Can the Eye Say to the Hand, “I Don’t Need You”?

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The depiction of the hand of God stood in the presence of God himself, as in this hand of God the Father seen above the Cross, clutching a wreath of victory, San Clemente, Rome, AD 1140–43. Read here for more about the Hand of God in ancient-medieval Jewish and Christian art.


For just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, although many, are one body, so also is Christ…. If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it for this reason less a part of the body? (1 Cor. 12:12-15)

St. Paul was not the only one to talk about the Church as if it were a body. St. Jerome wrote

The Church has real eyes: its teachers and leaders who see the mysteries of God in the sacred Scriptures…. The Church has feet: those who make official journeys of all kinds. The foot runs that the hand may find the work it should do. The eye does not scorn the hand, nor do the eyes, hands, and feet scorn the belly as if it were idle and unemployed.

Homily 85 on the Gospel According to St. Matthew

I think the best example of body imagery is what St. Augustine wrote:

Aren’t the hairs of your head certainly of less value than your other members? What is cheaper and more despicable and lowly than the hairs of your head? Yet if the barber gives you a bad haircut, you become angry at him for doing a bad job and cutting your hair unevenly. But you are not as concerned about the unity of the members of the Church as you are about the hairs on your head.

On the Usefulness of Fasting 6

How new was all this body imagery? Philosophers who were writing at the same time as St. Paul also used body imagery as a way to talk about society. Seneca wrote:

What if the hands should desire to harm the feet or the eyes the hands? As all the members of the body are in harmony with one another because it is to the advantage of the whole that individual members be unharmed….

On Anger, 2.31.7

A Roman fable told the story of hands, mouth, and teeth rebelling against the stomach, with the result that the whole body is harmed. (Livy, History of Rome 2.32.7-33.1) Other fables and philosophers compared political unrest to disease or self-harm (such as cutting).

Jewish writers like Josephus and Philo also used body imagery. “As in the body, all the members get sick if the principal members are inflamed….” and the high priest asks for blessings in order “that every age and every part of the nation be regarded as a single body, united in one and the same fellowship, making peace and good order their aim.”

A few decades after St. Paul wrote, St. Clement of Rome also write to the Corinthians. St. Clement also used body imagery to appeal to the Corinthians to embrace harmony and set aside discord.

Let us take our body as an example. The head without the feet is nothing; likewise the feet without the head are nothing: even the smallest limbs of our body are necessary and useful for the whole body; but all the members conspire and unite in subjection, that the whole body may be saved.”

1 Clement 37

I highly recommend Raymond Collins’ commentary on First Corinthians in the Sacra Pagina series.

Whoever Eats or Drinks in an Unworthy Manner

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This icon of Melchizedek is one of several that I painted many years ago. You can see the curls of the challah bread in his hand reflected in the curls of his beard. He wears the turban of a high priest and the crown of a king, as he was both priest of God Most High and king of (Jeru-)Salem. His sacrifice of bread and wine (described in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110) is considered an anticipation of the Eucharist.


Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself…. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgement upon himself. (1 Cor. 11:27-29)

The apostle’s words are blunt and sharp. Whoever shares in the Eucharist unworthily brings condemnation on themselves. Although meant to be life-giving, the Holy Gifts can bring judgement and condemnation because the presence of God is a two-edged sword: his light exposes and reveals the truth, whatever that truth might be. If it reveals our honest struggle to live in fellowship with him, we share the fellowship we seek. If it reveals either no such struggle or even active struggle to avoid his light, then we are judged because our partaking of the Eucharist reveals that we knew better, that we turned our back on our own words by refusing to even attempt to live up to the words we said at our baptism and at the celebration of the Eucharist.

“What does it mean to receive unworthily? To receive in mockery, to receive in contempt.”

St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 227

How do we mock the Eucharist? When we dare to consume the Eucharist when we are allowing ourselves to be consumed with greed, or anger, or malice. These attitudes are what make us unworthy to receive the Holy Gifts. It was these attitudes–especially greed and selfishness–on display among the Corinthians that made them refuse to wait for one another at the parish dinners, some eating too much and getting drunk while others were going hungry.

To struggle against our greed, anger, or malice is a sign of life and God honors that struggle by remaining in fellowship with the one who struggles. If we give up the struggle against these attitudes, we are already spiritually dead, even if we are physically still alive.

“Do you work wonders for the dead? Will those who have died stand up and give you thanks?” (Psalm 88:11) This question in the psalms concerns not just those dead and buried in the ground but those spiritually dead, still walking around the surface of the earth. In hell, there is no Eucharist; the spiritually dead, in need of Resurrection, are equally outside the Eucharist. “For in death, no one remembers you; and who will give you thanks in the grave?” (Psalm 6:5)

The dead, those who have surrendered to their greed-anger-malice, are incapable of giving thanks or honest participation in the Eucharist. These are the people who mock the Eucharist and receive it with contempt. Struggling against these attitudes are what make us capable of giving thanks and honest participation in the Eucharist; even if we fail and must renew our struggle time-after-time-after-time-after-time, this is the behavior of a person who honors the Eucharist and avoids bringing judgement and condemnation upon themselves.