THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
For this reason the apostle also requires equal care for all. "That all the members," he says, "should have the same care for one another." He explains the same thing again in the following words.
"Therefore, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it" (1 Cor 12:26).
For this reason, he says, God established mutual care for one another. He formed unity amid such diversity, so that whatever happens would be common to many.
If the common salvation depends on care for one's neighbor, then glory and sorrow must also be common. Thus the apostle here sets forth three commandments.
We must not be divided, but closely united. We must have equal care for one another. We must regard everything that happens as common.
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Above he said that God gave greater honor to the member that lacked it, because it had need of it. He showed that the very lack gives a right to greater honor. Here he says that the members are equal also in mutual care.
For this reason, he says, God gave the lower members greater honor, so that they might receive no less care. Yet the members are bound to one another not only in this, but in everything that happens, whether pleasant or painful.
Often, when a thorn pierces the heel, the whole body feels the pain and is troubled. The back bends, the stomach and thighs contract, and the hands, like shield-bearers and servants, reach forward and remove the splinter.
The head bends down, and the eyes watch with great concern. Thus, although the foot is a lower member and cannot rise higher, it bends the head down. Through this it becomes equal to the head and receives the same honor.
This is all the more so because the feet make the head bend down not by favor, but by obligation. The head has precedence over them as the more important member.
Yet, since it is bound to render honor and care to the less important members, and to suffer equally with them, it shows great equality with them.
What indeed is lower than the heel, and what is more important than the head? Yet the latter bends down to the former and brings all the members down with itself.
Again, when the eyes are diseased, all the members suffer. All fall into inactivity. The feet do not walk, the hands do not work, and the stomach does not receive its usual food, though the illness is in the eyes.
Why then do you anoint the stomach? Why do you cover the feet? Why do you bind the hands? Because they are joined to the eyes, and the whole body suffers with them beyond words.
If they did not suffer together, there would be no need for common care for them. Therefore, after saying, "that all the members should have the same care for one another," the apostle added the following.
"If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it."
How, you ask, do they rejoice? The head is crowned, and the whole man is glorified. The mouth speaks, and the eyes shine with joy and gladness, though the praise belongs not to the eyes but to the tongue.
Likewise, when the eyes are beautiful, the whole woman seems beautiful. When a straight nose, well-formed neck, and other members are praised, the eyes also shine.
Again, the eyes shed abundant tears when those members undergo diseases and misfortunes, even though the eyes themselves remain unharmed.
Remembering this, then, let us all imitate the love of these members and not act contrary to it. Let us not laugh at the calamities of our neighbor, nor envy his happiness. Such conduct belongs to the irrational and the deranged.
Whoever tears out an eye gives the greatest proof of madness. Whoever gnaws his hand clearly convicts himself of derangement. If this is true regarding bodily members, then such actions toward brothers likewise reveal madness and cause no small harm.
Indeed, as long as he shines, your own comeliness is preserved and the whole body is adorned. His beauty belongs not only to him, but brings honor to you as well.
If you extinguish him, you bring common darkness upon the whole body and subject all the members to misfortune. Conversely, if you keep him bright, you preserve the beauty of the whole body.
No one says, "The eye is beautiful." What does one say? "Such a woman is beautiful." And if the eye is praised, it is praised only after the common praise.
So it is in the Church. When some distinguish themselves, the whole community gains a good reputation. Enemies do not divide their praises, but attribute them collectively to all.
If someone is distinguished by the gift of eloquence, they praise not him alone, but the whole Church. They do not say, "Such a man is worthy of admiration." What do they say? "The Christians have a teacher worthy of admiration."
They make this treasure common. Thus the pagans unite, but you divide. You wage war against your own body and rise up against your own members.
Do you not know that through this everything is overthrown? "A kingdom," says the Lord, "divided against itself will be laid waste" (Mt 12:25).
Nothing divides and tears apart so much as hatred and envy. This grievous disease deserves no forgiveness. In a certain respect, it is worse than the very root of evils.
The lover of money rejoices when he himself receives something. The envious man rejoices not when he receives, but when another does not. He counts as his own prosperity not his own welfare, but the misfortune of others.
He is, as it were, the common enemy of human nature and the tormentor of Christ's members. What could be more senseless?
A demon envies men, but certainly not another demon. Yet you, a man, envy a man. You rise up against one of the same people and the same nature, which even a demon does not do.
What forgiveness will there be for you? What defense, when you see your brother prospering and you tremble and turn pale? You ought instead to boast, rejoice, and be delighted.
If you wish to emulate him, I do not forbid it. Emulate him, but so that you become like him in good repute. Do not seek to lower him, but to reach the same height and show the same virtue.
This is good emulation: to imitate, not to fight. It is not to grieve over another's excellence, but to be contrite over one's own deficiencies.
Envy does the opposite. It does not care about its own deficiencies, but is tormented by the excellences of others. The poor man is not so grieved by his poverty as the envious man is by his neighbor's prosperity.
What could be more vile than this? Therefore, as I said above, he is even worse than the covetous man. The latter rejoices when he himself receives. The former is glad when another does not receive.
Therefore I exhort you: leave this evil path and turn to good zeal. Such zeal is strong and hotter than any fire, and from it you will receive great blessings.
Thus Paul, when bringing the Jews to the faith, said, "May I not provoke to zeal those who are my flesh, and save some of them?" (Rom 11:14).
One who has the kind of zeal Paul desired is not contrite when he sees another in good repute, but when he sees himself left behind.
The envious man is not like this. He is contrite when he sees another advancing. Like a drone that damages the labors of others, he does not strive at all to rise.
Instead, he weeps when he sees another standing, and does everything to cast him down.
To what, then, may this passion be compared? It seems to me like a lazy, overfed donkey. When harnessed together with a swift horse, it refuses to rise and tries to drag the horse down by the weight of its own body.
So too the envious man gives no thought or effort to freeing himself from this deep sleep. Rather, he does everything to catch and overthrow another who is soaring toward heaven. In this he becomes a faithful imitator of the devil.
When the devil saw man in paradise, he did not strive to correct himself, but to deprive man of paradise. Again, seeing man dwelling in heaven, and others hastening there too, he strives to hinder those who hurry there.
In this way he prepares for himself the fiercest furnace.
"Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it."
Lest anyone should say, "What relation does the example of the body have to us? It is arranged so by nature, while our excellences depend on the will," the apostle applies the example to our own circumstances.
He shows that we too must have the same harmony that the bodily members have by nature. "You," he says, "are the body of Christ."
If there must be no discord in our body, then much more must there be none in the body of Christ. This is all the more true because grace is stronger than nature.
"And individually members." We are not only a body, he says, but also members. He had discussed both points above. He brought many together into one and showed that all constitute one thing, after the likeness of the body.
He also showed that this one thing is composed of many and exists in many. The many are contained in it and receive the capacity to be many.
What does "individually" mean? It means as far as concerns you, and as far as it depends on you, to constitute a part.
He said, "body." But since the Church of Corinth did not make up the whole body, but the universal Church did, he added, "by parts." That is, your church is a part of the universal Church.
It is part of the body composed of all the churches. Therefore you are obliged to be at peace not only with one another, but also with the whole universal Church, if indeed you are members of the whole body.
The Greek ek merous means literally, "by parts."