THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
He set forth his thoughts rather obscurely, because he wanted to say everything at once. His words mean this.
As the spirit proceeding from the brain does not simply give sensation to all the members through the nerves, but gives according to each member, more to the one able to receive more, and less to the one able to receive less, so also does Christ.
For the spirit is the root of life. Since our souls depend on Him as members depend on the spirit, His providence and distribution of gifts produce the growth of each, according to the measure of this or that member.
But what is meant by "through every joint of supply"? It means through sensation, αίσδηοιως. This spirit, distributed from the head through the members, touches each of them and so produces its effect upon them.
One may also say this. The body, receiving this action of the spirit according to its members, grows in this way. Or again, the members grow by receiving the action of the spirit according to their own measure.
Or still again, the spirit, poured out abundantly from above, touches all the members and is distributed among them, as much as each can receive. Thus it gives growth.
But why did he add the words "in love"? Because this spirit cannot otherwise be communicated. If a hand happened to be separated from the body, the spirit from the brain would seek a continuation and would not find it there.
It would not tear itself from the body and pass over to the severed hand. If it does not find the hand there, it is not communicated to it. So it is here, if we are not bound to one another by love.
He said all this to instill humility. What, he says, if such a person received more? He received the same Spirit, sent down from the same Head, acting alike, and touching alike.
"Joined and knit together" with the whole body means that it has great care for it. The body must be arranged not somehow, but with great skill. If anything in it is not in its proper place, it is no longer rightly arranged.
Thus one must not only be joined to the body, but must occupy one’s own place there. Otherwise, if you disturb this, you will not be joined to it and will not receive the Spirit.
Do you not see what happens when bones are displaced through some misfortune? When one bone leaves its place and occupies another, it harms the whole body and is often the cause of death.
Sometimes a bone proves unfit to remain in the body. In such cases many cut it out and leave its place empty, because excess in everything is evil.
The elements of the body also harm the whole when they lose their proportion and become excessively abundant. This is what "joined and knit together through every joint of supply" means.
It means that everything in the body should occupy its own place and not invade another place not proper to it. Reflect on this as much as you can.
You join the members, and He orders all things from above. As there are certain receptive organs in the body, so also there are in the spirit, which is wholly the heavenly root of life.
The heart is the root of spirit, the liver of blood, the spleen of bile, and other organs of other elements. Yet all depend on the brain.
God acted in accordance with this, granting man a special honor. Not wishing to abandon him, He Himself became for him the final cause of all things. At the same time He established co-workers for Himself and entrusted one thing to some, another to others.
Thus the apostle is the most useful vessel of the body, that is, of Christ’s Church, receiving everything from it. As through veins and arteries, he helps communicate eternal life to all through the word.
The prophet foretells the future, and the apostle does this also. The one joins the bones, while the other communicates life to them, "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry."
Love restores, unites, draws together, and binds us to one another. Therefore, if we wish to receive the Spirit from the Head, let us be in union with one another.
There are two kinds of separation from the Church. One occurs when we grow cold in love. The other occurs when we dare to do something unworthy toward this body, the Church.
In either case we separate ourselves from the whole. If we have also been entrusted with building up others, and we do not build them up, but are ourselves the first to cause divisions, what shall we not have to suffer for this?
Nothing can produce divisions in the Church so much as love of authority. Nothing offends God so much as divisions in the Church.
Even if we perform ten thousand good deeds, we shall be condemned no less than those who tore His body, if we rend the wholeness of the Church.
The former was done for the benefit of the whole world, though not with that intention. The latter brings no benefit to anyone. On the contrary, it causes great harm.
What I have said applies not only to those who rule, but also to those who are subject. A holy man once said something that might seem bold, had he not said it.
What was it? He said that even the blood of martyrdom cannot wipe away such a sin. Tell me, for what do you accept martyrdom? Is it not for the glory of Christ?
Then, when you are ready to lay down your soul for Christ, how do you dare destroy the Church for which Christ laid down His soul? Hear what Paul says of himself.
"I am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God" (1 Cor 15:9). The harm caused by divisions is not less than the harm caused by enemies, but much greater.
In the former case, the Church receives even greater radiance. In the latter, she lowers herself in the sight of her enemies, when her own children wage war against her.
For enemies regard it as strong proof of deception when those born in the Church, raised in her, and well acquainted with her mysteries, suddenly change and rise against her as enemies.
What I have said is directed against those who indiscriminately attach themselves to people who separate from the Church. If the latter hold doctrines contrary to ours, then for that very reason one must have no communion with them.
If they think the same as we do, then they must be avoided even more. Why so? Because this is the sickness of love of authority.
Do you not know what happened to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? Did they alone suffer? Did not their accomplices perish with them (Num 16:32)?
What do you say? "They have the same faith and are Orthodox too." If so, why are they not with us? "One Lord, one faith, one baptism."
If it is well with them, then it is ill with us. If it is well with us, then it is ill with them. He says, "children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind."
Tell me, do you consider it enough that they are called Orthodox, when among them the grace of ordination has dwindled and perished? What benefit is there in all the rest if this last thing has not been preserved among them?
One must stand equally for the faith and for the grace of priesthood. If everyone is allowed, according to the ancient proverb, to fill his own hands and be a priest, then let all come forward.
Then this altar has been set up in vain, the Church order has been established in vain, and the choir of priests exists in vain. Let us overthrow and destroy it.
They say, "This must not be." But are you not doing this, and then saying, "It must not be"? What do you mean, "It must not be," when it is actually so?
I say and testify this with a view not to my own advantage, but to your salvation. If someone looks at this matter indifferently, let him look more attentively. If he has no concern for it, we do.
"I planted," says the Apostle, "Apollos watered, but God gave the growth." How shall we endure the mockery of the pagans? If they reproach us for heresies, what will they not say about these schisms?
If, they say, their doctrines are one and their mysteries are one, why does one head of a church attack another church? "See," they say, "among Christians everything is full of vainglory.
"They have love of authority and deception. Take the people away from them. Cut off the disease, that is, the corruption of the people, and they will be nothing."
Do you want me to tell you what they say about our city, and how they reproach us for instability? "Among them," they say, "anyone who wishes can find people without firm principles, and they have never lacked such people."
What mockery. What shame. But here is something else that is worthy of mockery and serves to our shame.
If someone among us is exposed in the most shameful deeds, and people wish to impose some penance upon him, everyone becomes greatly troubled and afraid. "He may separate from us," they say, "and join the others."
Let him separate a thousand times and join them. I speak not only of those who have sinned. Even if someone were wholly without sin, if he wishes to depart, let him depart.
I grieve and suffer. I am distressed and inwardly tormented, as though deprived of one of my own members. Yet I am not distressed so that fear of all this could compel me to do anything improper.
Beloved, we do not rule over your faith. We do not command you despotically. We have been appointed to instruct you by the word, not to exercise rule and self-willed power over you.
Our task is to advise and exhort you. A counselor says what he must, but does not force the listener. He leaves him complete freedom to accept or not accept the counsel.
He will be guilty only if he does not say what has been entrusted to him. For this reason we say all this and remind you of all this.
We do so that on that last day you may no longer be able to say, "No one told us this. No one explained it. We did not know it, and did not consider it a sin at all."
Therefore I say and testify that to produce divisions in the Church is no less an evil than to fall into heresies.
Tell me, if the subject of some king did not pass over to another king or surrender himself to another authority, but took his king’s purple robe and tore it from the clasp into many pieces, would he be punished less than one who passed to another king?
But what if, after this, he seized his king by the throat, slaughtered him, and cut his body into pieces? What punishment should he suffer in order to be repaid as he deserves?
If one who does this to a king, who is the same sort of servant in relation to God as he himself is, commits a crime surpassing every punishment, then what Gehenna does he deserve who slaughters Christ Himself and cuts Him into pieces?
Is it merely the Gehenna with which we are threatened? It seems to me that another, still more terrible, is due.
You women who are here, tell this example to those absent, for this vice is mostly observed among women. Tell it and awaken fear in them.
If anyone thinks he is grieving us and taking revenge on us in this way, let him know that he is doing this in vain.
If you wish to take revenge on us, I will show you a way to do it without harm to yourself. Or rather, not without harm, but at least with less harm. Strike me in the face. Spit on me publicly. Wound me.
Do you shudder when you hear this? When I say, "Strike me," you shudder. Yet you tear your Master without shuddering. You tear the Master’s members and do not tremble.
The Church is the Father’s house: "one body and one Spirit." If you wish to take revenge on me, rise against me. Why do you take revenge on Christ instead of me?
Or rather, why do you strike the nails? In general, revenge is never praiseworthy. Yet to insult another instead of the guilty one is far worse.
Have you suffered wrong from us? Why then do you grieve Him who has done you no evil? This is extreme folly.
Here is what I will say on this matter. I do not speak in jest or merely in passing, but as I think and feel.
I would wish that everyone among those who share hostility toward us with you, and therefore harm themselves by withdrawing from us to others, would strike us in the face.
I would wish that they would strip us and scourge us without mercy, whether we were accused justly or unjustly. Better that they vent their anger on us than dare what they now dare.