Paul skillfully completed his thought by saying, “Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?” By this he shows that the beginnings of preaching were not so much the truth as a shadow and image of the truth. The Apostle moderated his thought and gave it a special meaning, addressing precisely those whom he had earlier called foolish and regarded as infants, that is, the Galatians personally alone. At the same time, it is necessary to notice this also. So long as we explain Scripture to people literally, we meet with praise, honor, and admiration for it. But when little by little we begin to call them to pass on to higher things, they turn from our praisers into enemies.
“Where then is your blessedness? For I bear you witness that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Blessed is he who walks on the path of virtues, but only if he has reached the virtues. The abandonment of vice is of no use if you do not attain the higher good deeds, because in good works the beginning is not so praiseworthy as the end.
For in a vineyard there are different stages before the wine is pressed from the cluster in the winepress. First the vine must put forth buds on the branches. Then it must awaken hope of fruit by flowering. After the blossom falls, the outward shape of the clusters must form. Little by little the swelling shoot must produce grapes, which can be pressed in the winepress and yield sweet juice.
So also in teaching there are distinct stages of approach to blessedness, or of growth in blessedness. People must hear the word of God and receive it. It must reach maturity in the womb, utero, of their soul and come to birth. When they have borne it, they must nourish it with milk and bring it to the perfect man through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and youth.
Therefore, as we have said, each stage separately has a certain share of blessedness according to its elevation. Yet if there is no proper end, and, so to speak, no final stroke of the hand in the work, the whole labor will be vain. Then it will be said, “Where is your blessedness?”
He says, “Although at the time when you received the Gospel according to the flesh you were called blessed by me, because you approached the beginnings with ardor, now I do not yet see the completion of the building finished. I scarcely see even the foundation of the building laid. Therefore I am compelled to say, ‘Where then is your blessedness, for which I formerly praised you and counted you blessed?’”
“For in truth I myself confess that in the beginning you loved me so much when I preached humble things, humilia, to you, or when I was undergoing persecutions, that. If it had been possible,” this must be understood as hyperbole, “you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me, so that I might see better with all your eyes. Indeed, by your ineffable love toward me you would have wished to be blind. In order that the light of the Gospel might arise, orietur, in my heart, you wished to increase my gain by your loss. And this was at the very time when I announced to you small and simple things, as to infants and those fed with milk because of the infirmity of your flesh, or when, because of the sufferings of my flesh, I was in your eyes unworthy of trust.”
“But now, when I have begun to call you from beginnings, syllables, and childish reading, and have begun to call you to higher studies, so that you might hold books in your hands and study words full of learning and deep meaning, you kick back, recalcitratis, and grow angry. The improvement of teaching seems very burdensome to you. You have so changed in your affections, in alios mutati estis affectus, that the one whom you received as if he were a messenger of God, angelum, as Christ, and to whom you wished to entrust your eyes, has now become to you as though an enemy, because I proclaim to you the full truth.”
But he skillfully completed his thought by saying, “Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?” He did this to show that the beginnings of preaching were not so much the truth as a shadow and image of the truth. The well-known thought of the poet famous among the Romans is similar: “Compliance begets friends; truth awakens hatred.”
But notice how much better the Apostle’s first thought is than the latter. For the Apostle moderated his thought and gave it a special meaning, addressing precisely those whom he had earlier called foolish and regarded as infants, that is, the Galatians personally alone. But the named poet was greatly mistaken when he declared his judgment universally applicable, as though valid for all people.
Indeed, the compliance which, in his opinion, makes friends, when it lacks truth, is not compliance but rather flattery and indulgence. Obviously this should be called hidden enmity rather than friendship.
At the same time, it is necessary to notice that the same thing happens now. While, among infants and those fed with milk, and among those in whose hearts Christ has not yet grown or advanced in age, wisdom, and grace before God and men, we explain Scripture literally, we meet with praise, honor, and admiration for it. But when little by little we begin to call them to pass on to higher things, they turn from our praisers into enemies. They prefer to follow the Jews rather than the Apostles, although they departed from the teaching and traditions of the Pharisees and came to Christ and to the perfection of the Law.
They are not deemed worthy to receive the word of God, which commands the teachers of the Church to ascend to higher doctrines, dogmata, and with all their strength to lift up their voice. It commands them not to fear the cries of children running about, saying, “O Zion, who brings good tidings, go up upon a high mountain. O Jerusalem, who preaches, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, fear not” (Isa 40:9).
THEOSIS