{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4345","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":32,"verse_to":32},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: And then this will be the answer of the sacramental bond of marriage,—the third good: \"Of me was that word spoken in paradise before the entrance of sin: 'A man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they two shall become one flesh.'\" This the apostle applies to the case of Christ and of the Church, and calls it then \"a great sacrament.\" What, then, in Christ and in the Church is great, in the instances of each married pair it is but very small, but even then it is the sacrament of an inseparable union.<br/><i>— ON MARRIAGE AND CONCUPISCENCE 1.23</i></p><p><b>Cosmas Indicopleustes</b>: the Apostle Paul has used this as an illustration, explaining it in a mystical manner, concerning the Lord Christ and the Church, saying: This mystery is great, but I speak of Christ and of the Church. For just as Adam is the head of all men in this world, as being the cause of their existence, and their father, so also the Lord Christ according to the flesh is the head of the Church, and the father of the future age.<br/><i>— The Christian Topography, Book 5</i></p><p><b>Didymus the Blind</b>: Since, however, in the preceding [passage], the Paradise was understood by us as a divine dwelling place of blessed powers through an allegory, appropriately also things concerning man and woman must be understood. Therefore, we have the beginnings leading to the assimilation brought forth by the blessed Paul, who said, \"This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.\" Therefore, the church gives birth to children in labor pains, for the toil of virtue precedes and is accompanied by sorrow, accomplishing unchangeable repentance unto salvation. But she gives birth to them through the bath of regeneration.<br/><i>— On Genesis</i></p><p><b>Fulgentius of Ruspe</b>: Any soul that cleaves faithfully to Christ is like a wife living faithfully with her husband. Even in chaste wedlock she may grieve the mind of her husband. But she preserves the faith of the marriage bed with chaste purity. Prudently and temperately she orders the husband's household. Even while she falls short of meeting his needs she lives chastely and faithfully with him. Though human infirmity often causes her to transgress against him, conjugal chastity makes her cleave with pleasure to her husband.<br/><i>— ON THE INCARNATION 41</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus ((Reporting Valentinian Views))</b>: They declare also that Paul has referred to the conjunctions within the Pleroma, showing them forth by means of one; for, when writing of the conjugal union in this life, he expressed himself thus: \"This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.\"<br/><i>— Against Heresies (Book I, Chapter 8), Section 4</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Gregory of Nazianzus, a very eloquent man and outstandingly versed in the Scriptures, used to say while discussing this passage with me: See how great the promise in this passage is! The apostle, interpreting it as an analogy of Christ and the church, does not himself even profess to have expounded it as the dignity of the idea demanded. He is in effect saying: \"I know that this analogy is full of ineffable promises. It requires a divine heart in its interpretation. But in the weakness of my understanding I can only say that in the meantime it should be interpreted as Christ in relation to the church. Nothing is greater than Christ and the church. Even all that is said of Adam and Eve is to be interpreted with reference to Christ and the church.\"<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 5:32</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"This is great mystery: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church.\"</p><p>Why does he call it a great mystery? That it was something great and wonderful, the blessed Moses, or rather God, intimated. For the present, however, saith he, I speak regarding Christ, that having left the Father, He came down, and came to the Bride, and became one Spirit. \"For he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit.\" (1 Cor. vi. 17) And well saith he, \"it is a great mystery.\" And then as though he were saying, \"But still nevertheless the allegory does not destroy affection,\" he adds,</p><p>For indeed, in very deed, a mystery it is, yea, a great mystery, that a man should leave him that gave him being, him that begat him, and that brought him up, and her that travailed with him and had sorrow, those that have bestowed upon him so many and great benefits, those with whom he has been in familiar intercourse, and be joined to one who was never even seen by him and who has nothing in common with him, and should honor her before all others. A mystery it is indeed. And yet are parents not distressed when these events take place, but rather, when they do not take place; and are delighted when their wealth is spent and lavished upon it.-A great mystery indeed! and one that contains some hidden wisdom. Such Moses prophetically showed it to be from the very first; such now also Paul proclaims it, where he saith, \"concerning Christ and the Church.\"</p><p>This then is marriage when it takes place according to Christ, spiritual marriage, and spiritual birth, not of blood, nor of travail, nor of the will of the flesh. Such was the birth of Christ, not of blood, nor of travail. Such also was that of Isaac. Hear how the Scripture saith, \"And it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.\" (Gen. xviii. 11) Yea, a marriage it is, not of passion, nor of the flesh, but wholly spiritual, the soul being united to God by a union unspeakable, and which He alone knoweth. Therefore he saith, \"He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.\" (1 Cor. vi. 17) Mark how earnestly he endeavors to unite both flesh with flesh, and spirit with spirit. And where are the heretics? Never surely, if marriage were a thing to be condemned, would he have called Christ and the Church a bride and bridegroom; never would he have brought forward by way of exhortation the words, \"A man shall leave his father and his mother\"; and again have added, that it was \"spoken in regard of Christ and of the Church.\" For of her it is that the Psalmist also saith, \"Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house. So shall the king desire thy beauty.\" (Ps. xlv. 10, 11) Therefore also Christ saith, \"I came out from the Father, and am come.\" (John xvi. 28) But when I say, that He left the Father, imagine not such a thing as happens among men, a change of place; for just in the same way as the word \"go forth\" is used, not because He literally came forth, but because of His incarnation, so also is the expression, \"He left the Father.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 20</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: Yet, while everything else seems rightly spoken, one thing, my friend, distresses and troubles me, considering that that wise and most spiritual man-I mean Paul-would not vainly refer to Christ and the Church the union of the first man and woman,<br/><i>— Methodius Discourse III. Thaleia</i></p><p><b>Methodius of Olympus</b>: The apostle's aim was not amiss when he compared the first condition of Adam with that of Christ. It is a perfectly accurate analogy: the church is generated from Adam's bones and flesh. For her sake the Word left his Father in heaven. He came down to be bonded with this woman, the church. Then he fell into the sleep of his passion. He willingly died for her.… He did this to make her ready for the blessed seed which he himself sows secretly in her, which she cherishes in the depth of her soul. The seed is sown that the church might receive it and fashion it like a woman, to bring forth and foster excellence.<br/><i>— SYMPOSIUM 3.8.71</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Small in the eyes of heretics but great in the eyes of the apostles are the Creator's works. Of just such a great mystery the apostle speaks when he says: \"But I speak of Christ and the church.\" He says this to confirm the mystery, not to undermine it. He shows us that the mystery was prefigured beforehand by the One who is the author of the mystery.<br/><i>— AGAINST MARCION 5.18.10</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: What had he that was spiritual? Is it because he prophetically declared \"the great mystery of Christ and the church? \" \"This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman.<br/><i>— A Treatise on the Soul</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: In passing, (I would say that) it is enough for me that the works of the Creator are great mysteries in the estimation of the apostle, although they are so vilely esteemed by the heretics. \"But I am speaking,\" says he, \"of Christ and the Church.\" This he says in explanation of the mystery, not for its disruption.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: However, even (Adam) himself at that time, reverting to the condition of a Psychic after the spiritual ecstasy in which he had prophetically interpreted that \"great sacrament\" with reference to Christ and the Church, and no longer being \"capable of the things which were the Spirit's,\" yielded more readily to his belly than to God, heeded the meat rather than the mandate, and sold salvation for his gullet! He ate, in short, and perished; saved (as he would) else (have been), if he had preferred to fast from one little tree: so that, even from this early date, animal faith may recognise its own seed, deducing from thence onward its appetite for carnalities and rejection of spiritualities.<br/><i>— On Fasting</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"e0520d477648cddb524a63d5ea0677ae54417ad8dd3ac15989e8a7cca1def006","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4345,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"f8b5873a9ca1617b7708fd8e93786ccb459002f0c8b5cb6293d2147e5b34ab04","translator":null,"work":null}