And now abides faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 13:13 Go To 1 Corinthians 13
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Now abide faith, hope, charity. S. Paul in this chapter clearly teaches that faith, hope, and charity abide in this present life, but charity alone in our heavenly country. So the Fathers hold. See Gregory de Valentia, disp. qu5 de Subjecto Fidei, part2).
You will say, Irenus (ii. c47), Tertullian (de Patienti, c. xii.) understand "now" of heaven; therefore in heaven there will be, and will abide, both faith and hope.
I reply: These Fathers understand by faith all sure knowledge, such as the vision of God; by hope, a firm adherence to God, as the object of love, which is the enjoyment of God. For this is what Tertullian says: "There abide faiih, hope, love: faith which the patietice of Christ had begotten; hope which the patience of man waits for; love which, with God as her teacher, patience accompanies." But these are not to the purpose of the Apostle, as is evident.
The greater of these is charity. Greater, i.e, the greatest. So Catullus:—
"0 Hesperus, light more fair, which shineth in heaven."
that Isaiah , fairest star.
Hence it is plain that faith is not the confidence of heretics in the remission of their sins; for that confidence is nothing else but a strong hope: if it is more it is properly called faith, by which you believe most firmly that you have been justified and saved, as you believe that God is; then hope is superfluous. For what you firmly believe you do not, nor can hope for, as, e.g, you do not hope that God Isaiah , that Christ suffered for us. For hope which truly is hope is allied to fear and dread as its opposites; there is nothing of this kind in faith. The Apostle just above distinguishes hope or confidence from faith, and requires in this life hope as well as faith; therefore faith is not that confidence of which heretics make their boast.
Lastly, it is plain that of all virtues charity is the greatest and most eminent; for, as fire among the elements, gold among the elements, the empyrean among the heavens, the sun among the planets, the seraphim among the angels, so shines charity as the queen among virtues. For charity is the celestial fire which kindles the souls of all around it: the most glittering gold with which we purchase our heavenly inheritance; the highest heaven in which God and the blessed dwell; the sun which illuminates, fertilises, quickens all; the seraphic virtue which makes the seraphim glow. (See on Deuteronomy 6:5.) Beroald says: "As is the helmsman in a ship, the ruler in a state, the sun in the world, so is love among mortals. Without a helmsman the ship is shattered, without a ruler the state is endangered, without the sun the world is darkened, and without love life is no life. Take love from men, you take the sun from the world." Plautinus happily calls love a purifying God, that Isaiah , making all things pure and beautiful.
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