And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Read Chapter 12
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Suppose you had a disjointed finger. Would you not tremble in all your limbs? Would you not hurry to the doctor to have the finger set? Surely, then, your body is in good condition when all its members are in agreement, the one with the other. Then you are considered healthy, and really are well.
Far be it from us to refuse to hear what is bitter and sad to those whom we love. It is not possible for one member to suffer without the other members suffering with it.
Our sufferings are such as to have reached even to the limits of our inhabited world. When one member suffers, all the members suffer along with it. Letter , To the Westerners.
Whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it. "They suffer together" in such away that the suffering member"s grief is lightened, "not by communion in disaster, but by the solace afforded by charity," says S. Augustine ( Ephesians 133). Hence S. Basil (Reg. Brevior175) says that the outward proof of love is twofold: (1.) rejoicing in the good of one"s neighbour and labouring for it; (2.) in grief and sorrow for his misfortune or his sin. He who has not this loves not.
Doctors infer from this verse that souls in bliss, burning with love for us, help us by their prayers in our troubles and dangers; and that we in our turn ought to help souls kept in purgatory, for they suffer the devouring flame, and therefore he must be cruel indeed who does not suffer with them, and do what he can to set them free.
Or one member be honoured. Or as Ambrose takes it, "be glorified," or, according to Ephrem, "whether one member rejoice." Salmeron, after S. Chrysostom, beautifully says: "He w...
And again he has laid it down in his epistle, saying, "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it.".
And again: "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it.".
For who would not grieve at misfortunes of that kind, or who would not consider his brother's grief his own, since the Apostle Paul speaks, saying, "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it; "
I suffer with, I grieve with our fellow believers who, having lapsed and fallen by the impetus of persecution, drawing part of our hearts with them, have brought a like sorrow on us with their wounds.
Yea, with no other view, says he, did He make the care He requires common, establishing unity in so great diversity, but that of all events there might be complete communion. Because, if our care for our neighbor be the common safety, it follows also that our glory and our sadness must be common. Three things therefore he here demands: the not being divided but united in perfection: the having like care for another: and the considering all that happens common. And as above he says, He has given more abundant honor to that part which lacked, because it needs it; signifying that the very inferiority was become an introduction to greater honor; so here he equalizes them in respect of the care also which takes place mutually among them. For therefore did he cause them to partake of greater honor, says he, that they might not meet with less care. And not from hence only, but also by all that befalls them, good and painful, are the members bound to one another. Thus often when a thorn is fix...
To be anything other than yourself? Why flee from the partners of your own mischances, as from such as will derisively cheer them? The body cannot feel gladness at the trouble of any one member,
