To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 9:22 Go To 1 Corinthians 9
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
I am made all things to all men. Not by acting deceitfully or sinfully, but through sympathy and compassion, which made me suit myself to the dispositions of all men, Song of Solomon , as far as honesty and God"s law allow, that I might be able to heal the indispositions of all. Cf. S. Augustine (Epp9,19): "Not by lying, but by sympathy; not by cunning craftiness, but by large-hearted compassion was Paul made all things to all men."
The Apostle does not sanction what men of the world wish for and do, viz, the accommodating ourselves through right and wrong to all men, feigning to be heretics with heretics, Turks with Turks, pure with the pure, and unclean with those that are unclean. This he condemns ( Galatians 2:11 et seq.). The advice of S. Ephrem (Attende tibi, c10) is sound: "Have charity with all and abstain from all;" and again the apophthegm of S. Bernard, which embraces every virtue: "Live so as to be prudent for yourself, useful to others, pleasing to God." S. Jordan, S. Dominic"s successor in the Generalship of the Order, used to say, as his life related: "If I had devoted myself as closely to any branch of learning as I have to that sentence of S. Paul"s, "I am made all things to all men," I should be mist learned and eminent in it. Throughout the whole of my life I have studied to accommodate myself to every one: to the soldier I was a soldier, to the nobleman as a nobleman, to the plebeian as a plebeian; and thus I always endeavoured to do them good in this way, while on the watch that I did not lose or hurt my soul while benefitting them."
