That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
All Commentaries on 1 John 1:3 Go To 1 John 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
For this is the charity of God, &c. He means, Charity consists in the keeping of the commandments of God. For charity is the love and friendship of God. For this is what is said (Wisd), "Love is the keeping of His laws." So it is said in Eccles. xii13 , "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole man." It means, the whole good of man; all his duty, all his happiness; his end and perfection consist in the fear of God. As S. Jerome says, "For this man was created." And as Salonius says, He who lives otherwise is not a man but a beast, because he does not live according to reason, which pertains to man"s nature. But if he lives gluttonously, he lives like a hog. If he lives deceitfully, he lives like a fox. If he lives proudly, he lives like a lion, and so on. All this you may apply to charity.
And His commandments are not heavy (gravia), much less impossible, as heretics say. He alludes to the words of Christ, "My yoke is sweet, and My burden light."
The reason Isaiah , 1st Because Christ has freed Christians from the heavy and manifold burden of the ceremonial and judicial precepts of the Old Law, and has imposed upon them only the moral Law, or the ten precepts of the natural Law, adding to them a few things concerning faith, baptism, and the rest of the sacraments. The Rabbi Moses Numbers 218 positive, and365 negative precepts of the Old Law (More Hannelbuchim, caps56,57). From all these Christ has set us free.
2d. Because to charity and him who loves God nothing is heavy. "For how can it be heavy when it is the command of love? For either a man loves not, and thus it is heavy; or else he does love, and it cannot be heavy," says S. Augustine.
3d. Because Christ gives grace as it were wings, with which we fulfil the commandments. Yea, we as it were fly over them, according to the words, "I ran the way of Thy commandments when Thou hadst enlarged my heart." (Ps. cxix.) As S. Augustine says, "There is nothing heavy either in loving, or fearing. For perfect love casts out fear, and makes the burden of the commandment light, not depressing to the ground with its weight, but lifting it up instead of wings. Let the soul therefore which feels the commandments heavy, pray and sigh with the will that it may obtain the gift of the sense of lightness." Wherefore S. Bonaventura says, "The commandments are heavy to fallen and corrupt nature, but light to that which is whole and sound." For grace heals our nature, even as sin wounds and as it were maims it. Therefore sin makes the commandments to be as "a talent of lead." (Zech. v7.)
4th. Because, although certain things be heavy in themselves, such as to mortify all the lusts, to undergo martyrdom, to suffer all adversity, yet they become light when we consider the example of Christ and His Saints, and God"s promise of heavenly glory, according as S. Paul says, "The sufferings of this present time are not comparable to the future glory which shall be revealed in us."
As S. Augustine says (Serm18 de Sanct.), "If we must needs endure daily torments, if hell itself for a brief space, that we might be worthy to behold Christ coming in His glory, and to be reckoned in the company of His Saints, would it not be worth while to suffer anything that is sad, so that we were made partakers of such great good and such great glory?"
