|
BUT he does not mean that he has only finished the contest of a race
when he says "I so run, not as uncertainly" (a phrase which has more
particularly to do with the intention of the mind and fervour of his
spirit, in which he followed Christ with all zeal, crying out with the
Bride, "We will run after thee for the odour of thine ointments;" and
again, "My soul cleaveth unto thee:" but he also testifies that he has
conquered in another kind of contest, saying, "So fight I, not as one that
beateth the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection." And
this properly has to do with the pains of abstinence, and bodily fasting
and affliction of the flesh: as he means by this that he is a vigorous
bruiser of his own flesh, and points out that not in vain has he planted
his blows of Continence against it; but that he has gained a battle triumph
by mortifying his own body; for when it is chastised with the blows of
continence and struck down with the boxing-gloves of fasting, he has
secured for his victorious spirit the crown of immortality and the prize of
incorruption. You see the orthodox method of the contest, and consider the
issue of spiritual combats: how the athlete of Christ having gained a
victory over the rebellious flesh, having cast it as it were under his
feet, is carried forward as triumphing on high. And therefore "he does not
run uncertainly," because he trusts that he will forthwith enter the holy
city, the heavenly Jerusalem. He "so fights," that is with fasts and
humiliation of the flesh, "not as one that beateth the air," that is,
striking into space with blows of continence, through which he struck not
the empty air, but those spirits who inhabit it, by the chastisement of his
body. For one who says "not as one that beateth the air," shows that he
strikes--not empty and void air, but certain beings in the air. And because
he had overcome in this kind of contest, and marched on enriched with the
rewards of many crowns, not undeservedly does he begin to enter the lists
against still more powerful foes, and having triumphed over his former
rivals, he boldly makes proclamation and says, "Now our striving is not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against world-rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in
heavenly places."
|
|