The Surpassing Greatness of God’s Power; Christ Exalted Above All (Ephesians 1:19–23)

Eph. 1:19. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of the might of His strength.

“Exceeding”—surpassing measure, word, the comprehension of the mind, boundless, ineffable, incomprehensible. The greatness of power signifies not merely the multiplicity or magnitude of power, but also that this great power is majestic, divine, illustrious, most resplendent, magnificent. And such power God has manifested upon us who believe, or has instilled within us who believe—the third subject beheld with enlightened eyes of the heart, after the beholding of the excellences of Christianity and the rich glory awaiting Christians in the future.

Look at the Christians. For them everything is there; here below there are only difficulties, sorrows, and sufferings. What a weak and despised faith, one might think! So it seems from the outside; but in spirit there is nothing stronger than the faith. And the sense of such strength is given to the enlightened heart. It feels the power within itself, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the whole community of Christians, or in the Church of Christ. Conversion to the Lord is accomplished by a sign of God’s power, which has struck the spirit of man with deep impression. The preservation of the faithful in the faith is likewise accomplished by God’s power, which not infrequently reveals itself openly. The Lord declared: “no one” “shall snatch them from My hand.” My Father, who has given them to Me, “is greater than all” (Jn. 10:29). The presence of a special power among Christians was at first so palpable that it struck awe into all who were round about. The more this power is revealed to the heart, the stronger the faith. For this reason the Apostle desires the Ephesians to come to know it, and to know it ever more and more.

The greatness of power was manifested by God in the ordering of our salvation, for to this end the Son of God was incarnate, suffered, died on the cross, rose again, and sat at the right hand of God the Father and received all authority in heaven and on earth; for this the Holy Spirit descended and through the Apostles established the Church of God, in which He works without ceasing and will not cease to work until the end of the age. The greatness of His power is manifested also in the conversion of people to faith in Christ the Lord, when He makes idolaters into worshippers of the true God, drunkards into sober men, fornicators into chaste men, the proud into the humble, the wrathful into the meek; when He takes a heart that is coarse, carnal, and bestial, and makes it tender, spiritual, and angel-like (Jerome).

It is to this power—manifested in the ordering of salvation, in the calling to faith, and in the preservation of believers—that holy Paul points here, praying that God would grant the Ephesians to comprehend it fully and to hold it in their hearts.

“Before this the Apostle mentioned what is to come (‘the riches of the glory of the inheritance’); now he speaks of what has already been accomplished, in order by this latter to confirm the former. And what is this? — The very thing that we believe; for in truth, that we, so wild and brutish in character, should have come to believe in God and to seek wisdom concerning heavenly things is a proof of great power of God” (Oecumenius, Theophylact). “The boundless greatness of His ineffable power is shown also upon us who believe. How? — In that He raised and quickened us, whose every sense had been deadened by the passions and whose very thought was buried in them, making us worthy of receiving the light of faith. Truly in this is the might of His strength. Therefore the Apostle prays for the Ephesians to know this through the Spirit of wisdom. For when we understand how we have been shown grace, we shall prize the gift more highly and shall nourish greater gratitude toward the Giver” (Photius, in Oecumenius).

“To arouse faith in souls is far more difficult than to raise the dead. How so? I shall endeavour to make this clear. Hear, then: Christ said to the dead man: ‘Lazarus, come forth’ (Jn. 11:43)—and the dead man obeyed. Peter said to Tabitha: ‘Tabitha, arise’ (Acts 9:40)—and she did not resist. The Lord will speak on the last day—and all will rise, and will rise with such swiftness that those still alive will not precede those who have died, and all of this will take place and be concluded in the briefest possible time, in the twinkling of an eye. But it is not so in the matter of conversion to faith. Then what? — Hear again what the Lord says: ‘How often did I desire to gather your children together… and you were not willing’ (Lk. 13:34). Now do you understand what is more difficult? For this reason the Apostle proves everything by faith. Indeed it is far more difficult—even by human reckoning—to persuade the freedom of a man than to create a nature. The reason for this is that God desires that we ourselves should voluntarily become good. Thus the Apostle is quite right to see ‘the exceeding greatness of’ God’s ‘power in us who believe.’ When the prophets accomplished nothing, when the Angels, the Archangels, when all visible and invisible creation proved incapable of helping to save mankind, then God Himself was pleased to appear, showing thereby that in the matter of conversion to faith, divine power is required” (St. Chrysostom).

“According to the working of the might of His strength.” “Might” — κρατος in God—is sovereignty over all; “strength” — ισχυς — is power; the might of strength is sovereign and powerful authority, or omnipotence, or the all-sovereign power of God. “Working” — ενεργεια — is the manifestation of this power in deeds. “According to the working of the might of strength”—according to the operation of God’s sovereign omnipotence.

What does holy Paul intend to say by these words? This is resolved by determining to what we refer them. If we refer them to what stands immediately before—“in us who believe”—we obtain a thought explaining how we came to believe. Namely: in ordering our salvation God manifested His all-powerful sovereignty. The knowledge of such a manifestation of God’s power for our sake, acting upon the heart, arouses faith, while the remembrance of it sustains faith, constantly rekindling it. The meaning would be: “in us who believe” through the action upon our mind and heart of the exceeding power that God manifested in the ordering of our salvation. The following verses explain in what precisely this power was manifested.

If we refer these words to “what is the exceeding greatness of power,” we obtain a thought explaining in what this greatness of power is to be seen. It is to be seen in the operation of God’s sovereign strength. The third subject which the holy Apostle prays the Ephesians may behold with enlightened eyes of the heart is the knowledge of the boundless greatness of power expended upon believers. How may they attain the beholding of this? — By judging from the manifestations, or by tracing the manifestations of His sovereign strength, “which He wrought…” manifested in the resurrection and the seating at His right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Lord’s headship over the Church.

Oecumenius cites the words of blessed Photius the Patriarch, which explain in detail this Apostolic saying. “The words: ‘according to the working…’ and so forth, either signify that our resurrection from spiritual death and the resurrection of Christ our God from bodily death are the work of one and the same power and operation.” “Or he says ‘according to the working…’ to show the cause of our quickening—that is, the cause by which we came to believe and rose from spiritual death. For the operation… ‘of strength, which He wrought in Christ, raising Him’ and so forth, was the cause of our coming to believe and rising from our former delusion. He rose because He died; He died because He was incarnate; He was incarnate in order to adopt us to God. And all this is the operation of the One who raised Him from the dead. Thus he says ‘according to the working’ to mean: on account of the operation of the might of His strength. For by it and through it we both believe and are saved.” “Or, by speaking thus, he explains ‘what is the exceeding greatness of His power in us who believe’—by the fact that, having raised Christ and seated Him at His right hand, He has seated our First-fruits above every Principality and Power and Authority and Dominion. For in this truly is revealed the exceeding greatness of power—to exalt earthly nature above the heavens, to make it worshipped by the bodiless orders. Having understood the sense of the Apostolic saying in this way, the whole of the ensuing speech will become clear.”

The last interpretation follows the flow of the discourse more closely. The Apostle explains in what the exceeding power of God has been manifested, and indicates how, by these manifestations as by tracks, one may ascend to the beholding of this power with fully opened eyes. And is it not the Apostle’s chief intention to arrest the attention of the Ephesians upon this and to fix their mind in the contemplation of it? He desires to impart to them what he himself has contemplated. What he himself contemplated, he briefly outlined at the beginning, blessing God for every spiritual blessing in Christ—for our election before the foundation of the world to holiness and blamelessness, for our adoption to Himself, and especially for the wondrous recapitulation of all things in the Lord. Now he expresses a strong desire that the Ephesians too might enter into the same contemplation, and he asks God to open their eyes of the heart—to behold the high dignity of Christianity, the ineffability of the blessings prepared for believers—and most of all the boundless power manifested in the ordering of our salvation. Having mentioned such a manifestation of power, he then explains how precisely it was manifested—in the Person of Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:20–23)—and in the persons of all believers (chs. 2 and 3).

II. He points to this greatness in the exaltation of the Accomplisher of our salvation (Eph. 1:20–23)

Eph. 1:20, 21. Which He wrought in Christ, having raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above every principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come: and He put all things under His feet…

Setting forth his own contemplation, he spoke of how God bestowed grace upon us in the Beloved, especially through the recapitulation of all things in Him. Leading the Ephesians into the same contemplation, he points to the same boundless greatness of God’s power within it. Perhaps for their weaker minds it was easier by this path to ascend to the contemplation of the abundance of God’s grace as well.

The Apostle speaks here of the resurrection of the Lord, His sitting at the right hand of the Father with the subjection of all things heavenly and earthly, and the Lord’s headship over the Church—but only in the respect in which all of this manifests the sovereign strength of God. It is primarily from this side that our commentators view this section (vv. 20–23).

Blessed Theodoret writes: “It is evident that the Apostle said all this of Christ as man. For it is this that moved him to wonder. That God should sit enthroned with God, and the Son should reign with the Father, is not at all surprising, for with the identity of nature goes the communion of authority. But that the nature taken from us should receive equal honour with the One who took it, and that no distinction should appear in worship—that in the worship of the visible nature, worship should be rendered to the invisible Divinity—this is above every wonder. Therefore the divine Apostle, marvelling at this, hymns first the ‘exceeding greatness of power’ and then the ‘working of sovereign strength,’ and seeks out names that could express the extraordinary nature of the deed. For he says: first He raised Him from the dead—clearly as a man—then He seated Him, and, showing the greatness of the honour, added: ‘at His right hand.’ He points to the royal chamber: ‘in the heavenly places’—and then to those who are subject: ‘far above every principality and power’—and, having enumerated all the names of the invisible Powers known to us, added that if there are others we do not know but shall come to know in the life to come, they too are all subjected to Him. He also added the prophetic testimony: ‘He put all things under His feet’ (Ps. 8:7). And the Prophet too said this of Christ as man, for he says: ‘What is man, that You are mindful of him? Or the son of man, that You visit him?’ (Ps. 8:5).”

St. Chrysostom says: “Do you see what He accomplished? — He raised Christ. And this is no small thing; but look, what else did He do? — He seated Him at His right hand. What words could adequately depict this? One who was of the earth He suddenly raised to such a height. Truly, the incomprehensible greatness of His power! — And see where He raised Him? — He seated Him ‘in the heavenly places,’ above every created nature, above every principality and power. Therefore truly one needs the Spirit of grace, one needs an enlightened mind to know this—in a word, revelation is needed for this. Consider how great is the distance between man and the divine nature: yet from that (human) smallness He raised Him to that (divine) honour. Not one, not two, not three steps are needed for this. Therefore the Apostle did not say simply: above, but—far above. Above the highest Powers is God alone. And to such a height He raised one who is from us—the humiliated One He raised to the highest degree of authority, beyond which there is no other, more excellent dignity. All this the Apostle says of the One risen from the dead, and in no way of God the Word—he speaks of Jesus, who proceeded from us. Truly great and wondrous is this, that from the lowest parts of the earth He raised Him—He made Him above all, ‘not only in this age, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things under His feet.’ He did not simply say: He made Him above all others, so as to prefer Him over them—He did not use this word in a comparative sense; but He granted Him such honour as a master has over his servants. Oh, truly wondrous works! Through the fact that God the Word clothed Himself in our nature, the whole of created power has been made subject to man. — But perhaps there is someone above Him, who, while having no subjects, yet possesses greater dignity? — Here too this does not apply: ‘all things,’ the Apostle affirms, ‘all things He put under His feet.’ And He did not merely subject them, but subjected those subjected to Him completely, so that a greater subjection cannot be. Therefore the Apostle said: ‘under His feet.’”

These two passages fully explain the meaning of verses 20 and 21. It remains to clarify certain expressions.

The resurrection and the seating at the right hand are spoken of here as acts of the manifestation of God’s ineffable power in the ordering of salvation. The Saviour remained in a state of humiliation on earth; He ended His earthly life in humiliation. This was necessary according to the economy of salvation. But do not look at this—look rather at the height to which He was raised by means of this humiliation. The more humiliated He appeared on earth, the more manifest is the sovereign strength of God in raising Him above all. The resurrection stands as it were at the transition to this. The seating at the right hand is the investiture of the Saviour, as God-man, with full sovereign authority.

The resurrection and the seating at the right hand are here attributed to God the Father; but it is the inseparable act of the Godhead—the Most Holy Trinity. The Son Himself participates in it as much as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The seating at the right hand is the investiture with divine, all-sovereign authority. God the Son, even in the incarnation, did not cease to be the Sovereign over all, as He was also the Creator of all. The Apostle wishes to say that into this sovereignty the human nature has also been introduced, in the Person of Christ the Lord, having been glorified in the resurrection. Not as God did the Lord become above all and Lord of all—for He had never ceased to be such—but as God-man. The Person of the Saviour is one. And even in the incarnation itself He was the Sovereign over all as man. But in order to introduce human nature into this dominion, it was first necessary to glorify it by the resurrection. Man is a small world; he concentrates within himself all creaturely powers. In the glorified humanity of the Person of the God-man, these powers became the reins of governance and at the same time channels for the passage of the Saviour’s restorative powers into all regions of creaturely existence. All of this is the necessary consequence of the incarnation of God the Word. Once this had been resolved in the divine counsel, all had to follow of itself.

The Principalities, Authorities, Powers, and Dominions above which human nature has been raised in the Lord are not earthly powers—kings, high priests—as it occurred to some, but heavenly. The Apostle does not enumerate all the angelic orders—for that is not the subject of discussion—but mentions some, indicating through these the same understanding with regard to all the rest. He is saying, as it were: above these, but also above all others; above all that exists, apart from God—as the words show: and above “every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come.” Name here means dignity, as we say: a man of renown. The Apostle understands all that has a name, all that stands out from among others. Above all of this is the Saviour, who has been seated at the right hand of the Father. Here too is visible the thought that He has become above all known to us—Principalities, Authorities, Dominions, Powers (and also Thrones, as he adds in the Epistle to the Colossians — Col. 1:16)—and above all now unknown to us, which will be revealed to us hereafter—here or in the age to come (St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius and others)—above all, in a word, that anyone might name.

Eph. 1:22. And He put all things under His feet.

This signifies either that He has not only become above all but also become Lord of all—as it were a reinforcement of the same thought already expressed in the seating at the right hand of the Father—or that He has also subjected all visible things under His feet. In the preceding words he spoke of the invisible world; here he speaks of the visible, physical world. This may be suggested by the borrowing of this expression from the psalm, which speaks of the exaltation of man in creation above all creatures (Ps. 8:7). All things were subject to man on earth. In the Fall he lost this authority. In the restoration of the fallen it is returned to him, as many instances have shown. But in the Restorer this authority has become inherent not only with respect to the earth, but with respect to the whole visible world. So it had to become, by the force of the wondrous economy of salvation through the incarnation of God the Word.

Eph. 1:24. And gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Someone might think: let human nature in the Person of the Lord have become above all things—yet what does that mean for us? It means that God, having so exalted our nature in the Person of the Saviour, did not sever Him from us, but gave Him as Head to the Church, which is His body. If the dignity of the head is reflected in the body, then the exaltation of the head is the exaltation of the body as well—that is, of all of us believers who make up the body of the Church. What inspiration for those who have come to understand this! St. Chrysostom exclaims: “Ah! And to what height has He raised the Church? As if by some great mechanism lifting her up, He raised her to a great height and seated her on the same throne; for where the head is, there the body is also.”

“Over all things” — υπερ παντα. Understanding παντα as all classes of beings, one may read it thus: all things are subjected to Him; but He is Head only to the Church. Passing by all other creatures, God made Him Head only of the Church, entering into a living union only with the Church. Or υπερ παντα means the same as in another place: “above all these things” (in the sense of επι). Having enumerated the virtues, the Apostle concluded: “And above all these things put on love” (Col. 3:14). So also here. God exalted humanity in the Person of the Saviour; but above all this is the fact that He gave Him as Head to the Church. St. Chrysostom says: “What do the words ‘over all things’ mean? Do they mean that Christ is above all visible and spiritual things, or that the highest of all the benefits He bestowed is that He made His Son the Head, leaving above Him neither Angel nor Archangel nor anyone else? Not only by that one honour did God glorify us—by raising up the One who is from us (that is, Jesus Christ) on high—but also by predisposing the whole human race to follow after Him, to possess the same as He possesses, and to inherit His glory.”

Earlier, in the words: “to gather together all things” (Eph. 1:10), the thought was given that the order of existence disordered by the Fall—the structure of all classes of beings—has been restored in the Person of the Saviour-God-man. In Him all things found the centre of mutual union. And He became the all-encompassing Head. Since verses 20–23 stand in parallel with verses 7–11, the Apostle probably held the same thought in mind also with the words: “He gave Him as Head over all things to the Church.” By virtue of the incarnation He is Head of the Church; but as the incarnate One is God, He is also Head of all that exists—yet in such a way that above every headship He is nonetheless Head of the Church above all.

The words: “which is His body” point to the living union with Him of all believers who make up the Holy Church. Just as the members of our body together with the head form one living organism, guided by the head, so believers, incorporated into Christ as Head through baptism, form with Him one bodily-spiritual organism. — “Do you not know,” the Apostle says in another place (1 Cor. 6:15), “that your bodies are” “members of Christ?” Those who are baptised into Christ are clothed with Him, becoming one spirit with Him.

He works in them—both collectively and individually—and moves all things, as the head: the creative and life-giving power. It could not be otherwise, given the economy of salvation that the Triune God was pleased to accomplish. We fell away. God the Word assumed humanity in order to reunite it with God once more. In Him humanity already subsists in all-sided communion with the Godhead. People enter into this communion through Him, uniting with Him inwardly and essentially. This union of each one with Him adds members to Him one by one. The number of those united with Him multiplies around Him members who, being filled by Him—the one creative and life-giving principle—are also united among themselves, forming a union perfectly analogous to the union of members in a body. Those who truly believe in the Lord are necessarily a body—and His body.

“The fullness of Him who fills all in all.” These words are somewhat obscure and admit of different meanings. To whom should we refer “fullness”—to the Church or to the Lord? It may be referred to the Lord, for it is He who is under discussion. It may also be referred to the Church, because it is mentioned immediately before. If referred to the Lord, the meaning would be the same as in another place, in the words: “for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). “Fullness” there is in Greek το πληρωμα, as in our present passage. Instead of “Godhead” our text has “Him who fills all in all,” for this is proper to God alone. The thought would then be: God gave the Church a Head who is above all things, for He Himself is the fullness of the Godhead, the fullness of the One who fills all things.

If referred to the Church, the thought divides in two, depending on whether we understand by “Him who fills all in all” God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ. If God the Father, or the Godhead in general, the thought would be: God fills all things, but the souls and hearts of fallen people He does not fill, for they have closed themselves to Him. Through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ they are opened, and the Godhead enters into them and fills them. All believers make up the Church, and, having been filled by God, they make it filled by Him. Blessed Theodoret understands it thus: “By Church the Apostle calls the assembly of believers; he named it the body of Christ and the fullness of the Father, because the Father has filled it with every gift, and in it, according to the prophetic word, He dwells and walks (Lev. 26:12). This will be fulfilled with complete precision in the future life. Thus the Apostle taught us in the Epistle to the Corinthians. For having said: ‘the last enemy to be destroyed is death’ and ‘He has put all things under His feet’ (1 Cor. 15:26, 27), he finally added: ‘that God may be all in all’ (1 Cor. 15:28). — God is even now in all, since His nature is uncircumscribed; yet He is not all in all, because some are impious and others are lawless, whereas God dwells in those who fear Him and in those who hope in His mercy. But in the future life, when mortality ceases, immortality is given, and there is no longer any place for sin, God will be ‘all in all.’”

If by “Him who fills” we understand the Lord Jesus Christ, then the words “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” are a continuation of the same thought as is contained in “which is His body,” explaining it and carrying it further in development and application. St. Chrysostom says: “Lest, having heard the word ‘head,’ you take it only in the sense of authority but not in the proper sense—lest you count Him merely a ruler and not see in Him the actual head—the Apostle adds: ‘the fullness of Him who fills all in all.’ The Apostle considers the name of head as it were insufficient to show the kinship and closeness of the Church to Christ.” — To show kinship and closeness… that is, to show that in the Church and in Christians everything is Christ’s. She is full of Christ; He fills her entirely, in her whole constitution and in all her members individually—and in her, and in her members, He fulfils all things. In that case these words may be rendered thus: “which is His body,” “—His fullness”, “the One who fills” “all things” “in all” (her members). His is the light of the knowledge proper to the Church, with which He fills those who are knowers. His is the holiness with which He fills those who strive after holiness. His are the acts of charity, with love for which He fills those who do charitable deeds. His are all other spiritual gifts visible in the Church, for He fills with them those believers who are capable of receiving them. In the Church—“Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11).

This thought takes on a particular nuance if one understands “fullness” as completion, or supplementing. In that case the Apostle’s words suggest that the Church completes Christ. How so? Here is St. Chrysostom’s resolution: “But what do his final words mean (that is, ‘fullness’ and so forth)? — They mean: the Church is the fullness of Christ, just as the body completes the head and the body is completed by the head. You see that the Apostle disdains no comparison, makes use of every turn of phrase, to present God’s glory. Fullness, he says—that is, as the head is completed by the body, for the body is composed of all the members and each member is necessary. You see the Apostle presents it as though all the members generally were needed by Christ as Head… His body is perfectly constituted of all the members. And this means: the head will be complete only when the perfect body is formed.”

So also Oecumenius and Theophylact. The latter writes: “Christ is filled and as it were completed by His members through believers—by the hand He is completed in the merciful man, by the foot in one who walks to preach or who visits the sick; by each other member in other believers.”

The Church as the fullness of Christ may be understood in a way analogous to how a tree is the fullness of a seed. What is contained in the seed in a contracted form appears in full development in the tree. And Christ the Lord said of Himself: “unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies… it produces much fruit” (Jn. 12:24). After His death, resurrection, and ascension, how abundantly did believers begin to cleave to Him, whereas before that He was as if alone. And indeed—humanity saved and deified in the Lord Jesus Christ, even as one, contains all. But since it is such not for itself alone, but for people, so long as it is alone, all seems as yet not full, inasmuch as that for which it is such has not yet been fulfilled. The cleaving of believers to Him fulfils that for which it is such, and thereby completes Him. Since believers are the Church, it follows that the Church is the completion of Christ, her Head. In Himself He is full and all-perfect, but He has not yet drawn all humanity to Himself in full completeness. Humanity is gradually communing with Him more and more, and through this as it were completes Him—bringing His work thereby to fullness of fulfilment.

We cannot pass over without attention the applications that St. Chrysostom draws from this passage: “Let us honour the Head,” he says. “Let us consider what Head’s body we are. We are the body of the Head to whom all things are subjected. In accordance with this Head, we ought to be better than the very Angels and higher than the Archangels, since we have been granted an honour greater than all of theirs. For God did not take upon Himself the nature of Angels, as the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but ‘of the seed of Abraham’ (Heb. 2:16). Not the nature of Authorities, not of Principalities, not of Dominions, not of any other power, but our nature did He take and exalt. And what am I saying—exalt? He made it His own garment, and not only exalted it, but also put all things under its feet. — Let us honour the bond of kinship; let us fear lest any be cut off from this body, lest any fall away or prove unworthy of it. If someone placed a diadem upon our head, a golden crown, tell me, what would we not do to show ourselves worthy of those lifeless stones? Here no diadem adorns our head, but Christ Himself has become our Head—which is, without doubt, far greater—and we attach no value to it at all?! Angels, Archangels, and all the heavenly Powers stand in awe before our Head, and we—His body—shall we not honour Him? What hope of salvation then remains for us? Imprint upon your mind this royal throne; remember always the exceeding greatness of the honour. This, one may say, ought to frighten us more than hell itself. For even if there were no hell, for us who have been granted so great an honour and have then proved unworthy of it, the loss of this honour would be the highest punishment—a torment beyond all comparison. — Consider, near whom your Head is seated (this alone is entirely sufficient for everything); at whose right hand it is. It is seated far above every Principality and Authority and Power. — But since the subject of the Body of the Lord has arisen, let us also recall that Body which is sacrificed (in the mystery of the Body and Blood). Partaking of it and drinking His Blood, let us firmly remember that in the mystery of communion we partake of the Body in no way different from that Body which sits on high and before which the Angels worship, which is near the incorruptible Power—it is that very Body which we eat. Oh, how many ways of salvation have been opened to us! He made us His body, He gave us His Body—and yet none of this deters us from evil? Oh, the blindness! Oh, the great degradation! Oh, the shamelessness! ‘Seek the things above,’ we are commanded, ‘where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God’ (Col. 3:1, 2), while some of us are preoccupied with wealth and others are drowning in passions!”