Gifts And Riches

Ut det vobis, secundum divitias gloriae suae, virtute confortari per spiritum ejus in interiorem hominem: habitare Christum per fidem in cordibus vestris: in charitate radicati et fundati: ut possitis comprehendere cum omnibus sanctis quae sit latitudo, et longitudo, et profundum, et altitudo: Scire etiam supereminentem scientiae charitatem Christi, ut impleamini in omni plenitudine Dei. Propterea, inquit, curvo genua mea ad Patrem, ad cujus similitudinem omnis in coelo et in terra paternitas nominatur, deprecans eum atque obsecrans, ut tribuat vobis virtutem gloriae suae, id est, majestatis suae habere consortium: vosque roboret atque confirmet per Spiritum sanctum: quia nulla fortitudo absque Spiritu sancto est: Roboret autem atque confirmet in interiorem hominem. Non enim corporis vires, sed animae quaerimus: nec exteriorem, sed interiorem hominem cupimus roborari: ut postquam habitaverit Christus in interiore homine, in ipsius interiori hominis habitet principali, id est, in cordibus nostris: nequaquam per cuncta ejus membra discurrens, sed in rationabili ejus habitans: et in eo domicilium, sedemque suam ponens. Hoc autem totum per fidem fiet, si credamus in eum. Quamobrem ait: Habitare Christum per fidem in cordibus vestris. Habitatio autem ista quae per exordium fidei fabricatur, radices et fundamentum in charitate habet: ut quoniam Dei agricultura sumus, Dei aedificatio, omnia in charitate succrescant atque aedificentur. Sanctus Hieronymus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Lib II, Cap III Source: Migne PL 26.490a-c

That he might give to you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened through His spirit in the interior man, to dwell with Christ through faith in your hearts, rooted and established in love, that with all the holy ones you are able to understand what is the breadth and the length and the depth and the height, indeed to know the surpassing love of the knowledge of Christ, that you be filled with the fullness of God. 1 'Because of this,' Paul says, 'I bend my knee to the Father, in whose likeness every paternity in heaven and earth is named,' 2 praying to Him and beseeching, that He give to you the virtue of His glory, that is, that you be associates in His majesty, and He strengthen you and confirm you with the Holy Spirit, because there is no fortitude without the Holy Spirit, He who strengthens and confirms the interior man. For we do not seek strength of body but of soul. We desire to be strengthed in the interior man, that after Christ might dwell in the interior man, in the foundation of the interior of that man, that is, in our hearts, not spreading through every one of his members, but dwelling in the rational part, there established and placing His throne. And this all may be done through faith, if we believe in Him. As he says: 'To dwell with Christ through faith in your hearts.' But this habitation which is fashioned by the beginning of faith has its roots and foundation in love, so that since we are the field of God's work, the building of God, 2 eveything grows up and is built up in love. Saint Jerome, Commentary On The Epistle of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book 2, Chapter 3 1 Ephes 3.16-19 2 Ephes 3.14-15 3 1 Cor 3.9