The Second Epistle to the Corinthians

The second epistle to the Corinthians is the most personal of Paul’s letters. He writes it after a painful conflict with this Church, in which his authority had been contested. In it he defends his ministry, opens his heart, and calls to reconciliation. This conflict had a precise face. After a painful visit and a severe letter written in tears, Paul had waited, anxious, for news from Corinth; it came through Titus: “the one who consoles the lowly, God, consoled us by the arrival of Titus.” 2 Corinthians 7:6 The Church had recovered, the offender had repented, and it is in this relief that Paul writes.

The ministry of reconciliation

Paul presents himself as the envoy who speaks in another’s name. What he carries is not his own message, but the call of God himself: “So we are ambassadors of Christ, and through us it is God himself who makes his appeal: in the name of Christ, we beg you, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20 And this reconciliation rests on an astonishing exchange: Christ took our sin upon himself to make us righteous before God, set right with him. “The one who had not known sin, God made to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

The letter and the Spirit

This ministry is that of a new covenant, which surpasses the old as the Spirit surpasses the written letter. The Law engraved on stone commanded the good without giving the strength to fulfil it; the Spirit changes the heart: “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul recalls that after speaking with God, Moses veiled his shining face; that veil, he says, remains over the reading of the Old Testament as long as one does not turn to Christ, in whom alone it falls: “whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil falls away.” 2 Corinthians 3:16 Then the believer beholds with unveiled face the glory of God, and is little by little transformed by it.

A treasure in earthen vessels

Paul measures the disproportion between the treasure he carries and the frailty of the one who carries it. The Gospel is entrusted to weak, tried, despised men, and it is there precisely that the power of God is made visible: “this treasure we carry in earthen vessels, so that this extraordinary power may be seen to be God’s and not ours.” 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul’s weakness does not belie the Gospel; it guarantees that the strength comes from elsewhere. Two chapters of the letter organize the collection for the poor of Jerusalem, and Paul makes of it a school of charity founded on the example of Christ: “you know the generosity of our Lord Jesus Christ: though he was rich, he made himself poor for your sake, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9 The sharing between communities becomes the visible sign of one body, in the image of the Son’s willing self-abasement.

Strength in weakness

This reversal has its source in an intimate trial. Paul bore a suffering he calls a thorn in his flesh, and three times he prayed the Lord to be delivered from it; the answer he received became the key of his whole apostolic life: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 This thorn had been given him for a precise reason. Caught up to the third heaven, Paul had received extraordinary revelations, and the counterweight was this suffering: “to keep me from becoming proud, a thorn was put in my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me.” 2 Corinthians 12:7 The trial is not gratuitous: it guards from pride the one God has filled. From this comes a reversal that runs through the whole letter. Where one would expect Paul to boast of his titles, he boasts of his weaknesses, for it is in them that the power of Christ holds him up: “I delight in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and distresses, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians 12:10 The disciple leans not on his own resources, but on the grace that works through what he lacks. The letter closes on a blessing where the three Persons are named together: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all!” 2 Corinthians 13:13 From this comes the greeting that opens the Mass, one of the clearest Trinitarian words in all of Paul.