Ephesians 1:18
The eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what the hope is of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- illuminatos oculos cordis vestri, ut sciatis quæ sit spes vocationis ejus, et quæ divitiæ gloriæ hæreditatis ejus in sanctis,
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς καρδίας ὑμῶν εἰς τὸ εἰδέναι ὑμᾶς τίς ἐστιν ἡ ἐλπὶς τῆς κλήσεως αὐτοῦ, τίς ὁ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης τῆς κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις,
Haydock's commentary
On verses 15 to 18
Wherefore....hearing of your constancy in the faith of Christ, and of your charitable love to all the saints, or faithful, I give always thanks to God; I pray that God may be more revealed to you, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, (ver. 18) that you may know what ground you have to hope in the transcendent greatness of God's almighty power, who raised Christ from the dead, (ver. 20) and set him on his right hand in heaven, above all the choirs and orders of blessed spirits, putting all things under his feet, making him, as man, head over all his Church militant on earth, and triumphant in heaven: which Church is his mystical body, who is filled all in all, (ver. 23) or as others have translated, who filleth all in all; the sense is, that the glory of Christ, as head of all, is filled and increased by the salvation and happiness of all his chosen members, and of all his elect, to the end of the world. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, The Epistle to the Laodiceans. The Proper Designation is to the Ephesians. Recapitulation of All Things in Christ from the Beginning of the Creation. No Room for Marcion's Christ Here. Numerous Parallels Between This Epistle and Passages in the Old Testament. The Prince of the Power of the Air, and the God of This World--Who? Creation and Regeneration the Work of One God. How Christ Has Made the Law Obsolete. A Vain Erasure of Marcion's. The Apostles as Well as the Prophets from the Creator
We have it on the true tradition of the Church, that this epistle was sent to the Ephe sians, not to the Laodiceans. Marcion, however, was very desirous of giving it the new title (of Laodicean), as if he were extremely accurate in investigating such a point. But of what consequence are the titles, since in writing to a certain church the apostle did in fact write to all? It is certain that, whoever they were to whom he wrote, he declared Him to be God in Christ with whom all things agree which are predicted. …
St Augustine City of God, Of the Beatific Vision
But the question arises, whether, when their eyes are open, they shall see Him with the bodily eye? If the eyes of the spiritual body have no more power than the eyes which we now possess, manifestly God cannot be seen with them. They must be of a very different power if they can look upon that incorporeal nature which is not contained in any place, but is all in every place. For though we say that God is in heaven and on earth, as He, Himself says by the prophet, “I fill heaven and earth,” we do not mean that there is one part of God in heaven and another part on earth; but He is all in heaven and all on earth, not at alternate intervals of time, but both at once, as no bodily nature can be. …
St Augustine A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin, The Difference Between the Senses of the Body and Soul
Again, I wonder whether this man taught you the difference between the bodily senses and the sensibilities of the soul; and whether you, who were a person of considerable age and position before you took lessons of this man, used to consider to be one and the same that faculty by which white and black are distinguished, which sparrows even see as well as ourselves, and that by which justice and injustice are discriminated, which Tobit also perceived even after he lost the sight of his eyes. If you held the identity, then, of course, when you heard or read the words, “Lighten my eyes, that I sleep not in death,” you merely thought of the eyes of the body. Or if this were an obscure point, at all events when you recalled the words of the apostle, “The eyes of your heart being enlightened,” you must have supposed that we possessed a heart somewhere between our forehead and cheeks. …
St Augustine Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament, On the words of the Gospel, Matt. Chap. v. 3 and 8, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit:' etc., but especially on that, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.'
6. Mark what comes next: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” This is the end of our love; an end whereby we are perfected, and not consumed. For there is an end of food, and an end of a garment; of food when it is consumed by the eating; of a garment when it is perfected in the weaving. Both the one and the other have an end; but the one is an end of consumption, the other of perfection. Whatsoever we now do, whatsoever we now do well, whatsoever we now strive for, or are in laudable sort eager for, or blamelessly desire, when we come to the vision of God, we shall require no more. For what need he seek for, with whom God is present? or what shall suffice him, whom God sufficeth not? We wish to see God, we seek, we kindle with desire to see Him. …
St Augustine Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter V. 19
10. And we, who see in one way, and hear in another way, how know we this? We return perhaps to ourselves, if we are not the trangressors to whom it is said, “Return, O trangressors, to your heart.” Return to your heart: why go from yourselves, and perish from yourselves? Why go the ways of solitude? You go astray by wandering: return ye. Whither? To the Lord. ’Tis quickly done: first return to thine own heart; thou hast wandered abroad an exile from thyself; thou knowest not thyself, and yet thou art asking by whom thou wast made! Return, return to thy heart, lift thyself away from the body: thy body is thy place of abode; thy heart perceives even by thy body. But thy body is not what thy heart is; leave even thy body, return to thy heart. …
St John Chrysostom The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians, Ephesians 1:15-20
Chapter I. Verses 15-20 “For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, which is among you, and which ye show toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: having the eyes of your heart enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of His might, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.”
Rufinus A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed, Section 14. He Was Crucified Under Pontius Pilate and Was Buried: He Descended into Hell
14. He Was Crucified Under Pontius Pilate and Was Buried: He Descended into Hell . The Apostle Paul teaches us that we ought to have “the eyes of our understand ing enlightened” “that we may understand what is the height and breadth and depth.” “The height and breadth and depth” is a description of the Cross, of which that part which is fixed in the earth he calls the depth, the height that which is erected upon the earth and reaches upward, the breadth that which is spread out to the right hand and to the left. Since, therefore, there are so many kinds of death by which it is given to men to depart this life, why does the Apostle wish us to have our understanding enlightened so as to know the reason why, of all of them, the Cross was chosen in preference for the death of the Saviour. We must know, then, that that Cross was a triumph. It was a signal trophy. …
St Cyril of Jerusalem On the Words, And in One Holy Catholic Church, and in the Resurrection of the Flesh, and the Life Everlasting
35. And may these words be spoken now again over you also, Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth ; and then; for the Lord hath had mercy on His people, and comforted the lowly of His people . And this shall come to pass through the loving-kindness of God, who says to you, Behold, I will blot out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins . But ye who have been counted worthy of the name of Faithful (of whom it is written, Upon My servants shall be called a new name which shall be blessed on the earth ,) ye shall say with gladness, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ : in whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He abounded towards us , and what follows; and again, But God being rich in m …
St Basil De Spiritu Sancto, That the word “in,” in as many senses as it bears, is understood of the Spirit
61. Now , short and simple as this utterance is, it appears to me, as I consider it, that its meanings are many and various. For of the senses in which “ in ” is used, we find that all help our conceptions of the Spirit. Form is said to be in Matter ; Power to be in what is capable of it; Habit to be in him who is affected by it; and so on. Therefore, inasmuch as the Holy Spirit perfects rational beings, completing their excellence, He is analogous to Form. For he, who no longer “lives after the flesh,” but, being “led by the Spirit of God,” is called a Son of God, being “conformed to the image of the Son of God,” is described as spiritual. And as is the power of seeing in the healthy eye, so is the operation of the Spirit in the purified soul. …
St Leo the Great Letters, To the Clergy and People of the City of Constantinople
Let such men be rejected by the holy members of Christ’s Body, and let not catholic liberty suffer the yoke of the unfaithful to be laid upon it. For they are to be reckoned outside the Divine grace, and outside the mystery of man’s salvation, who, denying the nature of our flesh in Christ, gainsay the Gospel and oppose the Creed. Nor do they perceive that their blindness leads them into such an abyss that they have no sure footing in the reality either of the Lord’s Passion or His Resurrection: because both are discredited in the Saviour, if our fleshly nature is not believed in Him. …
St Ephrem the Syrian Ephraim Syrus: Three Homilies, On Our Lord
32. For, lo! the power of our ears and eyes is in us and is formed in us in its natural manner; and yet our sight and hearing cannot stand before mighty thunderings and lightnings; first, because they come with vehemence; and secondly, because their potency suddenly surprises and astounds our feebleness. This is what happened to Paul. For the potency of the light suddenly surprised his feeble eyes and injured them. But the greatness of the voice brought low his strength and entered his ears and opened them. For they had been closed up by Jewish contentiousness as by wax. For the voice did not plough up the ears, as the light injured the eyeballs. Why? but because it was meet that he should hear, but not that he should see. Therefore the doors of hearing were opened by the voice as by a key: but the doors of sight were shut by the light that should open them. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).