ACC ~ Acts 10 v2

ALL GLORY TO GOD. AUGUSTINE: For it is often said, “He deserved to believe, because he was a good man even before he believed.” This may be said of Cornelius since his alms were accepted and his prayers heard before he had believed on Christ; and yet without some faith he neither gave alms nor prayed. For how did he call on him on whom he had not believed? But if he could have been saved without the faith of Christ, the apostle Peter would not have been sent as an architect to build him up. For, “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it.” And we are told, faith is of ourselves; other things that pertain to works of righteousness are of the Lord; as if faith did not belong to the building—as if, I say, the foundation did not belong to the building. But if the foundation primarily and especially belongs to the building, he labors in vain who seeks to build up the faith by preaching, unless the Lord in his mercy builds it up from within. Whatever, therefore, of good works Cornelius performed, whether before he believed in Christ or when he believed or after he had believed, all to be ascribed to God. Otherwise, it might be assumed that human initiative is being lifted up. PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 1.7.12.

HE DID NOT NEGLECT HIS OWN HOUSE. CHRYSOSTOM: But here again is a high commendation of alms, just as was there given by means of Tabitha. “A devout man,” it says, “and one that feared God with all his house.” Let us hear this, lest we neglect those of our own house. This man was also concerned for his soldiers. “And who gave alms,” it says, “to all the people.” Both his doctrines and his life were right. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 22.

VIRTUES RECEIVED BY FAITH. BEDE: “One does not attain faith by virtues, but rather one attains virtues by faith,” as the blessed Pope Gregory explains. Cornelius, he says, “whose almsdeeds before his baptism were praised by an angelic witness, did not come to faith by works but came to works by faith. For if he had not believed in the true God even before his baptism, to whom was he praying? Or how had almighty God heard this man, if it was not that he had been asking to be perfected in the good by this very God? Therefore he knew God as the creator of all things, but he did not know that the all-powerful Son had become flesh. He had faith, this man whose prayers and alms were able to please [God], and by his good deeds he earned the right to know God perfectly and to believe in the mystery of the incarnation of his only begotten, so that he might approach the sacrament of baptism. Therefore, through faith he came to works, yet through works he was strengthened in faith.” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 10.1.

Acts