ACC ~ Colossians 1 v18a

THE WORK OF HIS HUMANITY. CHRYSOSTOM: Then having spoken of his dignity, [Paul] also proceeds to speak of his love for humanity. “He is,” he says, “the head of the body, the church.” He did not say “of the fullness” of the universe, (although this too is signified) out of a wish to show his great friendliness to us, in that he who is thus above, and above all, connected himself with those below. HOMILIES ON COLOSSIANS 3.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: As the one in whom all things were created, he is described here as the head of the church, which is made into his body through spiritual rebirth and which has the form of the future resurrection, which we hope to share with him as partakers of immortality when we are baptized. COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS.

THEODORET OF CYR: Christ is head of the church and firstborn from the dead through his humanity, Paul having passed here from discourse about divinity to reflection on the economy of salvation. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

AMBROSIASTER: Christ is the head of the church, if things heavenly and earthly live together in him, such that if the whole body is ever deprived of its head, that is, separated from its Creator, there would be an insane and empty chaos. COMMENTARY ON THE LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS.

FOR THE UNIFYING OF HUMANKIND WITH GOD. AUGUSTINE: For the resurrection we Christians know already has come to pass in our head, and in the members it is yet to be. The head of the church is Christ, the members of Christ are the church. That which has preceded in the head will follow in the body. This is our hope; for this we believe, for this we endure and persevere amid so great perverseness of this world, hope comforting us, before that hope becomes reality. COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 66.1.

AUGUSTINE: This is also what is meant when it said, “he emptied himself,” because he did not appear to men in that dignity which he had with the Father, but took into account the weakness of those who did not yet have a clean heart whereby they might see the Word in the beginning with the Father.What then do the words “he left the Father” mean? He left [the Father] to appear to men as he is with the Father. He likewise left his mother, that is, the old and carnal observance of the synagogue, which was a mother to him from the seed of David according to the flesh. And he clung to his wife, that is, the church, so that they might be two in one flesh. For the apostle says that he is the head of the church and the church is his body. ON GENESIS AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 2.24.57.

AUGUSTINE: “If the spirit of him,” he says, “that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies, because of the spirit that dwells in you.” Therefore, the universal church, which is now in the pilgrimage of mortal life, awaits at the end of time what was first shown in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is “the firstborn from the dead,” because the church is his body, of which he is the head. LETTERS 55.2.3.

Col