The Pillars of the Church
The pillars of the Church are men such as Peter and John (Galatians 2:9), who have Christ as their foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11), and He is the one here called gold. They are marble, the men Paul called a bulwark (1 Timothy 3:15), because they are steady and unshaken, and by their shining life and sound speech they bear up and support the common body of the Church.
Moreover, to love God with all one's heart, and one's neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:37–39), is to bear the common body of the Church as on pillars of marble. For whoever has been made perfect in these two commandments (Matthew 22:40) is made a pillar and bulwark of the Church. So the whole body of the Church rests on these two achievements as if on legs, while the golden foundation, the base of faith, sets in their thoughts a steadiness that does not bend or shift and stands firm in every good.
Greek
μαρμαρίνους τεθεμελιωμένους ἐπὶ βάσεις χρυσᾶς. Στύλοι δὲ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, οἷον Πέτρος καὶ Ἰωάννης, οἳ θεμέλιον τὸν Χριστὸν χρυσὸν λεχθέντα. Μαρμάρινοι δὲ, οὕσπερ εἶπε Παῦλος ἑδραίωμα· διὰ τὸ ἑδραῖον καὶ ἀσάλευτον, καὶ τῷ λαμπρῷ βίῳ καὶ τῷ ὑγιαίνοντι λόγῳ τὸ κοινὸν σῶμα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας βαστάζοντές τε καὶ ἐρείδοντες. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ τὸν Θεὸν ἀγαπᾷν ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας, καὶ τὸν πλησίον ὡς ἑαυτὸν, ὡς διὰ στύλων μαρμαρίνων, τὸ κοινὸν σῶμα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας βαστάζειν. Ὁ γὰρ ἐν ταῖς δυσὶ ταύταις τελειωθεὶς ἐντολαῖς, στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας κατασκευάζεται· ὥστε τοῖς δυσὶ τούτοις κατορθώμασιν, ὅλον τὸ σῶμα τῆς Ἐκκλησίας, καθάπερ κνήμαις τισὶν ἐπερείδεσθαι, τοῦ χρυσίου θεμελίου τῆς κατὰ πίστιν βάσεως τὸ ἀκλινὲς καὶ ἀμετάθετον καὶ τὸ ἐν παντὶ ἀγαθῷ πάγιον τοῖς