[Sermon] 1. Be merciful as your Father is merciful.
Tue SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
SERMON 28: First SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. Be merciful as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:36. Our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing that mercy and charity were growing cold while malice and carnality were increasing, wanted to direct us with the proposed verse in accord with the rule of divine piety to works of mercy and charity, when it says: Be merciful as your Father is merciful. But because our work is unable to be upright, unless it is guided by the rule of divine exemplarity, he therefore exhorts us in the proposed verse first to help someone in need, by exciting the affections; second, he proposes to us the formation of divine exemplarity, by directing the intellect. First, he urges help for someone in need, by exciting the affections, when it says: Be merciful; second, he proposes the formation of divine exemplarity, by directing the intellect, when the text adds: as your Father is merciful.
2. First, therefore, it moves us to help someone in need by exciting the affections, when it says: Be merciful. There are three things with which our Lord Jesus
Christ exhorts us to works of piety and mercy. First of all, the benign formation of divine exemplarity to direct the rational power; second, the great promise of multiple utility to attract the concupiscent power; third, the acerbic punishment of divine severity to terrify the irascible power; so that those whom the divine example does not move to mercy, the useful promise or at least the terrible pain may move.
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
B21 3. First, the benign formation of divine exemplarity moves us to mercy by directing the rational power, which appears in three ways: first in the insistence of an unmerited calling, second in the patience of lengthy waiting and, third in the clemency of benign acceptance. Whence the merciful God insistently calls, patiently expects, and clemently accepts sinners. The mercy of God first appears in the insistence of an unmerited calling. Whence Matthew 9:13 says: I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I came not to call the just but sinners to penance. The merciful God, although bitterly condemned by sinners, nonetheless did not disdain to send his Son and to ask peace for them with the insistence of an unmerited calling, because he eagerly wishes our salvation more than any other sacrifice. Gregory observes: "We ought to blush at least at the mercy of the calling, if we are unwilling to fear its justice, because the more it is despised with broad reproach, so much the more is contempt not disdained."*"" Dearly beloved, let us accept the example of such benignity and mercy and ask first peace from those who persecute and offend us, even if we are not at fault, because according to Gregory: "It is proper for good minds to recognize fault there where there is no fault."4"* And let us then put on the depths of mercy like the truly elected children of the merciful Father, who through the depths of his mercy that comes from on high,*"® first asks for peace in this world, by calling for penance.
4. Second, the mercy of God appears in the patience of lengthy waiting. Whence Lamentations 3:22 says: It is the mercy of the Lord that we are not consumed; because
477 See Book III, c. 28 of Regulae pastoralis liber in PL 77:105D.
The quotation is almost verbatim.
478 Bonaventure adapts Book XI, Letter 64 in Registri epistolarum. See PL 77:1195B.
479 See Luke 1:78.
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his commiserations have not failed. When in fact a person sins, one injures his Creator and even crucifies the Son of God within oneself;*8° and the person is therefore immediately worthy of total destruction, if it were not for divine mercy, which with patience and forbearance waits for one, as if not noticing the sins of the person;**' because if he were to punish the sinner immediately, he would not have anyone to forgive later. Therefore, dearly beloved, with the example of divine mercy patiently supporting and expecting the sinner with forbearance, let us support the defects, harsh actions and words of others which displease us; let us not rush to be angry and assume a vendetta, but with forbearance await the voluntary correction of the person; otherwise one might displease God and that would be something to fear, lest God do the same.
5. Third, divine mercy appears in the clemency of benign acceptance. And concerning this we have the example of the prodigal son, Luke 15:20: The father saw his son and was moved with mercy, and running fell upon his neck and kissed him. Behold that the Father of mercy,
God, did not turn away from the company of his lost son at the horror of past filthiness, rather he clemently receives him with the kiss of peace and concord. As a sign of this he is happy to hand him a ring for his hand, that is, the alliance of his benevolence, shoes for the feet, that is, grace in the effects, and to put on the finest robe, that is, to restore him to the purity of pristine innocence. Whence it is notable that this one did penance when forced by certain necessity; and nevertheless his penance is accepted by God. For this reason Augustine says there: Whatever
'8° See Hebr 6:6: "... since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and make him a mockery."
"8! See Wis 11:24: "For you have mercy upon all, since you can do all things, and overlook the sins of men and women for the sake of repentance."
PENTECOST AND THE SuNDAYS AFTER
By necessity drives the sinner to penance, the quantity of sin, a heinous life, or the end of the person, nothing excludes one from forgiveness if the change of will is perfect, for charity receives her returning children into the most ample of bosoms.**? Therefore, the apostle encourages as an example of this mercy, the one who clemently receives enemies and totally forgives debts in Ephesians
4:32: Be merciful to one another and kind, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you in Christ. Whence Ambrose comments: "If one sins against another, forgive the matters that were committed. Otherwise God will ask again for what was remitted, for if in these things there is contempt for the sentence, which he applied out of mercy, he will recall it out of justice."**?
6. Second, the great promise of multiple utility that attracts the concupiscent power moves us to mercy. Indeed mercy produces for humanity a threefold utility to which every other useful good can be reduced; and for this reason the affections should be totally attracted to the works of mercy. For mercy first liberates from sin, by dissolving the bonds of guilt. Second, it enriches with merit, by augmenting the gifts of grace. Third, it beatifies with a reward, by leading to the joy of life.
7. First, mercy liberates from sin, by dissolving the bonds of guilt. Whence Proverbs 16:6 says: By mercy and truth is iniquity redeemed, and in the fear of the Lord, everyone departs from evil. A person, who in fact will have sold one's soul to the devil through iniquity, is able to redeem it through mercy and truth. The greatest union is
482 Tn the critical edition Bougerol confesses that he has not found this citation.
483 Bonaventure paraphrases Ambrosiaster's commentary on Eph 4:32. See PL 17:415CD.
THe SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
between the truth of justice and the piety of mercy, because guilt is purged through the truth of justice in punishment and the detestation of vice through penance; but by assisting the poor with alms the penalty is remitted.
Nevertheless this should be done in the fear of the Lord like the beginning of every good*** through which everyone departs from evil, for the one without fear will not be justified.*° Daniel 4:24 speaks of this in a similar manner: Redeem your sins with alms and your iniquities with mercy for the poor. In fact it is proper that one who asks for mercy from another, render mercy toward another and to know for oneself what is due to neighbors.
8. Second, mercy enriches with merit, by augmenting the gifts of grace. Whence Proverbs 19:17 states: One who has mercy on the poor lends to the Lord. Indeed just as a person is quickly enriched with temporal riches by usury, so too with spiritual riches by mercy; for this is one virtue, which multiplies temporal and spiritual riches and even rises to the sublime place of glory. Whence Sirach
16:15 says: Every mercy prepares a place according to one's works. Every mercy is contained within its sevenfold work, which without distinction, according to what will be exercised in them, prepares a place of divine riches in glory. Certainly these are the seven works of mercy which are contained in the verse: "I visit, offer drink, feed, free, dress, host, and dispose."4** The perfect merciful person has to visit the infirm, offer drink and food to the needy, free captives, cloth the naked, host pilgrims, and dispose of or bury the dead. Six of these works are taken from the gospel text, Matthew 25:35: I was hungry, and you gave
484 See Prov 9:10.
485 See Sir 1:28. t "> Bonaventure employs this traditional verse to interpret Luke
11:41. See Bonaventure's Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 1111. See footnote 248.
PENTECOST AND THE SuNDAYS AFTER
me to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink, I was a stranger, and you took me in, naked and you covered me, sick and you visited me, and I was in prison and you visited me. Truly the seventh work of mercy, that is to bury the dead, can be taken from Tobit 2:7.
9. The third beatifies with a reward, by leading to the joy of life. Whence Proverbs 22:9 states: The one who is quick to mercy will be blessed, from one's bread the person will give to the poor. Because a person quick to mercy gives from one's bread to the hungry poor, therefore this one will acquire the honor of glory, since the person will be blessed with that benediction of which Matthew 25:3435 speaks: Come, blessed of my Father and receive the kingdom that has been prepared from the beginning of the world. I was hungry and you gave me to eat. According then to what is said in Matthew 5:7: Blessed are the merciful for they themselves will obtain mercy.
10. Third, the acerbic punishment of divine severity, which is manifested in three ways, moves us to mercy. For those who do not act mercifully are first stripped of the gift bestowed by grace; second, they are censured by the opprobrium of divine reproof; third, they are tormented by the suffering of eternal damnation.
11. First, those who do not act mercifully are stripped of the gift bestowed by grace. Whence Matthew 18:32-34 says: Wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you asked me. Should you not then have had compassion also on your fellow servant, even as I had compassion on you? And angered, his lord delivered him to the torturers until he paid all the debt. Behold that for the sake of justice God took again from the one, who did not want to act mercifully toward his neighbor, the gift he bestowed by grace that he had brought about through mercy.
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
12. Second, those who do not act mercifully are censured by the opprobrium of harsh rebuke. Whence Proverbs 14:31 says: The one who oppresses.the poor upbraids that one's maker. But the one who has pity on the poor, honors him. The wicked one will be driven out in one's wickedness. For as the one who has pity on the poor honors God in the poor, so the one who closes the depths**' of mercy to the poor upbraids the poor and brings blame on one's maker in the poor. And therefore, such a person like the wicked is worthy to be driven out in one's wickedness from the company of the saints, and even upbraided with the censure of a harsh rebuke, according to what is said in Matthew 25:41-43: Depart from me you wicked into the everlasting fire. I was hungry and you did not give me to eat, I was thirsty, and you did not give me to drink, I was a stranger and you did not take me in, I was naked and you did not cover me, sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.
13. Third, those who do not act mercifully will be tormented by the suffering of eternal damnation. Whence
James 2:13 states: Judgment without mercy will be done to the one who does not act mercifully. In fact the total juridical sentence and the decision of the judge will concern the works of mercy that were exhibited and not exhibited; for those who have acted mercifully will have eternal life, and truly those who refused to act mercifully will be tormented with eternal suffering. Whence the rich man, who refused a morsel of bread for the poor Lazarus, was condemned to be tormented by eternal fire.*** Let us ask, therefore, etc.
"87 See 1 John 3:17: "The person who has the goods of this world and sees his brother or sister in need and closes his heart to them, how does the love of God abide in him?"
488 See Luke 16:19-22.