[Sermon] 1. Every tree that does not produce good
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
SERMON 34: SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Matthew
7:19. Our Lord Jesus Christ, wanting to draw the coarse and irrational Jewish people away from evil, under the similitude of a tree that does not produce fruit, which because of its sterility is cut down and thrown into the fire, announces to anyone who is evil not by nature, but by the disposition of the will, the outcome and consummation of eternal damnation, when it says in the proposed verse:
Every tree that does not produce etc. This verse certainly proceeds in an ordered manner: for first, the sin is described in regard to the interior origin that it possesses due to the arrogance of the mind; second, in regard to the exterior consummation that it possesses due to consenting works; third, in the final end that it possesses due to the fire of Gehenna. And so it is that sin, although it is has its occasion from the fraud of the enemy, nevertheless has its origin in the arrogance of the mind, consummation in consenting works or concupiscence of the flesh, and an end in the fire of Gehenna. First, therefore, sin is described in regard to the interior origin that it has from the arrogance of the mind, when it says: Every tree, namely that is evil not by nature, but from the arrogance of the mind. Whence the Gloss states: "The will of each one is like a good or bad tree, and as a tree is rooted in the earth, so the will maintains its integral nature in the soul, which is corrupted or changed for the better by the dispo-
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sition of the will."®87 Second, sin is described in regard to the exterior consummation that it has due to consenting works, when it adds: that does not produce good fruit. The Gloss says: "The fruit of the evil tree are evil works of the flesh that is, fornication, voluptuousness, and avarice,"*** etc., and these fruits are not produced except by an evil will. Third, sin is described as to the final end that it has in the fire of Gehenna, when it includes: will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
2. It says, therefore: Every tree, where sin is described in regard to the interior origin that it has from the arrogance of the mind. For that tree, corrupted by the disposition of the will, is the cause and origin of evil works: the first of which is counterfeit, because it was not planted in the garden of the Church in accord with the divine will; the second of which is arid, because it was not watered by the heavenly inflow or drops of grace; and the third of which is infertile, because its cultivation was not promoted by humanity in the exercise of justice.
3. First, the cause of fruit that is not good is that tree, which is counterfeit, because it was not planted in the garden of the Church in accord with the divine will. Whence
Matthew 7:16 and even in the gospel today says: Do they collect grapes from thorns or figs from thistles? So every good tree produces good fruits, and a bad tree, however, produces bad fruits. Do they collect from thorns, of infidelity, grapes of the true faith, which Christ thirsts for in us?
Certainly not, because just as grapes do not come from thorns but from vines, so too, the truth of faith does not *7 The first part of this Glossa Ordinaria is found in PL
114:111A.
588 See the Glossa Ordinaria in PL 114:111A: "The fruit of the evil tree are works of the flesh, that is, unclean fornication, voluptuousness."
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come from the thorny nature of the unfaithful, but from the true vine®® that is Christ. Or do they collect figs from the thistles of the tradition of the fathers, which is the sweetness of a holy manner of living? As if to say: no. And this exposition is taken from the Gloss, which says the following: "The thorns and thistles are heretics, among whom no one is able to find truth or sanctity, for they cut and wound those who draw near."®®! So every good tree, which is introduced by God through faith into the body of the Church, produces the fruit of good works. The bad tree, however, because of the vicious degeneration, which it receives from the first parents, produces bad fruits unless it is inserted into the mystical body of Christ, produces bad fruits, because they are useless and unworthy of remuneration; for without faith it is impossible to please
God.** And this can be explained from Job 19:10: He has destroyed me on every side, and like a torn out tree, he has destroyed my hope.
4. Second, the origin of evil works is that tree, which is arid, because it was not watered by the heavenly inflow or drops of grace. Matthew 21:19: Jesus, seeing a certain fig tree by the wayside, came to it and found nothing on it but leaves alone, and said: May no fruit grow on you forever, and immediately the fig tree withered away. The fig tree can be understood as the person given over to worldly pleasures, who is said to be by the wayside or on the way of the flesh and not on the way of the spirit; to whom
Jesus comes, with the footsteps of the gospel; and found 589 See John 15:1.
599 Bonaventure conflates Matt 7:16 ("Do people gather ... figs from thistles?") and 1 Peter 1:18 ("... you were redeemed from the vain manner of life of the tradition of the fathers...").
591 This is a verbatim citation of the Glossa Ordinaria on Matt 7:16. See PL 114:110C.
592 See Hebr 11:6.
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nothing pertaining to good works on it but leaves alone, that is the vain traditions of the philosophers without the fruit of justice; and said to it: May no fruit of good work grow from you, obstinate in malice, forever. Instead, because of your harsh and unrepentant heart,°* I condemn you to eternal sterility, by taking away the water of celestial grace; and immediately the fig tree withered away.
5. Third, the origin of evil works is that tree, which is unfertile, because its cultivation was not promoted by humanity in the exercise of justice. Whence Luke 13: 6-9 states: A certain man had a fig. tree planted in his vineyard;...And he said to the vine-dresser: Cut it down, therefore; why does it still encumber the ground? But he answered him and said, let it alone this year too, until I dig around it and manure it. Perhaps it may bear fruit; but if not, then afterwards you shall cut it down. By means of that tree one is able to understand the person who does exert himself in good works, whom the Lord threatens to cut down: Cut it down, therefore; why does it still encumber the ground? Whence the Gloss says: "A person encumbers the ground, who holds on to a post, but does not practice good works and presents by an example of depravity an impediment to others, such that they are not warmed by the heat of the sun."** But he answered him and said, let it alone this year too, by patiently waiting for it; until I dig with apostolic hoes, around it, externally stirring it up, and manure it, that is "Let me bring back to the memory, the evils and abominations, which °° See Rom 2:5: "But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath on the day of wrath...."
*°4 With a few variations this exposition comes from the Glossa Ordinaria on Luke 13:7. See PL 114:302CD.
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MTT the person did,"** so that the person may be called back from pride to humility. Perhaps it may bear fruit, of good works by the grace of compunction as if stirred up by the putrid dung, then good. But if not, then afterwards you shall cut it down, with eternal damnation. Whence the Gloss reads: "The sins of the flesh are dung, which is put down at the roots of the tree when a depraved conscience is touched by the memory of a thought, and when a person later does penances, it is as if one returns to the fecundity of works through contact with dung."®%
6. Second, in the proposed verse, sin is described in regard to the exterior consummation that it has due to consenting works, when it adds: that does not produce good fruit. In order that we may arrive at a notion of bad fruit, let us first look at the condition of good fruit, because afterwards through the opposite conditions we can more easily recognize the fruit of bad works, because "opposites placed next to each other stand out more clearly."" That human fruit is good that first has the beauty of purity and the appearance of tasteful pleasure; second, that has the charm of gentleness and taste of patient sweetness; third, that has the utility of charity and the affection of formative benevolence. By way of opposition, every sin has its exterior consummation in consenting works, when the human fruit or work is similar to the bad fruit of the bad tree, first, it has the putrefaction or foulness of carnal lasciviousness that saddens the appearance; second, it has the acerbic fury and anger that embitters the taste;
59 This interpretation is based on the Glossa Ordinaria on Luke 13:8. See PL 114:303A.
5% This is an almost verbatim citation from the Glossa Ordinaria on Luke 13:8. See PL 114:303A.
597 See Book III, 17 of Aristotle, Rhetorica in WAE, vol. 11, 1418b:
"The facts about two opposites always stand out clearly when the two are put side by side."
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third, it has the poison of heartfelt envy that deforms the affections.
7. First, there is the bad human fruit, which has the putrefaction or foulness of carnal lasciviousness that saddens the appearance. Whence Ezekiel 19:12-12 says: The burning wind dried up her fruit: her strong rods are withered and dried up: the fire has devoured her. And now she is transplanted into the desert, in an inaccessible land.
The burning wind, of carnal lasciviousness, has dried up her fruit, of venom and envy; her strong rods are withered and dried up, that is the sprouts of her strength and virtue. In fact there is nothing among all the sins that renders a person as enervated and putrid as the sin of voluptuousness. Whence the indulgent are compared to unclean animals like pigs or beasts of burden of this type who are rooting in their own manure. And such a plant merited to be transplanted into the desert, of thorny vices, and into an inaccessible land, of flesh, in which it is unable to produce anything except putrid and carnal fruits, the sight of which God, the purest angels and holy people detest, just as some people, who are naturally generous and noble, detest the sight of fruits or apples that are putrid and filled with worms.
8. Second, there is that bad human fruit, which has the acerbic fury and anger that embitters the taste. Whence
Wisdom 4:5 states: And their fruits will be useless and sour to eat, fit for nothing. Their fruits, namely those that are angry, are useless even to them, due to the ruination of reason, and sour to others to eat because of rage, and fit for nothing except the ruination of others.**® Whence the Gloss on Proverbs 29:22 The angry man causes disputes,
8 See 2 Tim 2:14: "... not to dispute with words, for that is useless, leading to the ruination of the listeners."
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says this: "Anger is the door for all vices, which when it has been closed, gives interior rest to the virtues, and opened, will stir up every outrage."
9. Third, there is that bad fruit, which has the poison of heartfelt envy, that deforms the affections. Whence
Amos 6:13 says: You have turned judgment into bitterness, and the fruit of justice into wormwood. You have turned into the bitterness, of cunning and malice, the judgment, of upright decision, and the fruit of justice, and piety into wormwood and the poison of malignity and envy.
To slaughter the human race there is no wormwood, no bitterer gall, and no poison worse than the malignity of envy; for from the poisonous fruit of envy of the Jews, the Son of God, many saints, and just people were killed.
10. Third, in the proposed verse sin is described as to the final end that it has in the fire of Gehenna, when it includes: will be cut down and thrown into the fire. This fire is such that it is perfectly ordered for the punishment of sin. First, it is inexhaustible due to the permanence of continuation. Second, it is intolerable due to the acerbity of the most vehement pains. Third, it is inevitable due to the severity of divine rigor. And so this punishment, to which the deformity of sin will be ordered, is supreme and complete like no other, because it is perpetual and painful, and it will not be diminished in the slightest way.
11. First, the fire is inexhaustible due to the permanence of continuation. Whence Matthew 25:41 states:
Then the king will say to those on his left: Depart from me you cursed into the everlasting fire. It is worthy and just that sinners who "are on the left, that is those who have
599 Gee the Glossa Ordinaria on Prov 29:22 in PL 113:1112A.
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ardently loved the present as long as they lived," as the Gloss explains, be punished with an eternal penalty. For the offense is as great as the one who is offended, so it appears that the one committed a greater offense who injured the king, rather than someone who gave an injury to some other person. Since the God, who is offended, is infinite and eternal, the punishment in response to such an offense must then be eternal.
12. Second, this fire is intolerable due to the acerbity of the most vehement pains. Whence Psalm 148:8: says
Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds is the portion of their cup. For the Lord is just and loves justice. His face sees equity.©! Indeed in this just judgment, according to what can be deduced from Scripture, there are four elements that are not distinct, but combined, which are believed to be in the inferno for the perfect punishment of the damned, so that every creature rages in the torments against the unjust and is armed for the revenge®" of the Creator, such that they are punished by the same elements from which they are constituted. Neither does this mixture diminish the punishment, but rather augments it, because the mutual action of the elements will cease after the resurrection, when generation and corruption cease, and the number of the elect is complete; their action will remain nevertheless in the bodies of the damned, since all their strength will be directed to this: not so that they strain to multiply the species, but in according to the command of 600 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Interlinearis on Matt 25:41.
°°! See Ps 10:8: "For the Lord is just and has loved justice. His face sees equity."
62 Bonaventure blends together Wis 16:24 ("For the creature that serves you, the Creator, rages against the unjust") and Wis 5:18 ("he will arm the creature for the revenge of his enemies").
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the Creator, so that they vindicate divine justice, which certainly is done by afflicting human nature.
13. Third, this fire, to which the deformity of sin will be ordered, is inevitable due to the severity of divine rigor. Whence Deuteronomy 32:22 says: A fire is kindled in my wrath, and will burn to the depths of hell. The rigor of divine justice, to which the punishment of the malefactor pertains, will be kindled therefore on the day of judgment as retribution for the sinner, because the indissoluble fire will bind the sinful soul, and will enclose this soul within it as if in prison; and for this reason the soul will feel the penalty of fire, in whatever position in hell it will have sunk, because this fire will burn to the depths of hell. Let us ask, therefore, etc.