[Sermon] 1. My house will be called a house of prayer,
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
SERMON 36: NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. Luke 19:46. Our
Lord, the supreme pontiff of the universal Church, today saw that the house of prayer had become a market for business. Once these temple merchants were driven out with a certain feeble whip in a miraculous manner, he harshly accused them of a misdeed, when it says in the proposed verse: My house will be called a house of prayer.
Indeed in the proposed verse, first the claim of the ownership is noted; second, the intent of sacrifice; third, the rebuke of a misdeed. The first concerns honor and magnificence, the second, love and benevolence, and the third, decency and displeasure. The claim of ownership, which concerns honor and magnificence, is noted, when it says:
My house. The intent of sacrifice, which concerns love and benevolence, is noted, when it adds: will be called a house of prayer. A church is made for this intention, so that God may be honored in it with sacrifices. The rebuke of the misdeed and displeasure is noted, when it introduces: but you have made it a den of thieves.
2. First, therefore, the claim of ownership is noted in the proposed verse, when it says: My house. The Lord claims and appropriates the ownership of the Church to himself, because in it he has three hierarchical acts to exercise that are proper to him alone and to no other.
Whence as it belongs to God the Father to purge, illuminate, and perfect the heavenly hierarchy of angels; it belongs as well as to his Son, even if the works of the Trin-
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ity are indivisible, to do these three things in the lower hierarchy of the faithful, although to purge in the first and second cases is understood to be different. Whence, on account of these three things, which are to be done by him in the Church, he appropriates ownership to himself and says of this that it is my house. First, because it is a desirable place of atonement that purges the affections from the dirt of sin; second, because it is a salutary place of erudition that illuminates and directs the intellect away from the deviancy of error; third, a sacramental place of refreshment that perfects and quiets the appetite with incomprehensible sweetness. And so it is that in the Church the faithful must be purified from the evil of sin, illuminated by the word of doctrine, and refreshed or perfected with eucharistic food.**
3. First, the Lord appropriates the ownership of the Church to himself, because it is a desirable place of atonement that purges the foulness of the affections. Whence
1 Kings 8:33-34 states: If the people of Israel, because they have sinned against you, crying and confessing your name, will come and adore and make supplication in this house, you will hear from heaven and pardon the sin of the people. One who, in fact, wants to obtain the forgiveness of sins has to have the following order, which a person is taught to observe in the previously quoted authority, because true penitents first must grieve with painful contri- *1 Bonaventure reworks the Pseudo-Dionysian dynamic of purgation, illumination, and perfection, which he delineates in De triplici via (VIII, 3a-18b), within a spatial/sacramental context in this sermon while he utilizes a similar threefold structure to interpret Mary, the Mother of God, from an ecclesial/contemplative perspective in Sermon
49 in Sermons de diversis, De assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, ns. 9-12, 648-51. For an English translation and commentary on the De triplici via, see Writings on the Spiritual Life, introduction and notes by F.
Edward Coughlin, WSB X (St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2006), 83-133.
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
tion in the heart; then confess their sins with the mouth, to the praise of God's name; then next come to emend the failure with works; and thereupon they will adore with fear, and make supplication with devotion in the house of the church, and merit to obtain forgiveness of sins as long as they propose not to commit the sins afterward; because this is what Ecclesiastes 4:17 says: Watch your foot when entering the house of God. That person knows to watch one's feet, who when entering the house of God, purges the affections of such foulness through confession and proposes not to commit them again.
4. Second, the Lord appropriates the ownership of the Church to himself, because it is a salutary place of erudition that illuminates the darkness of the intellect.
Whence Sirach 51:31 states: Draw near to me, o ignorant, and gather together in the house of discipline. This is a word of divine wisdom for the lay people, who are referred to as ignorant, because they are not instructed in divine eloquence. These, however, draw near to the uncreated wisdom, when they offer both their ears for hearing and their heart for understanding the eloquence of the one who preaches, so that diligently intent on those things that are being said, they breathe them into their innermost depths, and hurry to fulfill with works what they understand. And gather together in the house of discipline, which is done, when the faithful unite within the walls of the material church. Whence on these solemn days the words of the Lord must be treated; and because of this Psalm 117:26 says in the person of the preacher:
We have blessed you in the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has illuminated us. We have blessed you, that is, the people, irrigating your arid hearts with the dew of celestial doctrine, and this since the Lord God, who provides the authority of the office, has illuminated us by conferring the truth of the Gospel. Whence among
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preachers there has to be the authority of the office, the truth of the Gospel, and utility for the people.
5. Third, the Lord appropriates the ownership of the Church to himself, because it is a sacramental place of refreshment that perfects and restricts the fluctuation of the appetite with incomprehensible sweetness. Whence
Proverbs 9:1-5 says: Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn seven columns, she has slain her victims, mingled wine, and prepared a table.... And to the unwise she has said: Come and eat my bread, and drink the wine, which I have mixed for you. Wisdom, that is Christ, has build himself a house, the Church; he has hewn, that is he has profoundly and firmly established in it, the seven columns of the sacraments; he has slain his victims, of his own body, and mingled wine of his own blood, which flowed from his side;**? and prepared a table, on the altar of the cross; and to the unwise of this world who do not want to arrive at the knowledge of this sacrament with human reason, he has said, with both interior inspiration and exterior preaching: Come and eat my celestial bread having all delight and the sweetness of every flavor; and drink wine of spiritual wisdom. Whence the person who wishes to eat the bread of life and drink the wine of wisdom inevitably has to come to the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ. In fact, there one will experience, in a certain manner how wisdom is according to her name,** and will taste with the senses, her spirit that is sweeter than honey,*" the immense magnitude of sweetness hidden within it that absorbs and quiets the appetite of the soul, which is infinite. Indeed, the fluctuation of the ap642 See John 19:34.
*8 See Sir 6:23: "For the wisdom of doctrine is according to her name...."
*# See Sir 24:27: "For my spirit is sweeter than honey...."
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
petite and the distraction of the mind can be brought to an end and quieted in nothing else. For the human heart, being inconstant and instable due to a diversity of appetites and in flux due to various things, is continually dissipated in many carnal pleasures, if its appetite is not satiated in something; and so that it be stabilized in the good, God gave to humanity this bread, in which a person might find the fullness of satiety and the ebriety of sapiential delight. Whence Psalm 35:9 says: They will be inebriated with the fullness of your house, and you will give them to drink from the torrent of your pleasure; for with you is the font of life.
6. Second, in the proposed verse the intent of sacrifice, which concerns love and benevolence, is noted, when it adds: will be called a house of prayer. And in fact, so that our prayer be directed like incense in the face® of the Lord, three conditions are necessary. First, humility of soul in regard to reputation needs to precede prayer; second, the sanctity of desire needs to be joined with the affections; third, the assiduity of zeal needs to follow in uninterrupted practice.
7. First, humility of soul in regard to reputation needs to precede prayer. And we have an example of this in Luke
18:10 with the Pharisee and Publican who went up to the Temple to pray.** But the prayer of the Publican, who considered himself so evil that he did not dare to go up, but on the contrary, standing at a distance with fear and reverence, not wanting to raise his eyes to heaven, due to 645 See Ps 140:2: "Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight...."
646 On Bonaventure's interpretation of Luke 18:10-14, see his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 17-24, introduction, translation, and notes Robert J. Karris, WSB VIII/3 (St. Bonaventure,
NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2004), 1719-35.
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shame, penetrated the clouds and ascended like aromatic smoke before the face of God,**" according to what Sirach
35:21 says: The prayer of the one who -humbles the self penetrates the clouds. Whence he returned home justified, in conscience; but not the Pharisee, whose prayer was swollen with pride and the presumption of justice based on personal merits, because he was not praying to God, but to the contrary, he was praising himself and insulting the one praying. On account of this Augustine says in his "Letter to Dioscorum": "Unless humility will have preceded all that we do well, unless it accompany or soon follow after and be proposed as that which moves us, unless it be placed close by so we may adhere to it, and be situated such that we may be restrained by it; pride will completely tear from our hand whatever benefit we en- ]
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8. Second, the purity of desire needs to be joined with the affections in prayer. Whence 1 Timothy 2:8 says: J want men to pray in every place, raising pure hands without anger and contention. That is so no angry passion or illusory phantasms come to mind during the time of prayer. "Those of us, therefore, who wish to be found in prayer, have to be those who prepare for prayer,"*° because according to blessed Augustine: "Whatever we draw in through the senses before prayer, comes completely to mind in the time of prayer."®° For this reason the Lord
**7 See Cant 3:6: "Who is she that goes up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices....?"
°48 See Letter 118 c. 3 n. 22 in CSEL xxxiv/2, 685. Bonaventure's citation is almost verbatim.
649 See Collatio 9, c. 3 in Iohannis Cassiani Conlationes XXIII, edited by Michael Petschenig. CSEL xiii/2 (Vienna: Apud C. Geroldi
Filivm Bibliopolam Academiae, 1886), 252..
6° Bonaventure provides the gist of Book II, c. 3 n. 11 of Sancti Avrelii Augustini De sermone Domini in monte libros duos, edited by Almut Mutzenbecher, CCSL xxxv (Turnhout: Brepols, 1967), 102.
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
spoke well in Matthew 6:6 You, however, when you pray, enter into your room, and with the door closed, pray to your Father. And this is so that the secret of the heart be prepared and the senses of the body closed, in order that the mind, with the human senses and imaginary similitudes transcended,®! may melt not by the sound of a voice or the movement of the tongue or the articulation of a syllable, but with the conjoined affections of desire, into the love and praise of God, because then what Revelation 8:4 says is fulfilled: The smoke of the incense from the prayers of the saints ascended at the hand of the angels before the face of God.
9. Third, in prayer the assiduity of zeal needs to follow in uninterrupted practice. Whence Luke 18:1 says: It is necessary to pray always and never stop, telling them the example of a certain widow, who was heard by a judge because of her relentlessness.®" Literally, given the example of that widow, those people merit to be answered in prayer, who are not impeded by some superfluous occupation; but always pray without stop®* and with relentlessness, they obtain whatever it is they desire. And for this reason Qoheleth 7:9 says: Better is the end of prayer than the beginning. Nevertheless that verse that says: It is necessary to pray always, needs to be understood according to the Gloss: "One prays always who follows the canonical hours according to the custom of the Church; or the just one prays always as long as everything this
651 The critical edition says that this stems from the Glossa Ordinaria.
652 On Bonaventure's interpretation of Luke 18:1-5, see also his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 17-24, 1701-02.
653 See 1 Thes 5:17: "Pray without stop."
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person does is according to God, neither does one stop praying unless one stops being just."°* 10. Third, the rebuke of the misdeed is noted in the proposed verse, when it introduces: but you have made it a den of thieves. First, the Church of God is made into a den of thieves, when the proud contend in it; second, when the infection of the deceitful is in it; third, when the deception and business of the greedy are in it. These three types of people can connote three types of animals that dwell in caves. For first, the proud by reason of fury and anger can be signified by dogs and bears. Second, the deceitful by reason of foulness and dirtiness can be understood as pigs. Third, the greedy by reason of worldliness and fraud can be named foxes. Because of this, when there is the contention of the proud, the infection of the deceitful, and the deception of the greedy, the Church can well be said to be a den of thieves.
11. First, the Church is made into a den of thieves, when there is the contention of the proud within it.
Whence Psalm 10:7-9 says: His mouth is full of cursing, bitterness, and treachery.... He lies in ambush like a lion in a cave. Whence when a person stands in the Church pondering the harm of an innocent neighbor, he lies in ambush like a lion in a cave, whose mouth is like that of a dog, ferocious because of contentious pride, and filled with the bitterness of ruin and the treachery of deception.
These should not be tolerated, to the contrary they are to be punished with the whip of reproof; and even expelled if they stay incorrigible, lest they undermine others through contention and the house of prayer is made into a house of contention.
64 The critical edition says that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria.
PENTECOST AND THE SuNDAYS AFTER
12. Second, the Church is made into a den of thieves, when the infection of deceitful is in it. Whence Jeremiah 7:10 says: You have said: We are liberated because we have done all these abominations. This house has been made a den therefore of thieves, in which my name is invoked; The Church in which the name of God is invoked is surely made into a den of thieves, when homicides and adulteries, which are abominations before God, are done in it. And thus that fetid abomination of deceit must be removed from the Church. Otherwise it is not a house of atonement, but rather of abomination and provocation.
13. Third, the Church is made into a den of thieves, when the business of the greedy is in it. Whence Matthew 21:12-13 says: He went into the temple and cast out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves; and he said to them; It is written that my house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves. Our Lord, entering the temple, aroused with an ardor of spirit, miraculously drove the merchants out of the temple with a cheap whip. Whence the Gloss states: "Miraculous events with the whip of one, where he accomplished nothing more miraculous than to drive out many and overturn the tables.
He radiated something of a shining fire from his eyes and divine majesty shined in his face."** And he overthrew the tables of the moneychangers and the chairs of those selling doves. "Some moneychangers, according to the Gloss, were placed there by the priests, to lend to those who did not have anything, in order that they might obtain animals and doves, which the others were offering.
For the priests were selling doves and other animals to 655 This is an almost verbatim citation of the Glossa Ordinaria on Matt 22:15. See PL 114:153C.
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those without, such that those things that were sold were received as offerings afterward." A prelate should act with a similar zeal, when he sees that. the sacraments, through which the grace of the Holy Spirit is acquired, are being sold in the Church, or that ecclesial offices are being purchased, so that all those who pursue profits may be driven out of the Church, lest the house of prayer be made into a house of business. Let us ask, etc.
656 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria.