[Sermon] 1. A certain man went down from Jerusalem
Tue SUNDAY SERMONS OF St. BONAVENTURE
SERMON 39: TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell in among robbers, who stripped him.
Luke 10:30. Since coarse and sensual people are more easily led to the knowledge of spiritual realities when they are surrounded with a variety of examples; Our
Lord, therefore, wanting to lead this Jew and, in fact, the coarse and sensual Jewish people, to invisible realities through visible realities, describes in the proposed verse, in accord with proper terminology, the primogenitor with the metaphor of the man who, going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, falls in among robbers, when it says: A certain man went down, etc. Certainly in this verse, if the interpretation of Jerusalem and Jericho, the conditions, and even the stripping committed by the robbers are diligently considered, the primogenitor is described quite correctly according to three conditions: namely, in regard to the beginning state of his creation, the middle state of his transgression, and the last state of his punishment.
The beginning of his creation was that state of original innocence, the middle of the transgression, due to the fall of detestable sin, and the last state of punishment, that being the damage or defect of miserable punishment.
These three things are ordered among themselves, for God first created the human person upright® in regard to the state of original innocence; afterward the will, falling from the rectitude of justice, acquired the defect of °°? See Sir 7:30: "God made the human person upright...." The image of standing upright represents the person before the fall.
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miserable punishment. First, in the proposed text the primogenitor is described in regard to the state of innocence, when it says: from Jerusalem. Through Jerusalem, which is interpreted as the vision of peace,**' the state of innocence is understood, in which there was the highest concord and harmony in the flesh and spirit of the primigenitor, granted they now oppose each other due to their sin. Second, in regard to the fall of detestable sin, when it adds: went down to Jericho. Through Jericho, which is interpreted as the moon or defective,* the fall of sin is signified, for to sin is the same as to fall short.®** Third in regard to the damage of miserable punishment, when it adds again: fell in among robbers, that is, demons, who stripped the garment of innocence from him. And this division is found in the Gloss, which describes it as follows:
"This man is to be understood as Adam who, through the fall of transgression, descended from the height of the celestial Jerusalem to the miseries and imperfection of this inconstant and false life."°"
2. First, therefore, in the proposed verse the state of original innocence is understood through Jerusalem; and appropriately, if its conditions and interpretations are considered; for Jerusalem was the first place of dignity and honor, because it was the place of regal rule; second, the place of delight and affluence, because it emanated milk and honey; third, the place of perfect security, because it was in the custody of angels day and night. And these three were present in the state of innocence in a perfect manner, for in that state Adam possessed first
684 See CCSL I xxii, 121: "Jerusalem means vision of peace."
685 See CCSL Ixxii, 137: "Jericho means its odor or moon."
686 Cf. Book Book XII, c. 7 of Augustine's De civitate Dei in CCSL xlviii, 362.
687 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria.
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the dignity of original innocence, second the delight of pleasing grace, third the security of divine protection; and through these three things he was perfectly ordered to that blessed Trinity, for by reason of the first he was ordered to the beauty of the Son, by reason of the second to the benignity of the Holy Spirit, and by reason of the third to the power of the eternal Father.
3. First, through Jerusalem the state of innocence is understood, because in it the first person possessed the dignity of original innocence. And this can be explained by Ezekiel 8:3: The spirit raised me between heaven and earth and led me into Jerusalem to the vision of God. Literally: God raised the first human being as it were between heaven and earth, when he placed him in paradise; for according to the Master in the Second Book of Sentences dist. 17: "Man was created outside of paradise and placed in paradise later,"** "so he might better recognize the benefits of God, when he saw that he had been brought there from somewhere else."**? Whence according to the saints, the terrestrial paradise is a place "quite lofty and elevated,"®"° as though holding a place in the middle between this valley of misery and the celestial homeland, near the equinox, where there is a magnificent temperate climate. It lies in the East toward the south, and by reason of its altitude, those vapors, which raise into the air and are controlled by the moon, do not ascend there, but instead, the air is pure and temperately warm there, and 688 See distinctio 17, c. 4 in Magistri Petri Lombardi Sententiae in IV libris distinctae, vol. 1, part 1, Third edition, Spicilegium Bonaventurianum IV (Grottaferrata: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1971), 413.
°*° See the previous footnote. Bonaventure gives the gist of Lombard's opinion.
*®° See c. 25 n. 1 of De fide orthodoxa. Damascene's description of paradise on p.106 reads: "It is placed in the East indeed higher than all the other land."
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thus, it is the suitable place for the state of permanency.
And as this place is in the middle, because it is between heaven and earth, so it is as if the knowledge of this innocent state holds the middle between the state of glory and the state of misery; for in the state of glory God is seen in the majesty of his substance such that there is no obscurity there; in the state of misery truly as an enigma by means of an obscure mirror. "For an enigma," according to Augustine in Book 15 of On the Trinity, "is an obscure similitude;"®! but in the state of innocence it was seen without any obscurity by means of a clear mirror, because there was no cloud of sin in the soul, but every sort of purity and no rebellion, since the flesh and the inferior powers were subject to the spirit in every way. And given such harmony and peaceful concord between flesh and soul in the previously mentioned authority it adds: and led me into Jerusalem, which is interpreted as the vision of peace; but due to the complete purity on account of which, with the pure eye of reason, he saw God without obscurity, it adds as in the sense of an antonomasia that he had been led to the vision of God. And the faithful Tobit, believing that recovery of this lost innocence comes about in Christ, said in 13:20: I will be happy if the remnants of my descendants remain to see the splendor of Jerusalem, that is, original innocence, which was in Christ.
4. Second, through Jerusalem the state of innocence is understood, because in it the first person possessed the delight of pleasing grace. And this can be explained from Isaiah 33:20: Your eyes will see the opulent city of Jerusalem. Certainly Adam in the state of innocence was like
691 See Book XV, c. 9 n. 16 in CCSL la, 482: "Hence I wanted to understand the image that appeared to me with the name of mirror, thus similitude with the name of enigma nevertheless still obscure and difficult to perceive."
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the opulent city of Jerusalem, beautiful and glorious, due to the abundance of grace, and terrible like an arrayed army,°? due to the splendor of virtue. The devil, seeing this Jerusalem, which is built like a city, compacted together,® envied it. Whence Bernard observes: "When the rival of all humanity saw our father wrapped in charity and dressed with every virtue, and that earthly humanity had received this, which he himself lost through pride, insatiably murderous, he became envious; and the Damascene says that "God made the human person innocent, upright, without solicitude, without sadness, adorned with every virtue, endowed with all gifts." It need not be understood that God immediately vested and endowed the man with virtue®* when he created him; but in fact he placed him and not long after endowed him, just as in the same manner this greater perceptible world was first created in time and then later endowed. Whence just as existence according to grace is a different genus than existence according to nature, so the creation of the soul and the infusion of grace were at different times. In fact God never, inasmuch as it pertains to common law, pours grace into any adult, unless there be some preparation on the part of the person; and on account of this, the human person was not created together with grace, but was delayed until that time when a person in some manner might dispose the self by the act and use of reason to receive grace.
6°? See Cant 6:3: "You are beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem, terrible like an arrayed army."
693 See Ps 121:3.
*** Bonaventure has greatly adapted c. 2 of Quodvultdeus, Contra Judaeos, Paganos et Arianos, Sermo de Symbolo. See PL 42:1118.
% See c. 26 n. 4 of De fide orthodoxa, 113. The citation is almost verbatim.
°° See Sir 17:2: "... God clothed him with strength according to himself."
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5. Third, through Jerusalem the state of innocence is understood, because in it the first person possessed the security of divine protection. And this can be explained with that verse of Psalm 124:1: He will not be moved forever who dwells in Jerusalem. The mountains surround it, and the Lord surrounds his people. Truly Adam, existing in the state of innocence, would have never suffered agitation or disintegration in his body, unless from within. This is because although it was composed from opposites, and what is contrary is the cause of fighting, and a fight in the composition is the cause of disintegration; nevertheless, the opposites are held differently in the composition of the body according to the state of fallen nature and the state of established nature. According to the state of fallen nature not only do they act in what is extrinsic, but they even act reciprocally and suffer in return both in this composition and after it had been constituted. In the state of innocence certainly they had been so mingled, proportioned in the first composition, and educated to such concord, that in return, remaining in that state, they were never fighting. And therefore that body was not inevitable agitated or dissolved from within.
Whence even if it was mortal, corruptible, and possessed within itself the cause of corruption, it nevertheless was subjected by the order of divine justice to the will; and therefore, if the will were not disordered the body would never be corrupted, although what the Philosopher says is true, that everything corruptible by necessity can be corrupted, namely where the control of the corruptible is not subject to the will like the corruptible body of Adam, but only to natural virtue.®" And similarly it was not able
697 See Book I c. 12 of Aristotle, De caelo in WAE, vol. 1, 283a: "It is clear also on other grounds that it is impossible that the destructible should not at some time be destroyed. For otherwise it will always be at once destructible and in actuality indestructible, so that it will be at the same time capable of always existing and of not always existing.
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to be agitated or injured from without, because the mountains, that is the angels, and the Lord surrounds his own, to keep custody of him. For in fact, the order of divine justice did not permit such disorder and punishment in that state because no fault had preceded it, even if now it permits the innocent to be killed by the impious, since every person is in debt to death because of original sin; and because of this, God himself deservedly was able to say that verse of 2 Samuel 19:33 Come with me so you may rest secure in Jerusalem.
6. Second, in the proposed verse the state of sin is described under the name of Jericho, which is interpreted as defective, because to sin is the same as to fall. Whence when the first person sinned, he quite rightly went down to Jericho, since the sins of this one incurred a threefold defect: first, the defect of obscurity and ignorance as to knowing the truth; second, the defect of tepidity and idleness as to doing good; third, the defect of timidity and inconstancy as to fleeing and overcoming evil. And these three evils are contrary to the three goods, which were in the state of innocence. And just as he was ordered and assimilated to the most Holy Trinity, so through these three evils he is disordered and rendered dissimilar; for blindness or obscurity disorders and dissimilates him from the clarity of the Son, tepidity from the benignity of the Holy
Spirit, and timidity from the immovable and insuperable power of the eternal Father.
7. First, the person is said to have gone down to Jericho when he sinned because he incurred the defect of blindness and ignorance in knowing the truth. Whence Luke
18:35 says: When he was approaching Jericho, a certain it os ey areal a) Ba erenl, orl colt apres pe SoBe
The generable, similarly, has been generated, for it is capable of haying been generated and thus also of not always existing."
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blind person was sitting along the way, begging. The Gloss states: "The blind man signifies the human race, which excluded from heavenly clarity, suffers the shadows of its damnation. But it is healed by the Lord who is approaching Jericho, when the Word of God takes up the infirmity and failings of our body and mortality, and so humanity returns to knowing divine realities. Seated along the way, the person starts to believe in that one who says: I am the way, the truth, and the life, he begs and asks"; and calls out, until he may merit receiving light.**
8. Second, the person is said to have gone down to Jericho when he sinned because he incurred the defect of tepidity and laziness in doing good, Whence it is figuratively said in 2 Kings 2:18-19: Whereas that one, that is
Elisha, dwelt in Jericho. Therefore the men of the city said to Elisha: Behold, dwelling in this city is the best as you yourself, Lord, observe, but the water is bad and the earth is sterile. Like those inhabitants of Jericho, although they were without sweet water to drink and good earth to produce bread, those things which are most necessary for places of human habitation, they nevertheless considered such a defective habitation to be the best. Just as sinners existing in Jericho, that is, in the defect of sin, although they need the water of salutary wisdom and furthermore possess so great a sterility in the earthly body, that they are not strong enough, due to tepidity and laziness, to bring forth the bread of life and understanding,®" by which the soul is nourished, nevertheless, absorbed by the delight of sin, they consider such a defective state to be the best.
698 Bonaventure has adapted the Glossa Ordinaria on Luke 18:35.
See PL 114:324D-325A. John 14:6 is the scripture reference.
699 See Sir 15:3: "With the bread of life and understanding she (Wisdom) will feed him and give him the water of salutary wisdom to drink...."
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9. Third, the person is said to have gone down to Jericho when he sinned because he incurred the defect of timidity and inconstancy in fleeing evil. Whence it figuratively says [Joshua 6:20-26]: They took the city, namely
Jericho, and they killed all those who were in it.... Joshua vowed, saying: Cursed is the man before the Lord who will rise up and build Jericho. Since all things that happened to them were symbolic,' therefore just as those existing in Jericho were not strong enough to resist due to great tepidity and laziness nor to flee, so they would not be killed, so sinners at the end who exist in a state of sin incur from it such tepidity and laziness that they are unable to flee the evil fault; and therefore they are punished by the just judgment of God with the evil of infernal punishment.
10. Third, in the proposed text, the primogenitor is described in regard to the damage of miserable punishment, when it introduces: Fell in among robbers, that is, demons, who inflicted upon him three damages, for first they stripped him of grace and virtues; second, they wounded him in. the natural powers; third, they debilitated his potential strengths when they left him almost dead. But against these three damages the true Samaritan and protector, our Lord Jesus Christ, held out three goods, for first, to counteract the stripping he bestowed the decoration of grace in the incarnation to adorn the nude and deformed soul; second, to counteract the wounding he applied the medicine of mercy in the passion to heal the hurt and languid soul; third, to counteract debilitation he held out the vehicle or assistance of power in the resurrection to strengthen the fallen and weakened soul. And all these are pulled from the same text, which carries within its own explanation. For the person needy
7° See 1 Cor 10:11: "Now all these things happened to them as a type...."
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due to misery is the human race, which sinning in Adam, went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, that is from paradise into the world, and fell in among robbers, that is, into the power of demons who stripped him of grace and virtues, and wounded him in the powers, leaving him almost dead. But the person passes, who was concerned with the harshest justice of the law, which displayed neither mercy nor medicine. Whence the Gloss of Bede states: "The priest of God announces the law. Indeed the law descended into the world through Moses and it carried no healing for humanity. The Levite went down, he who exhibits the pattern of the prophets, but this one heals no one, since the law discloses sin, but it passes since it does grant forgiveness."""! The person who comes to help out of mercy is our Lord, because Samaritan is interpreted to mean protector.' This one comes to help the human race, when he offered three remedies against the three previously mentioned damages.
11. First, he dressed the nude and deformed soul with the ornament of grace in the incarnation to counteract the stripping. And this is what it says: But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came upon him, and seeing him, was moved with compassion. The Gloss says: "The Samaritan, who is interpreted to mean protector, is our Lord, who became human for us, took up the journey of the present life and came alongside the wounded, having been made in the likeness of humanity and found in the condition of a human being";'® through whose advent humanity is
> restored in the grace of God.
701 See the Glossa Ordinaria in PL 114:286D-287A. Bonaventure's quotation is almost verbatim. See Bonaventure's Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 990 where he cites this same Glossa.
702 See CCSL Ixxii, 142: "Samaritan means caretakers."
703 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria.
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12. Second, he healed the hurt and languid soul with the medicine of mercy in the passion to counteract the wounding. Whence it adds: And he went up to him and bound up his wounds; "He applied bandages," according to the Master in the prologue of the Fourth Book of the Sentences, "because he instituted the remedy of the sacraments against the wounds of original and actual sin,"™ which possesses efficacy from the passion of Christ.
Whence it follows: Pouring oil, "that is the charisma of the Holy Spirit," and wine, "that is the chalice of his passion"'* according to what the Gloss says; and placing him on the mule, of his body, when he carried our sins in his body upon the tree of the cross, by whose stripes we are healed; he led him to the inn, of the Church."
13. Third, he strengthened the fallen and weakened soul in the resurrection by opening up the meaning of Sacred Scripture to counteract debility. Whence it introduces: And the next day he took out two denarii.' The Gloss states: "On the following day, that is after his resurrection, when the splendor of eternal light shone forth more intensely in the world than before the passion; he produced two denarii, that is two testaments, to the apostles, because he opened up the meaning for them in order
704 See Book IV, d. 1. c. 1 of Magistri Petri Lombardi Sententiae in IV libris distinctae, vol. 2, Third edition, Spicilegium Bonaventurianum 5 (Grottaferrata: Collegium S. Bonaventurae, 1981), 231.
7 The critical edition states that this stems from the Glossa Interlinearis.
6 The critical edition states that this stems from the Glossa Interlinearis.
"7 See 1 Peter 2:24: "Who himself bore our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having died to sin, might live to justice, and by his stripes you were healed."
78 See Bedae Venerabilis Opera, In Lucae Evangelium Expositio; In Marci Evangelivm Expositio, edited by D. Hurst, CCSL cxx (Turnhout: Brepols, 1960), 224: "Now the inn is the church...."
709 See Luke 10:35.
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that they might understand the Scriptures to guide and assist the people.""° Whence it is through the doctrine of the two Testaments, which is understood in the offering of the two denarii that he gave to the innkeeper, that is, to the prelate, whose duty is to minister the doctrine and to go beyond what is necessary by explaining it, that travelers returning to the eternal homeland are helped." Let us ask, etc.
710 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria.
711 On Bonaventure's interpretation of Luke 10:30-37, see also his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 980-92.
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SERMON 40: THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. They stood afar off and lifted up their voice, crying Jesus, master, have pity on us. Luke: 17:1213. Since rulers and judges are accustomed to turn down indiscretely formulated petitions and refuse to put them into effect, the lepers, therefore, represent a model for penitents. Lest they be found reprehensible in the majestic presence of Jesus Christ, who is the great king and just judge, they demonstrate in the verse proposed above that they presented their petitions discreetly and prudently, for first they demonstrated their most religious nature in a gesture of cautious reserve, because they were filled with fear. Second, they demonstrated the deepest devotion with a tribute of praise, because they were invoking the principle of human salvation. Third, they demonstrated the greatest prudence in the formulation of a petition, because they concerned the weakness of their own infection. First, they had a religious gesture of reserve, because they were filled with humble fear that kept them far away. They did not come forward presumptuously like the proud, but instead they reverently stood afar off like the humble. Second, they offered a devout tribute of praise, because they were invoking the principle of salvation with a fervent cry; whence they lifted up their voice from within, and with evident desire, were crying: Jesus, who alone is interpreted as salvation. Third, they had a petition of discrete intention, because they were concerned with the weakness.of their own infection without being shamed by the display; and on this account they added: have pity on us, since we are all certainly
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infected with the disease of leprosy. In fact they were not ashamed to manifest their weakness to everyone."
2. It says, therefore: They stood afar off, where the religious gesture of reserve is commended in the person who first remains steadfast in humility by deploring the committed sins; second, remains steadfast in strength by overcoming diabolical temptations; third, remains steadfast in perseverance by seeking eternal rewards.
3. First, the penitent soul has the religious gesture of reserve that remains steadfast in deploring its sins with humility. Whence Luke 18:13 says: The Publican stood far away. He did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven but rather beat his breast saying: God, be merciful to me a sinner. Whence the Gloss states: "He stood far away, since a humble person does not dare to draw near, so that God draws near to the person; he does not look, so that he may be seen; he is pulled down by the conscience, yet lifted upward by hope; he strikes the breast to exact punishment from himself, so that God may spare; he confesses, so that God may pardon; God ignores what he knows."'* Indeed that Publican had understood what Sirach 2:1 says:
Son, present yourself for the service of God and remain steadfast in fear and justice. Mary Magdalene remained steadfast in this manner, according to what Luke 7:38 says: Standing behind him at his feet, she began to bathe his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment.' Morally speaking, these six aspects, which 712 On Bonaventure's interpretation of Luke 17:12-13, see also his
Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 17-24, 1650-55.
713 See the Glossa Ordinaria in PL 114:323A. The citation is virtually verbatim.
74 Luke 7:36-50 speaks of an unnamed woman sinner, not Mary of Magdala.
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are asserted regarding this repentant sinner, should be manifest in every sinner. Namely, burning shame, which is noted when it says: Standing behind him; reverential fear, by: at his feet; the pain of penance, by: she began to bathe his feet with tears; the love of purity, by: wiped them with the hair of her head; the ardor of benevolence, by: kissed his feet; and the sweetness of interior devotion, by: she anointed them with ointment.
4. Second, the soul has a religious posture that remains steadfast in overcoming diabolical temptations with strength. Whence Ephesians 6:11-14 says: Put on the armor of God so you may resist the snares of the devil.
... Gird your loins with truth and put on the breastplate of justice. The armor we must wear to overcome diabolical temptations is the passion of Christ; if this memory is evoked affectionately, every demon flees in terror immediately, as experience has taught me on numerous occasions. For once, when the devil grasped me by the throat and tried to strangle me with such a tight grip of the throat, that I was unable to call out to the friars for help, I began to breath out with unimaginable pain; suddenly overcome by the memory of the Lord's passion, I multiplied my gasps out of compassion for his suffering.
As I surrendered, feverish groans began to replace the sound of my voice. By virtue of what took place through the passion of the Lord, I, a servant of the cross, composed this present collection of sermons to praise the name of Christ and to honor his sacred cross, and testify that I was freed from such a cruel death. In fact I know, from what I learned later by way of a revelation, that divine justice allowed this to happen to me although I was unaware of any mortal sin. But since no one is able to put on this armor, unless a person first suffocates the extravagance of the flesh through continence, it therefore follows in the previously quoted authority: gird your loins
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in truth, by restraining carnal desires. "And because it is of little worth to avoid evil things, unless, of course, such a person zealously works to perform good works,""® the text therefore adds: put on the breastplate of justice, that is, through the fulfillment of divine commands. Whence such is the person who has girded the loins with chastity, put on the breastplate of justice with good works, and armored, by the memory of the Lord's passion in continual meditation, appears before the devil and his minions as terrifying as an army aligned for battle."®
5. Third, the soul has a religious posture that remains steadfast in seeking after eternal rewards with perseverance. John 20:10-11 says: The disciples therefore went away again to their home. But Mary was standing outside weeping at the tomb. "Notice how as the disciples were withdrawing, Mary, who was burning with the love of Christ, persevered at the tomb, for her desires were not weakened with the delay; her perseverance is the reason she merited to be the first to see the glory of the risen
Christ,"""" as a result those who come after would understand, that no one is able to participate in glory, unless they remain at the tomb of penance until the end of their lives.
6. Second, in the proposed verse these lepers are commended for the devoted testimony of praise, when they invoke the first principle of salvation, which is Jesus Christ.
Whence: They lifted up their voice, crying, Jesus, master.
It is rightfully Jesus master, who is interpreted as salva715 See Homily 13 n. 1 of GGHG in CCSL cxli, 90. The quotation is almost verbatim.
716 See Cant 6:3.
717 Bonaventure greatly adapts Homily 25 n. 1 of GGHG. See CCSL cxli, 205.
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tion,"*® worthy of the testimony of praise; for through him three things are given, in which the perfect salvation of the human race consists. And the first is the remission of all sins with regard to the gifts of forgiveness; second, the infusion of charismatic gifts with regard to the gifts of grace; third, the consummation of the intellectual desires with regard to the gifts of glory.
7. First, Jesus is worthy of the tribute of laudatory invocation, because the remission of all sins is granted to sinners through him. Whence Acts 2:38 states: Do penance and be baptize in the name of Jesus for the remission of all sin. Paul says something similar in 1Timothy 1:15:
This word is faithful and worthy of complete acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. Such a word is certainly worthy of all praise and acceptance, when the Son of God, out of his own sheer benevolence, deigned to come into this world, by taking on flesh, so that he might liberate the lost sheep from the mouth of the devil with his own death, and both anoint and heal their wounds with the pleasant balm of his own body and blood.
8.Second, Jesus is worthy of praise and commendation, because the infusion of the charismatic gifts into those making progress is granted through him. Whence John
1:16 says: And of his fullness we have all received, grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. "Since divinity was in the humanity of Christ, from which he was conceived, it filled him, without any previous merits, with the fullness of grace,""® according to the Gloss; thus, we, who are his
718 See CCSL Ixxii, 157: "Jesus means salvation or savior."
79 Bonaventure's quotation is based on the Glossa Ordinaria on John 1:14. See PL 114:357B.
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members, have all received from the fullness, flowing from the head himself. For instance, every sweet grace comes through Jesus, and because of this the Church ends every prayer: Through Jesus Christ our Lord; for grace, which is given free and without merit, and the grace of merit when we progress in it. Whence the Gloss states: "Simple grace is given as we begin to do what is good; but later grace is granted through the good actions resulting from preceding grace,"'"" for the law is the pre-announcement and pre-figuration or promise of salvation, given through Moses, "the servant, grace and truth, that is, the very fulfillment of salvation,""! is brought about through Jesus
Christ.
9. Third, Jesus is worthy of the tribute of praise because the consummation of intellectual desires is given through him to those who persevere. Whence Philippians
3:20: We await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humility and conform it to his glorious body. And this will take place through the manifestation of Christ's glory; in whose likeness and beatitude all our desires will be satisfied. Human desires are unable to find quiet and rest in anyone other than Christ
Jesus; for if they draw back from him, they would not be filled but, rather, left empty.
O God, with what longing must Jesus be sought, the only salvation of humanity, the entire good of Christians, and the complete joy of the blessed. In his flesh dwells the fullness of defied pleasure, in which, the soul, totally absorbed, finds all its desires perfectly consummated!
720 Bonaventure's citation is based on the Glossa Ordinaria on John 1:16. See PL 114:357D.
721 See the Glossa Ordinaria on John 1:17 in PL 114:358A:
"Through Moses, the servant, came the pre-announcement. Through Jesus the Lord the fulfillment of salvation."
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10. Third, these lepers are commended for the specific intent of their petition, because it concerned the subject of their own infection, when it introduces: have pity on us.
Indeed they had a triple weakness, by which both the interior and exterior person is oppressed, for first, they had the misfortune of bodily misery; second, the blindness of intellectual ignorance; third, the iniquity of affective evil.
And they asked to be liberated from this threefold weakness in a discrete manner, when they said: have pity on us. First, I say, have pity on us, by relieving the weakness of bodily misery through the reception of exterior health; second, have pity on us, by relieving the weakness of intellectual ignorance through the illumination of infallible truth; third, have pity on us by relieving the weakness of affective evil through the gift of interior sanctity.
11. First, have pity on us by relieving the weakness of bodily misery through the reception of exterior health.
Job asked his friends to relieve him from this miserable weakness when he explained to them, with great pain, the calamity inflicted upon him, according to what Job
19:21 says: At least you, my friends, have mercy on me, have mercy on me, because the hand of God has struck me.
In fact it says have mercy on me twice, in order to demonstrate that mercy is required interiorly in the affections and exteriorly in works.. But where human physicians and friends fall short, Christ, the divine physician and true friend, comes to assist, as the parable of the wounded man in Luke 10:33 reveals: But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed came upon him, and seeing him, was moved by compassion. And he went up to him and bound up his wounds. The Samaritan, who is interpreted as caretaker,'" like the true physician, watches over and conserves body and soul in perfect health; as he journeyed, by vis722 See CCSL I xxii, 142: "Samaritan means caretakers."
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iting through the condescension of majesty; was moved by compassion, having mercy through pious affection; by healing his wounds, through divine power. He is indeed the physician for every experience, who heals every languor without ointment, without instrument, and without any other earthly medicine, but instead, only with a word and both the command and benevolence of his will.
12. Second, have pity on us by relieving the weakness of intellectual ignorance through the illumination of infallible truth. Luke 18:39 states: The blind man called out all the more: have mercy on me. Jesus stood still and ordered that the man be brought to him. This blind man did not give up when faced with the uproar and threats of the crowd; indeed, he called out even more that he might merit receiving bodily sight; so the person who desires to be spiritually illuminated by Jesus, when the uproar "of carnal vices dissipates human thought and disturbs the cries of prayer, such that Jesus cannot come to illuminate the human heart, and the person, realizing that he is burdened by apparitions of earlier vices and the voice of his prayer is impeded, needs to cry out more ardently, because the one who insists more vehemently in prayer is led to Jesus, who is standing, and receives light, because
God is firmly fixed in the heart and the missing light is restored,"'"* according to what the Gloss says. This is similar to what Sirach 36:1 says: Have mercy on us O God.
Look upon us and send the light of your mercy to us, so that this guides us, lest we fall along the way of evil, and lead us through knowledge and love to your holy mountain, Christ.
, 723 Bonaventure joins together what the Glossa Ordinaria says about Luke 18:39-40. See PL 114:325AB.
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13. Third, have pity on us, by relieving the weakness of affective evil through the gift of interior sanctity. Whence
Isaiah 55:7 says: Let the impious abandon his way and the evil man his thoughts, so he might return to the Lord, who will have mercy on him, for our God is great in forgiveness. Since no one can hope for the forgiveness of sin unless one steps back and abandons sin, in order to return wholeheartedly to the Lord, the prophet, therefore, in the previously cited authority, urges first the abandonment of the restraining impediment, when it says: Let the impious abandon his way, that is, sin of deeds; and the evil man his thoughts, that is, sin of the heart. Whence a person need not only abandon sin in works, but also avoid impure thoughts and disordered affections in the heart, lest one consent to them, because perverse thoughts bring about a separation from God." After the abandonment of the restraining impediment, it leads to the possession of liberating fulfillment, when it says: and return to the Lord, with fear, and to our God, with love. Finally, it expresses the sweetness of the goodness, which frees from every iniquity, when it adds: he will have mercy on him, by remitting every wrong; because his forgiveness is great; because the greater the offense forgiven, the greater is he who is offended.'"> Let us ask, ete.
™4 See Wis 1:3: "For perverse thoughts separate from God...."
™5 See Sermon 10 n. 6.
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SERMON 41: FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. Seek first then the kingdom of God and his justice. Matthew 6:33. "Since in comparison to supernatural realities, all those on earth are worthless to the soul,"'"° therefore our Lord, as the true and good master, teaches his disciples to put the kingdom of God, that is, the greatest good, before all other things they seek, when it says in proposed verse: Seek first the kingdom of God, etc. Certainly this verse proceeds in a marvelous order.
For first, it encourages diligence for the necessary inquiry; second, it expresses the magnificence of the heavenly dwelling; third, it induces the efficacy of virtuous work.
On account of the first, the rational power is ordered to the knowledge of truth; on account of the second, the concupiscent power is enticed to love of the good; and on account of the third, the irascible power is strengthened and roused to take on what is difficult. First, therefore, in the proposed verse, it directs the intellect through the zeal of an ordered inquiry, when it says: Seek first then, that is to say, diligently through faith, since it is impossible for anyone to be guided in an appropriate inquiry without the light of faith. Second, it entices the affections with the reward of regal coronation, when it adds: kingdom of God. The people on earth who obtain it are raised on high with such an excellent title that one is called a king of the celestial kingdom. Third, it establishes the operative power through the exercise of virtuous works, when it in726 Bonaventure adapts Homily 37 n. 1 of GGHG. See CCSL cxli,
348.
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cludes: and his justice. The Gloss observes: "The justice of the kingdom is to observe all those things which Christ teaches."""
2. It says therefore: Seek, where it first excites diligence for an ordered inquiry. That person inquires with the required diligence, who seeks with all one's interior and exterior effort according to the three theological virtues: first, with solicitude of thought in contemplative truths; second, with avidity of appetite in pure delights; third, with the ardor of accomplishment in holy conduct.
The first inquiry concerns the cognitive power through faith; the second, the affective power through charity; and the third, the operative power through hope.
3. First, seek with solicitude of thought in contemplative truths. Whence Wisdom 1:1 says: In simplicity of heart seek him who is found by those who do not tempt him; he appears however to those who have faith in him.
Seek him, namely God, in the investigation of continual meditation; in simplicity of heart, through the purity of ordered affection by withdrawing and separating the heart from all earthly concerns, for the more things the heart loves, the more things it draws in and unites to itself. This is because love, be it human or divine, is a unitive force according to blessed Dionysius;'* therefore, to the degree that the heart loves many diverse things of the world, the more it reverts to compost. But when it withdraws and separates itself from these worldly things, so that it may cling and be united through love to what is one and simple, to which the entire heart is bound with7 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria.
8 See c. 4 n. 15 Ps-Dionysius, De divinis nominibus, in PG 3:714AB.
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out want, from such a union with the simple and pure, it acquires simplicity and purity of heart. Certainly this is found by those if they do not tempt him, through curiosity of presumption and reckless investigation. For the presumptuous and reckless scrutinizer of majesty,'2? who depends on the darkness of pedestrian reasoning, unable due to dark phantasms to fasten the gaze on the eternal splendors, which the sun of wisdom brings forth, is overwhelmed by glory. He appears however to those who, with the support of faith, rising above themselves through ecstatic contemplation, perspicuously contemplate God.
Whence Richard, in the first book of On Contemplation, says: "Contemplation is the unimpeded penetration of the mind with uplifted admiration into the spectacles of wisdom."**° 4. Second, seek with avidity of appetite in pure delights.
Whence Colossians 3:1 says: Seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; savor those things which are above, not those things which are on the earth: the more preferable goods of the Father, which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father, that is, in as much as a person enjoys these more preferable and sweeter goods forever. Seek through desires, and savor these same goods and delights, which are above at the right hand of God, through the elevation of appetite and taste with the adherence of love to those things of heaven; not those things on the earth, by lowering the appetite to things filthy and impure. For these filthy and earthly delights embitter more than delight; for instance, where a person supposes to find delight, one
729 See Prov 25:27: "As it is not good for a person to eat too much honey, so the person who is a scrutinizer of majesty will be overwhelmed by glory." pie 730 See Book I, c. 4 of De gratia contemplationis or Benjamin major in PL 196:67D. The citation is verbatim.
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experiences suffering, because all delight in the present is sprinkled with bitterness. But the delights, which are at the right hand of God,"*! delight through faith, because they join and unite the soul with that one, after whose image and similitude it was made." From this union the lover is transformed into the beloved, for it is joined to that one through affection. At that time then, according to Hugh in the third book of On the Pledge of the Soul,
"This force of love is such that it requires you to be that which you love, and as you are joined to its similitude through affection, you are conformed by this very communion;"'"** if the soul turns itself to the filthy through love, it is transformed into filth; if to the beautiful, into beauty. Divine wisdom, the mother of beautiful love,' generates therefore beautiful delight in the one who is united to her through love. And this is understood by what is said in The Song of Songs 3:2-4: J will rise up and walk through the city, and I will seek him whom my soul loves through the streets and squares; I sought him and I did not find him. The watchmen who guard the city found me. Have you seen him whom my soul loves? Soon after I passed them I found him whom my soul loves; I held him and I will never let go, until I experience the delights and sweetness of his deified pleasure.
5. Third, seek with the ardor of accomplishment in holy conduct. Whence Proverbs 2:3 states: If you will invoke wisdom and incline your heart to prudence, if you
7! See Ps 15:11: "You have made known to me the ways of life.
You will fill me with joy with your countenance. At your right hand are delights even to the end."
782 See Gen 2:7.
788 See Soliloquium de arrha animae in PL 176:954BC. The citation is virtually verbatim.
734 See Sir 24:24: "I (Wisdom) am the mother of beautiful love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope."
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will seek it like money and dig for it like treasure; then you will understand the fear of the Lord and you will find the knowledge of God. If you will invoke wisdom, through holiness of life; there is no better invocation of wisdom than the preparation of a dwelling place through holiness; if you will incline your heart to prudence, through the rigor of discipline; if you will seek it like money, with the avidity of concupiscence; and if you will dig for it like treasure, through the solicitude of diligence. For just as person who digs up the earth, hauls it out and makes a pit, stays attentive until one finds what one is seeking; so the person who desires the treasures of wisdom removes all earthly weight from oneself and makes a pit of humility within the self and does not rest until one finds it; because then you will understand the fear of the Lord is the beginning'® of every good, through which a person turns aside from evil;'** and you will find the knowledge of God, by whose utterance every person is directed.
6. Second, in the proposed verse it expresses the excellence of the heavenly dwelling, when it adds: the kingdom of God. There are three things, however, that in a certain manner manifest from a distance this inexplicable excellence of the heavenly dwelling, namely the kingdom of God. And the first is the reflection of divine clarity, by which it is rendered splendid to consider; second is the overflow of immense beauty, by which it is rendered delicious to enjoy; third is the lack of temporal corruption, by which it is rendered eternal in endurance. And so the lucid reflection of resplendent wisdom will form the rational power in clear vision; the placid influence of super735 See Sir 1:16: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom...."
736 See Prov 15:27b: "By mercy and faith sins are purged, and by the fear of the Lord every one turns aside from evil." See Vulgate, 970 which considers Prov 15:27b a variant reading.
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abundant benevolence will satiate the concupiscent power in quiet fruition; and the efficacious virtue of perpetual strength will secure the irascible power in a firm hold.
7. First, the kingdom of God is splendid to consider due to the reflection of divine clarity. Whence Wisdom 5:7 says: The saints will receive a kingdom of elegance and a diadem of beauty from the hand of the Lord. Just as the sky is adorned with luminaries, so too is the kingdom of God with reflections of wisdom. Whence, as a result of the presence of eternal light shining upon the blessed, which is brighter than the sun," they glory in days of joy and exultation. Rays of divine splendor gleam in their presence making that heavenly dwelling the kingdom of elegance. In fact at that time they will receive a diadem of beauty from the hand of God when, led by the hand of divine power, they will contemplate with the dowry of clear vision the beauty of God, one and three, whose vision draws every soul in its desirous longing for him, because that is without labor and error and with delight.
Whence Augustine writes in the Fifteenth Chapter of On the Trinity: "We will see the truth without any difficulty, and enjoy it with the greatest certainty and clarity. We will not seek anything with the discursive mind, but perceive with the contemplative mind.""*®
8. Second, the kingdom of God is delicious to enjoy due to the influence of deified pleasure. Whence Luke 14:15 says: Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. This living bread that descends from heaven, which has all delights and all sweetness of taste,"® is Je87 See Wis 7:29: "For she (Wisdom) is more beautiful than the sun and above all the order of the stars...."
788 See Book XV, c. 25 n. 45 in CCSL la, 523-524. The citation is verbatim.
739 See Wis 16:20.
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sus Christ, who without generating contempt and with continual desire satiates the interior taste with the immensity of the deity and the exterior with the deliciousness of humanity. For in him the overflowing plenitude of satiety is found. O how happy, how illustrious, how holy, with what avidity, this food of deified pleasure must be sought, food of true delights! With its aroma alone the saints are sustained in one way or another along the way, when a breath of its sweetness, which is stronger than the aroma of balsam, the fragrance of frankincense and myrrh, and pleasant spices of every kind, comes to them from a distance, then through sapiential desires in the excess of contemplation, they are introduced into the kingdom of God."*° Whence Wisdom 6:21 says: The desire of wisdom leads to the perpetual kingdom.
9. Third, the kingdom of God is eternal in endurance due to the lack of every kind of contrariety. Whence Psalm
144:11 says: They will speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, so that they may make known your power to the children of humanity and the glory of your magnificent kingdom. Your kingdom, Lord, is the kingdom of all the ages. They will speak of your kingdom, that is, when the glorified render whatever good they possess to the first principle. And for that reason then the blessed are in a state of continual praise and glorification, because all they are able to receive, they render to him alone who is able to glorify: in fact nothing will be done there with the exception of offering the praises of God; so that they make known your power to the children of humanity and the glory of your magnificent kingdom, given the breadth of unrestricted capacity, which is not restricted
740 Francis of Assisi exemplifies the person who delights in the Eucharistic encounter with Christ and is caught up in the excess of contemplation, see LMj, c. 9, n. 2 (VIII, 530a-b), FA:ED vol. 2, 597.
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by the multitude of those who possess it, because "The blessed rejoice as much over the good of the neighbor as over their own good.""*! Your kingdom, Lord, is the kingdom of all the ages, given the length of unending eternity.
It has nothing contrary to it, and therefore no violence can be done to it. When then the kingdom of God, by reason of eternity, is unchangeable and incorruptible, it is by necessity not in those inferior things but in the superior things, according to what the Lord says in John 18:36:
My kingdom is not of this: world; otherwise it would be defective, but far be it, because there is no defect in the kingdom of God. Whence, the continual consideration of the kingdom of God and eternity is of great assistance in spurning the inconstancy of the present vanity.
10. Third, in the proposed verse it introduces the efficacy of virtuous work, when it introduces: and his justice. There are namely three things, which make a person efficacious in working and in searching for the justice of God. First is the simplicity of intention in avoiding evil; second, is the strenuousness of work in doing the good; third is the zeal of solicitude in correcting error. For to avoid evil, to do good, and to correct error, are proper to justice.
11. First, seek the justice of the kingdom through the simplicity of intention in avoiding evil. Whence Sirach
17:20 states: However he gave the way of justice to penitents, he encouraged the faint to hold on, and he determined truth to be their lot. Turn back to the Lord and ™' For the closest parallel see n. 57 of the Treatise on the Spirit and the Soul, translated by Erasmo Leiva and Benedicta Ward, in Three Treatises on Man: A Cistercian Anthology, edited by Bernard
McGinn, CFS 24 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1977), 271:
"Each one will rejoice in the bliss of the other, as much as he does for his own unspeakable joy."
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abandon sin. To penitents who abandon sin, in heart and work; and turn back to the Lord, with purity of conscience; he gave the way of justice through the remission of guilt; but because the penitent who has recently turned back upon the way of justice falters, if abandoned to one's conscience, it thus follows: he encouraged, with the teaching of divine eloquence and the example of the saints; the faint to hold on, to the yoke of the divine precept; and he determined and gave to such as these the Jot of eternal truth and a heavenly inheritance. Something similar to this is also said in Proverbs 11:5: The justice of the simple will guide one's way.
12. Second, seek the justice of the kingdom through the strenuousness of work in doing the good. Whence
Wisdom 10:10 says: The Lord leads the just person along the right ways and reveals to that one the kingdom of God; and he gave the person the knowledge of the saints, honored that one's work and perfected the works of the person.
The right ways are the divine precepts, through which the Lord pleasantly leads the just person striving for the heavenly homeland, by revealing the kingdom to that one, lest the person be weighted down by the torpor of idleness; but with hope and desire anticipating the happiness of the kingdom, one walks with strength from virtue to virtue'? and comes into the way of the commandment, so that one does not fall under the command of the vices; he gave them the knowledge of the saints, to which it belongs to choose good and avoid evil; he honored that one's work and perfected the works of the person, by giving a proper reward for them.
_ 742 See Ps 83:8: "For the lawgiver will give a blessing. They will go from virtue to virtue...."
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13. Third, seek the justice of the kingdom through the zeal of solicitude in correcting error. Whence Sirach
17:23 states: Turn away from your injustice and truly hate abomination; and know justice and the judgments of God, and stand firm in the proposed lot, and in prayer, to the most high God. Turn away from your injustice, by correcting one's errors and defects, and if it is incumbent to an office, that of others; and truly hate the abomination of the unjust, who do not run from their errors and defects and ignore those of others. And know the justice and judgments of God, which are severe in punishing, and thoroughly terrified by fear of them, stand firm in the proposed lot, and in devout prayer in the sight of the most high God, because then that verse from Isaiah 32:1 will be fulfilled: Behold the king will reign in justice and the princes will rule in judgment. Let us ask, etc.
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SERMON 42: FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. And he who was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. But fear seized upon all, and they began to magnify God. Luke 7:15-16.
Our compassionate and merciful Lord, whose benignity is concerned with consoling the afflicted and the desolate, was looking today with the eye of divine piety upon the widow mother, who was suffering and weeping at the death of her only son. In order to call forth everyone else to the piety of assistance with his example, he deigned to speak sweetly and console her, when he returned her own son to her alive after he was resuscitated from the dead, in accord with what is said in the proposed verse: And he who was dead, sat up, etc. In this verse indeed, first the recompense of sin is noted according to the demand due to the order of justice; second, the awakening of the dead according to the notion of the confirming speech; third, the promotion of faith according to the reverence of creative wisdom. First then in the proposed verse the recompense of sin is noted according to the demand due to the order of justice, when it says: And he who was dead. Indeed the order of justice demands that sin be recompensed by death, for the wages of sin are death,"** according to the apostle.
Second, the awakening of the dead is noted with the proof of speech, when it adds: sat up, and began to speak, such that his resuscitation was noted by those in attendance.
For a living body is distinguished in two ways, that is, in 743 See Rom 6:23.
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sense and motion." Third, the promotion of faith is noted according to the reverence for creative wisdom, when it includes: But fear seized upon all, and they began to magnify God, who recreated the dead man, interiorly vivified in soul and exteriorly in the body, whom he had created.
Since the Lord cured no one exteriorly in body, whom first he did not cure interiorly.
2. It says, therefore: And he who was dead, where it notes the recompense of sin in accord with the demand due to the order of justice. Indeed the order of justice demands that sin be punished with a threefold penal stipend. And the first is the penalty of the present misery that afflicts the human race in many different ways; second, the calamity of natural death that cruelly separates the body from the soul; third, the harshness of the infernal Gehenna that eternally torments the soul with the body.
3. First, sin is recompensed with the penalty of the present misery that afflicts the human race in many different ways. Whence Sirach 30:17 says: Death is better than a bitter life, and eternal rest more than feeble perseverance. Truly death is better than this bitter life, because, given the multiple penalties God inflicted on us by reason of original sin, nothing remains other than feeble perseverance. Whence Gregory asks: "What is the daily defect of corruption other that a certain extension of death?"'®
And because of this the apostle said in 2 Corinthians 5:4:
For we who are in this tent sigh under our burden, be- ™ See Book I, c. 1 of Aristotle, De anima in WAE, vol. 3, 403b:
"Two characteristic marks have above all others been recognized as distinguishing that which has soul in it from that which has not — movement and sensation."
™® See Homily 37 n. 1 of GGHG in CCSL cxli, 348. The citation is virtually verbatim.
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cause we do not wish to be unclothed, but rather clothed over, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. But certainly, as long as we are in this miserable tent of the body, we sigh; now we are under the burden of poverty, presently oppressed with nakedness, sometimes afflicted with thirst, often tormented with hunger. Considering the penalty of this calamitous life, the Wise One of Qoheleth
4:2 said: I praised the dead more than the living.
4. Second, sin is recompensed with the calamity of natural death that cruelly separates the soul from the body. Whence Sirach 41:5 states: The judgment of death comes to all flesh from God. Although death is inflicted by God as from a just judge, nevertheless the origin and immediate cause of death is not God, who is the highest being and lacks nothing, and death is the maximum defect among all penal defects, but the fall of free will from the stability and perpetuity of justice. Whence Wisdom
1:13-15 says: God did not create death ... but justice is perpetual and immortal. Injustice however is the acquisition of death. Whence the root and origin of death is the lifting of the woman's mind, when she wanted to equal God in wisdom according to what Sirach 25:33 says: The beginning of sin is from a woman, and because of her all die.
5. Third, sin is recompensed with the harshness of the infernal Gehenna that eternally torments the soul with the body. Whence Revelation 20:13-14 states: Each one is judged according to their works, and hell and death were cast into the lake of fire, and this is the second death, of eternal damnation, by which a sinful person is tormented in infernal fire. It is greatly feared and to be avoided through the sorrow of penance, because, perpetual and painful, it cannot be reduced to a brief period. Whence
Job 10:20-22 states: Send me away so I may lament my suffering until I go and I will not turn back to the earth,
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dark and covered with the gloom of death, the earth of misery and darkness, where there is the shadow of death and no order.
6. Second, in the proposed verse the awakening of the dead is noted with the confirming speech, when it adds: sat up, and began to speak. We find, moreover, that the Lord raised three dead people, namely the young girl,
Lazarus, and this young man; and the awakening of each one is distinguished by a proof for each. For the first raising of the young girl is proved by eating; second, the raising of Lazarus by walking; third, the raising of the young man is proved by speaking. Eating regards a vegetative act, walking an act of the senses, and speaking an act of reason.
7. So that with a threefold proof Jesus be shown the giver of life and the Lord of the soul's salvation, according to his power and virtue, first an awakening is proved with eating, which regards a vegetative act. Whence Luke
8:54-56 states: But he, taking her by the hand, cried out saying, Girl, arise! And her spirit returned, and she rose up immediately. And he directed that something be given to her to eat. And her parents were amazed. But he, taking her by the hand, behold the assistance of strength; cried out saying: Girl, arise!, behold the authority of majesty;
And her spirit returned, through an intimate union; and she rose up immediately, through a vital operation, for to arise is an activity proper to one who is alive. He directed that something be given to her to eat, as a useful manifestation, to prove that it was a true awakening, and not a phantasm. This is however the sign of a true awakening; it imparts to the senses, so that the mind may rise on
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high in admiration."* Whence it follows: And her parents were amazed.
8. Second, the awakening of Lazarus is proved with walking, which regards an act of the senses. Whence John
11:43-44 says: Jesus cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! And at once he who had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands with bandages. Whence the Gloss says: "Just as it is due to the power of God that he arises, so also that what is still wrapped comes forth""*' and he walked. Jesus, in whom the flesh is joined with the eternal Word, cried out with a loud voice, working interiorly and arousing exteriorly: Lazarus come out, with your own feet, so that your awakening may be known to the people, who are gathered around, and thus they may believe that I am the principle of human creation and restoration, I who am speaking with you."* And at once he who had been dead came forth, and this is because, according to Augustine: "No one can arouse one asleep from sleep so easily, as Christ revives one from the sepulcher.""""
9. Third, the awakening of the adolescent is proved with speaking, which regards an act of reason. Whence today's Gospel says: And he who was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. There is no doubt that this awakened young man was speaking words of divine praise, which is not proper to the dead but to the living. In this it is apparent that he was clearly
746 The critical edition states that this comes from the Glossa Interlinearis.
741 The critical edition states that this comes from the Glossa Interlinearis.
748 See John 8:25 and esp. Bonaventure's exposition of Luke 11:
31 (n. 66) in his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 1091-92 with n. 198.
749 This is a paraphrase of Tractate 49 n. 9. See CCSL xxxvi, 424.
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alive, because life is discerned through movement and the senses. But because he had awakened this one for the consolation of the mother, he therefore gave him to his mother. It is not without mystery that the girl in her awakening is said to have rose up, that this adolescent sat up, and that Lazarus came forth, bound feet and hands with bandages. For the sin of knowledge is understood through the death of the girl in the home; the sin of works is understood through the adolescent at the gate; and the sin of habit through Lazarus in the sepulcher.
And as grave sins leave greater consequences, therefore the person who only sinned in thought arose immediately once enlivened, and with few remaining difficulties; the person who sinned however in deed, sits when enlivened, because the inclination still remains; the person who habitually sinned is bound when enlivened, because that one has a great inclination to evil and difficulty in regard to the good.
10. Third, in the proposed verse exalted praise is noted with regard to reverence for the creative Wisdom, when it includes: But fear seized upon all, and they began to magnify God. Indeed God must be magnified with reverence for the work of recreation, because first there is a declaration of power in the defeat of the ancient enemy; second, the manifestation of wisdom in relieving the prostrate person; third, the expression of mercy in the mission of the Holy Spirit. And on account of this we must praise
God for the work of recreation, which is signified in the restoration and resuscitation of that young man, because with the virtue of his power he defeated the cruel tyrant, because with the acuity of his wisdom he relieved the prostrate person, and because with the benignity of his clemency he sent us the Holy Spirit.
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11. First, they were magnifying God for the work of recreation due to the virtue of power in the defeat the ancient enemy. The Blessed Virgin speaks of this in Luke
1:46-51: My soul magnifies the Lord. And it follows: He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their heart. The glorious Virgin displays with total affection, that she praises the divine strength for the benefit of the incarnation, when she says: My soul magnifies the Lord; then she provides the reason when it adds: He has shown the strength of his arm, that is, in her
Son; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their heart, that is, the devil and his followers, who take pride in the thoughts of their heart, through presumption in the intellect and ambition in the affections; or even: He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their heart, when he defeated the haughty demons with the pronouncement of his counsels. Moreover, this defeat of demonic cruelty, which obliges us to magnify divine strength, was expressed figuratively in the defeat of Egyptian power, according to what Exodus 15:6 says: Your right hand, O
Lord, is magnified in strength; your right hand, O Lord, has slain the enemy. And in the multitude of your glory you have put down your adversaries.
12. Second, they were magnifying God for the work of recreation due to keen wisdom in relieving the prostrate person. Whence Psalm 33:4 says: Magnify the Lord with me, and let us together exalt his name. I sought the Lord and he heard me, and he rescued me from all my tribulations. The prophet David, the great herald and advocate of divine praise, considered how keen divine wisdom is, according to which "The order of our salvation and relief earnestly requested, once humanity had fallen prey to the craft of the traitor in his multiple wiles, to carry a rem-
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
edy there where the enemy had deceived;"'" whence, as defeat arose from the tree of death, so then relief would arise from the tree of life. Every person is invited to give thanks, when it says: Magnify the Lord with me, in heart, mouth, and work; and let us together exalt his name, by attributing honor and glory to him alone. After the augmentation of praise, he adds the reason for praise, by saying in the person of the holy fathers: J sought the Lord, asking with devout insistence of prayer that the benefit of our relief come quickly; and he heard me, by inclining the ears of his mercy to the prayers of our humility. The oath that he swore to our father Abraham that he would give himself to us;"! whose gift, rescued me from all tribulations, with which Egyptian cruelty was oppressing us; by a transferal from the Egypt of sin, into the kingdom of his beloved Son." This can be understood similarly in Daniel 4:34: I magnify the king of heaven, because all his works are true and all his ways are just.
13. Third, they were magnifying God for the work of recreation due to the benignity of mercy in the mission of the Holy Spirit. Whence Sirach 43:33-35 says: Blessing the Lord, exalt him as much as you can: for he is above all praise. When you exalt him put forth all your strength, and be not weary: for you can never go far enough. Who shall see him, and declare him, and who shall magnify him as he is from the beginning? Truly we must bless and exalt God, according to the measure of our possibilities, for such a benefit, namely for the mission of the Holy Spirit,
7° This is taken from stanza three of the hymn for Matins on Passion Sunday.
1 See Luke 1:73.
72 See Col 1:13: "God has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son."
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
although he is above all human praise." For exalting in this way, in word and work, you put forth all the strength of the Holy Spirit; without growing weary, by scrutinizing with curiosity his inscrutable origin, indeed you can never go far enough; for all the philosophers, magicians, and Christians fall short, scrutinizing the origin through an inquiry "into this third sign.""** For who shall see him, by knowing his origin through human investigation; and declare him, and magnify him, as from the beginning, given the deficiency of human speech? Certainly nobody, because the Spirit, blows where he wills and you hear his voice, but you do not know where it goes and from whence it comes.' Let us ask, etc.
753 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Interlinearis.
754 The immediate reference is to Exod 8:18-19 where Pharaoh's magicians say that the third sign was performed by the finger of God.
See Book II, Quaestiones Exodi XXV in Sancti Avrelii Avgustini Quaestionvm in Heptatevchum Libri VII et al, edited by I. Fraipont, CCSL xxxiii (Turnhout, Brepols, 1968), 79 where the Holy Spirit is identified as "the finger of God."
755 See John 3:8.
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
SERMON 43: SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. And he took and healed him and let him go. Luke 14:4. Since in the judgment and reflections of the Pharisees, one was allowed on the Sabbath day to pull out an ox or a donkey that had fallen into a pit without transgressing the law, our Lord here in the Gospel of today, arguing a minori with an efficacious comparison, displays quite forcefully that he did not violate the Sabbath with the cure of the sick man, as the health of a person must be preferred to the health of an ox and donkey. Whence to confound the malice and cunning of the Jews, we are given to understand three things in this regard in the proposed verse. And the first is humility in touching and taking hold of the sick; second is strength in curing his sickness; third, is liberality in sending him to go away in freedom; and so through humility he refutes the pride of the Jews; through strength their indolence; and through liberality their perfidy, when they neither deigned to touch him nor were they able to cure him nor wish to free him. And it is because of these things that took place, which Christ accomplished exteriorly in the body, we are taught those things that are to be done interiorly in the soul, for the infusion of grace is signified through a humble holding; the expiation of guilt through an efficacious cure; and the loosening of penalty through a gracious remission. Whence in the proposed verse he first spiritually took hold of the sick person through the infusion of grace in the incarnation, for he did not take hold of the angels but the children of Abraham, according to what Hebrews 2:16 states. Second, he healed his sick-
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ness through the expiation of guilt in the passion. Third, he sent him away in freedom through the loosening of the penalty in the mission of the Holy Spirit, because where there is the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom." Indeed unlike an avaricious person, he did not want to demand a payment from him, by driving him back into the servitude of the Old Testament, due to the conferred benefit. But instead, as generous and bountiful, he transfers him to the freedom of the gospel, and so it says he: let him go in freedom.'*' And this because that was a work of mercy and liberality, by which the Sabbath was not transgressed, as by a mere work of avarice and servitude, the performance of which was prohibited, according to what Leviticus 23:7 says: And you will do no servile work therein.
2. First, in the proposed verse the humility of the Savior is noted in the taking hold of the sick person through the infusion of grace in the incarnation, when it says:
And he took him. The Lord, moreover, took hold of the sick person spiritually by pouring out his grace in a threefold manner; first, through the bitterness of penance by detesting the committed sins; second, through the rectitude of justice in the fulfillment of divine precepts; third, through the fortitude of patience in the endurance of inflicted evils.
3. First, the Lord took hold of the sick person spiritually through the bitterness of penance by detesting the committed sins. Whence Jeremiah 31:32 says: I took their hand, that is, works, by going before through intimate inspiration; so I might lead them, by helping through the 756 See 2 Cor 3:17: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."
| 757 On Bonaventure's interpretation of Luke 14:4, see also his Commentary of the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 1321.
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performance of good works; from the land of Egypt, that is, from the state of sin. Indeed Egypt is interpreted as darkness and signifies sin,"* by reason of which a person is so darkened that one is unable to see what one should do. When one is unable to be directed to the good without the light of grace, but darkened by the delight of sin, the person is prone to every sin.
4. Second, the Lord took hold of the sick person through the rectitude of justice in the fulfillment of divine precepts. Whence Isaiah 42:6 says: I the Lord have called you in justice, by imposing precepts to be observed faithfully; I took the hand, by helping complete the imposed works. For work is understood through hand, but divine assistance through hold, because human fragility is so great that, unless it is assisted by divine power, it is unable to make progress in any good, but rather it falls short. And I preserved you, by giving perseverance to remain in them.
5. Third, the Lord took hold of the sick person through the fortitude of patience in the endurance of inflicted evils. This can be understood by Psalm 34:2: Take hold of arms and shield and rise to my assistance. By arms the virtues are designated with which vices are fought; by shield the patience is understood through which the evils in question are endured. Whence God takes hold of arms and shield, when he pours out upon a person the virtues with which vice and sin are fought, and patience, with which the evils in question are endured; but he rises to his assistance, when with the temptation of vices, he
78 See CCSL xxii, 143: "Egypt means darkness or tribulation."
PENTECOST AND THE SuNDAYS AFTER
brings about the increase of virtues.7"? Whence Gregory observes: "Unless the merciful God moderates trials with virtues, there is nobody who is able to avoid the snares of evil."76° 6. Second, the expiation of guilt is noted, when it adds: healed him. Since "Whatever Christ does is for our instruction," therefore, through the cure of the sick body brought about by Christ we are taught to spiritually understand the cure of the vices proper to the spirit.
Whence if we want to proceed scientifically, let us first look at what things occur with this material illness of dropsy, since through this we come more easily to the knowledge of spiritual dropsy, that is, of sin; and so with the awareness of each kind of dropsy in illness, we will explain more thoroughly the cures and remedies exhibited by Christ, the physician of bodies and souls. However while many things occur with the illness of dropsy, nevertheless there are three principal things that are its cause. And the first is the tumor or swelling of the body, by which pride is understood; second, the stink or abomination of bad breath, by which voluptuousness is understood; third, is the ardor or gasping of thirst. Since at that time the Lord healed the person with dropsy not only corporally but even spiritually, he healed first then the tumor of swollen pride with the trepidation of humility; second, the stink of abominable voluptuousness with the adornment of chastity; third, the ardor of destructive avarice with the love of poverty. In such a way
759 See 2 Cor 10:13: "... God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also give you a way out that you may be able to bear it."
760 Bonaventure has adapted Book IX, c. 46 n. 71 of Gregory's Moralia in Iob. See CCSL exliii, 507.
761 See the critical edition Sermones dominicales, 100-01 for the origin of this statement.
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the soul, disordered and turned away from the persons of the Trinity, namely from the power of the Father through the tumor of pride, from the wisdom of the Son through the stink of voluptuousness, and from the clemency of the Holy Spirit through the ardor of avarice, may be ordered and turned back to the Father with the trepidation of humility, to the Son with the adornment of chastity, and the Holy Spirit with the love of poverty; and so where there had been a vestige of sin or the devil, a vestige of the Trinity shines therein.
7. First, the Lord spiritually heals the person with dropsy from the tumor of swollen pride with the trepidation of humility." And this can be explained by Luke
7:6-10: Lord, Iam not worthy, that you should come under my roof; that is why I did not think myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed...
They found the servant in good health who had been ill.
First, this centurion, when considering the height of divine majesty, says: Lord, I am not worthy, that you should come under my roof. Second, when recognizing the worthlessness of his particular weakness, it adds: that is why
I did not think myself worthy to come to you. Indeed the worthlessness of this indignity did not escape his notice through pride, but it was noted by extraordinary humility. Third, when professing the readiness of divine virtue, it introduces: But say the word, and my servant will be healed, as if to say: while in your presence no word is impossible,'® there is no distinction between "to say and ® Bonaventure's play on tumore (tumor) and timorem (trepidation) highlights the medieval sense of an interplay between the spiritual and physical worlds, where how a person lives is manifested in the body.
763 See Luke 1:37.
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to do," for you are that Word through whom all things are made."® And that discourse is alive and efficacious,' full of power,' which heals all,"*8 and because the Lord is near to those who are troubled in heart, he will heal the humble in spirit,'® therefore, the fourth is introduced, that is, the celestial approach, or the action of divine piety in healing sickness at the home of the one suffering, when it follows: They found the servant in good health who had been ill. The powerful action precedes the return of the messengers; and this is because God freely condescends to the humble. Whence Augustine states: "God is on high, humble yourself, and he comes to you; exalt yourself, and he flees from you."'"° And although Zacchaeus humbled himself differently than the centurion, Zacchaeus by receiving and the centurion by daring not to receive, divine reverence happens in both cases. Whence given the example of these two, one does well who frequently receives the body of Lord out of reverence, as does one who ceases out of reverence: for salvation is given to both, as to the servant of the centurion and Zacchaeus himself. Whence, the Church depicts the reverence of the centurion in regard to the reception of the Lord's body in word, and the devotion of Zacchaeus in deed, since the Lord's body must
764 The critical edition refers to the Glossa Interlinearis on Sir 8:4.
765 See John 1:3.
766 See Hebr 4:12: "For the word of God is living and efficacious...."
767 See Sir 8:4: "And God's word is full of power...."
78 See Wis 16:12: "... but your word, O Lord, which heals all things."
769 See Ps 33:19: "The Lord is near to those who are contrite of heart, and he will save the humble in spirit."
770 This quotation is not from Augustine. See Sermon 210 n. 2 in Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones, edited by G. Morin, Second edition, CCSL civ (Turnhout: Brepols, 1953), 838. Bonaventure also cites this passage from "Augustine" in his commentary on Luke 7:10. See his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 1-8, 584.
THe SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
be received with the reverence of the centurion and the devotion of Zacchaeus."?
8. Second, the Lord spiritually heals the person with dropsy from the stink of abominable voluptuousness with the adornment of chastity. And from this one can grasp
Psalm 37:8-9: Because my loins are filled with illusions, and there is no health in my flesh; I am afflicted and greatly humiliated. According to Gregory the term loins designates voluptuousness,'" which is generated and appears when the loins are filled with illusions, that is, with the shameful images of women, impure thoughts and filthy affections. Whence, just as when many corrupted and melancholic fluids abound in the body, they generate a certain itch, scaly skin and sometimes leprosy, which destroys the cleanliness of the body; so too when impure thoughts, inordinate affections, and shameful images of women and illusions abound in the heart, they generate certain corrupt fluids and inordinate desires in the heart. And because these things contaminate the body by removing the healthiness and cleanliness of chastity; it therefore says: there is no health in my body. Why? Because my loins are filled with illusions. Certainly a person must remove these illusions from the heart with the greatest zeal, because voluptuousness is primarily generated in the heart from them, and from the heart they overflow into the body, according to Matthew 5:28: Whoever looks upon a women with concupiscence, has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And because of this it follows: I am afflicted and greatly humiliated,
I roared with the groaning of my heart. Lord, all my de7". On Bonaventure's interpretation of the Zacchaeus story found in Luke 19:1-10, see his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters
17-24, 1789-1807.
™ See Homily 13 n. 1 in GGHG in CCSL ecxli, 90.
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sire is before you." This is well said: afflicted, through the mortification of the flesh, because chastity cannot be established without it, as the mortification of the flesh restrains the delights of concupiscence, the stirring, and the desires of the flesh; and I am greatly humiliated, due to the degradation of the indulgent body; J roared with the groaning of my heart, due to the compunction of pain, and one can say then: Lord, all my desire is before you
? through a perfect ordering of the heart.
9. Third, the Lord spiritually heals the person with dropsy from the ardor of destructive avarice with the love of poverty. Whence Psalm 59:4 says: You have moved the earth and disturbed it; heal its sorrows, because it is shaken. The soul dedicated to worldly profit, which is scattered like the dust of the earth among various thoughts, is understood as the earth; because of this the sorrows of afflicted thoughts are unable to be healed, unless they are first removed and constrained by the fear of the Lord, unless they are torn and confounded by the suffering of sin, and opened up by the love of Christ. For that reason the prophet said: You have moved the earth, by restraining it with fear through the consideration of divine judgment; and disturbed it, by tearing it with suffering by deploring all sins, heal its sorrows, by opening it up with love through the promise of eternal retribution; because it is shaken, through compassion to lavish almsgiving, such that one who was robbing others, distributes one's own.
Whence Gregory states: "Holding on, we loose all earthly things, by distributing, we hold on to them; indeed we are unable to endure for a long time with things, because either we lose them when we die, or they forsake us, by going to waste while we are living. We must act, there773 See Ps 37:9-10.
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fore, so that we may transform perishable things into a nonperishable reward."""* 10. Third, it introduces: and let him go, where the loosening of the penalty is noted, which is able to take place due to the insistence of devout supplication, the vehemence of divine love, and pardoning the offenses of others. A person is ordered to oneself by reason of the first, to God by reason of the second, and to the neighbor by reason of the third.
11. First, the remission and loosening moreover takes place due to the insistence of devout supplication. Whence
Psalm 31:5 says: I said: I will confess, and you remitted the impiety of my sins. For this every holy person will pray to you in the opportune time, as if to say: when the sinner repents, turns back and proposes, saying within the heart:
I will confess, by amending the proposal with deeds; you, namely God and no other, remitted the impiety of my sin.
In fact only God is able to remit and delete sins, although a sinner may be absolved through the mediating ministry of a priest. For this, namely the mercy which easily forgives, every holy person will pray to you, by imploring it with devout insistence of prayer, in the opportune time, that is, in a time and place. And Matthew 18:32 similarly speaks of this: I forgave you all the debt because you entreated me.
12. Second, this remission takes place due to the vehemence of divine love. Whence Luke 7:47 states: Her many sins were forgiven, because she loved much. Behold the Lord esteems this woman, who had been purged from sin through affection of love, because the "ardor of divine love
™* Bonaventure has adapted Book XVIII, c. 18 n. 28 of Moralia in Iob. See CCSL exliiia, 903.
PENTECOST AND THE SuNDAYS AFTER
had consumed the blight of sin in her.""> This sentence must not be understood, such that the person who had sinned more would have greater approval, but it shows with regard to obligation, that more is required from the person to whom more was remitted, notwithstanding the supposed grace and rectitude of will. On the other hand there are many who are obliged to give great thanks, who render little or nothing.
13. Third, this remission takes place due to pardoning the offenses of others. Whence Matthew 6:12 reads:
Forgive us our debts as we forgive the debts of others. Our debts are said to be our sins, because they make us debtors of that which we are unable to pay back. Whence to ask for their pardon, this condition is required: as we forgive the debts of others; It is just. The one who flees from the law of charity falls into the law of justice; and on account of this Matthew 6:14 says: For if you forgive people their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your offenses. But if you do not forgive people, neither will your
Father forgive you your offenses. Whence Gregory states:
"The Lord returns by reason of justice to those sins dismissed by reason of mercy."'"* Let us ask, etc.
715 This citation is based on the Glossa Ordinaria on Luke 7:37.
See PL 114:272A.
776 This citation is not from Gregory, but is based on Ambrosiaster.
See his commentary on Eph 4:32 in PL 17:415D. See n. 483 above where Ambrosiaster is also quoted.
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SERMON 44: SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
1. You will love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. Matthew 22:37.
[Protheme] It is clear like the light of noon; and like the cloud of dew in the day of harvest. The words read in the second verse proposed from Isaiah 18:4 are those in which the bestowal of divine wisdom is described as fervid, lucid, frigid, and fecund. Fervid, I say, as opposed to the tepidity of negligence, lucid as opposed to the darkness of ignorance, frigid as opposed to the heat of concupiscence, and fecund as opposed to the sterility of avarice.
What is fervid may be touched however without the tepidity of negligence, as when it proposes: like the light of noon. Indeed light at noon has a greater fervor. Lucidity is noted in opposition to the darkness of ignorance, when it follows: It is clear. Frigidity is noted in opposition to the heat of concupiscence, when it says: and like the cloud of dew. Fecundity is noted in opposition to the sterility of avarice, when it adds: in the day of harvest. Since it is our common intention then to draw something from the depth of this divine wisdom, as if it were a drop from a jar placed among us, let us humbly implore before all the merciful and fontal principle, that is the paternal light, so that with his benign condescension in this kind of bestowal he may remove from us the tepidity of negligence, the darkness of ignorance, the heat of concupiscence, and the sterility of avarice. At last then fervent without any negligence, lucid without ignorance, frigid without concu-
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piscence, and fecund without avarice, we may be able to offer something worthwhile, which may be to the praise and glory, etc.
[Sermon] 2. You will love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. Since it is in the nature of great goodness to communicate itself rightfully to those who are evil and hostile, our Lord as a good doctor wanted to communicate the doctrine of truth to the spiteful Jews, who were questioning him in a deceitful way, when their beneficial questions proceeded from a deceitful soul. He gave a response of truth when it says in the proposed verse: You will love the Lord your God, whereby he proceeds in a most elegant and wonderful manner, ordering the entire human person according to one's powers to God by means of the three theological virtues. For the first regulates the concupiscent power as to what is most lovable by commanding an act of charity; the second elevates the irascible power as to what is most honorable by suggesting the divine as the object; and the third illuminates reason as to what is most intelligible by explaining the method of truth. The first is to be done through charity, the second through hope, and the third through faith. The first then commands the noble act of charity by regulating concupiscence, when it says: You will love. Indeed this act of love is elicited from concupiscent power. The second suggests the honorable object of the divinity by elevating the irascible, when it adds: the Lord your God. God is namely the proper and principal object of charity; and this is the reason that the love of God is the first and the greatest commandment; both the neighbor and every person need not be loved, except for the sake of God or in God by reason of the divine image and similitude: whence it is
777 See Matt 22:38.
THe SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
considered a similar commandment. However, if someone loves another not for the sake of God or in God, namely with affection due to family relationships, the flesh, or some kind of convenience, it is called a natural act, not the virtue of charity. The third explains the useful method of truth, by illuminating reason, when it includes: with all your heart."
3. It says then: You will love, where it commands an act of charity. That act of love is the virtue of charity, which due to an incomparable preeminence of utility and excellence, is first and principally commanded and placed under the precept of the law, and is even said to be the greatest for three reasons. For in respect to the precepts, it holds the primacy of force in being; in respect to the virtues, it holds the preeminence of dignity in meriting; and in respect to works, it holds the delightfulness of acceptability in remunerating. O deifying virtue in which all precepts are radically grounded, through which the other virtues are fashioned for merit, and according to which all works are accepted!*"° 4. First, that precept of love holds the primacy of force in respect to the precepts in the order of being. Whence that is what gives efficacious vigor to the precepts according to Gregory, who.says about John 15:12 This is my precept, that you love one another as I have loved you:
"What is there about love that makes it like a singular command" that admonishes us? Because all "precepts are many and one: many through diversity of works, one
78 See Matt 22:37.
™® The critical edition finds a parallel in Peter Lombard's exposition of Psalm 118:96 in PL 191:1092A.
789 See Homily 27 n. 1 in GGHG in CCSL cxli, 229. The citation is verbatim.
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in the root of charity.""*' On account of this it says in today's Gospel: On these two commands depend the entire law and the prophets, because they lead back to the love of God and neighbor as the primary and root foundation.
This is what the apostle realized when he said in Ephesians 3:17: rooted and grounded in love, etc. Miserable are they who lack this foundation, because whatever they build upon, total ruin results! Whence works done outside of charity never come to life, as they will be without root; and Gregory speaks of this: "Neither does a branch have any green, unless it remains in the root of charity."'®"
5. Second, that virtue of love has the strength to merit in respect to the virtues, because it gives form to the virtues. Whence 1 Corinthians 13:13 says: The greatest of these is love, where the apostle, discussing all the virtues be they political or theological, concludes first by reason of removal, and then by reason of placement, that charity has the preeminence. For when charity is in place, everything meritorious is put in place, and when removed, everything useful for salvation is removed. That is certainly the only thing that gives form to merit. Whence, the other virtues are formless without it, because they have no meritorious grace, if not through it. In the same manner that colors lose their form and beauty, when light departs, and regain them when the light returns, so too with the virtues if charity departs; and this is what 1 John 2:10-11 says: The person who loves remains in the light, ... and the one who hates is in darkness. Hence Augustine said:
"Take hold of charity, and do whatever you want."'* 781 See Homily 27 n. 1 in GGHG in CCSL cxli, 230. The quotation is verbatim. wae 782 See Homily 27 n. 1 in GGHG in CCSL cxli, 230. The citation is almost verbatim.
783 See Tractate 7, c. 4 n. 8 on 1 John in PL 35:2033: Dilige, et quod vis fac.
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
6. Third, this act of love has a delightful partiality in remunerating works, because it establishes the measure of retribution for works; for the glory of the homeland will be measured according to charity during life, such that where there is more love, there is more of the beatific vision, because the magnitude of merit does not consist in external work, but in interior pleasure. Based on this, martyrdom, which has the greatest reward among all that a person does, is said to be a work of charity according to John 15:13: Greater love than this does no one have, that one lay down one's life for one's friends. The apostle imputes the reason for this in Romans 13:9: And if there is any another commandment, it is summed up in this saying, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law, as if to say: If a person should fall short, and with it be dispensed by reason of necessity in regard to the other commandments, one can recover in it by reason of its fullness and perfection.
But a person cannot dispense with it, because its failure and omission cannot be restored in the other commandments, since there is no price worthy of a loving soul."
7. It follows: the Lord your God, where it suggests the honorable object of the deity and, in fact, the entire Trinity. These three designations are not without mystery, for through them is manifested the Trinity of divine persons, who confer upon us the three greatest benefits, by which we are delightfully attracted to the love of God. Whence,
Lord is said due to the condition of a natural being in creation; God due to the bestowal of multiple graces in conservation; and your due to the giving away of oneself or the perpetual inheritance in glorification. And so, appropriately speaking, we are created through the power
74 See Sir 26:20: "And no price is worthy of a continent soul."
PENTECOST AND THE SuNDAYS AFTER
of the Father, conserved through the wisdom of the Son, and glorified through the clemency of the Holy Spirit.
8. First, You will love the Lord due the condition of a natural being in creation. Whence Deuteronomy 10:12 states: And now, what other thing does your God ask from you, except that you fear the Lord God and love him? Because one is held and obliged to fear the Lord humbly, to obey him faithfully, and to love him fervently due to the benefit, which he conferred upon humanity in creation, when he sealed human beings with the divine image, a person has the possibility to fulfill these three things; for that reason he requires this as if it were a debt, when it says: And now, what other thing does your God ask from you, except that you fear the Lord God and love him? Behold the fear of humility and subjection; and you will walk in his ways, behold the labor of faithful obedience in the execution of the commandments, which are designated with the name "ways"; and love him, behold the fervor of sincerity and benevolence.
9. Second, you will love God, due to the bestowal of multiple graces in conservation. Whence Psalm 96:10 says: You who love the Lord, hate evil, the Lord watches over the souls of his servants. You who love the Lord, by doing good through love; hate evil, by deviating from evil through fear, because through the love and fear of God human beings are rendered holy and merit the benefit of care and conservation. Whence, it follows: the Lord watches over the souls of his servants, with the reception of multiple benefits. For the services and benefits come together to watch over humanity and conserve all creatures. In fact the angels minister, the heavens give light to human beings during the day so they may work, darkness at night so they may sleep, and useful change of seasons; God made the atmosphere so it might offer them
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useful warmth and serve every type of bird; he made the water, so he might offer drink to human beings, purge the squalor, irrigate the fields, and nurture a diversity of fish for their use; he made the earth, so it may take care of them, comfort them with bread and gladden them with wine."*° The entire world is at the service of humanity, because it was made for human beings. Therefore, by reason of so many benefits, you who love God, prove this through the exhibition of good works, otherwise you will be accused of ingratitude. - 10. Third, You will love your God due to the giving away of the perpetual inheritance in glorification. Whence
Psalm 25:8 states: Lord, I loved the beauty of your house and the place of your glorious dwelling. That beauty is nothing other than the divine reflection, by which divine rays of splendor glitter, making the empyreum heaven a house of beauty, due to the reflection of divine clemency; and the place of your glorious dwelling, due to the communication of glorious divinity. O how illustrious and spectacular is the beauty of your house, and with what
Davidic desire must it be loved! O how happy and holy is that place of your glorious dwelling, with what avidity that place must be sought, in which God profusely communicates his very self delightfully and perpetually to the blessed, dwelling in them in glory!
11. Third, it includes: with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind, where it explains the beneficial method of truth, in a wonderful and ineffable manner. The greatest master, Christ, teaches how God must be loved in these three designations, with heart, soul, and mind. For a person is unable
78° See Ps 103:14-15: "... that you may bring bread out of the earth and that wine may cheer the human heart."
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
to love God, unless one is united with him; and a person is unable to be united to him, unless one knows, possesses, and holds him, in accord with one's three noble powers, that is intelligence, will, and memory, in which the image of God resides according to Augustine.'®* Whereas to know is proper to the intelligence, to have proper to the will, and to hold proper to the memory, it follows that the act of these three powers, which are designated with the name of heart, soul, and mind, have to concur by necessity in order to love God, seeing that the intelligence is equated with the heart, the will with the soul, and the memory with the heart, as assumed in this verse according to Augustine. And thus God must be loved faithfully, so that the intelligence is not seduced by the falsity of error; second, sincerely, so the will is not enticed by the pleasure of the flesh; third, incessantly, so the memory is not weakened by the continuity of work. That division is even taken from blessed Augustine, who explains this verse in this manner: "With the whole heart, that is with the intellect without error; with the whole soul, that is with the will without contradiction; and with the whole mind, that is with the memory without forgetfulness."'*
And so, divine love is the enlightenment of everything that is to be believed, the disdain of carnal delights, and the continuation of good works.
12. First, You will love the Lord with the whole heart, that is, with the solidity of faith in the intellectual power, so you are not seduced by fallacies. Whence Deuteronomy
6:4-5 reads: Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. You will love the Lord with the whole heart. Hear, O Israel, by listening reverently with the ear: The Lord your God
786 See Book X, c. 11 n. 12 of De Trinitate in CCSL 1, 329-32.
787 The critical edition states that the exact same words are not found in Augustine. See Sermon 108 n. 4 of Alcuin in PL 39:1960.
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is one, by faithfully believing in the heart, so that you do not compare something unequally by falsely imagining, that there are other gods; You will love the Lord with the whole heart, by efficacious confirmation in work, so you do not accept anything that is contrary, as the heart should not open up through affection to anything else except to him to whom the whole heart should be given over to in love. Whence when we love something above God or besides God, by no means do we love him with the whole heart, for just as the intellect errs in believing, so too the affections in loving.
13. Second, You will love the Lord with the whole heart, that is, with sincerity of soul in the affective power, so that you are not enticed by flattery. Whence The Song of Songs 5:6 says: My soul melted, as my beloved spoke to me. The soul is melted then by the sweet language of God, like wax which flows in the face of fire,'** when in meditation on him it glows with the fire'® of divine love; and indeed it dissolves in the water of devotion with the inspiration and infusion of any spiritual ray, like ice which dissolves with the heat of material fire, when it abides in the most fervent desire and love of the spiritual sun. It does this in order to draw itself completely into interior things, so as not to be dispersed among exterior things, or have some rainy cloud of carnal frigidity intervene, but so it may receive in the mind the infusion of the divine rays that inflame the whole heart.
14. Third, You will love the Lord with the whole heart, that is, with assiduous zeal in the effective power, so you
788 See Ps 67:3: "As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish. As wax melts before the fire, let the wicked perish in the presence of the Lord."
7 See Ps 38:4: "My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire will flame out."
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AT7 are not weakened in compliance. Whence the Lord says in Deuteronomy 5:2: Who will give to me that they have such a mind so as to fear me and to keep my commands for all time? Behold the Lord offers the affection of his goodness, when he wishes for us, that through the fear of filial reverence for him, we may carry out his precepts continually, incessantly, and without diminution, and thus fulfill in us Proverbs 17:17: The one who is a friend, loves at all times, since divine love, by reason of continuity, must be like death and hell, for whatever is seized by them once is never let go. Whence The Song of Songs 8:6 states: Love is as strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell.' Let us ask, etc.
790 See Cant 8:6: "Put me as a seal upon your heart ... for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell..."
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SERMON 45: EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. Rise up, take your bed, and go to your house. Matthew 9:6. Since according to the Philosopher,
"Powers are distinguished or known through acts or works,""! the Lord, through a miraculous work beyond nature, made the power of his divinity known by forgiving sins, when with one word he restored the paralytic to perfect health, saying in the proposed verse: Rise up, take your bed, etc. Whence as a perfect physician of body and soul, he proceeds in this verse with great skillfulness, because with those three designations, namely, rise up, take, and go, perfect health both for the exterior person in respect to the body, as well as for the interior person in respect to the spirit is designated in opposition to three evils, which cause material paralysis in the body and sin, that is, spiritual paralysis in the mind. For that infirmity renders a person unable to physically stand up, impotent in working and unable to walk. Thus sin, in its manner, takes away the rectitude of the soul's position through fault, the fortitude of action through injustice, and the promptness of movement through negligence; but the Lord commands three goods against these three evils; for first he orders the rectitude of status through the abandonment of the fault, when it says: Rise up; second, the fortitude of action through execution of justice, when it adds: take your bed, that is, justice, through which you
791 See Book II, c. 4 of Aristotle, De anima in WAE, vol. 3, 415a:"... for in the order of investigation the question of what an agent does precedes the question, what enables it to do what it does."
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may firmly begin to act at all times; and the third, the promptness of movement through the acquisition of glory, when it includes: go to your house. The Gloss says: "To go home is to return to paradise," because paradise is the proper habitation of humanity, as human beings were made for this.
2. It says, therefore: Rise up, where it orders the rectitude of status through the abandonment of fault. Because the soul falls in three ways, namely due to the ignorance of error, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the violence of diabolical temptations, thus in order to have the rectitude of status by abandoning fault, it must pay close attention, so that it may arise from these: first, from the darkness of ignorant deception that blinds; second, from the allurements of carnal concupiscence that debases, third, from presence of diabolical power that oppresses.
3. First, the person who wishes to have the rectitude of status has to rise up from the darkness of error and ignorance that blinds, and this through the observation of the truth. And Acts 9:6 speaks of this: Rise up and go into the city, and it will be told to you what you must do.
Behold that Paul was persecuting the disciples of Christ, guided by zeal for the law, believing that he was offering a service to God,' but since this was not done out of certain knowledge or malice, but because he was obscured by the ignorance of error, he was therefore commanded to go into the city, by which is understood the congregation of the faithful, who are gathered together under the same norm of living, so that he might be instructed by them
722 This is an exact quotation from the Glossa Ordinaria on Matt 9:6. See PL 114:115C.
793 See John 16:2: "They will expel you from the synagogues. Yes, the hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering worship to God."
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as to what he must do. It was worthy and just that he, who considered himself to be wise and made himself the leader of others, was led by the hand like a blind person, and handed over to Ananias as a disciple." This was because the conversion of Paul was of the greatest violence, for he believed out of ignorance and deceptive zeal that what he was doing was right, Whence Gregory observes:
"When an error is believed to be a virtue, it is more difficult to amend it." Hence, these who seek holiness, after having fallen into error, are slowly corrected. Considering whatever they do to be right, and as they excel in virtue, they thus join perseverance to the fault.
4. Second, rise up from the allurements of carnal concupiscence that debases, and this through the embrace of chastity. Whence Luke 15:18,13,15-16 state: J will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father I have sinned against heaven and before you. By means of that prodigal son a voluptuous person is understood; whence he is called the younger, because he was vainer and more intent on carnal pleasures; he who with an upraised neck, asks for a share, wanting to utilize free will, such that now he does not walk in accord with the command of the divine will, but the pleasure of his will. Bede says: "The property consists in all that we do, live, taste, think, and say."'°° And Seneca writes: "Liberty badly handled erupts in wantonness.""" And thus he went away to a far country,
794 See Acts 9:8, 10.
7% Bonaventure paraphrases Book III, c. 16 of Regulae pastoralis liber. See PL 77:76A: Et cum vitium virtus creditur, sine metu culpa cumulatur.
6 Rather this quotation is from Jerome. See his Letter 21 n. 5 in PL 22:382. A longer version of this citation from Jerome occurs in Bonaventure's commentary on Luke 15:12. See Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 1424.
7 See Book I, c. 10 n. 2 of De beneficiis in Seneca Moral Essays, vol. 3, translated by John W. Basore, LCL (Cambridge: Harvard Uni-
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by committing sin. Gloss: He went away to a far country, not by changing the place, but the soul,"* because "The more someone transgresses in perversity, the further one recedes from the similitude of God."" He joined one of the citizens, that is, to the devil, by doing his will, and deservedly receded from the similitude of God and approached the pigs, that is the similitude of the demons, which he fed everyday, as long as he did not abandon the pleasures of the flesh. For this reason he expended all his natural goods by living voluptuously, and he wished to fill his stomach with the pods that that pigs were eating, that is he wished to discover the various sins of the flesh. "Pods, as the Gloss says, are a kind of legume hollow and creating the sound of bellows, that stuffs the belly, but offers little nourishment,"*" and it signifies the pleasures of the vices, which reverberate and pleasure the exterior body and do not restore the interior soul, on the contrary, they burden it. And no one gave them to him, because not even in all these is one satiated, and frequently were one supposes to find pleasure, one finds bitterness.*" But finally, seeing himself in such bitterness and laid low in the miseries of sin, he turned within through the consideration of self and the recognition of sin. And he said: J will rise up, through the abandonment or avoidance of evil sin; and I versity Press, 1935), 30-31: "Now ill-controlled liberty will burst forth into wantonness and presumption."
798 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria. In his exposition of Luke 15:13 Bonaventure cites this same Glossa. See Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 1425-26.
799 The critical edition says that this is from the Glossa Ordinaria.
800 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Interlinearis. In his postill on Luke 15:16 Bonaventure refers to this selfsame
Glossa. See Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 1433.
801 See Book II, c. 2 n. 4 of Augustine's Confessiones in CCSL xxvii, 19. In his commentary on Luke 15:16 Bonaventure cites this passage from Augustine. See Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 916, 1434.
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will go to my father, by undertaking the good; and I will say, through the confession of the mouth: Father, I have sinned against heaven, through contempt of the divine majesty that is above all things, and before you, through contempt of the truth that discerns all things. Therefore,
Iam not worthy to be called your son, due to the contempt of the goodness that adopts the good as sons, whom God the Father gathers in the embrace of charity and receives for the kiss of peace, by offering the robe of interior peace and clothing with the garment of exterior integrity.*"
5. Third, rise up from the presence of diabolical cruelty, Whence Acts 12:7 says: Rise up quickly, because the chains have fallen from your hands. Peter, placed in fetters of iron by diabolical suggestion and under the custody of guards in order to be killed, signifies the sinner bound to the fetters of diabolical fraud and placed under the custody of demons so as to perish in the death of eternal damnation. Here however he is roused to rise up by an angelic admonition, for with the assistance of Christ's strength, which breaks down the lofty gates of diabolical custody, the chains of diabolical fraud, have fallen, from the hands of his evil works. 1 Samuel 21:10 speaks similarly of these things: David rose up on that day and fled from the face of Saul. Saul, who is interpreted as one who abuses,*" signifies the devil, who abuses the creatures of God. Good David arises from his power because of the assistance of Christ's strength, and having been warned, flees.
** On Bonaventure's interpretation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, see his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, 142268.
*°8 See CCSL lxxii, 77: "Saul means one who has sought eagerly or the abuser."
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6. Second, in the proposed verse it orders fortitude of action in the execution of justice, when it adds: take your bed. That person has fortitude in executing justice, who first takes from the prophets and apostles instructive teaching for faithful understanding; second, from the patriarchs and virgins the enkindling example of charity and benevolence, third, from confessors and martyrs the comforting assistance of longsuffering and patience or perseverance. And these three things are necessary for every condition, sex, and age, namely, the truth of faith that gives understanding, the charity of Christ that gives benevolence, and longsuffering hope that gives perseverance. No adult, for instance, is in the state of salvation, unless one has faithful understanding in the intellect, charitable benevolence in the affections, and longsuffering perseverance in effect.
7. Well then, that person possesses fortitude in executing justice, who first takes the instructive teaching of faithful understanding. Genesis 6:21 is able to explain this: You will take with you from all the food that is edible.
Since everything written is for our instruction,' therefore, in order to escape the anger of the general judgment, according to the example of Noah, who took all food that was eatable and lawful for the preservation of the body, we are spiritually instructed to take from all the words of Sacred Scripture those which, in accord with the faculty of understanding, result in the preservation and salvation of the soul.
8. Second, take the enkindling example of charity and benevolence. Whence Genesis 22:2 says: Take your son whom you love, Isaac, and offer him to me in a holocaust
804 See Rom 15:4.
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upon one of the mountains I will show you.*" Indeed a person who wishes to experience, if one loves God, goes to the land of vision, that is, the person enters into the secrets of the conscience, and there one will see how much one loves God. That is if a person is prepared, according to the example of Abraham on one of the mountains God points out, that is, in some perfect state of religion or penance, which God teaches by inspiration, to offer whatever carnal or temporal thing that can distract and distance one from the love of God, most of all by removing from oneself: first, the sweetness of consanguinity, which is why it says: Take your son, because the person who loves father or mother, son or brother, or any other who restrains him by the law of relationship more than Christ, is not worthy®* of him; second, the avarice for property, when it adds: your, for no one is able to be a disciple of Christ, except the one who will have renounced all things, which one possesses; third, the allurement of delight, when it adds: whom you love. Those three things customarily distract and incline a person to self-love and draw one away from divine love. According to the example of Abraham, a spiritual person must remove all these from oneself in order to acquire the love and friendship of God.
9. Third, take the comforting assistance of longsuffering and patience. Whence Luke 9:23 states: If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. If anyone wishes to come after me, behold here the disregard and subjection of the will; and it says: wishes, so that one may do this freely and without force: denies himself, behold here the captivity of %°° Gen 22:2 reads: "He (God) said to him: Take your only-begotten son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of vision and offer him there as a holocaust upon one of the mountains that I will show you."
896 See Matt 10:37.
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freedom, such that one lives not according to oneself but according to God; and takes up his cross, behold here the acceptance of the penalty and this through patience; and follow me, the guide of exemplarity, he who for so long carried the shield of patience until he finished his life.
10. Third, in the proposed verse, it orders the promptness of movement through the acquisition of glory, when it further adds: go to your house. That person acquires glory with promptness who first goes humbly to deplore sins; second, incessantly to acquire eternal rewards; third, vigorously to overcome diabolical temptations. This is first done by confession of the mouth; second, by disdain for earthly things; third, by the protection of divine strength.
11. First, go humbly to manifest the perpetrated sins, and this by confession of the mouth. Luke 5:14 says: Go and show yourself to the priest. In this command, the Lord instructs that the sacerdotal office must be revered by all and that it is necessary to cure sinners. Whence, although the Lord cleanses through interior contrition, he nevertheless binds it to the sacerdotal office, when he says: Go and show yourself to the priest.
12. Second, go incessantly to acquire eternal rewards, and this by disdain for earthly things. Whence Matthew
19:21 reads: Go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Go, by removing negligence; sell all that you have, through disdain of earthly substance. It rightly says: se//, not conserve or exchange; all, "not a part;"°" and give to the poor, in order to receive divine satisfaction, not to the rich, for then
807 The critical edition states that this comes from the Glossa Interlinearis.
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God would not accept that; and you will have treasure in heaven, through the attainment of eternal glory.
13. Third, go vigorously to overcome diabolical temptations, and this by the protection of divine strength.
Whence Judith 8:34 states: Go, and may the Lord be with you to take revenge on your enemies, as if to say: when diabolical temptations and suggestions arise, do not measure your strength nor grow soft in view of your fragility; but go vigorously through the exercise of the virtues, because then the Lord will be with you, like a mighty warrior,5® a support and protector; to take revenge on your enemies, that is on the demons; making their temptation into a success for the virtues, so you may be able to overcome.®°
Whence Gregory: "Unless the merciful God moderates trials with virtues, there is nobody who is able to avoid the snares of evil."*!° Let us ask, etc.
*°8 See Jer 20:11: "But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior...."
809 See 1 Cor 10:13.
*!° Bonaventure has adapted Book IX, c. 46 n. 71 of Moralia in Iob.
See CCSL exliii, 507.
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SERMON 46: NINETEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
[Sermon] 1. But when the king heard of it, he was angry; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers. Matthew 22:7. Since it attests to the goodness of the judge that he rushes with the zeal of justice to hear counsel, detests in the heart and, if the possibility appears, punishes with works; therefore, our Lord indicates in the commendation of divine equity these three things in order in the proposed verse: and the first is the arousal of justice; the second is the detesting of the fault; and the third is the infliction of punishment. Whence, divine justice was aroused in hearing, the fault was detested in the affections, and the penalty was inflicted in an effect. The first is noted, when it says: But when the king heard of it, the second, when it adds: he was angry; and the third, when it further adds: he destroyed those murders.
2. It says therefore: But when the king heard of it, where it notes the arousal of justice by hearing. Divine justice is aroused at that time, when it first hears the arrogance of detestable disobedience; second, the malevolence of impiety and fury; third, the pleasure of carnal gluttony. By reason of the first, God is scorned; by reason of the second, the neighbor is offended, and by reason of the third, the body is corrupted.
3. First, divine justice is aroused, when it hears the arrogance of detestable disobedience that scorns God.
Whence Isaiah 37:4-5 states: May your Lord God hear the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of Assyria, his
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
lord, sent to blaspheme the living God and reproach with words, which the Lord God heard. Through Rabsaces who was sent by the king of Assyria to blaspheme God, the evil Christian is understood who is sent by diabolical suggestion to sin, and for this reason God is blasphemed.
Whence Bede says: "Moreover the one, who was struck down by the blows of the Jews, is now struck down by the blasphemies of false Christians,"*"' and he who was spat upon with the spittle of the unfaithful, is now dishonored with the frenzied reproaches of sinners. Isaiah 16:6 says something similar to this: We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is exceedingly proud. His pride, arrogance, and his indignation are more than his fortitude. The Lord says this, aroused with the zeal of justice, to condemn his sin.
4. Second, God is aroused when he hears the malevolence of cruelty and fury that oppresses a neighbor. The gospel today speaks of this: The rest laid hold of his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.*2 But when the king heard of it, he was angry; and he sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers. The rest then not only disdained coming to the faith, indeed they laid hold of his servants, the apostles, by seizure and incarceration, and treated them shamefully with innumerable tribulations, and bodily killed them. But when the king heard the voice calling out to him from the earth,®!" he was angry, and according to the Gloss "blazed up in revenge,"®"* and sent his armies "namely the Romans under Titus and 811 This citation is not from Bede, but from Rabanus Maurus. See
Book IV, c. 26, 67 of his Commentary on Matthew in PL 92:119A. The citation is almost verbatim.
812 See Matt 22:6.
*18 See Gen 4:10: "And God said to Cain: What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the earth."
84 The critical edition states that this is from the Glossa Interlinearis.
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Vespasian;" he destroyed those murderers, that is, the "Jews who were persecuting" the saints; and burnt their city, namely, "Jerusalem." Whence "it appears that it was totally burned and destroyed, seeing that it is presently constructed beyond the gate where the Lord was crucified," since the place of Christ's crucifixion is not beyond the gate, but rather in the middle of the city.®%
5. Third God is aroused, when he hears the pleasure of carnal gluttony that corrupts the proper subject. Whence
Psalm 77:18-21 says: They tempted God, by asking food for their desires, ... Therefore the Lord heard and was angry and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger came up against Israel. The Jews, carnal and gluttonous when they suffered hunger, immediately longed to be at the fleshpots in the land of Egypt;** it was not enough for them to do wrong with the sin of gluttony by desiring the carnal sweetness of Egypt, indeed they added to this by wronging him with the sin of unbelief and blasphemy, speaking badly of God, because he was not able to prepare a table for them in the desert. For that reason
God heard the voice and was displeased, but ever merciful, he delayed,*" ordering all things sweetly,** until that time when there might be food in their mouths,** so they might experience that nothing is impossible with God,*" and later he justly punished them, when the anger of God
815 See Hebr 13:12: "and so Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people by his blood, suffered outside the gate."
816 See Ex 16:3.
817 See Ps 77:21: "Therefore, the Lord heard and delayed...." The Latin distulit, which Bonaventure cites, has a twofold meaning: 1)
"was angry" or 2) "delayed." aaa 818 See Wis 8:1 "So she (Wisdom) reached from end to end mightily and ordered all things sweetly."
819 See Ps 77:30: "Their food was still in their mouths."
820 See Luke 1:37.
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came up against them.*"! They are truly gluttonous whose belly is their god.*" Furiously given over to food as if they were beasts, they think nothing of God, but only how they may fill their bellies, whose glory is in confusion,*" due to the subversion of the reason.
6. Second, in the proposed verse the detesting of the fault in the affections is noted, when it adds: he was angry. There are three things, which God detests and which anger him. The first is the elation of pride in prominence; the second, the business of avarice in acquiring; and the third is the debasement of voluptuousness in lewdness.
And this is what Luke 14:18 more amply states: For one said: I bought a farm; another: I have bought five yoke of oxen; and the third: I have taken a wife. This is to say: one due to the pride of ruling; another due to the avarice of accumulating; whence by five yoke of oxen the superfluous use of the five senses in earthly concerns is understood; and the third due to the extravagance of lewdness.
By refusing to come, they provoked the anger of God.
7. First, God is angered by the elation of pride in prominence. Whence Lamentations 2:3 says: He broke in the anger of his furor all the horn of Israel. By horn the elation of pride is understood, which unless humbled through interior inspiration or exterior preaching, God, by reason of being moved in the anger of his furor, breaks with the punishment of death according to what Exodus
15:7 says: You sent your anger which devoured them like stubble.
*°1 See Ps 77:31: "And the wrath of God came upon them."
822 See Phil 3:19.
*°8 See Phil 3:19: "Their end is ruin. Their god is the belly. Their glory is in their shame. They mind the things of earth."
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8. Second, God is angered by the business of avarice in acquiring. Whence it says in James 5:3: Your gold and silver are rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you, and will devour the flesh like fire. You have stored up anger against you for the last days. Gold and silver, improperly acquired, generate rust that leaves in the soul the remorse of conscience, whose testimony the avaricious do not sense very much in this life, numbed as they are by the avarice of money. Nevertheless, after death there remains this remorse of conscience, which is named rust and worms, since it will consume and strike interiorly like worms. It is preserved forever, because one will not die, and the fire of the infernal penalty, which will never be extinguished, will exteriorly and interiorly devour their flesh. Indeed the avaricious, who stored up anger against themselves, by coveting with the heart and stealing in works, are deservedly punished with a double penalty,
9. Third, God is angered by the debasement of voluptuousness in lewdness. Whence Psalm 105:29-40 says:
They irritated him with their designs, and their ruin was increased.... The Lord was angered in furor against his people, and he abhorred his inheritance. Those designs are the sights, thoughts and affections, whereby the sin of fornication is conceived within the heart, even if it is unable to be fulfilled in deed, for according to Matthew
5:28: Anyone who so much as looks with lust at a women has already committed adultery with her in his heart. For as many senses are in the body, so too there are as many vents, through which the waters of concupiscence move rapidly into the soul; and unless one is dried out from the fluid of carnality by mortification of the flesh and the removal of every opportunity, God is so provoked to anger, that he detests it due to the stink of voluptuousness.
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10. Third, in the proposed verse, the infliction of the penalty in effect is noted when it further adds: he destroyed those murderers. He sent his-armies, "namely the Romans under the emperors Titus and Vespasian,"*** and he destroyed those murderers, namely the "Jews."
Whence by means of these emperors, Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, and the Jews killed, dispersed, and sold, thirty for one denarius; just as they had sold Christ for thirty denari. Thus God inflicted the penalty and destroyed each one for a threefold cause: first, due to the deviation of perfidy or ignorance of discernment; second, due to the despair that distrusted pardon; third, due the desertion of the patience needed to endure. The first then is against the truth, the second against goodness, and the third against power.
11. First, God destroys someone due to the deviation of perfidy or ignorance in judgment. Whence Jude 5 says:
Jesus, having saved his people from the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed those who did not believe. Since all things that happened to them were symbolic,®" therefore, according to what is exhibited by faith, we say: Jesus saved his people, namely Christians, with the seal of his own blood; he indeed is the true lamb, by the power of whose blood Christians are saved from the land of Egypt, that is from the state of error and infidelity by the consideration of splendor and truth. Egypt indeed is interpreted as darkness*" and signifies the state of infidelity in which a person is reduced by the darkness of error; afterwards he destroyed those who did not believe, plunging them in the depths of hell through eternal damnation. To confirm
*4 The critical edition says that this comes from the Glossa Interlinearis.
825 See 1 Cor 10:11.
86 See CCSL lxxii, 151: "Egypt means darkness or tribulation."
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this Sirach 6:2-3 can be brought in: Do not extol yourself in the thoughts of your soul like a bull, lest your force be shattered by stupidity, and it eat your foliage and destroy your fruits, and you be left like a dry tree in the desert.
12. Second, God destroys someone due to the despair that distrusted pardon. Whence Psalm 20:11 says: You will destroy their fruit from the earth and their seed from among the children of humanity; for they turned against you in evil. They turn against God in evil, who despairing of divine mercy, do not believe they are able to obtain pardon from the sins, whose fruit of works and labors
God destroys. Whence Judas was deservedly interpreted as the child of perdition,*"' because distrustful of divine piety, he hung himself with a noose.*"' It is even said that their seed perishes from among the children of humanity, because that sin was not invented by human beings, but by the devil, who plants it among the children of perdition. On account of this Augustine says in the second book of On the Spirit and Soul: "Let no one distrust the piety of God, because the mercy of God is greater than our misery."®"9
13. Third, God destroys someone due the desertion of the patience needed to endure. Whence Job 18:3-4 says:
Why are we reputed as beasts and vile before you? Why do you destroy your soul in your furor?**° Truly impatient
827 See John 17:12: "... Those whom you have given me I guarded, and not one of them perished except the child of perdition...."
828 See Matt 27:5: "And he (Judas) flung the pieces of silver into the temple and withdrew and went away and hanged himself with a halter."
829 See c. 6 of De spiritu et anima in PL 40:784. The quotation is verbatim.
830 The Vulgate has a slightly different text. I translate Job 18:3-4:
"Why are we reputed to be beasts and vile before you, you who destroy your soul in your furor...."
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and furious is the person who, in response to any trouble inflicted upon the self, wishes to kick back and return a repayment. This person must be thought of as a beast, and not as a human being, because such a person is not guided by the discretion of reason, but is carried away by a bestial impulse of sensuality; and because of this, a person is finally soiled with malice of thought and with temerity of judgment in the heart, contentiousness of reproach in speech, and with cruelty of wickedness in work; and then in one's furor one will lose one's soul. Let us ask, etc.
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SERMON 47: TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
1. Lord, come down before my son dies. John 4:49.
[Protheme] You, who are seated upon the Cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Dearly beloved, the words in this second proposed verse are from David himself in Psalm 79:2.%*! In them the extraordinary understanding of divine power is described as strong and stable given the fortitude of authority, precious and noble given the height of sublimity, and splendid and delightful given the beauty of clarity. Moreover that it is virtuous and stable given the fortitude of authority is mentioned, when it says: You, who are seated; it is noted that it is precious and noble given the height of sublimity, when it adds: wpon; and it mentions that it is splendid and delightful given the beauty of clarity, when it includes: Cherubim. Indeed Cherubim is interpreted as the plentitude of knowledge.*" That it is therefore virtuous and stable given the fortitude of authority, is manifested to those who are zealous without error with the rectitude of truth; that it is precious and noble given the height of sublimity, is manifested to those who are productive without rancor with an abundance of charity; and that it is splendid and delightful given the beauty of clarity, is manifested to those made gracious with the 831 Pg 79:2-3 reads: "You who are seated upon the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh."
832 See CCSL lxxii, 80: "Cherubim means almost all, or vermiculated picture, or great knowledge."
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beauty of chastity. That it is manifested however to those who are productive without rancor with an abundance of charity is mentioned, when it says: shine forth before Ephraim; for Ephraim is interpreted as stability and sustenance;**' that it is manifested to those who are zealous without error in the rectitude of truth is noted, when it says: Benjamin; in fact Benjamin is interpreted as the son of the right hand or son of strength;* that it is manifested to those who enjoy favor with the beauty of chastity is mentioned, when it adds: Manasseh; for Manasseh is interpreted as one who is astounded or forgetful®*? and it signifies those, in whom carnal concupiscence is confounded, as if forgotten. Dearly beloved, desiring then to explain the divine word, let us ask the giver of all good things,*** that in the ministry of his word he may make us virtuous and stable with the fortitude of authority, precious and noble with the abundance of charity, and gracious and delightful with the beauty of sanctity; so that in the end it may be manifested to the stable and virtuous with the rectitude of truth, manifested to the noble and precious with an abundance of charity, and manifested to the delightful and gracious with the beauty of honesty or chastity.
[Sermon] 2. Lord, come down before my son dies. That ruler conducts himself in the manner of a prelate, whose control is ineffective over the son, that is, his subordinate, who grows infirm. He is displayed in the previously proposed verse in an orderly fashion, because in this preceding verse, first the affectionate invocation of magnificent excellence is sent ahead, when it says: Lord; second, the *88 See CCSL Ixxii, 81: "Ephraim means increasing or fruitful."
**4 See CCSL Ixxii, 159: "Benjamin means son of the right hand."
*°° See CCSL Ixxii, 160: "Manasseh means forgetful or astounded."
836 See James 1:5.
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specific insinuation of imminent indigence is included, when it adds: before my son dies; third, the devout petition of assisting mercy is united with it, when it introduces: come down. The first seizes benevolence, the second manifests indigence, and the third implores mercy.
3. It says then: Lord, where it commends the excellence of virtue. Certainly that excellent and magnificent power, which is conveyed in the designation Lord, can be seen for three reasons: first, by reason of insuperable power in prevailing; second, by reason of inscrutable wisdom in knowing; third, by reason of indescribable mercy in pardoning; and so, because of the magnificence of power he is rendered terrifying to enemies, because of the splendor of wisdom, honorable to servants and friends, and because of the clemency of mercy, desirable to the miserable and needy.
4. First, the insuperable strength of power manifests that excellence of the Lord in prevailing. Esther 13:9 speaks of this: All things have been placed under your authority, and there is no person who is able to resist your will. And the reason is that all power serves the divine will, so that it even draws from those things that appear in them to be against the divine will, although this is not sought after by evil and sinful people. And because of this Psalm 85:8 said: There are none among the strong like you, and there are none according to your works. All people whoever you made will come and adore before you,
Lord, and they will glorify your name forever.
5. Second, the profundity of indescribable wisdom in knowing manifests that magnificence of the Lord. Whence
Psalm 138:5 says: Behold O Lord, you have known all things, the last and those of old: you have formed me, and you have laid your hand upon me. Your knowledge has
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become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it, as if to say: for certain Lord, you possess perfect knowledge and you are unable to fail in knowing, because you have known all things, the last in respect to future matters and those of old, in respect to prior matters; with its utterance you have formed me, such that I would be body and spirit; and you have laid your hand upon me, comforting me lest I sink into nothingness. Whence Gregory states: "Everything would return into nothingness, if the divine power were not holding it in hand."**' And since this manifold wisdom of God, with which he knows the things of the past, present, and future, and according to whose decree humanity is formed, directed, and governed, must not be scrutinized with curiosity, but admired with humility, it therefore follows: Your knowledge has become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it.
6. Third, the piety of indescribable mercy in pardoning manifests that magnificence of the Lord. Whence
Psalm 102:8 says: Compassionate and merciful is the Lord, longsuffering and of great mercy. The Lord, due to the benignity of clemency, is compassionate and quick in pardoning; and therefore do not fear the severity of justice that renders a sentence. Whence Gregory observes:
"God knows how to change the sentence, if you know how to amend the offenses."*** And merciful by totally forgetting; and therefore, do not fear the immensity of wisdom that weighs down on the fault; longsuffering, by patiently waiting; and thus if you have been in sin for a long time,
887 Bonaventure provides the gist of Book XVI, c. 37 n. 45 of Moralia in Iob. See CCSL exliiia, 825.
888 Rather this statement is taken from Ambrose's exposition of Luke 1:67. See Book II, n. 33 in Sancti Ambrosii Mediolanensis Opera:
Pars IV: Expositio Evangelii secundum Lucam, Fragmenta in Esaiam, edited by M. Adriaen, CCSL xiv (Turnhout: Brepols, 1967), 45. The citation is virtually verbatim.
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do not fear the severity of the judgment that inflicts the penalty; and of great mercy, accepting with clemency; and thus do not fear that the height of majesty rushes to anger. Whence Augustine on Luke 15:18 J will rise up and go to my father and I will say to him: Father I have sinned against heaven and before you, etc. states: "Whatever 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."®*9
7. It follows: before my son dies, in the second part where it displays the indigency of necessity. A person incurs that indigency and the necessity of death on account of three things: first, because of the debility of waning power; second, because of the blindness of deviating ignorance; third, because of the penalty of oppressive misery.
8. First, a person incurs the necessity of death due to the debility of waning power. Whence Exodus 10:17 says:
Pray the Lord our God, that he may remove this death from me. Just as Pharaoh, who knew from experience that he was unable to resist tribulations produced by God himself given the debility of human fragility, but instead would succumb completely, hastened to implore the intercession of Moses and Aaron through prayer, so he would not incur bodily death, so too anyone troubled and afflicted, seeing by experience that one is succumbing and unable to resist temptation, should not grow soft in view of fragility nor measure one's power to sustain and despair, but humbly through prayer turn oneself to the intercession of friends, and most of all, to the Blessed Virgin. Whence Bernard
839 The critical edition suggests Augustine's Sermon 28 as a possible source.
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in a homily states: "O whoever you are, if you see yourself in the flow of this world proceeding more among the storms and tempests than walking on land, look at the star, call upon Mary. If you are tossed about by pride, or avarice, or if instead carnal enticement strikes the boat of the mind, look at the star, call upon Mary. If troubled by the enormity of the crimes or confused by the foulness of conscience, you begin to be swallowed up by the abyss of desperation, look at Mary, because you do fall when she is holding, you do not fear when she is protecting, you do not grow tired when she is leading, and you arrive when she is propitious."°"° 9. Second, a person incurs death due to the blindness of deviating ignorance. Whence Psalm 106:18 says: Their souls abhorred all manner of food, they approached the gates of death. As when a person abhors all food and is unable to eat, death threatens, unless one is assisted by a medicinal remedy; so too, when the soul abhors the heavyenly food of the divine word, it becomes so absorbed and blinded due to the excessive pleasure of sin, that it approaches the gates of eternal death, like one wandering about and infirm, unless it is healed by the power of the divine word, refreshed by its sweetness, and guided by its light, so that it may discern good from evil, between the state of blame and grace, and the difference between death and life.
10. Third, a person incurs the necessity of death due to the penalty of oppressive misery. Whence Romans 7:24 states: Unhappy man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The apostle speaks in the person of the human
**° Bonaventure has abbreviated Homily 2 n. 17 of Bernard's Sermons In laudibus Virginis Matris. See SBOp 4.34-35.
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race and calls life in this temporal world, in which one is oppressed by the manifold punishments of misery, the body of death; and rightly so, for according to Gregory in a homily: "When this temporal life is compared with eternal life, death must be said to be more preferable than life. What then is this daily defect of corruption other that a certain extension of death?"**! And he is said to be liberated from this life of punishment through the grace of Christ in the general resurrection.
11. It adds: come down, in the third part where it implores the mercy of piety. God therefore comes down through the mercy of piety: first, in the flesh as the most mighty power to strengthen; second, in the mind as the most brilliant light to illuminate; third, in judgment with the most abundant salvation to glorify. The first is against the debility of impotence, the second is against the blindness of ignorance, and the third is against the punishment of mercy.
12. First, he comes down into the flesh as the mightiest power to strengthen. Whence Exodus 3:8 says: I came down into Egypt, so I might liberate my people from the hands of the Egyptians. He descends into Egypt, when he assumes the penalty of human misery, so that by patiently bearing the evils of the penalty, he might blot out the evils of sin; and handing himself over into the hands of the Jews, he might liberate us from the hands of the Egyptians, that is, the demons; and by accepting temporal death, he might destroy eternal death.
13. Second, he comes down into the mind as the most brilliant light to illuminate. Isaiah 64:1 speaks about this:
841 See Homily 37 n. 1 of GGHG in CCSL cxli, 348. The citation is verbatim.
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Would that you would rend the heavens and come down!
The mountains would melt before your face. David asked that the heavens come done and touch the mountains, when he said: Lord, incline your heavens and come down, touch the mountains.**2 But Isaiah: I rent the heavens, and I melted the proud before the face of Christ; and nevertheless, both indeed desired the divine descent. For God to descend does not mean the degradation of the divine similitude, but the exaltation of human nature. Whence,
God inclined the heavens then, that is the celestial angels, when he joined human nature to himself and raised it up above them. He touched the mountains, as he assumed the flesh possessing the defect of human nature from the patriarchs and kings who, by reason of sanctity and dignity, are understood by the term, mountains. Whence according to the Philosopher: "Those things touch, whose ends are together."**? But he rent the heavens, when he removed the obstacle by which the human race was prohibited to enter heaven. Before your celestial face, given the quality of the divine brightness that is represented, mountains, that is, the proud, would melt, that is they will leave the heights of pride and follow the humility of the humanity that has been assumed. Jerome in a certain letter says: "If Christ would not have had something of the divine and celestial on the face and in the eyes, the disciples would not have followed him immediately, nor would those who came to capture him have fallen to the ground."*"* Exodus 19:18 expresses this in a similar way:
842 See Ps 143:5.
* See Book V, c. 3 of Aristotle, Physica in WAE, vol. 2, 227a: "And if there is continuity there is necessarily contact, but if there is contact, that alone does not imply continuity: for the extremities of things may be 'together' without necessarily being one: but they cannot be one without being necessarily together."
844 See Letter 65 n. 8 in PL 22:627. The citation is almost verbatim.
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All of Mount Sinai was smoking, because the Lord came down upon it like fire. Mount Sinai is any good servant of Christ, who must totally smoke interiorly due to painful compunction of the heart and exteriorly due to the tearful confession of speech in merit of one's sins; thereupon
God comes down upon him like fire to illuminate through the splendor of truth and inflame through the ardor of charity.
14. The Lord comes down into the mind for judgment as the most abundant salvation to glorify. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 states: For the Lord himself, at the order and the voice of the archangel and the sound of God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and those who have died in Christ, will rise first. That order and voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God are nothing other than the "voice of the Son of God,"*** according to the Master in the Fourth Part of the Sentences, distinction 43; however
"at one time command, at another time the voice of the archangel, and again the trumpet of God are called" the voice of Christ because of the diverse properties, which are discovered in those three designations.** For the "voice of Christ" on the day of judgment "will be strong" in power, "and therefore it will be called a command" as if a precept; in fact let it speak and it will be done "immediately"; it will be authentic in "authority", and therefore it is called the voice of the archangel, that is, of the prince; it will be resounding in "terror"; and thus it is named the trumpet of God. And so the same thing is expressed with multiple distinctions to imply the diverse characteristics and dignity of that voice. Let us ask, etc.
845 See John 5:28: "Do not wonder at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God."
846 See Book IV, d. 43 c. 2 in Sententiae in IV Libris Distinctae II, 511.
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SERMON 48: TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
1. 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?
Matthew 18:32-33.
[Protheme] Behold my servant will understand, and that one shall be exalted and raised on high. Isaiah 52:13.
In the proposed words from the second verse taken from Isaiah, three things are described that must belong to the office of preaching. And the first is the sanctity of merit, the second is the truth of faith, and the third is the authority of office. Sanctity of merit is noted, therefore, when it says: my servant; the truth of faith is noted, when it adds: will understand; and the authority of the office is noted, when it further adds: that one will be exalted and raised on high. Dearly beloved, since then all these things, granted, are lacking in me, I propose to say something for my own training; I therefore want to have recourse to God, so that he may deign to grant me to be able to offer something useful to the praise and glory of his blessed name and the consolation of our souls. Amen.
2. Wicked servant, I forgave you all the debt because you asked me. Since it is a spiteful matter to deny someone what one asks to be given to oneself, our Lord in the proposed verse harshly reproved that servant who did not wish to show mercy to his fellow servant, who deserved the total forgiveness of the debt based on his petition, when it says: Wicked servant, etc. Here it proceeds in a
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specific manner. For first it rebukes the wicked perpetration of spiteful action. Second, it explains the mercy of divine forgiveness that is exhibited. Third, it points out the leniency required for the offense of the other. The first was in the oppression of the neighbor, the second in the forgiveness of the debt, the third, in the offering of an example. In the first, therefore, the perpetration of the offense must be avoided, since it is reprehended, when it says: Wicked servant; second, the loosening of the debt must be requested, since it is granted, when it adds: I forgave you all the debt because you asked me; third, the offense against the neighbor must be remitted, because it is suggested when it includes: Should you not then have had compassion also on your fellow servant, even as I had compassion on you?
3. First, in the proposed verse it thus rebukes the wicked perpetration of spiteful action, and this in the oppression of the neighbor, when it says: Evil servant.
Someone commits that wickedness for which one is rebuked, in three cases: first, due to the malice of perverse thinking in the heart; second, due to the dishonesty of deceptive speech, third, due to an offense against the other in deed.
4. First, someone is called wicked and rebuked due to the malice of perverse thinking in the heart. Whence
Sirach 3:29 states: A wicked heart is weighed down by sorrows. Truly then a wicked heart is weighed down by sorrows, when with spitefulness of thought, falsehood of judgment, and temerity of suspicion due to the ill-will of envy, it is consumed, afflicted, and saddened by the prosperity of a neighbor. And because of this the Lord said in Matthew 15:19: Thoughts of evil, anger, wickedness, and sorrow proceed from the human heart. Matthew 6:23, explains this in a similar fashion: If your eye is wicked,
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the whole body will be in darkness. The intention of the will is understood here with the name eye,**" which /f it is wicked, that is corrupted, everything that then proceeds from it is damaged and evil, in the same way branches and fruits are judged as bad, when they proceed from a damaged root.
5. Someone is rebuked and said to be wicked due to the dishonesty of a deceptive speech. Whence Psalm 63:9 says:
They have declared themselves with wicked words. They have spoken so as to hide the snares. They have declared themselves with wicked words, through the repeated practice of slander and defamation. Whence, some are so practiced in daily slander and defamation, and so established in their practice, that this vice becomes natural.** They have spoken, through the insinuation of a mutual intent, so as to hide the snares; this is done when they defame, offend, and injure others through fraud and treachery under the pretext of a zeal for justice and the spirit of a holy life. And since the innocent frequently fall into their snares, it therefore says in Sirach 28:23: Blessed is the one who is protected from a wicked tongue. But certainly it is horrible and worthy of all loathing, that these murmurers, detractors, and defamers, who know how to hide their snares of fraud and treachery, so they may wickedly hunt and seize others through the denigration of reputation, the wounding of the person, and the damaging of their goods, are today commonly found in the friendship of important people and prelates. Whence Sirach 28:28 speaks of such prelates, who freely listen to them and receive them: Hedge in your ears with thorns, do not wish to hear a wicked tongue. And the reason is because prelates,
*47 This interpretation is based on the Glossa Ordinaria on Matt 6:23. See PL 114:104CD.
* The critical edition refers to Sallust, Jugurthine War, 859.
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who freely receive on their right sycophants and on the left detractors, murmurers, and detractors, even if led by a zeal for justice, frequently persecute the good, wound the blameless, and damage the just. They think that they are offering worship to God,*° as in the case of Paul, who also ignorantly persecuted apostolic men, believing that he was offering worship to God.
6. Third, someone is said to be wicked and rebuked due to an offense against the other in deed. And Isaiah 1:4 speaks of this: Woe to a sinful nation, to a people weighed down with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children!
They have abandoned the Lord and blasphemed the Holy One of Israel. Woe to a sinful nation, who wickedly bring about disorder in their own minds; to a people weighed down with iniquity, by cruelly wounding others in deed.
And a person of iniquity is well weighed down, when one disorders the self through sin and then adds to it by sinning against a neighbor, by wounding that person. On account of this Augustine says: "No evil person wounds the person of another, if that person is not already wounded in conscience."*°° A wicked seed, bringing forth and grows in vices and sins; ungracious children, by imitating the devil. They have abandoned the Lord, by turning themselves away from him; blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, by turning themselves toward illicit things. Whence someone at that time blasphemes and disparages the Holy One of Israel that is Christ, when one perpetrates sinful and illicit things to hurt him.
849 See John 16:2.
850 This is a paraphrase of Augustine's exposition of Psalm 7 n.
17. See Sancti Avrelii Avgustini Enarrationes in Psalmos I-L, edited by Eligivs Dekkers and Iohannes Fraipont, CCSL xxxviii (Turnhout:
Brepols, 1966), 47: "But how is it able to take place, such that previous iniquity harms the just man in whom it advances, rather than the unjust heart from whence it proceeds."
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7. Second, in the proposed verse it explains the mercy of divine forgiveness that is exhibited, and this in the forgiveness of the debt, when it adds: I-have forgiven all your debts. God is won over by someone due to his mercy and forgives the debt, first because of the intensity of sorrowful contrition; second, because of the diligence of pure confession; third, because of the parity of the appropriate satisfaction. The first is in the affections, the second in speech, and the third in effect.
8. First, God is won over and forgives the debt because of the intensity of sorrowful contrition in the affections. This indeed can be learned from Psalm 24:17: The troubles of my heart are multiplied, deliver me from my necessities. See my abjection and my labor; and forgive me all my sins. The prophet said this in the person of a contrite man. The troubles of my heart are multiplied, due to the sorrowful contrition of heart in accord with the greater and lesser knowledge of sinners; from my necessities, namely of spiritual goods; deliver me, through the infusion of charismata and gifts. Or in another way: from my necessities, namely from the difficulty to do good and the propensity to do evil, which befalls humanity in merit of the first transgression; deliver me, through the infusion of assisting grace. See my abjection, in so far as it concerns a confession of the mouth whereby I accuse myself and exaggerate my own sin, in comparison to others, who through pride in confession justify themselves, minimizing their own sins and burden others; and my labor in regard to the satisfaction of work; forgive me all my sins, for the sake of benign forgiveness.
9. Second, God is won over and forgives the debt because of the diligence of a pure confession in speech.
What Psalm 31:5 says agrees with this: For I have acknowledged my sin to you, and my injustice I have not
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concealed. I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord: and you have forgiven the wickedness of my sin. The prophet speaks in the person of a man confessing his sins to God, when it says: I have acknowledged my sin to you, namely what was hidden, to your representative, that is to say, by manifesting it to a priest; and I have not hidden my injustices, by dividing the sins in half or by minimizing them. For those have concealed their injustice and sins, who lest they appear to be great sinners, do not wish to tell all their sins to one priest, but instead tell some to one and some to another, and so through such circumstances they minimize sins, so that they may then almost praise and excuse themselves rather than reproach and accuse themselves. Good David thus desired to remove from himself the greatest sin, when he said:
Do not incline my heart to a malicious word to plead with excuses for sins.*°! And while granted, sins are remitted only through the mediating ministry of a priest, nevertheless because it is God alone, who effectively is able to remit sins, it then follows: J said: I will confess, that is immediately when I have proposed to confess, even if a time and place are wanting and consequently one does not have recourse to confession, since sins are remitted in contrition alone according to blessed Augustine.*" In such a case then you, God, and no other, have remitted the impiety of my sin. Whence, as soon as a person proposes to confess in anticipation of confessing, God dismisses
851 See Ps 140:4: "Do not incline my heart to evil words to make excuses for sins."
852 This teaching is actually that of Gratian. See Secunda Pars, De penitentia, distinctio 1, causa XXX, Corpus Turis Canonici: Pars
Prior, Decretum Magistri Gratiani. 2nd Edition. Edited by Aemilius Friedberg. Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlagsanstalt, 1955 (1879),
1165: Gratian: Luce clarius constat cordis contritione, non oris confessione peccata dimitti ("It is clearer than light that sins are forgiven not by a confession made with the mouth, but by contrition made with the heart").
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sins. The contrite person is therefore not bound to confession for the deletion of sin, but rather By the obligation of the precept.
10. Third, God is won over and forgives the debt because of the parity of the appropriate satisfaction in effect.
Whence Psalm 31:1-2 says: Blessed are those whose iniquities are remitted, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man, to whom the Lord has not imputed guilt, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Blessed are those whose iniquities are remitted, through the forgiveness of pardon; and whose sins are covered, through the satisfaction of the offense. Whence sins are said to be covered and do not appear, when a person renders satisfaction appropriate to the offense, because, according to blessed Augustine,
"sins are not forgiven, unless those things that have been taken away are restored."*** Blessed is the man, to whom the Lord has not imputed guilt, through the assumption of guilt; and in whose spirit there is no deceit, through the reinstatement of innocence. Whence Augustine says:
"Penance is the best thing, which leads all shortcomings to perfection."** 11. Third, in the proposed verse, it indicates leniency required for the offense of the other, and this in the exhibition of example, when it introduces: Was it not fitting that you have mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? A person is held moreover to be merciful to another in three ways: first, out of consideration for the benefit received; second, out of consideration of the divine example, third, out of consideration of eternal suffering.
853 See Letter 153 c. 6 n. 20 in PL 33:662: "However if one is truly agitated, the sin is not remitted, unless what is stolen is restored."
*°4 See Ps-Augustine, Book III, c. 9 n. 17 of Hypomnesticon contra Pelagianos et Coelestianos in PL 45:1631: "Penance is therefore the optimal and perfect thing, which recalls the faltering to perfection."
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12. First, everyone is held to be merciful to the other and to forgive the offense out of consideration for the benefit received. The gospel today speaks of this: 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 his master, being angry, handed him over to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. Since it is detestable to cruelly deny one a benefit, that one recognizes has been mercifully bestowed upon oneself; therefore, it was worthy and just, that the one who did not wish to have mercy on another out of consideration for the benefit received, is rebuked, disparaged, and as it were unworthy, stripped of the benefit that had been received. Whence what God has rightly exhibited through mercy, he takes back in justice. And this is what Ambrose says concerning Ephesians 4:32 Be merciful with each other, etc.: "If one sins against another 'one must' forgive, otherwise
God takes back what has been remitted, because if he will have been held in contempt in these things, he will revoke for the sake of justice, the sentence he had given in mercy."®°° 13. Second, everyone is held to be merciful and to forgive the other out of consideration of the divine example.
And this is what Ephesians 4:32 says: Be merciful to one another and benign, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you in Jesus Christ. The apostle, in order to gently draw others to mutual forgiveness, introduces a certain rational motive, namely, the divine example of mercy that leniently forgives the offenses, when it says: Be merciful, by not erupting into anger interiorly within the soul; benign, by not inviting injury exteriorly in word; forgiving each other, by not undertaking vengeance quick in action;
855 The critical edition refers to PL 17:393.
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as God has forgiven you in Jesus Christ, as if to say: you must act according to the example of divine mercy, by reason of the passion of Christ, which léeniently forgives.
14. Third, everyone is held to be merciful and to forgive the other out of consideration of eternal suffering.
Whence James 2:13 states: Judgment without mercy will be to those who will not have done mercy. That entire judicial sentence and rendering of judgment will concern the works of mercy presented or not presented, which regard the forgiveness of another's offense. Luke 6:36 speaks of this: Be merciful, as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. And rightly those who do not wish to be merciful to others, according to the way God is merciful with them, with that judgment with which they judge and condemn, they themselves will be judged and condemned. Let us ask, etc.
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SERMON 49: TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
1. Master, we know that you are true and you teach the way of God in truth. Matthew 22:16
[Protheme] Your discipline itself will teach me. Psalm 17:36. Since the interior person is customarily corrupted by the attraction of the affections in respect to the concupiscent power, or by the vanity of honors in respect to the irascible power, or by the sublimity of truths in respect to the rational power; therefore, in the proposed words of the second verse, the integrity of any religious person whoever, is sufficiently described with regard to the reformation of the concupiscent because of the fittingness of the name, with regard to the humiliation of the irascible through the character of the gift, and with regard to the illumination of the rational, through the activity of work.
The fittingness of the name with regard to the reformation of the concupiscent, so it does not happen to stray, is touched upon when it suggests: discipline. The character of the gift to humble the irascible, so it does not happen to lift itself up, is touched upon, when it says: Your. The strenuous action to illuminate the rational, so it does not happen to be obscured, is touched upon, when it says: itself will teach me. Therefore dearly beloved, in order that the proposal of our sermon may please all those who hear to the praise of God, and as it pleases bring about the salvation of the mind; let us entreat the giver of all good things, that with his grace and piety, to the praise and honor of his glorious Virgin Mother, he may render us reformed in the concupiscent, humble in the irascible,
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and illuminated in the rational, such that reformed in the affections, humbled in effect, and illuminated in the rational, we may offer something useful.to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and the consolation of our souls.
[Sermon] 2. Master, we know that you are true and you teach the way of God in truth. Since to be commended not only by friends, but even by enemies attests to greater praise, it should not disturb us then in this gospel of blessed Matthew, if the miserable Jews extol in different ways the truth itself, our Lord, although they acknowledge it in speech, but nevertheless without love in the heart, when they say in the proposed verse: Master, we know that you are true, etc. Certainly in that verse they extol and commend Christ: first, due to the dignity of the office; second, due to the solidity of what is said; third, due to the utility of the teaching; and so because of the first he must be humbly revered, because of the second he must be firmly believed, and because of the third he must be sincerely loved. First, I say, they extol and commend him because of the venerable dignity of the office, when they say: Master; second, because of the credible solidity of what is said, when they add: we know that you are true; third, because of the lovable utility of the instruction when they include: and you teach the way of God in truth.
3. They say therefore: Master, where Christ is first commended because of the dignity of office, for which he must be humbly revered. That dignity of the venerable office of our God is apparent on account of three things, which he possesses within himself in the most excellent way. For first he possesses the splendor of clear knowledge in infallible knowing; second, the efficacy of powerful eloquence in useful expression; third, the eminence of
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a holy life in beneficial meriting. And these three things are necessary to whoever is teaching and preaching, namely regulating knowledge, eloquent expression, and a life that confirms them both. For to teach or preach without regulating knowledge is dangerous, without eloquent expression is unproductive, and without a life that confirms them both is disgraceful.**6
4. First then Christ must be revered as the excellent master due to the dignity of office, because he possesses the splendor of clear knowledge in infallible knowing. For this reason Matthew 23:9-10 speaks of him in an excellent manner: Do not call anyone on earth master; for one is your master. Whence no one should be called or said to be a master except Christ alone. And the reason is because no one can teach a matter that is knowable to another, unless there is immutability on the part of what is knowable, and certitude or infallibility on the part of who knows. In fact everything that is known, according to the Philosopher, must be without mutability within itself, and certain to the one who knows: "In fact we know when we judge that we know the cause on account of which a thing exists, and we know it because it is the cause of this, and because it is impossible for it to be otherwise."®' Indeed there in no immutability on the part of any creature whatsoever. Whence as things have being in a particular genus, in the human mind, and in the eternal reason, and their being is mutable in the first and second case since all things are changeable, and the immutable is found in 856 See Sermon 17, protheme n. 1.
857 See Book I, c. 2 of Aristotle, Analytica posteriora in WAE, vol. 1, 71b: "We suppose ourselves to possess unqualified scientific knowledge of a thing, as opposed to knowing it in the accidental way in which the sophist knows, when we think that we know the cause on which the fact depends, as the cause of that fact and no other, and, further, that the fact could not be other than it is."
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the Son of God alone, who is the art and reason of what is rational and alive, it follows necessarily, that those things that are knowable in no way possess immutability, except insofar as they are in the eternal Word. No one, therefore, is able to teach or render things to be truly knowable, unless Christ, the Son of God, is present. According to this, in order for someone to be able to teach, certitude and infallibility are required on the part of the one who knows, which is not possible from the same light which can be obscured; and such is the light of created intelligence.
And this is what Augustine says: "Just as the earth cannot be seen unless it is illuminated with light; so those things taught in the disciplines, although each one submits that it is without a doubt the truest. One must believe they are unable to be understood unless illuminated by Christ, the spiritual sun."*** Thus, the authority of the office must rightly be attributed to Christ alone and not others, so that he is singularly spoken of as the one master, because he is the principal font and origin of human knowledge without distinction. Whence just as there is one sun, nevertheless, it emits many rays; so from the one master Christ, the spiritual sun, a multiplicity and diversity of sciences proceed. And while there are diverse, multiple, and distinct rivulets that come from one font, nevertheless there is just one font, which is multiplied without imperfection on its part in so many rivulets; and so these diverse rivulets of the sciences come from one
*°8 Bonaventure adapts Book I, c. 8 n. 15 of Soliloguium. See PL 32:877: "For the earth is visible, and light: but the earth, if it is not illuminated by light, it is not able to be seen. Therefore those things, which are taught in the disciplines, which each person understands, and submits to be the truest without a doubt, one must say they are not able to be understood, unless they are illuminated by something like his own sun."
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eternal font, from one open sea, from one master, Christ, without imperfection on his part.*© 5. Second, Christ possesses the efficacy of powerful eloquence in beneficial expression, as revealed in the response he gave to the expert in the law in Matthew
22:35-37: And one of them, a doctor of the law, putting him to the test, asked him, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. The miserable
Jews, who while confessing the same truth nevertheless did not love it, came to him and questioned, not with a desire to learn, but with the intention to tempt; and since they were proposing this good question, although their malice may not have required it, they merited to hear a truthful response: You shall love the Lord your God, etc.
Augustine comments on this accordingly: "With all your heart, that is with the intellect without error, with all your soul, that is with the will without contradiction, and with all your mind, and that is with the memory without forgetfulness."°° 859 Christ as the one master is the theme of Bonaventure's preaching, see Christus unus omnium magister (V, 567a-574b), esp. 570a on light and knowledge. See What Manner of Man? Sermons on Christ by St. Bonaventure. A translation with introduction and commentary by Zachary Hayes. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1974, 21-55, esp.
29-30. When describing the relationship between human sciences and Christ, Bonaventure also appeals to his favored images of light and water in De donis, col. 4, ns. 13-14 (V, 476a-b). Each is a metaphor for the divine outpouring of grace into creation; see Johnson, The Soul in Ascent, 78-84. All the sciences are to lead to the wisdom of Christ, which Bonaventure also speaks of as divine wisdom and sacred theology. See Sermo 155, n. 8 in Sermons de tempore, 221 and De reductione, n. 26 (V, 325b) available in English in WSB I, 61.
860 Rather this is from Alcuin, Sermon 108 n. 4. See PL 39:1960 and note on Sermon 44 n. 11.
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6. Third, Christ has the eminence of a holy life in profitably meriting or edifying.
John 13:14: speaks of this: If I, your Lord and Master, washed your feet, you also should wash each other's feet. For I have given an example to you, so as I have done, so should you do. To minister to a superior is proper to great humility, to an equal is greater still, but to an inferior is the greatest and is perfect. To this end our Lord, therefore, wished to assume human infirmity, so he might show in it an example of every perfection, of all justice, and perfect humility, when he wanted to minister to an inferior, by washing the feet of peasants and fishermen. Whence Augustine states: "We have an example of humility, a medicine against pride; let a member be ashamed to be proud, when the head is humble."**
And since that example is worthy of imitation, Luke 6:40 therefore says: No disciple is above his teacher, but when perfected, everyone will be like his teacher.
7. Second, in the proposed verse Christ is commended due to the solidity of what is said, for which he must be firmly believed, when it adds: that you are true. Christ must then be firmly believed by reason of his truth for a threefold cause: first, because he possesses the truth of pure intention in the thoughts of the heart; second, because he possesses the truth of correct expression in the instruction of speech; third, because he possesses the truth of honest conduct in the presentation of works.
86! See Sermon 304 c. 3 n.3 in PL 38:1396: Habemus tale humilitatis exemplum, superbiae medicamentum. See the commentary on Phil
2:8 by Peter Lombard in PL 192:236A: "We have the example of humility, the medicine against pride. What makes you puff up, O man?
O deathly skin, to what do you reach? O fetid bloody matter, what inflames you? Is your prince humble, and you are proud? Is the head humble and the member proud?"
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8. First, Christ must be believed, because he possesses the truth of pure intention in the thoughts of the heart.
Whence Proverbs 8:7 says: My mouth will reflect on the truth, and my lips will detest the impious. My mouth, not of material flesh, for reflection does not concern it, but of intellectual scrutiny; will reflect on the truth, through the simplicity of intention, rectitude of thought, and purity of affection, relinquishing every falsehood of viciousness and deception, so that the heart may be upright and properly ordered; and my lips will detest the impious, through the rectitude of the truth. This rectitude of zeal is missing from those who are accepting of individuals whom they love in a secret, carnal manner. They do not despise their grievous sins, to the contrary, they excuse and minimize them; but they criticize and exaggerate the insignificant sins of those who are displeasing to them. Righteous David professes that this grievous sin of perversity is not in him, when he says: J have not hidden your justice in my heart, I have declared your truth and your salvation
°° 9. Second, Christ must be believed, because he possesses the truth of correct expression in the instruction of speech. And the Truth itself testifies to this in John
8:46: Which one of you will accuse me of sin? If I speak the truth to you, why do you not believe me? Christ himself says this. Which one of you will accuse me of sin? It is as if he were saying: no one due to freedom from all sin and the honesty of a perfect life. For he was conceived without sin, because it was not from virile seed, but by virtue of the Holy Spirit; he was born without sin, since he was filled with the sanctity of grace; he lived without sin, because he committed no sin, and no guile was found in his mouth.®* If I speak the truth to you, due to the fullness of 862 See Ps 39:11.
863 See 1 Peter 2:22, which quotes Isa 53:9.
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knowledge whereby I cannot deceive or be deceived; why do you not believe me through the submission of the intellect? It is as if he were saying: the preaching of someone should not be held in contempt except either on account of multiple faults, or on account of a dishonest life, or even on account of simple ignorance; whereas, since I possess freedom from fault, perfection of life, and the plenitude of knowledge, you should have believed, because according to John 18:37: for this I was born and for this I came into the world, so I may offer-testimony to the truth; against those who prefer to strive after carnal friendship, and to please important people, instead of taking a stand on truth and justice, so they may be raised up and honored, when certainly it is more glorious to be deposed with the truth, than to be praised with falsehood.
10. Third, Christ must be believed because he possesses the truth of honest conduct in the presentation of works. Whence John 14:6 says: I am the way, the truth, and the life. Because according to Bernard: "To glow is too little, to shine is vain, but both together are perfection."5*
Therefore Christ, in whom there is all perfection, said: J am the way, as an example of honesty of life; the truth, as an instruction in the clarity of wisdom; and the life; as the reward in the eternity of glory. And so Christ is the way, through which you wish to go through as an example of life; the truth, which you wish to find through the instruction of doctrine; and the life, in which you wish to remain through the reward of glory. And this is how Augustine, who speaks in the following manner on that passage, explains it: "Christ is the way to walk, the truth to find, and 8° This is a paraphrase of Bernard. See his Sermon, "In nativitate
Sancti Ioannis Baptistae," n.3 in SBOp 5.178: "Indeed to only shine is vain, to only burn is insufficient: to burn and shine is perfect."
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the life to remain within."*® It says therefore: Master, we know that you are true.
11. It follows: and you teach the way of God in truth, where Christ in the third part is commended for the benefit of instruction, for which he must be sincerely loved.
Whence Christ must be sincerely loved by reason of this beneficial instruction for a threefold reason: because first, he teaches truthfully in respect to what is to be believed; second, delightfully in respect to what is promised; third, efficaciously in respect to what must be done. Through the first the falsehood of error is excluded, through the second the changeability of the world, and through the third, the tepidness of the body.
12. First, Christ teaches truthfully in respect to what is to be believed against the falsehood of error. Psalm 24:5 speaks of this: Direct me, Lord, in your truth and teach me, because you are my savior God, and I have waited upon you the entire day. The faithful prophet David said in the person of every man: Direct me, through the removal of all error; for that one is well directed, who excludes from the self every error be it intellectual in believing or affective in loving, and even effective in working. In your truth, through the infusion of divine splendor, so that once the privation of devious error has been removed, the disposition proper to the virtue of faith may be introduced; whence divine truth is nothing other than the divine splendor of faith. And teach me, through the erudition of preaching or reading; because you are my God, creating by means of power and therefore to be admired humbly; my savior, redeeming by means of clemency and therefore to be loved sincerely; and I have waited upon 865 The critical edition provides two possible references: Sermon
142 c.1n. 1 in PL 38:778 and Tractate 69 n. 1 in CCSL xxxvi, 500.
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you, serving diligently through obedience; the entire day, continuing on to the end through perseverance. Moreover holy David commends this perfect instruction, when he says: Blessed is the one whom you will instruct, Lord, and from your law you will teach that one.*®
13. Second, he teaches in a delightful manner in respect to what is promised against the changeability or delectations of the world. And this is what Matthew 5:23 says: Opening his mouth, he began to teach them, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Let clerics and prelates reverently hear, they who glory in being the disciples of Christ, where Christian doctrine obtains its beginning; let religious bound by evangelical profession heed, what is the foundation of evangelical perfection.**' Blessed, he said, are the poor in spirit; and for this reason, poverty, which is fled from in fear by all those living in a worldly way, is accepted or must be accepted by perfect men, because as the primary foundation of evangelical instruction, it completes and leads to perfection in the present life,*® on account of which it says: Blessed are the poor in spirit; as the perfect complement of Christian life, it extols what is to come; therefore it adds: because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Oh most holy virtue, poverty, most worthy of all praise! Who is able to bestow upon you the worthy praise of gratitude, you, who alone in your exchange raise earthly and miserable people to such excellence of honor, that 866 See Ps 93:12.
**7 See Bonaventure's commentary on Luke 7:22 in Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 1-8, 603: "... so is poverty of spirit, which as poverty and humility includes the opposite of the aforementioned sins (avarice and pride), is the foundation of evangelical perfection. And it is also its consummation, according to 2 Corinthians
8:2: 'Their most profound poverty has abounded in the riches of their simplicity."
868 See the previous note.
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D0 you establish them as "heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven?"*® Nevertheless this saying, namely, Blessed are the poor in spirit, can be explained in two ways: first, by what it presumes; and thus the poor in spirit are the truly humble, who do not possess puffed up spirits, but think of themselves as if they were nothing in regard to spiritual matters; or the second, poor in spirit, that is, it is voluntarily, not forced, for those who have renounced all worldly things have not been forced by necessity but led voluntarily, so that after the removal of avarice, which is the root of all evil, poverty, which is primary foundation of all good,°"° may be introduced. By reason of this truthful instruction, Malachi 2:6 befits Christ: The law of truth was in his mouth.
14. Third, he teaches efficaciously in respect to what must be done against the tepidity of the body. On account of which Psalm 24:9 says: You will teach the meek your ways. The ways of the Lord are the good actions that Christ corporally practiced in this world, which are referred to with the name ways, because one advances along a way to the celestial homeland, thus one is led to the celestial homeland through good action. The Lord teaches the meek these ways, by not despising anyone interiorly, and the humble, by not offending anyone exteriorly, according to his testimony: Learn from me because I am meek and humble of heart,'"! when they are instructed by his good example how to act well. For, "every action of Christ is for our instruction."®"? Let us ask, therefore etc.
869 Cf the Rule of the Friars Minor, c. 6 in FA:ED vol. 1, 103.
870 Gee Sermon 31 n. 6 above.
871 See Matt 11:29.
872 See Sermon 3 n. 11 above.
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SERMON 50: TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
1. Daughter, take courage, your faith has saved you. Matthew 9:22
[Protheme] How beautiful are your steps in sandals, daughter of the prince. The Song of Songs 7:1. The excellence of every religious soul is brought forth and conserved by the beauty of honesty, the readiness of truth, and the magnitude of charity. Whence, the proposed words from the last verse, which are selected from The Song of Songs, regard the excellence of every Christian soul designated with the name of daughter of the Christ, the highest prince. They first touch upon the beauty of honesty, when it says: How beautiful; and second, the readiness of truth, when it follows with: are your steps in sandals; by means of feet, preachers and doctors are understood; by means of sandals, the testimony of scripture is signified; in fact as sandals protect the feet, so too, preachers and doctors are protected by the testimony of scripture; whence Ephesians 6:15 says: Feet shod in the preaching of the gospel of peace; and third, the magnitude of charity, when it adds: daughter of the prince. The soul of any faithful Christian is the daughter of the highest prince through the imitation of poverty against avarice; through the imitation of chastity against concupiscence and through the imitation of obedience or humility against pride. The beauty of honesty discredits or obscures one who contends, the readiness of truth guides one who is negligent, and the magnitude of charity convicts one who hates. And therefore at the beginning of our sermon the Lord must be petitioned
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in prayer, so that with his grace and piety in this present collation, he may render me a partaker of beautiful honesty in works, of ready truth in speech, and of magnificent charity in the heart, so that I may say something to the praise and glory of the blessed Lord Jesus and the consolation of whoever is listening.
[Sermon] 2. Daughter, be assured, your faith has saved you. It is the costume of a good physician to assert with praise the manifold efficacy of the medicine taken in order to comfort the infirm. The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of body and soul, therefore deigned to display the efficacy of spiritual medicine, namely, the faith that cures every sickness, in order to comfort this infirm woman who was longing to be healed by him, when it says in the proposed verse: Be assured, daughter, etc. First the divine esteem of the gratuitous adoption is noted, when it says; daughter; second, the pious compassion of the powerful encouragement, when it adds: Be assured; third, the instruction necessary for her healing, when it includes: your faith has saved you.
3. It says therefore: Daughter, where first the divine esteem of the gratuitous adoption is noted. In fact the Lord deigns to freely adopt any soul as a daughter in three ways whereby it is assimilated to the blessed Trinity; and the first is the splendor of celestial intelligence; second is the beauty of chastity and purity, and the third is fear of humility and reverence.
4. First, God adopts the soul as a daughter due to the splendor of celestial intelligence. Whence Psalm 44:11-12 says: Hear O daughter, and see, and incline your ear and forget your people and the house of your father; the king desires your beauty. The prophet speaks in the person of the eternal Father to any soul that believes in his name,
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when it says: daughter, through the benevolence of adoption; hear, through the reverence of gentleness and see, through the intelligence of the heart; and incline your ear; through the diligence of works; and forget your people, of carnal kinship, especially when the parents are contrary to the way of God; and the house of your father, of earthly opulence. And deservedly, since these two, namely the inordinate love of earthly parents and the disordered ardor for temporal things, customarily separate the soul from God; thus without doubt. then Christ the king, through the excellence of honor, desires, through the pleasure of acceptance, your beauty, which is splendid, formed in faith. O deifying virtue of faith, worthy of acceptance by all!®? Surely I do not know with what praises I may exalt you.®"* You certainly exalt indeed those who are unworthy servants with such excess, that you render them children of God, in accord with John 1:12: You gave them the power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name.
5. Second, God adopts the soul as a daughter due to the beauty of chastity and purity. Psalm 44:14 speaks of this: All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, with borders of gold, she is wrapped in various garments, as if to say: All glory, that is, perfect glory through the essence of virtue, not through the display of pomp, must belong to every Christian soul, which is the daughter of the eternal king, not on the outside in respect to carnal nobility or worldly beauty or exterior adornment, but from within, through the perfect ordering of the heart; with borders of gold, inasmuch at they regard the theologi- *8 See 1 Tim 1:15: "This saying is true and worthy of acceptance by all..."
874 See the third responsory for the second Nocturn for Matins for the Feast of the Lord's Nativity.
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cal virtues, namely faith by believing in truth, hope by expecting with steadfastness, and charity by loving with zeal. It is well to compare the theological virtues with borders of gold, for just as these are the perfect ornament of a completed material garment, so too, are these virtues the ornament and completion of every virtue or spiritual robe; she is wrapped in various garments, inasmuch as they regard the fourfold distinction of the cardinal virtues, namely prudence in choosing the truth, justice in doing the good, temperance in reprimanding the illicit, and fortitude is sustaining evil.
6. Third, God adopts the soul as a daughter due to the fear of humility and reverence. Whence The Song of Songs 7:1 says: How beautiful are your steps in sandals, daughter of the prince. That prince is Christ, the king of the earth, of whom any soul is called daughter through the fear of humility and submission; the feet however are the intellectual, loving, and operative powers; but steps instead are the thoughts, affections, and works by which the soul walks and advances; finally, "by sandals, which are made from the hides of dead animals, one understands the examples of the saints,"*'"° who have fallen asleep.
Whence the steps of any soul in sandals are spoken of as beautiful, when furnished with sandals so to speak and formed by the examples of the saints, it is roused to think purely, to speak correctly, and act beneficially; in order that it may arrive at salvation along these paths. It says, therefore: daughter.
7. It follows: take courage, where second the pious compassion of powerful encouragement is noted. In fact our Lord Jesus Christ encouraged that person with the 875 This is a paraphrase of Homily 22 n.9 of GGHG. See CCSL cxli,
191.
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compassion of piety, by saying to her: be assured, namely first by the wisdom of the Son, so you might be illuminated regarding the error of infidelity and ignorance; by the clemency of the Holy Spirit, so you may be purged from the filth of deforming fault; third, by the power of the Father, so you may be healed from the languor of miserable punishment. And it is necessary that these three have an order among themselves: since no one is healed from the infirmity of punishment, unless one is first illuminated regarding the error of infidelity of ignorance, and second, purged from the filth of deforming fault.
8. First, therefore, it says: be assured by the wisdom of the Son, so you may be illuminated regarding the error of infidelity and ignorance. And Wisdom 3:9 speaks of this: They who trust in him will understand the truth, and those faithful in love will rest in him. The Holy Spirit stated: They who trust in him, that is, in God, through the confidence of faith by expecting with certitude; will understand the truth, through the brilliance of faith by believing with steadfastness; and those faithful in love, through the benevolence of charity by loving to the end; will rest in him, through the efficacy of works by serving with generosity; for grace and peace belong to God's elect, through the abundance of the remuneration that they receive with delight. This agrees with what Psalm 124:1 said: Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion; one who dwells in Jerusalem will never be moved.
9. Second, be assured by the clemency of the Holy Spirit, so you may be purged from the filth of deforming fault. Whence Philippians 1:6 says: J trust in the Lord, that he who began a good work in you, will perfect it on the day of the Lord Jesus. It is as if the apostle was saying:
I lack confidence in view of your fragility, on the contrary I trust in the Lord, due to a consideration of divine power,
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
that he who began in you a good undertaking through the longing of anticipatory grace; will perfect this good work through the removal of infectious fault, since no work is good in regard to eliciting grace or worthy of remuneration in the presence of God; will perfect it on the day of the Lord Jesus through the assistance of subsequent grace.
Whence human fragility is so great, that nobody is capable of carrying out some good, meritorious work, unless divine grace influence human intention through anticipation and follow it with assistance.
10. Third, be assured of the power of the Father, so you may be healed from the languor of miserable punishment. And this can be drawn from Psalm 24:1-4: To you, O Lord, I have lifted up my soul. In you, my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on you will be confounded. Let all them be confounded who commit iniquity without cause. Show, O Lord, your ways to me, and teach me your paths.*" The prophet said: To you, O
Lord, I have lifted up my soul, through the devotion of the mind; let me not be ashamed, by the refusal of assistance;
Neither let my enemies laugh at me, that is, the demons, due to a demonstration of impatience and furor; for none of them that wait on you, through the toleration of tribulation; will be confounded, by the snare of desperation; to the contrary, all the demons will be confounded, through the overcoming of temptation; they who commit iniquity without cause, through the introduction of suggestions.
Whence Ambrose observes: "An infestation of demons or a band of robbers besieges, they who are hateful deceivers
876 Bonaventure's text is virtually identical to that of the Vulgate, 796.
THE SuNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
of souls, stretch out snares along every route."°"' The devil strives to restrain by stretching out a snare as it were behind, bringing back to mind past pleasure; he strives in fact to impede by stretching out a snare as it were in front, promising future prosperity and delight; he strives to corrupt by stretching out a snare on the right, offering the vanity of the world; he strives indeed to seize by stretching out a snare of the left, demonstrating the asperity of penance; consequently, he seizes by means of all these snares so to speak. The soul is able to evade these snares when it turns itself back to God with total devotion, supplicating humbly in speech: Your ways, of divine precepts; Lord, you who are the truth; show me, through the gift of sevenfold wisdom, so she may be with me and labor with me; that I may know what is acceptable in your presence at all times;®'* and your paths, of intentions as well as examples; teach me, through the infusion of manifold grace. Whence Gregory states: "Unless the merciful
God moderates trials with virtues, there is nobody who is able to avoid the snares of evil."*"? Therefore it says:
Daughter, be assured.
11. Third, it follows: your faith has saved you, where the instruction necessary for her healing is noted. In order that a person may be saved, one is instructed as to why it is necessary that one's faith be: first, solid in believing what is truthful with fidelity; second, devout in expecting what is promised with certitude; third, great in accomplishing what is difficult with vigor.
87 The critical edition refers to Book IV, n. 10 of Ambrose's Commentary on Luke. See CCSL xiv, 109.
*78 See Wis 9:10: "Send her (Wisdom) out of your holy heaven and from the throne of your majesty that she may be with me and may labor with me, so that I may know what is acceptable to you."
* This is Bonaventure's adaptation of Book IX, c. 46 n. 71 of Moralia in Iob. See CCSL exliii, 507.
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
12. First, faith must be solid in believing the truth with fidelity. Acts 15:9 speaks of this: He did not distinguish between us and them, purifying their hearts with faith. It is as if the apostle is saying: There is no preference for people with God,**° and because of this he did not distinguish, that is, he made no distinction between us Jews and those Gentiles; to the contrary, he purifies the hearts of all believers from all darkness of infidelity and deformity of vice; and with faith, that is, informed by belief, which works through love,®*! since there is no distinction between Jew and Greeks,®*? instead he finds pleasure in everyone. Whence Gregory comments on Job
5:11 He who irrigates everything with water: "The grace of the Holy Spirit calls every type of human being to his congregation. When he subjects the rich to him, he does not repel the poor; when he humbles the strong, he does not refuse that the weak come to him; when he gathers nobles, he draws the ignoble at the same time; when he receives the wise, he does not despise the foolishness of the ignorant."°*?
13. Second, faith must be devout in expecting what is promised with certitude. Whence Hebrews 11:1 says:
Now faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that are not seen. It says that faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, since just as a foundation by reason of its strength sustains a material building, so too, a spiritual edifice is set up and sustained by 880 See Rom 2:11: "Because with God there is no respect of persons."
881 See Gal 5:6: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith that works through love."
882 See Rom 10:12: "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for there is the same Lord of all, rich towards all who call upon him."
883 See Book VI, c. 16 n. 21 of Moralia in Iob in CCSL cxliii, 298.
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
the substance and solidity of faith. And as a body cannot be sustained without a soul according to the natural level of existence, so to, the soul without faith according to the graced level of existence, for it is impossible to please God without faith.*** And because of this Habakkuk 2:4 says:
My just one lives according to faith. And because of this faith is spoken of as a substance or hypostasis, for it sustains by reason of its solidity, and conserves by reason of its strength. Faith is likewise spoken of as the evidence of things that are not seen, because just as evidence proves to the mind and illuminates it in such a manner that a person may assent to the proven conclusion, so faith illuminates the mind so it assents in everything to the first
Truth. Whence just as the mind is guided by argumentation and the head by the eye, so the soul by the habit of faith.
14. Third, faith must be great in accomplishing what is difficult with vigor. Whence Hebrews 11:33 says: The saints through faith conquered kingdoms, brought about justice, obtained promises. Whence the saints conquered celestial kingdoms, through the faith that strengthened the affective power in the toleration of suffering or tribulation; and rightly so, since we must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations,®** and they also brought about justice, through the faith that crushed the world under foot in disdain for:worldly matters. Indeed unless the substance of worldly matters is despised, justice can never be brought about. Whence 1 John 5:4 says: This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. And Augustine says: "The one who has true faith from Christ
884 See Hebr 11:6.
885 See Acts 14:21.
PENTECOST AND THE SUNDAYS AFTER
never seeks to become rich in these miserable things."®** In addition, they obtained promises, through the faith that rewards in the assimilation of deiform glory. Let us therefore ask the Lord, etc.
886 See Sermon 36 c. 4 n. 5 in PL 38:217 for the gist of this quotation.
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INDICES
SCRIPTURE INDEX
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
OLp TESTAMENT
25:40
Leviticus AEE 13:45
1:26
157n176 Bad
2:6
172n203 25:51
409n666, 412n675 PARE 160n187, 331n496, 442n732 NuMBERS PENG 88n58 21:9
3:9
94n67 4:5-8
DEUTERONOMY
4:10
387n618, 411n672, 5-2
488n813 5:32
6:21
5:5
9:13 ts 6:4-5
8:2-3
ihayes,
10:12
19:14
29-29
222, 483, 484n805 ; : on2e
ou hae 32:36
Q7e27 162n189 :
33:14
JOSHUA 30:15
37:20
340n513 1:2
42:21
6:20-26
45:24
D 49:26
65n12 Juoces 41h Dae Exopus
3:8
SAMUEL 8:18-19 457n754 2:3
102n83, 150, 10:7 tp) 150n171 10:17
2:4
P32 toss
15:4-5 258n379 Page HO)
15a
15:6
267, 455 16:3
366, 388n624, 2 SAMUEL 489n816 16:33
311n462 19:33
19:18
24:17
INDICES
1 KiINnGs 149, 497 13:9 eck
$:11-12
8:33-34
10:23
10:24
17:4-6
21:10
PALA
jos 5:10 at BO 6:10
10:1
10:20-22 12:5
14:15
14:2
16:9
18:3
19:10
19:16
19:21
19:25
19:25-26 20:5-7 20:16 facal 26:13
26:14
29:14
32:8
40:15
41:25
2 KinGs 2:18-19
2 CHRONICLES
16:12
21:15-19 233 26:16-19 141 EzRA 7:10
3 Espras 3:1-2 Bon 4:58-59
338, 410 Tosit PsALMS
6:17
13:20
14:7-9
JuDITH
236n337
380n601 310n461
386n616 8:34
ESTHER eZ
7:10
10:6
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
442n731
98n73, 143n164 103n86 37, 513
349n527 349n530
200n258 260n383 68n17, 259n381 75, 529 75n33 371n580 160n185, 251n367
370, 521
ATA
466, 508 289n433
463n769 369n573
188n230
37:9-10 465n773 38:4
476n789 38:5
39:11
519n862 40:10
41:2
41:4-8
43:22
43:7-9
44:3
65n11 44:3
44:8
197n253 44:11-12 525 44:14
44:17
44:17
136n151 45:5
45:11
46:3
48:13
49:1 oon 49:11
50:7
289n434 50:19
370n578, 403 57:5-6 87n56 59:4
61:11
230, 270 61:13
160n186 Ps 63:7-8 256 63:8
63:9
64:5 a1 64:9
133n147 67:3
476n788 67:9
67:28
68:27
(Ab.
72:19
(Ee
77:18-21 387, 489 77:19
388n625
INDICES
489n817 388n627 489n819 388n629, 490n821
386n615 39, 88, 165,
495n831
447n742
133, 234 193n246
522n866 133n148
138:5
140:2
395n645 140:4
371n580, 409n667, 509n851 142:6 tad 142:10
142:11-12 198n256 143:5-6
1A 286n429 ike as 502n842 144:11
146:1
258n377 146:5
148:8
PROVERBS 7, 143n166 1:24 apate
3:14
4:3 v2, 4:19
6:23
106n88 8:6
50, 185 8:7
8:10
8:15
8:31
217n297 9:1-5
9:9
9:10
324n484 10:1
£15
169, 176 12:25
14:35
289n436 14:30
233n332 14:31
15:27b 4438n736 16:6
31 239 239n339
227n321, 422n693 116n105 214, 423, 528
121n122
117:26
118:130-1 118:131
118:60
118:96
121:3
121:4
124:1
126:2
131:4
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
380n602
swish 363n560, 389n633
288n432 251, 252n369
441n729
304n451 65n13, 122n124, 137n154, 219n302 65n14, 444n737 388n626, 489n818 17, 59
76n36 530n878
322n481
463n768 169n198, 369n572, 444n739 380n602
358n544, 379n599 358, 378
ECCLESIASTES
344n523
SONG OF SONGS
66, 184
52, 246, 253
422n692, 433n716 37,524, 527
235, 477 443n735 146n167, 324n485,
371, 431 372n584 370, 403
410n669
394n643 127, 440 107n90, 438n724 260, 451
340n514
INDICES
43:33-35 456 43:36
43:7-8
45:14
48:1
38, 108, 156 50:6
= 93 51:31
418n683 463n767
367n565, 425n699
422n696
ISAIAH 1:4
i bpsy. bi
2:10
284n425 4-3
5:20
99n76, 119n118 es 306n456 8:14
9:6
123, 218n299 11:4
+1712 116, 132 16:6
18:4
22°13
26:2
68n19 26:2-3
26:10
26:19
111, 112n99 29:9
30:31
He ph I
33:20
37:4-5
41:11
42:6
168, 460 49:6
'His
51:11
293, 308 pb 4
52:13
53:7
192, 286 53:9
519n863 53:10-12 282 230n327, 355n540
165n192 442n734 369n574, 394n643
411n674 472n784
317n471 317n472
179n215, 239n340 183n223
pA py
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
53:12
192n244 EZEKIEL oad 150, 438 58:1
96n70 out a 8:3
58:6
9:4
60:1
17:24
61:1
197, 228 19:12-13 378 61:9-10
24:25
63:1-3
34:12
64:6
168n195 36-8
66:10
276, 308 % 36:25
66:12
37.9
66:14
294, 308 :
66:14-19 294 DANIEL JEREMIAH 7:9
60n3 2:21
eae inate Sel 150n172 4:34 i Bier
HoOsEA See
20:11
486n808 SESE) FAS) amas 31:21
6:13
31:32
7:2
39:7
50:2
MicaH SPI
a Bah 212,
LAMENTATIONS
HABAKKUK iba.
125, 192n241
'Sere 2:3
3:13-14
Qala 189n235 eae
3:22
3:28
ZEPHANIAH
4:4
ee ib 4:10
251n363
BaRUCH HaGcalt
21S _ 430
3:28
2By gli, 69 4:22
2:24
INDICES
ZECHARIAH
358n545, 363n561 414n677 414, 464, 491
506n847 371n581
375n590
113n101 194n250
118n113 479n792
9:9
63, 250n361, 252 9:11
253n370 10:1
MALaAcHi 2:6
109n91, 219n301 1 MAccaBeEEs 2:27
2:27-30 42,200
2 MACCABEES
£5211
eas
NEw TESTAMENT
MATTHEW TEA 264, 264n392 u-2 71n24 2:10-11
S22
bs fae Ws 81n43 7:6 | 41, 195, 203n264 4:3
203n263 4:4
203n265, 367 4:6
204n267 4:9
205n272 4:10
205n273 4:19
4:21
Dian PRA 'sey a2 5:8
Bie Liz 5:22
255n373 523n871 81n42
THe SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
383n603
399n655
79n40, 227n325
470n778 469n777 183n225
255n374 22:6-7 22:7
22:9
22:15
22:16
22:30
22:35-37 Pate | 22:31
22:38
23:4
23:9-10 Zail2 24:2
24:3-29 24:8
24:12
24:24
25:34-35 2aton 25:41
25:41
25:41-43
363, 389
180n219 158n178 156, 158
159n182 313n464 304n452
218n300 216n294 217n296 216n293
204n266, 224n310 334n501 158n180,
325, 466, 504
227n323 350n531 297n449 158n179, 159 40, 165 64, 283 250n361
198n255 119n119 488n812 71n23 313n466
326, 379 380n600 186n228 291n438 189, 190, 411 493n828 117n109 192n242, 194n249 71n26 119n115 71n27 175n209
INDICES
368n569 366n564 ea 467n775 7:38
7:47
8:10
99n79 8:13
8:14
178n211 8:15
174, 179n218 8:54-56
9:13
366, 367n566 9:23
355, 484 9:57-58
10:9
318n475 10:20
10:30
418, 429n711 10:33
10:34
281n418 10:35
428n709 10:39
11:14
11:18
221n305 11:20
99n77, 220 11:20, 15 99n77 11:31
453n748 11:41
147, 180n220, 324n486 13:6-9
£37 376n594 13:8
377n596 13:16
82, 413 13:28
113n102 14:4
458, 459n757 14:11
123n128, 223n308, 255n374 14:15
14:16
BzL 14:18
14:18-20 334n499 14:23
335n5038, 384, 385n611 14:24
334n500 14:33
15:8-10
159n183 328n489 388n628, 462n763, 489n820
498n838 456n751 49, 108, 109 125n134
226n319, 343 135n149 213n288 100n80 36, 100 348, 355n541
240, 241n343
140n160 463n770
522n867 119n116 431n714 7:34
7:36-50
Tue SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
434n719 434, 435n720 435n721 48,91 81n44 192n243
198n255, 242n346,
338, 457n755 123n129 112n97
85n53 140n159,
503n845
367n568 Li2
118n112 453n748 PALS Re? Hp
119n117
137n156 227n320 54, 278 271n398 261n384 193n245
15:10
15:12
480n796 15:13
340, 481n798 15:16
481n800 15:18
480, 499 15:18,13,15-16 480 15:20
16:2
382, 390n640 16:19-22 326n488 16:23
113n102 16:25
43n114, 289 17:12-13 430, 431n712 18:1
397n652 18:9
204n270 18:10
395, 401n657 18:13
402n658, 431 18:14
205n271, 401 18:32
18:35
424, 425n698 18:39
18:39-40 437n723 19:1-10 464n771 19:44
387n622 19:46
21:10
PARAS 70n21, 74 21:25-26 74n31
22:40
22:44
191n239 22:48
23:14
23:45
71n25 23:47
24:16
349n528 24:39
JOHN thea!
1:16
1:3
216n293, 463n765 1:9
132n143 1:2
137, 526 ' 225n313 213n287
INDICES
12:31
1:8
294n447, 314 12:35
99n78 2:2-4
12:46
137n155 2:38
13:1
292n444 7:55
96n71 13:2
9:6
13:8
188n232 9:3,10 480n794 13:14
10:34
335n504 13:29
213n287 10:39
13:34-35 270 10:42
166n193 13:35
271n401 10:44
14:6
425n698, 520 11:17-18 67 14:23
12:1-10 82n47 15:1
375n589 12:7
114, 482 15:5
120, 130 14:21
227, 287n431, 15:12
532n885 15:13
271n398, 283, 472 15:9
15:15
386n617 26:20
15:17
271n401
16:2
479n793, 507n849 OMANS 16:5-6
1:16
16:13
295, 312 1:19
16:20
1:20
273n402 16:22
pen 376n593 16:23-27 138 2:6
171n201 16:24
ela) 531n880 17:6
241, 242n345 9-15
a call
4:4
£72 493n827 5:5 hla} 18:36
5:17
244, 306 18:37
5:20
344n521, 372n583 19:11
188n232 6:23
449n743 19:19
255n372 6:6
189n233 19:34
194n248, 394n642 7:24
20:10-11 433 8:17
226n316 20:13
128n138 10:10
111n95, 222n307 20:20
, AGeL2 531n882 20:27
12:10-11 313 20:29
274n407 13:9
21:14
14:10-12 389 14-17 227n324 Acts 15:4
483n804 i 123n126
THE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
267n394 10:13
461n759 1 CoriNTHIANS 111n93, 117n108 170n199 217, 362
283n423 89n60, 103n85, 426n700, 492n825 486n809 343n520 130, 310
78n37, 308n458
79n41
248n358 226n318 263n388
GALATIANS
5:6
283n420, 531n881 5:24
231n330, 284n427, 352n537 6:3
204n269, 372n585 6:14
126n135 oly 292n442
EPHESIANS
Zo 159n181, 226n315 2:4
292n443 2:4-5
Pie i} 93n65, 250n362 2:14-17 47,61, 89 Sa eP
ay 132n146 4:18
117n107 4:32
323n483, 467n776 4:32 goo, O11 ane 147n169, 205n274, 289n435 5:9
183n224 5:14
6:11-14 25,432 6:13
6:15
15:53-54
2 CORINTHIANS
60n4, 208n277, 220n304, 368n570 285n428, 294n446 311n462
PHILIPPIANS
1:6
pias 404n662
125n133, 292n441 re 123n127, 200n257 2:8
339n509, 518n861 2:10
71n28 a he 316n470 3:19
388n630, 490n823 3:20
_ 143n165, 154, 265, 276n412, 435 231n329, 284n426 135n150 343n519
290, 343
222n306, 224n309, 248n355, 250n360, 258n378, 263n388,
INDICES
3:21
90n61, 124n130, 245n351 4:7
227n322 102n81 194n249 211n282, 322n480, 370n577 307n457
137n157, 375n592, 532n884
489n815 234n333 281n417 COLossIANS a hea Us 210n281, 226n317, 456n752 a5 102n84, 150n170 2:9
177n210 2h | 44] 3:1-2
76n34
1 THESSALONIANS
40, 120n121, 195, 496n836 130n141, 195n251, 220n303
297n448 63n8, 251n364, 252n368, 326, 512 98n75
4:12
263n390 4:14
4:16
5:17
397n653
2 THESSALONIANS
2:8-10 a2 1 TimoTHy 1:15
137n153, 434, 526n873 cea lye 110n92 2:8
6:8-10
6:10
147n168, 270n397, 352n538 65n15
78n39 55, 354 519n863 428n707
2 TimoTHY 2:5
166n194 2:14
378n598 Dt 22) LAG 4:5
2 PETER HEBREWS
390n634 1:3-4 es 122n125 2:16
4:12
240, 463n766 2:9
TuE SUNDAY SERMONS OF ST. BONAVENTURE
1 JOHN
349n529 210-11
ane |
2:16
2:27-28
3:8
a e
BAUS 411n671 3:16
283n421, 284, 354 Bsa 326n487 ou-22
5:4 box 5:14
JUDE
136, 492 14-15
REVELATION
1:5
259n380 Des
3:10
3:20
8:4
11:6
318n473 19:9
19:12-13 254 19:16
188n231, 231n328, 251n365 de UG
20:12
20:13-14 364, 451 22:1-2
ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS