Giacomo della Marca's Sunday Sermon 52 on the Ineffable Mercy of God

443 Franciscan Studies 63 (2005) GIACOMO DELLA MARCA’S SUNDAY SERMON 52 ON THE INEFFABLE MERCY OF GOD Introduction St. Giacomo della Marca (St. James of the March), one of the pillars of the Observant movement, died in 1476. He preached in Italy and parts of Eastern Europe for over forty years and was very successful in persuading people to turn from sin to virtue and in promoting peace and harmony among factions in a city.1 Although a critical edition of his ninety-nine Sunday Sermons in Latin was published in 1978,2 there is, to my knowledge, no English translation of any of these sermons. The goal of this article is to sample the style of this reform preacher through his Sunday Sermon 52 on the Ineffable Mercy of God, for the First Sunday of Pentecost. I preface my annotated translation of this sermon by comments about its style, sources, etc. 1 For general background, see John Moorman, A History of the Franciscan Order: From its Origins to the Year 1517 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 473-8; Silvano Bracci, “Giacomo della Marca (1393-1476),” in Mistici Francescani Secolo XV, volume III (Milan: Editrici Francescani, 1999): 801-13; Renato Lioi, “Jacques de la Marche (saint),” in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité VIII, columns 41-5. The best general article is C. Casagrande, “Giacomo della Marca,” in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani 54 (2000): 214-20. 2 S. Iacobus de Marcha, Sermones Dominicales I-III. Introduzione testo e note di Renato Lioi, OFM (Ancona: Falconara M.: Biblioteca Francescana, 1978). See also S. Iacobus de Marcha, Sermones Dominicales IV, Supplement di Renato Lioi, OFM (Ancona: Falconara M.: Biblioteca Francescana, 1982). For a critique of Lioi’s critical edition and Lioi’s response to his critic, see Adriano Gattucci, “I ‘Sermones Dominicales’ di S. Giacomo della Marca,” Picenum Seraphicum 15 (1978-79): 123-84 and Renato Lioi, “Risposta al prof. Adriano Gattucci in mediro all’edizione dei ‘Sermones Dominicales’ di S. Giacomo della Marca,” Picenum Seraphicum 15 (1978-79): 259-308. 444 ROBERT KARRIS The Form of Sermon 52 It seems that Giacomo della Marca’s sermon on the Ineffable Mercy of God is an adaptation of the sermo modernus. He selects Luke 6:36 from the Gospel of the day as his theme: “Be merciful as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:37-38 from the same Gospel text rather from a different part of Sacred Scripture forms his pro-theme: “Forgive and you will be forgiven, etc.” Giacomo della Marca develops his theme in three principal parts. The first principal part has three sections while the second principal part has four sections and the third principal part has four sections with its fourth section, in its turn, having four sub-sections.3 While Giacomo della Marca’s Latin Sunday sermons were composed as “objective” guides for fellow preachers and confessors,4 Giacomo ’s riveting preaching style often bursts through the text.5 I quote #13 in its entirety as an example of his direct address to the audience in an “objective” sermon: “Have you been paying attention, O sinners, hardened and exhausted by your sins, that the compassionate God wants to free you from your great evils more than you want to be freed? Did he not cry out on the cross with his arms extended: Father, forgive them, for they are sinning out of ignorance? Did he not meet the foolish son, embrace and kiss him, and command that all the finest be prepared for him? Did he not host a banquet with singing and dancing at his return? Did he not kill Christ, the fattened calf, for his sake?” See also #31: “Repent, repent, O you stubborn person, because God does not want to act on your behalf unless you do what you can. Consider the example of the wicked servant in Matthew 18:24-27. . .” 3 On this aspect of the form of Giacomo della Marca’s sermon, see Dionisio Pacetti, “L’importanza dei ‘Sermones’ di S. Giacomo della Marca, OFM,” Studi Francescani 14 (1942): 125-68 (here, p. 127). 4 See Sermones Dominicales I, 68. 5 Compare the Latin sermons of St. Bernardine of Siena, the spiritual father of...