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Sermon 06: Celum et Terra Transibunt
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79 SERMON 06 CELUM ET TERRA TRANSIBUNT Sermon on the First Sunday of Advent1 Another Sermon of Brother Thomas of Aquino Given on the Same Sunday in the House of the Preachers at Paris before the University of Paris Luke 21.33: Heaven and earth will pass. Summary Prothema EAVEN AND earth will pass” [Lk 21.33]. Dearest brethren , how great the delight, how great the pleasure, how great the sweetness that is in the heavenly words of wisdom ! This is even obvious in the words of the natural philosopher ,2 who writes in Book 10 of Ethics about created knowledge: “All delights are at some point cut off. The greatest, however, is the delight that is in accordance with the operation of wisdom, and the most delightful operation is the one that is in accord- “ 1. This sermon dates from the first Parisian period (1252–1256). Only summaries of this sermon have been preserved. The point of departure for this translation is the “M” text, Milano Ambrosiana A11 sup. (which consists of a Prothema , parts I and II). Text version “P,” Paris BnF lat 14595 (no Prothema, parts I, II, and III), is referred to in the notes and in the text where indicated. 2. Thomas usually refers to Aristotle as Philosophus, “the Philosopher.” In other words, it is not a specifically Jewish or Christian, but a universal insight: every right-thinking person, even a (wise) pagan, can know it. This principle is worked out by Thomas in Part I where he first cites Aristotle and concludes with Scripture. 80 THOMAS AQUINAS ance with the operation of wisdom.” Also the theological philosopher3 writes in Wis 7.8 that he “loved (diligo) it more than gold and outward appearance”; “it” is the heavenly wisdom about which we speak. Because of this we will ask, at the beginning of this homily, our Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain of all wisdom [cf. Sir 1.5], who is, according to St. Dionysius4 in Book 6 part c of The Hierarchy of the Angels, the principal instructor of all heavenly spirits and devout souls, to illumine our understanding, to kindle our hearts, and to make my mouth eloquent for the honor of his name in accordance with the Gospel teaching and the edification of our souls. Part I “Heaven and earth will pass” [Lk 21.33], et cetera. In these words5 the situation of the just and the unjust is described according to a spiritual knowledge. Our most providential and meek Savior commended these words6 —out of care for his sheep’s salvation in faith [cf. Jn 10.13]—to his disciples and in them to all believers for serious attention to the Last Judgment, without mentioning the term, because it is clear. (1) By the noun “heaven” the marvelous loftiness of the heavenly man is mentioned, and (2) by the noun “earth” the deserved lowliness of the worldly person is mentioned, and (3) by the verb “will pass” he carefully refers to a distinctive quality of each.7 3. Only here does Thomas refer to the writer of Wisdom, allegedly Solomon, as philosophus theologicus, as distinct from the philosophus naturalis. 4. I.e., not St. Dionysius “the Great” of Alexandria (c. 200–c. 265), Pope St. Dionysius (†268), or St. Denis, patron saint of France (†258), but someone whom we call Pseudo-Dionysius: for a long time people thought that this author from the late 5th century who called himself Dionysius the Areopagite was the same person as the Dionysius in Acts 17.34. This identification contributed to the great spread and authority of his works. 5. P adds: “the beautiful but deformed variety of”; it seems that it is beautiful because the just and the unjust are where they deserve to be (as Thomas says in Part II), and yet it is deformed since God made all people to be just [cf. Rom 3.26]. 6. P adds: “like a most merciful shepherd.” 7. In Thomas’s time as a magister there was a vehement controversy about the [54.221.69.42] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 07:04 GMT) SERMON 06 81 E (1) So, as he describes the marvelous loftiness and the worthy eminence of the heavenly man, he calls him “heaven.” Yet we must consider that the heavenly man is signified by the noun “heaven” for four reasons: (1.1) Heaven is of a great brightness,8 as the Philosopher demonstrates in Book 2 of On Heaven and Earth...