The Sunday Sermons of St. Bonaventure

Sermon 32: Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

The Sunday SermonS of ST. BonavenTure 356 sermon 32: fifTh sunday afTer PenTeCosT [Sermon] 1. Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. Matthew 5:22. Our Lord Jesus Christ, wanting to draw the human race away from the fury of anger that disturbs the soul lest it burst out harming a neighbor, pronounces in the proposed verse, as the most just judge, the eternal penalty of judgment for any person angry with one’s brother, when it says: Everyone who is angry with his brother etc. Certainly a valid order for proceeding is proposed in this verse. For first, the sin of anger is described in regard to its interior origin , which it possesses due to an evil soul; second, in regard to its exterior diffusion or operation, which is toward one’s neighbor; third, in regard to its final end, which consists in eternal punishment. First, therefore, the sin of anger is described in regard to its interior origin, which it possesses due to an evil soul, when it says: Everyone who is angry. The Gloss: “Anger is any evil movement to harm: however a sudden movement, to which one does not consent, is a passion; when aroused by consent, passion brings death into the home.”542 But every movement, whether good or bad for moral excellence, takes its origin from the soul. Second, the sin of anger is described in regard to its exterior diffusion or operation, which is toward one’s neighbor, when it adds: with his brother. A person is angered when he is inordinately moved interiorly within himself; but with his brother, when that evil movement bursts out exteriorly, in word or deed, to harm the neigh542 The critical edition says that this is the Glossa Ordinaria. penTecoST and The SundayS afTer 357 bor. Third, the sin of anger is described in regard to its final end, which consists in eternal punishment, when it introduces: shall be liable to judgment. 2. First, therefore, the sin of anger is described in regard to its interior origin, which it possesses due to an evil soul, when it says: Everyone who is angry. There are namely three things, which as the cause of anger and fury perturb the soul according to each one of its powers. And first is the error of blindness and ignorance due to a deficient discernment of the truth; second is the spite of evil and jealousy due to the lack of fraternal charity; and the third is the furor of cruel vindictiveness due to the lack of peace and concord. The first is in the rational power, the second in the concupiscent power, and the third is in the irascible power. 3. First, the error of blindness and ignorance, which regards the rational power, is due to the lack of discernment of the truth in the person who is angered. Whence Sirach 1:28 says: The anger of his animosity is his perversion . For the eye of reason is so perverted and confused in anger that it is completely unable to see; or it is so distorted that it perversely approves and disapproves one thing for another, and commends what is false as the truth. Whence an author says: “Anger impedes the soul so it cannot distinguish what is true,”543 or recognize how dear his brother may be to the Lord in the beauty of the virtues, how interiorly rich in the fecundity of good works, and how near to the angels in celestial longing, because it is tested in many, confounded among others, and irritated with those who are contrary. 543 The critical edition refers to Book II, distich. 4 of Cato’s Distich . The Sunday SermonS of ST. BonavenTure 358 4. Second, the spite of evil and jealousy, which regards the concupiscent power, is due to a lack of fraternal charity in the person who is angered. Whence Proverbs 29:22 states: One who is easily indignant will be quicker to sin. Since, in fact, the development of all virtues depends on charity, so all vices begin with the incitement of furious anger. Whence: One who is easily drawn to anger due to the spite of jealousy will be quicker to bring about all kinds of crimes and injuries to a neighbor. Whence the Gloss on Proverbs 29:22, The angry man causes disputes says this: “Anger is the door for all vices...