The Sunday Sermons of St. Bonaventure

Sermon 44: Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Sunday SermonS of ST. BonavenTure 468 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- penTecoST and The SundayS afTer 469 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;777 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 470 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.778 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...