The Sunday Sermons of St. Bonaventure

Sermon 4: Third Sunday of Advent

SundayS of advenT 91 sermon 4: Third sunday of advenT 1. In your midst stood one whom you did not know. John 1:26. [Protheme] While Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came upon those who were listening, etc. Acts 10:44. These last words proposed here describe three noteworthy things pertaining to every preacher; first of which is the certitude of the one speaking mentioned in the premise: While Peter was speaking; he is interpreted as one who knows;62 second, the swiftness of the one poured out mentioned when it adds: the Holy Spirit came; third, the multitude of people listening mentioned when it adds: upon all those who were listening to the words. Given these three things, let us all devotedly implore the grace of divine piety, that it might fill the one speaking with certain words and establish the one listening among the multitude of the blessed. In this way, both the one speaking and the one listening might rejoice in the swift effusion of the Holy Spirit by whom I might say and you understand these matters to the praise and glory of our Mediator and the health and consolation of our souls. Amen.63 62 See CCSL lxxii, 147: “Peter, knowing or destroying.” 63 On Christ as Mediator, see: J. A. Wayne Hellmann, Divine and Created Order in Bonaventure’s Theology, translated and edited, with appendix by Jay M. Hammond (St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2001), 62-77. The Sunday SermonS of ST. BonavenTure 92 [Sermon] 2. In your midst stood one whom you did not know. Although John the Baptist was of such great holiness that many considered him to be the Christ, when the Jews asked him if he might be the Christ he responded truthfully, because he was not Christ. In order for the Jews to have a response to their question about Christ, this faithful messenger and precursor of the truth added the proposed words, saying: In your midst stood, etc. The first certainly asserts the appropriate office of reconciliation . The second calls to mind the presence of the incarnate Word. The third proves the negligence of the Jewish people.64 The first asserts the appropriate office of reconciliation when it says: In your midst. The second calls to mind the presence of the incarnate Word when it adds: stood, that is, he is present among you. The third proves the negligence of the Jewish people, when it adds: whom you did not know. 3. It says then: In your midst, where the appropriate office of reconciliation is noted. It was appropriate, certainly , that he who held the middle of the throne, would hold the office of medium, and he who was the medium in way of creation, would be the medium in the way of recreation . Consequently, the world might be restored through the Word through whom it was made. Christ is the appropriate medium, first of all, in the miraculous way he draws together in the incarnation; second, in the regular discipline of conduct; third, in the powerful influence of the passion. 64 On Bonaventure’s view of the Jewish people, see Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 9-16, introduction, translation , and notes Robert J. Karris. WSB VIII/2 (St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2003), xiii-lvi, esp. xlii-xlvi in regard to the Sunday Sermons. SundayS of advenT 93 4. First, Christ is a miraculous, unifying medium in the incarnation because he joins together, in himself, two extremes, the first, divinity, and the last, humanity. He himself is our peace who made both one,65 and for this reason it is more fitting for Christ, through whom the grace of reconciliation and the truth of the incarnation came, than Moses to say in Deuteronomy 5:5: I was the mediator and stood between you and God. In the humanity he assumed, he is like the morning star in the midst of a cloud spoken of in Sirach 50:6. Just as the morning star is between the day and night, and works to drive away the darkness, so Christ was the medium between the day of divinity and the night of humanity, by removing the darkness of sin. 5. Second, Christ was the appropriate medium in the regular discipline of conduct, never straying from the medium of truth when speaking nor from the medium of honesty in...