Bonaventure

In his own words on 1 John

• 1 John 1:1

  The third certainty derives from an intellectual vision combined with bodily vision. This occurred in the minds of the apostles. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and our hands have handled, the Word of Life. And we announce to you nothing else than what we have seen. Wherefore Thomas wanted to touch, and was told: "Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed." And the blessed Virgin Mary, the teacher of the Apostles and Evangelists, came in contact with this Word in her womb and on her lap.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9

• 1 John 2:14

  The gift of the Holy Spirit is given for overthrowing the powers of the air. Whence in John: "I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one." This fortitude ought to be in every Christian and especially in the leader of the army of the Christian people.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 5

• 1 John 2:16

  That which most distances us from the world is most consonant with evangelical perfection; but to bind oneself by vow to obey a man most distances us from the world, because all that is in the world is either the concupiscence of the flesh, or the concupiscence of the eyes, or the pride of life, from which we are most distanced by the vow of obedience: therefore to bind oneself by vow to obey another is most consonant with evangelical perfection.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 4

• 1 John 2:16

  The devil enticed the woman through a threefold desirable object, namely through knowledge, which is desirable to the rational power; through excellence after the manner of God, which is desirable to the irascible power; through the sweetness of the tree, which is desirable to the concupiscible power. And thus he tempted everything that was temptable in the woman, through everything by which she could be led into temptation, which is the threefold desirable object of the world, namely the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life; according to which three things the origin of every temptation is discerned, whether from the world, or from the flesh, or from the devil.

  Breviloquium, Part 3, Chapter 2

• 1 John 2:16

  Of actual sins there is one beginning, a twofold root, a threefold fuel, and a sevenfold head or capital sin. There is one beginning, namely pride; a twofold root, namely fear wrongly humbling and love wrongly inflaming; a threefold fuel, according to the three things that are in the world, namely the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life; and a sevenfold head, namely pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust. Among which the five preceding are spiritual sins, while the last two are carnal. For every fear has its origin from love: for no one fears to lose something unless he loves to have it; and therefore fear is nourished by those things by which love too is nourished. Now disordered love regards a changeable good: and since that is threefold—interior, namely excellence; exterior, money; inferior, carnal wantonness—hence it is necessary that there be three radical fuels of actual sins, toward which when the soul is carried in a disordered manner, all actual sins arise.

  Breviloquium, Part 3, Chapter 9

• 1 John 2:16

  Since justice arrives at perfection when it perfectly distances itself from evil both as to worship and as to cause: and all evil arises from a threefold root, namely the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life: hence it is that there are three evangelical counsels, perfectly distancing us from the aforesaid threefold root. Which are therefore counsels because, in order that they may perfectly cause one to withdraw from evil, they separate not only from illicit things, but also from licit and permitted things which can be an occasion of evil: and through this they contain not only sufficient, but also abundant justice, according to what befits the perfection of the evangelical law and the exercise of perfecting grace.

  Breviloquium, Part 5

• 1 John 3:15

  Likewise homicide is committed interpretively, and this occurs in three ways: first, by omitting in deed: whence Ambrose says: "Feed the one dying of hunger: if you have not fed him, you have killed him." In the second way it occurs when someone kills another by counseling, or accusing, or disparaging, when he does this from malice of spirit. In the third way homicide is committed interpretively by hating in the soul: whence in the epistle of John: "He who hates his brother is a murderer."

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 6

• 1 John 3:16

  Nothing more instructs a person toward virtue than the example of enduring death for the sake of justice and divine obedience—death, I say, not of just any kind, but of the most painful sort. Nothing indeed more invites than such great kindness, by which for us the most high Son of God, without any merits on our part—nay, with many demerits on our part—laid down His life; which kindness is shown to be all the greater, the more grievous and abject the things He endured or willed to suffer for us. For God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all: how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? From which we are invited to love Him and to imitate the One we love.

  Breviloquium

• 1 John 4:16

  The door to wisdom is a yearning for it and a powerful desire. That is the road by which wisdom comes within me, by which I go into wisdom, and wisdom comes into me, and likewise charity. Hence "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." Such wisdom cannot be obtained without supreme mutual pleasure, but where there is supreme mutual pleasure, supreme yearning must have come first.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 1 John 4:16

  If we consider the fruit, we shall find the union of God and the soul. For every artisan who makes some work either makes it so that through it he may be praised, or so that through it something may be procured or gained for himself, or so that he may delight in it, according to the three things that are among desirable goods, namely the honorable good, the useful, and the delectable. For these three reasons God made the rational soul: that it might praise Him, that it might serve Him, that it might delight and rest in Him; and this is through charity, in which he who abides, abides in God, and God in him, so that there is a certain wondrous union, and from that union a wondrous delight; for, as it is said in Proverbs, my delights are to be with the children of men. Behold how the illumination of mechanical art is a path to the illumination of Sacred Scripture, and there is nothing in it that does not proclaim true wisdom. And therefore Sacred Scripture quite rightly makes frequent use of such similitudes.

  On the Reduction of the Arts to Theology

• 1 John 5:3

  The commandments of God are irreproachable, because they contain nothing impossible: whence in First John: "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome." He premises: "this is the love of God": for to one having charity the commandments of God are easy and sweet, but to one not having charity they seem difficult. And Augustine gives the example of a bird having feathers and a bird without feathers: and he says that for a bird having feathers it is easy to fly, but for a bird not having feathers it is difficult. Similarly, to a man of perverse will the commandments seem difficult, which to one having charity are easy.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 1

• 1 John 5:6

  The third firmness of faith is that which proceeds from the witness of truth as expressed through the inspired word: and this occurred with all the prophets. And we have heard this Word, for it is the Spirit that bears witness that Christ is the truth. Some have actually seen Him in the flesh.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9

• 1 John 5:7

  1 John 5: Three are they who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one; I say one absolutely, which I say with no addition: therefore they are one absolutely: therefore the trinity does not take away unity.

  Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 2

• 1 John 5:7

  There are two Seraphim established in us through faith, and each one makes the triple exclamation, but refers only once to the Lord God. For the understanding of God is the understanding of three Persons with unity of essence. Wherefore "there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one." And so the intellect is made to resemble a Seraph, that is, it is enlightened and inflamed through faith, and cries out "Holy" three times.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 8

• 1 John 5:7

  The words also testify to this same thing, among which, although many there be, that one statement is express which the friend of the Bridegroom wrote in First John five: There are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. Now this testimony is so efficacious and express that it not only makes the aforesaid truth credible, that is, fitting to be believed, but also makes it obligatory, inasmuch as it binds and constrains us to believing it.

  Disputed Questions on the Mystery of the Trinity, Question 1

• 1 John 5:7

  For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. Witness is given by the Three, but it is expressed through the Word, for the Word expresses the Father, and Itself, and the Spirit, and all other things besides.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9

• 1 John 5:8

  The incarnation cannot be known unless one is aware of the distinction of Persons. For if you do not know the Trinity, the Father could have been incarnated and have suffered as well as the Son: and this is Sabellianism and Patripassianism. Likewise, if you suppose the Trinity and not the incarnation, you have a witnessing in heaven, but you do not receive it on earth. Yet, since "there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit and the water and the blood." The spirit refers to the Godhead, the water to the body, and the blood, wherein is the life of the soul, to the soul. Through blood, indeed, Christ united the Spirit with the water, for by means of the soul, the Godhead was joined to a body.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 8

• 1 John 5:19

  The fifth middle way is kindness, either in the form of the re-establishment of justice or in that of friendship, which has nothing of malice, but through which a man seeks someone else's good; and here it is necessary that reason be guided. Although the Philosopher says it is fitting to do good to friends and evil to enemies, Christ recommends that every man be loved, and that all men be given things that are useful to them, and not damaging. If I love you and grant you some favor or freedom which you will misuse as soon as you receive it, I am not being kind, but rather malicious: and so, in order to be kind, I will not give it to you. I have a friend, and I have an enemy: the friend will badly use some position of power or some dignity, damaging both himself and the common good. If I give them to him, I am not kind. On the contrary, my enemy will use it well: I will give it to him and turn his wickedness into good. A father does not flatter his son, nor does he speak to him in sweet words, lest he become proud. The world in our days is ignorant of this form of kindness, hence the whole world is in the power of the evil one, for man loves nothing but his own personal good.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 5