Bonaventure

In his own words on 1 Thessalonians

• 1 Thessalonians 4:11

  First Thessalonians four: Work with your hands, as we commanded you, and that you may walk honestly toward those who are outside, and that you may desire nothing of anyone's: Gloss: "Much less ask for it, or take it." But this especially regards the poor: therefore, etc.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 1 Thessalonians 4:11

  First Thessalonians chapter four: We beseech you, brethren, that you endeavor to be quiet and that you work with your hands, as we have commanded you: the Gloss: "Work, which helps you to be quiet. For that evil comes from idleness." From this it is evident that he says this in order to avoid idleness and to remove sloth, which is the bilge of desires and the fuel of sins.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 1 Thessalonians 4:12

  First Thessalonians 4: That you desire nothing of anyone: the Gloss says: "That you desire nothing of anyone, much less ask for or take anything." If therefore it is more to ask or petition than to desire, and the first is prohibited as unlawful by the Apostle, namely to desire or covet what belongs to another: therefore much more so to petition. To that which is objected from the Gloss on 1 Thessalonians 4, that one should desire nothing of anyone nor ask for anything: it must be said that someone can ask something from another in two ways: either out of desire for another's property, or out of desire for another's salvation. The first the Apostle prohibits as evil and as prohibited in the Law, where it is said: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. But the second he does not prohibit, because the law of charity grants this, which is to be nourished by mutual benefits and causes the burden of one to be borne by another. For what is so absurd as to believe that the Apostle denied that anyone should ask from another either benefit or aid or the solace of mercy and fraternal piety? And that this is true appears from what the Apostle says at the end of Philippians about himself, thanking them for the benefit conferred: I do not seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. For according to what Augustine expounds in the thirteenth book of the Confessions, he seeks the gift who delights principally in the thing received; he seeks the fruit who delights in the salvation of another.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 1 Thessalonians 5:3

  The time of the clear doctrine extended from Hadrian. But how long it lasted, who is able to say, and who has said? It is certain that we are living in it; it is certain also that it will last until the downfall of the beast that comes up from the sea, when Babylon will be confounded and destroyed, and peace will be given. But first, tribulation must come to pass. And here no boundary can be set, for no one knows how long this time of major peace is to last, "for when they shall say, 'Peace and security,' even then sudden destruction will come upon them."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 16

• 1 Thessalonians 5:12

  First Thessalonians 5: We beseech you that you acknowledge those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord; the Gloss says: "Just as riches beget negligence of salvation, so want, while it desires to be satisfied, turns aside from justice"; but what makes one turn aside from justice does not pertain to evangelical perfection: therefore, etc. To that which is objected from the Gloss on 1 Thessalonians 5, that want causes one to turn aside from justice: it must be said that just as riches are not at fault, but the cupidity of riches, so want is not at fault, but the impatience of want; and whoever has this turns aside from justice, since in fleeing want he goes after money; and whoever pursues it easily turns aside from justice: for they that will be rich fall into temptations and into the snare of the devil and many hurtful desires. And just as such want is evil, so also begging arising from such want is blameworthy. But when penury pleases more than abundance, and a man out of love of poverty despises the abundance of earthly things, such a one has no occasion of turning aside from justice on account of such want; and such is the poverty and begging that pertains to evangelical perfection. And that this response is correct is clear from the Gloss itself, in which it is said that "want, when it desires to be satisfied, turns aside from justice." For the needy person who desires to be satisfied is the needy person who does not love poverty but satiety, not penury but abundance. And such a one is not the evangelical and heavenly poor man, who begs out of the supererogation of justice; but rather the covetous and earthly man, who begs out of the viciousness of fault.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2