Bonaventure

In his own words on 2 Corinthians

• 2 Corinthians 3:5

  To attribute sufficiency to one's own virtues and free will is a matter of presumption with respect to however small a good, since the Apostle says in Second Corinthians 3: Not that we are sufficient, etc. But to attribute this to divine grace, which one hopes will not be lacking to oneself on account of divine munificence, is not a matter of presumption, but of confidence and of the certainty of hope, by which we believe that God is a helper to the man who wills to adhere to His counsels. On account of which the same Apostle immediately after the aforementioned word adds: Our sufficiency is from God; and the same, in the last chapter of Philippians: I can do all things in Him who strengthens me; and by this hope ought he to be sustained who, inspired by the divine Spirit, not only proposes the perfection of the evangelical counsels, but also promises it by vowing.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 4

• 2 Corinthians 3:6

  It should be noted that the Church was placed in paradise, like the first man, "to till it," in such a way that no one would say "that anything he possessed" was "his own." For it began in a state of great perfection that is observed today in the religious life, for the love of Christ was still recent, and in those days "a large number also of the priests accepted the faith." This Church, meaning the one that began with the Jews, because they were converted at one time by the three thousand, and at another, by the five thousand, possessed the "tree of life," that is, faith, because "My just one lives by faith." It also had the "tree of knowledge," that is, the Law, which remained with them for seeing and reading, and not for eating. Much more: for "the day you eat of it, you must die." And so you may see the tree of knowledge, but not eat of it, or else you would destroy what Christ had done; and death would necessarily come in, for "the letter kills." Hence Paul says: "I, Paul, tell you that if you be circumcised, Christ will be of no advantage to you."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 16

• 2 Corinthians 3:18

  Augustine explains this power as follows: "But we all, with faces unveiled, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord:" Not "as in mirrors," that is, from afar, but "as in a mirror." But we still see through this mirror in an obscure manner, for a man who sees clearly is in the state of beatitude. Augustine indicates the form of this mirror in the fifteenth book of his work "On the Trinity," chapter four, where he seeks to show both God's unity and trinity. This is what he says: "It is not only the authority of the divine books that proclaims that God is one: everything around us, including ourselves because of the universal nature of things, manifests the fact that it has a most outstanding Creator, who gave us a mind and natural reason through which we see that the living beings are superior to the non-living, the sensible to the senseless, the intelligent to the non-intelligent, the immortal to the mortal, the powerful to the weak, the just to the unjust, the beautiful to the deformed, the good to the wicked, the incorruptible to the corruptible, the invisible to the visible, the bodiless to the bodily, the blessed to the wretched. And because of the fact that, without any doubt, we place the Creator above created things, it is fitting that we profess that He is supremely living, that He perceives and knows all things, that He is free from death, corruption, and change, that He is not a body but a Spirit, the most powerful, just, beautiful, good, and happy of them all."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 11

• 2 Corinthians 3:18

  It is in this way that men enter into contemplation, nor can anyone in the world attain the visions of the Apocalypse unless he understands such things as these. Since, then, according to the Apostle, "there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another of the stars," we, lifted up through faith, are being transformed from glory to glory, and this, with faces unveiled, so that in a sense we are made to become similar to the twelve stars and to the twelve pearls. There are twelve thoughts we have received through faith: these are the notions that God is the First, that He is triune, that He is the Exemplar of things, the Creator of the world, the One who gave form to the soul, and the Giver of life; that God united to the flesh was crucified, that He is the Remedy of the minds, the Retribution of crimes and the eternal Reward.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 10

• 2 Corinthians 3:18

  This wisdom results from many mysteries of the Scriptures, as out of many mirrors there results a multiplication of light rays and fires. These are the "mirrors of the women" out of which "the bronze laver" was made; this is Scriptures, "with faces unveiled, reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, being transformed into His very image from glory to glory": from the clarity of allegory to the clarity of anagogy, and again to that of tropology. This wisdom is given according to the measure of faith, "according as God has apportioned to each one the measure of faith." For in the measure in which a man seizes the mind, in that measure does he become wiser—and faith is obtained through humility.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 2 Corinthians 3:18

  The Apostle gives us to understand that the soul possesses a manifold clarity and ascends from one to another. Whence the Apostle to the Corinthians: "But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image from clarity to clarity, as by the Spirit of the Lord." The clarity of the soul is knowledge; on the contrary, the darkness of the soul is ignorance. He says: "we are transformed from clarity to clarity." Here it must be noted that there is a clarity of philosophical knowledge, of theological knowledge, of gratuitous knowledge, and a clarity of glorious knowledge. The clarity of philosophical knowledge is great according to the opinion of worldly men, yet it is small in comparison to the clarity of Christian knowledge. The clarity of theological knowledge indeed seems small according to the opinion of worldly men, but according to truth it is great. The clarity of gratuitous knowledge is greater, but the clarity of glorious knowledge is the greatest: there lies the final state.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4

• 2 Corinthians 3:18

  This consideration of the theories exists between the two mirrors of the two Cherubim, that is, of the two Testaments, that shed light on each other, so that man be "transformed from glory to glory." But this germination of the seeds procures the understanding of the different theories through adaptation to the different times; and the man who overlooks the times cannot know the theories. For one who ignores the past cannot know the future. If, indeed, I do not know from which tree a seed comes, I cannot know what tree is to grow from it. Hence the knowledge of future events depends on the knowledge of those of the past. Moses, indeed, in his prophecies concerning the future, was telling about the past through revelation.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 15

• 2 Corinthians 4:6

  This word is written in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, in which the Apostle Paul, the great doctor, explains the gift of knowledge itself; and he explains the gift itself with respect to its antecedents and consequents. Two things precede the gift of knowledge: one is like an innate light, and the other is like an infused light. The innate light is the light of the natural judicatory or of reason; the superinfused light is the light of faith. With respect to the first he says: "God, who commanded light to shine," that is, he impressed the light of the natural judicatory upon the rational creature, that is, not only the possible intellect, but also the agent intellect. With respect to the superinfused light of faith he says: "He has shone in our hearts," namely through the infusion of the light of faith. God established the rational nature and superadded grace. Therefore there are two antecedents. The consequents are also two, namely clear knowledge of the Creator, and revealed knowledge of the Savior. With respect to the antecedents he says: "God, who commanded," etc.; with respect to the consequents he says: "For the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God," where clear knowledge of the Creator is touched upon; "in the face of Christ Jesus," where revealed knowledge of the Savior is touched upon. The Apostle gives us to understand that the soul possesses a manifold clarity and ascends from one to another.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 4

• 2 Corinthians 4:6

  "He has shone in our hearts for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God." However much a man may have a good natural judgment and along with this frequency of experience, they do not suffice unless there be illumination through divine influence. This light is pure and is with him: no one is illumined with certitude except through him.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 8

• 2 Corinthians 4:17

  But grace which lifts up is obtained through hope. The Psalm reads: "For what have I in heaven? And besides Thee what do I desire upon earth?" And elsewhere: "I say, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living," so that a man be kept whole in view of this fatherland. Therefore "our present light affliction which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory." For the Lord rejoices in the right. "The delights at your right hand forever." At the left are passing riches, glories and consolations. We must indeed adhere to the right. Hence the rewards dispose towards the third act of grace.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 18

• 2 Corinthians 5:1

  It is indubitably true that we are the end of all things that exist, and all corporeal things were made for human service, so that from all of them man might be kindled to love and praise the Maker of all things, by whose providence all things are disposed. This sensible framework of corporeal things is therefore like a certain house fashioned for man by the supreme Artificer, until he should come to the house not made with hands in the heavens; so that, just as the soul, by reason of the body and the state of merit, is now on earth, so at some time the body, by reason of the soul and the state of reward, may be in the heavens.

  Breviloquium, Part 2, Chapter 4

• 2 Corinthians 5:1

  Scripture enlightens from above by means of divine promises, for its teaching is concerned with things above. Hence the Apostle writes: For we know that if the earthly house in which we dwell be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by human hands, eternal in the heavens. And: "In My Father's house there are many mansions," says the Lord. In the Psalms, it is said: The children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They have their fill of the prime gifts of Your house; from Your delightful stream You give them to drink. For with You is the fountain of life, and in Your light we see light. And in the Apocalypse: For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them, and will guide them to the fountains of the waters of life. And in a Psalm: The delights at Your right hand forever. And so Scripture offers us the divine promises.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 17

• 2 Corinthians 6:1

  Grace is more necessary for us than the Law; to receive which grace fruitfully, our mother the Church and the Apostle Paul exhort us. The Apostle Paul in this brief word rouses us to receive divine grace, to guard the grace received, and to multiply the grace received and guarded. He exhorts us not to receive the grace of God in vain, but to receive it fruitfully: therefore he means to say that we should be ready to receive, guard, and multiply the grace of God. But in order that this exhortation may be fulfilled in us, three things present themselves here for our consideration: first, what is the origin of grace; second, what is the use of grace; and third, what is the fruit of grace.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 1

• 2 Corinthians 7:1

  The perfection of the fear of God consists in three things, namely in perfect sanctification and cleansing of conscience, in perfect promptitude of obedience, and in perfect firmness of confidence. First, the perfection of the fear of God consists in perfect sanctification or cleansing of conscience. Hence the Apostle to the Corinthians: "Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God." And how shall we perfect sanctification? It is said in Ecclesiasticus: "Those who fear the Lord will prepare their hearts, and in his sight will sanctify their souls, saying: if we do not do penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of men."

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2

• 2 Corinthians 8:9

  Likewise, 2 Corinthians 8: You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake He became poor, though He was rich, so that by His poverty etc.: therefore whoever so renounces that he becomes destitute conforms himself more to Christ.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 2 Corinthians 8:9

  This counselor, namely Christ, has many counselors, to whom he imparts his counsel. Paul said: 'She will be more blessed if she so remains according to my counsel; but I think that I also have the Spirit of God.' Whence to the Corinthians: 'You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor.' Augustine says that 'Christ became poor to such an extent that he does not have what the foxes have, because foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head; understand: Christ became poor so that we might imitate his poverty.' The Master says that we should imitate him in giving alms, in humility, in poverty, and in obedience.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 7

• 2 Corinthians 8:9

  On 2 Corinthians 8, on the verse: That by His poverty you might be made rich: the Gloss says: "Let no one despise himself: the poor man in his cell, rich in conscience, sleeps more securely on the ground than the man rich in gold upon purple. Therefore do not be afraid to approach with your beggary Him who was clothed with our poverty: where He made Himself poor, He enriched us." Therefore beggary disposes one toward, and does not withdraw one from, divine approach: it is established therefore that it is not a sin.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 2 Corinthians 8:10

  Likewise, on what follows in the same place: In this I give counsel; Augustine in the original: "He was made poor to such an extent that He did not have what foxes have; and in this I give counsel, that is to say, that you imitate His poverty"; but whoever renounces all things imitates His poverty: therefore etc.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 2 Corinthians 8:12

  Likewise, Second Corinthians eight: If the willing mind is ready according to what one has: the Gloss says: "Let him retain what is necessary, not giving beyond his means": therefore he acts wrongly who so distributes that he reserves absolutely nothing for himself. To that which is objected from the Gloss on Second Corinthians eight: If the will is ready etc.; Gloss: "that he may retain what is necessary"; it must be said that that Gloss is truncated, because immediately it follows: "This is not said as though it would not be better, namely to give all: but he fears for the weak, whom he so advises to give that they may not suffer want." From which it appears that that Gloss rather makes for the contrary than for the proposition, if it be examined with a sound and right eye.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 2 Corinthians 8:14

  Again, 2 Corinthians 8: Let your abundance supply their want, so that their abundance also may be a supplement to your want. The Gloss: "Let your abundance of earthly things supply their want, so that conversely the abundance of their spiritual merits, who are devoted to divine things, may be a supplement to your want." If, therefore, it pertains to the perfection of the Lord's body that its members share with one another in the manner of giving and receiving: it contributes to the perfection of the Church and of the Gospel that the just poor seek and receive sustenance from the worldly and imperfect rich. If you say that they can receive but not ask: this amounts to nothing, because the worldly rich can ask for the prayers of spiritual men to relieve the want of their merits: therefore conversely the spiritual poor can ask for corporal alms for the sustenance of their bodies.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 2

• 2 Corinthians 10:5

  Since truth is to be believed, and a greater truth is to be believed more, and consequently the supreme truth is to be believed supremely; and the truth of the first principle is infinitely greater than every created truth and more luminous than every light of our intellect: hence it is that, in order that our intellect may be rightly ordered in things to be believed, it is necessary that it believe the supreme truth more than itself, and that it bring itself into the obedience of Christ; and through this, that it believe not only those things which are according to reason, but also those which are above reason and contrary to the experience of the senses: for if it refuses, it does not exhibit due reverence to the supreme truth, since it prefers the judgment of its own industry to the dictate of the eternal light; which cannot be without the swelling of pride and blameworthy elation.

  Breviloquium, Part 5

• 2 Corinthians 10:5

  "Bringing into captivity the understanding unto the obedience of Christ." He who wishes to search sacred Scripture according to the light of his own intelligence thinks the most false errors. In this life we are little ones, and "the learner must believe." For it is necessary to believe God, and especially in sublime matters that transcend our understanding. The first Angel erred because he presumed upon himself. The disordered concupiscible power impedes the gift of understanding; likewise also the irascible, when it is disordered; but when the rational power is disordered, it most greatly impedes this gift. It is necessary therefore that we bring our intellect into captivity, if we wish to receive this gift. He who despises all things is raging mad: he is not disposed to receive this gift, nor is the presumptuous one.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 8

• 2 Corinthians 12:2

  But the way is none other than through the most burning love of the Crucified, who so transformed Paul, caught up to the third heaven, into Christ, that he said: I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me; who also so absorbed the mind of Francis that his mind was made manifest in his flesh, when he bore the most sacred stigmata of the Passion in his body for two years before his death.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Prologue

• 2 Corinthians 12:2

  The soil is Scripture which brings forth all kinds of trees pleasant to the sight, as regards the intellect, and good for food as regards the affective dispositions, that is, the manifold theories both delighting and sustaining. In the heavenly paradise, there is no planting, except of eternal reasons, and although there is sustainment in the fact of the predestination of all the saints, I will rejoice rather over my own. And this is what the Lord suggests: "Rejoice rather in this, that your names are written in heaven." Paul could speak of the heavenly paradise, because he was caught up to the third heaven. We do not know, but we speak of the earthly paradise.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 17

• 2 Corinthians 12:2

  I know a man who was caught up to the third heaven and heard secret words, that is, assured knowledge by means of ascent to the third heaven, and again, by means of descent to the first through representations of all the heavens. The threefold heavens refer to a threefold vision: purely intellectual, intellectual combined with imaginary, and intellectual combined with manifest bodily vision. The first is found in the minds of angels, the second in the minds of prophets, and the third in the minds of the apostles. The certainty of Scriptures consists in the concurrence of these visions.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 9

• 2 Corinthians 12:2

  The sixth vision is that of understanding absorbed by rapture in God. Hence, the Epistle to the Corinthians: "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up" in this way. This lifting up makes the soul as similar to God as is possible in the state of pilgrimage. Ecstasy and rapture are not the same, wherefore it is said that they do not have merely a disposition toward glory, but the very act. And as the one vision consists in the common boundary between the way and the fatherland, so the other consists in the common boundary between union and separation from the body. Hence the Apostle writes: "Whether in the body or out of the body I do not know." Why, then, would a man presume to determine what Paul himself did not know?

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 3

• 2 Corinthians 12:2

  Now, the fourth seal consists in this, that the soul perceives an incomprehensible consolation that grows so much within it that it is unable both to comprehend it and to explain it to others. The Canticle says of this: "Eat, friends; drink! Drink freely of love!" And this inebriated soul says: The king "brought me into the cellar of wine." And earlier: "The king hath brought me into his storerooms." This occurs when the soul is beside itself, like a drunken man who does not know what he is doing. Hence, Paul did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 23

• 2 Corinthians 12:4

  In this union the mind is joined to God, wherefore in a certain sense it sleeps, while in another it keeps vigil: "I was sleeping, but my heart kept vigil." Only the affective power keeps vigil and imposes silence upon all the other powers; then man becomes foreign to his senses: he is in ecstasy and hears "secret words that man may not repeat," because they are only in the heart. Hence, because nothing can be expressed unless it is conceived, or conceived unless it is understood, and here the intelligence does not speak: it follows that a man can hardly speak or explain anything.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• 2 Corinthians 12:7

  And it must be so, for had he been proud, he could have lost grace and fallen into a reprobate sense. And so it is not without reason that the Apostle was given "a thorn for the flesh"; and he explains: "Lest the greatness of the revelation puff me up." And I say that a man who has attained such a state may order and command other men as did Paul, and also Dionysius, who ordered the Church according to the exemplar shown to him.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 3

• 2 Corinthians 12:9

  But if you ask how these things come about, ask grace, not doctrine; desire, not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not the study of reading; the Bridegroom, not the master; God, not man; darkness, not clarity; not light, but the fire that wholly inflames and carries into God through ecstatic anointings and most ardent affections. Which fire is indeed God, and his furnace is in Jerusalem, and Christ kindles this in the fervor of his most ardent passion, which only he truly perceives who says: My soul has chosen hanging, and my bones death. Whoever loves this death can see God, because it is indubitably true: No man shall see me and live. Let us die, therefore, and enter into the darkness; let us impose silence upon our cares, concupiscences, and phantasms; let us pass over with Christ crucified from this world to the Father, so that, when the Father is shown to us, we may say with Philip: It suffices us; let us hear with Paul: My grace suffices for you; let us exult with David, saying: My flesh and my heart have failed, God of my heart and God my portion forever. Blessed be the Lord forever, and let all the people say: So be it, so be it. Amen.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Chapter 7

• 2 Corinthians 13:14

  Whence the Apostle: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen." If you wish to have the love of the Son and of the original Principle and of the Gift of the Holy Spirit, dispose yourself to grace. Grace arises from the Father of lights through the Word incarnate, through the Word crucified, and through the Word inspired. A noble influence, which has its origin from God incarnate. This grace ought to be guarded most carefully: but you lose it through sin.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 1