Bonaventure

In his own words on Philippians

• Philippians 2:3

  The very truth of the divine law dictates that each person ought to think more humbly of himself than of another, and on this account ought to regard himself as more vile than others—not because he is certain that he is such, but because he is more certain of his own vanity or vileness than of another's. Therefore, as is said in the Gloss on Philippians 2: In humility esteeming one another as superior to themselves, "we ought not so to esteem this that we pretend to esteem it, but truly esteem that there can be something hidden in another by which he is superior to us, even if our own good, by which we seem superior to him, is not hidden." And thus it is apparent that self-abasement is not founded upon falsehood but upon truth, namely according to experiential knowledge of one's own defect, which each person has, as it were, singularly with respect to another.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 1

• Philippians 2:5-7

  Philippians 2: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form, etc.: but to empty oneself is nothing other than to abase oneself: if therefore we ought to imitate Christ in this, self-emptying and self-abasement belong to evangelical perfection.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 1

• Philippians 2:6

  Since therefore Christ Jesus, insofar as he was God, was equal to the Father in the form of God; insofar as he was an innocent man, he was in no way a debtor of death: when he emptied himself and became obedient unto death, he paid back to God what he had not stolen through the homage of perfect satisfaction, and offered a sacrifice of supreme sweetness for the perfect placation of God.

  Breviloquium

• Philippians 2:7

  What is more benevolent than that the Lord should take on the form of a servant for the salvation of the servant? Indeed, this is of such great kindness that nothing more merciful, nothing more kind, nothing more loving can be conceived. This mode was therefore most suitable for God the restorer, for the commending of the divine power, wisdom, and benevolence.

  Breviloquium

• Philippians 2:7

  On that passage Bernard says in a sermon on the Nativity of the Lord: "What necessity was there for the God of majesty to so empty himself, so humble himself, so diminish himself, unless that you should do likewise? Already he cries out by example what he will preach by word." And shortly after: "It is intolerable impudence that, where majesty emptied itself, a little worm should puff itself up and swell with pride." If therefore we ought to imitate Christ in such self-emptying, it remains that to be abased belongs to the perfection of virtue.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 1

• Philippians 2:7

  Since therefore Christ Jesus, insofar as he was God, was equal to the Father in the form of God; insofar as he was an innocent man, he was in no way a debtor of death: when he emptied himself and became obedient unto death, he paid back to God what he had not stolen through the homage of perfect satisfaction, and offered a sacrifice of supreme sweetness for the perfect placation of God.

  Breviloquium

• Philippians 2:8

  Since therefore Christ Jesus, insofar as he was God, was equal to the Father in the form of God; insofar as he was an innocent man, he was in no way a debtor of death: when he emptied himself and became obedient unto death, he paid back to God what he had not stolen through the homage of perfect satisfaction, and offered a sacrifice of supreme sweetness for the perfect placation of God.

  Breviloquium

• Philippians 2:10

  He, then, is the Strong One. That is why "at the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth." And so all the wars of Scripture refer to the victory of Christ.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 3

• Philippians 2:10

  I have heard that there was a certain conjurer of demons. One day, when he was invoking a demon in the midst of certain persons who wished to obtain something from the demon, a certain priest passed by carrying the Body of Christ, and immediately the demon bowed down before him, and likewise on his return. And the conjurer said: whence is this? You have forbidden me to adore Christ, and yet you adore him? The demon replied: I did so unwillingly. Is it not written: "At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth?"

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 3

• Philippians 2:12

  The fear of God avails for obtaining the influx of divine grace. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish according to his good will." We cannot have the grace of God except through the fear of God, because "the mercy of the Lord is from eternity and unto eternity upon those who fear him." No one receives the grace of God unless he fears God. Bernard says: "In truth I have learned that nothing is equally efficacious for meriting, preserving, and multiplying the grace of God as if at all times you are found before God not to be wise in lofty things, but to fear. Fear, therefore, when grace has smiled upon you: fear, when it has departed: fear, when it returns again." He who does not have grace ought to fear greatly for himself; likewise, if the Lord restores to a man the grace he had lost, he ought to fear greatly for himself, lest he lose it and become ungrateful, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2

• Philippians 2:13

  The fear of God avails for obtaining the influx of divine grace. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish according to his good will." We cannot have the grace of God except through the fear of God, because "the mercy of the Lord is from eternity and unto eternity upon those who fear him." No one receives the grace of God unless he fears God.

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 2

• Philippians 2:15

  The rational power indeed needs to be freed in the speculation, choice, and execution of truth: through the gift of understanding it is freed for speculating upon the true, through the gift of counsel for choosing the true, through the gift of knowledge for executing what has been chosen; for through the gift of knowledge we rightly conduct ourselves in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.

  Breviloquium, Part 5

• Philippians 2:15

  There is an order of levels intended for enlightenment, that of acolytes, subdeacons, and deacons. And these orders are for the sake of enlightenment. Now, enlightenment is at times through external example, at others, through writings of secondary importance, at others again, through writings of primary importance. The second enlighten by word and example: "guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a depraved and perverse generation... among these shining like stars in the world, holding fast the word of life," as are the subdeacons who hold fast the words of the Epistles.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 22

• Philippians 2:16

  There is an order of levels intended for enlightenment, that of acolytes, subdeacons, and deacons. And these orders are for the sake of enlightenment. The second enlighten by word and example: "guileless, children of God without blemish in the midst of a depraved and perverse generation... among these shining like stars in the world, holding fast the word of life," as are the subdeacons who hold fast the words of the Epistles.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 22

• Philippians 3:12

  There is perfection with respect to merit and with respect to state. To profess oneself perfect with respect to merit is a matter of presumption, not of perfection, since Paul says in Philippians 3: Not that I am already perfect. But to profess oneself perfect with respect to state is not a matter of presumption, because this places the praise not upon the person in herself, who can be culpable through her own merits, but upon the common life and the manner of living approved by the counsel of Christ's own mouth.

  Disputed Questions on Evangelical Perfection, Question 4

• Philippians 3:13

  Paul taught this wisdom to Dionysius and Timothy and other perfect men, but he kept it hidden from others. It is up to us, then, to be perfect in order to reach it. "Forgetting what is behind, I strain forward to what is before," hoping that I may understand.

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 2

• Philippians 3:13

  The fourth aspect of the zeal of wisdom is the elevation of desire. This gives worth to other endeavors, so that "forgetting what is behind, we strain forward to what is before." "The wise man has eyes in his head. — The heart of a wise man is in his right hand." Now, the zeal of wisdom consists in this, that our endeavor be directed toward nothing but God who is "all delight."

  Collations on the Hexaemeron, Collation 19

• Philippians 3:19

  "Many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly," on account of sensual wisdom; "and whose glory is in their shame," on account of diabolical wisdom; "who mind earthly things," namely on account of earthly wisdom. For the false wisdom which is from below makes a person solicitous to delight in the abundance of riches (earthly), in the experience of sensual delights (sensual), and in the eminence and ambition of worldly pomps (diabolical).

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 9

• Philippians 3:19

  All perverse valuations of worldly natures are prohibited. Now every perverse valuation of creatures proceeds either by reason of sublimity, or by reason of sufficiency, or by reason of delight. In the first way it is the idolatry of the proud; in the second way it is the idolatry of the avaricious; in the third way it is the idolatry of the lascivious. Against the third the Apostle says: Whose god is their belly.

  Collationes de Decem Praeceptis, Collation 2

• Philippians 4:7

  For the perfection of interior sanctity, there is necessarily required purity of conscience and tranquility of the whole soul through the peace of God surpassing all human understanding.

  Breviloquium, Part 5

• Philippians 4:7

  In the beginning I call upon the first principle, from whom all illuminations descend as from the Father of lights, from whom is every good gift and every perfect gift, namely the eternal Father, through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that by the intercession of the most holy Virgin Mary, mother of the same God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and of blessed Francis, our leader and father, he may give the enlightened eyes of our mind to direct our feet in the way of that peace which surpasses all understanding; which peace our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed and gave.

  Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Prologue

• Philippians 4:13

  Samson with his hair was the strongest of all: his strength went beyond nature. And why was his strength in seven locks of hair? I say that by the seven locks is signified the sevenfold grace of the Holy Spirit, through whom his strength is made firm. But when he lay in the lap of Delilah and no longer had his hair, he became in strength like other men. Give me one person without grace who could endure what blessed Lawrence endured. For man can do nothing without grace, and nothing is so hard that man cannot endure it with grace. Whence the Apostle: "I can do all things in him who strengthens me."

  Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 1

• Philippians 4:13

  To attribute sufficiency 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 Apostle says: 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