Introduction
While God prefers to use mercy rather than punishment with human beings, human beings often become angry for trivial reasons.
Divisio (see above)
1) First part: physiology of wrath: ira est accensio sanguinis circa cor ex vaporatione collere, vel felis (quote from John of Damascus). Three types of wrath:
1. “Natural” wrath (i.e. wrath due to personal temperament; not a sin, because it is like other natural defects such as hunger, thirst, sleep);
2. Wrath in judgment (i.e. «zeal for justice», not a sin);
3. «Ira… fundata ne l’appetitto sensitivo»; not a sin if regulated by reason and good judgment (exemplum: Jesus get angry with the merchants and the money changers in the Temple; «getting angry for truth and justice is an act of magnificence», reference to Aristotle); a mortal sin if not regulated by reason.
2) Second part: six causes of wrath (reference to Seneca's De ira):
1. Human nature (i.e. personal temperament; the disposition to anger depends on the amount of bile in the body);
2. Wine (because it slightly warms the blood; legend of Noah who waters the vine with the blood of a lion, a pig and a monkey;
3. Excessive delicacy in education (like «mules and horses: when they have been in the stable for two or three months, fed with fodder and spelt, they kick at their owner, bite and don’t let themselves be tamed»);
4. Desire for power (exemplum from Valerius Maximus);
5. Excessive commitments;
6. Infirmity.
3) Third part: wrath causes three serious harms to human beings:
1. Deprivation of reason and good judgment («The law sees the wrathful, but the wrathful doesn’t see the law» = Lex videt iratum, iratus legem non videt, quote from Publilius Syrus [not mentioned]; Ira impedit animum ne possit cernere verum, quote from Cato?); exemplum: Theodosius and Ambrose (Saint) in Milan;
2. Hatred of self, others and God;
3. Desperation and shorter life.
Conclusion
Mention of the death of Hercules who, desperate and enraged due to his illness, threw himself into the fire (reference to Jerome’s Chronicon). Exhortation to avoid wrath, because beati mites, quia ipsi possidebunt terram… beati pacifici, quoniam filii Dei vocabantur (quote from Matthew 5, 4; 5, 9).
... verum_, quote from Cato ?); _exemplum_: Theodosius and
Ambrose (Saint)
in Milan; 2. Hatred of self, others and God; 3. Desperation...
20/1/24
T21/6 Friday after Oculi
Roberto Caracciolo
Introduction
Interpretation of the thema: the Samaritan woman is the reasonable soul who, being in sin, asks to haurire aquam, that is, to receive grace.
Divisio (see above)
1) First part: three definitions of “sin”:
1. “sin is deprivation of human goodness” (reference to Bonaventure, Commentaria in quattuor libros sententiarum Magistri Petri Lombardi, II); cf. Peccatum est carentia boni ubi debet esse (quote from Augustine’s De civitate Dei); according to Bonaventure, God has given human beings three supremely necessary goods: 1) “mesure” (i.e. desire nothing against the divine will; «sin has perverted this order, because now the human heart always desires and thinks evil, i.e. carnality and sensuality»); 2) “beauty” (the true beauty and nobility of the human being is the virtue; reference to Seneca [probably to Epistulae ad Lucilium, LXXVI]); 3) order (i.e. directing thoughts, actions and words to God; sin diverts our operations from God). So, “sin is deprivation of beauty, order and measure” (reference to Augustine).
2. “Sin is separation from what is according to nature and conversion to what is against nature” (reference to John of Damascus); as the sick person, whose nature is vitiated by illness, desires harmful things more than healthy things, so the sinner despises virtue and loves vices.
3. “Peccatum est, bono incommutabili [i.e. God] spreto, adherere bono commutabili [i.e. the human being]” (quote from Augustine's De libero arbitrio).
2) Second part: two operations of sin:
1. “Peccatum est prevaricatio divine legis et celestium inobedentia mandatorum” (quote from Ambrose (Saint), De Paradiso); three main laws: 1) “natural law”; 2) “law of Scripture” (i.e. the law given by God to Moses); 3) “law of grace” (i.e. the gospel of Christ, perfection of all laws). Sin is prevarication of all these laws (several biblical exempla for each law).
2. “expolation of virtue”, because sin is against human nature (“Everything that does not please God is against nature” [reference to Bernard of Clairvaux]), while virtue is according to it.
Conclusion
Invitation to avoid sin, even at the cost of losing one's home, relatives and everything else (direct appeal to the preacher to rebuke «friars, priests, monks, merchants, gentlemen, widows and maidens who offend God for a penny»).
... legis et celestium inobedentia mandatorum_” (quote from
Ambrose (Saint)
, De Paradiso ); three main laws: 1) “natural law”;...
21/1/15
T19/4 Wednesday after Invocavit
Anonymous
Introduction -
Divisio
First part: utilities of penance:
1) The first utility of penance is the recovery of grace, often even greater than that lost by sin (references to Job, Joel, Luke and Cyprian).
2) The second utility is that penance repairs and comforts nature (references to Book of Judith and John the Bishop[?]).
3) The third utility is that penance restores glory (references to Matthew, Revelation and Augustine).
4) The fourth utility is that penance loosens punishment (references to Jeremy, Psalms and Ambrose (Saint)).
Second part: things that made penance praiseworthy:
1) Firstly, penance must be humble and divout (concerning humility, references to Job, John and Bernard of Clairvaux; concerning tearfulness and devotion, references to Book of Judith and Augustine).
2) Secondly, penance must be general and intact, i.e. one must not repent of one sin, but of all (references to Ezekiel); one must also repent isto tempore, because God wants to reserve salvation and consolation for the repentant (reference to Isidore of Seville [the quotation, however, seems to be spurious]).
3) Thirdly, penance must be discreet, i.e. commensurate with the extent of the sin (references to Matthew, Jerome and Gregory the Great).
4) Fourthly, penance must be done with good intention, i.e. not for ostentation and worldly glory, as the Pharisee did (reference to Luke 18), but following the example of Manasseh, who repented coram deo patruum suorum et non coram mundo (reference to 2Chronicles 33).
... loosens punishment (references to Jeremy , Psalms and
Ambrose (Saint)
). Second part: things that made penance praiseworthy:...