Monday, March 18, 2024

Bonaventure for Lent XXIX

 ...the integrity of perfection necessarily requires a complete withdrawal from evil, a perfect progress in good, and a total repose in what is best. Now, evil may stem from the swelling of pride, the rancor of malice, or from the weakness due to concupiscence. And so, if the soul is to be removed completedly from these three types of evil, three beatitudes are necessary: poverty of spirit, to deliver it from self-inflation; meekness, to deliver it from rancor; and mourning, to deliver it from lust and the weakness due to concupiscence. Now perfect progress in good consists in following the divine example; since all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth, there are two beatitudes corresponding to these two ways: hunger or zeal for justice and the desire for mercy. Finally, perfect repose in what is best may be achieved either through a clear knowledge or through a tranquil love. Hence, there are two final beatitudes, namely, cleanness of heart, for the vision of God, and peace of soul, for the perfect enjoyment of God.

[Bonaventure, Breviloquium (5.6.3), Monti, tr., Franciscan Institute Publications (St. Bonaventure, NY: 2005) p. 192. I've bolded the beatitudes.]