Here - Franciscan Institute Publications

Introduction 37
affections, and beneficial works, we might be able
to say some things to the praise and glory, etc. 97
Given the respective role of the preacher as minister
of the divine word, Bonaventure speaks of prayer as
a necessity. The prothemes of the Sunday Sermons indicate
that the affective interiority common to Parisian
Minorite theology informs the context and content of the
requisite prayer which initiates their preaching. More
often than not, reference is made to the interior life of
the soul by shaping the parameters of the protheme with
language reflecting the affective and intellectual dimensions
of human spirituality, the powers of the soul, and
the crucial role of the theological virtues of faith, hope,
and love. This effort is often evident in Bonaventure’s frequent
tripartite division of weaknesses confronting both
the preacher and audience. Such defects inhibit both the
effective delivery and efficacious reception of the word of
God, so they are to be acknowledged and, like the ailments
plaguing the body, treated. Not to do so would be
analogous to ignoring the words of a physician when
sick according to the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. 98
Bonaventure’s tripartite configuration and interest in
the interior life of his brothers comes into sharp relief
in the penultimate sermon of the Sunday Sermons, the
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost, where he details
the corrosive corruption of the inner person. Commenting
on the verse, Psalm 17:36, chosen for the protheme,
You will teach me your discipline itself, the General Minister
accentuates the discipline, humility, and zeal religious
people require given the spiritual dangers assailing
them. The interior life is usually corrupted in three ways
congruent to the respective powers of the soul: love for
comfort in concupiscent power; vain honor in the irascible
97
Sermo 5, n. 1, Sermones dominicales, 163.
98
Sermo 8, n. 1, Sermones dominicales, 199.
BTTSXII.indd 37 11/20/07 12:18:14