Dist. 43
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/43/q/bon-sent-IV-d43-littera
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### DISTINCTION XLIII.

### Chap. I. *On the resurrection and the condition of judgment.*

Lastly, concerning the *condition* of the resurrection and the *manner of those rising again,* and also concerning the *quality of judgment and mercy,* it must be briefly treated. — «To all the questions which are wont to be raised concerning this matter I am not able to give satisfaction; yet that the flesh of all — whoever have been born and shall be born, and have died and shall die — will rise again, a Christian ought in no way to doubt». For Isaiah says: *The dead shall rise again, and they that are in the tombs shall rise again.* And the Apostle: *But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that sleep, that you be not saddened, as also the rest who have no hope,* «namely of the resurrection». *For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain, shall not go before them who have slept. For the Lord himself, at the command and at the voice of an Archangel and at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven, and the dead, who are in Christ, shall rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ into the air; and so we shall be always with the Lord.* — By these words both the *truth* of the resurrection and the *cause* and *order* of those rising again are most clearly intimated.

### Chap. II. *On the voice of the trumpet.*

For the *cause* of the resurrection of the dead will be the *voice of the trumpet,* which at the coming of the Judge will be heard by all, and by whose power the dead will be roused and will rise from the tombs. Whence the Prophet: *He shall give to his voice the voice of power,* that is, the effect of raising up the dead. And John the Evangelist says: *The hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they shall come forth who have done good things unto the resurrection of life, but they who [have done] evil unto the resurrection of judgment.* — But if it is asked: whose, or of what kind, will that voice be? The Apostle says that it will be [the voice] *of an Archangel,* that is, of Christ himself, who is the prince of Archangels; or the voice will be of some one, or of several, of the Angels; and the same is called a *trumpet,* because it «will be manifest, and *the last,* because after it there will be no other». «This trumpet, as Augustine says, is the cry of which it is said in the Gospel: *At midnight a cry was made: behold the bridegroom comes; go forth to meet him.* By the name of the trumpet some evident and remarkable sign is understood, which is called by the Apostle *the voice of an Archangel and the trumpet of God,* and in the Gospel is named *the voice of the Son of God and a cry;* which the dead will hear and will rise».

### Chap. III. *On the middle of the night.*

He is said to come *at the middle of the night,* as Augustine says, not on account of the hour of time, but «because he will then come, when he is not expected». *At the middle of the night,* therefore, that is, when «it will be very dark, that is, hidden, he will come». *For the day of the Lord, as a thief in the night, so shall it come.* Yet it can not unfittingly be understood that he will come at the time of the middle of the night, because, as Cassiodorus says, «at this time the firstborn of Egypt were struck, when also the bridegroom is to come». In many places too the authors testify that the coming of Christ is called *the day of the Lord,* not on account of the quality of the time, but of the things, because then the thoughts and counsels of individuals will be laid open.

### Chap. IV. *On the books which will then be opened.*

Whence in Daniel: *The Ancient of days sat, and the books were opened before him. The books* are the consciences of individuals, which will then be opened to others. And then will be fulfilled: *Nothing hidden, which shall not be revealed.* For when the supreme Judge comes, not only will the darknesses of the air be illumined, but also *the hidden things of hearts will be made manifest.* «By divine power, therefore, it will come to pass that to each one his own works, whether good or evil, all things be recalled to memory and be discerned by a gaze of the mind with wondrous speed; so that conscience may accuse or excuse the man, and by its testimony he be condemned or be saved».

### Chap. V. *On the memory of the elect, whether it then retains past evils.*

Here it is asked whether the elect will then have a memory of past evils, just as of good things. — Certain authorities seem to hand down that the good will not then have a memory of past evils, that is, of sins or of torments. For Isaiah says: *I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be in memory nor rise up upon the heart, but you shall rejoice for ever.* Likewise: *The former anguishes are delivered to oblivion and are hidden from our eyes.* Expounding which of the future, Jerome says: «The former evils will be handed over to oblivion, because perhaps in the future the memory of one's former way of life will be altogether blotted out, eternal goods succeeding, lest there be a part of evils, [namely] to remember one's former anguish». — But these and things like these can be taken thus, that they do not exclude the memory of past evils, but remove from it trouble and hurt. For the memory of them will not sadden the Saints nor darken their beatitude, but will render them more thankful to God. Whence upon the eighty-eighth Psalm Gregory says: «How does he sing of mercies for ever who does not remember misery? And how [is there] full beatitude, if the memory of guilt touches the mind? But often, joyful, we recall sad things, and, healthy, we recall pains without pain, and thence we are the more joyful and thankful». — From these things it appears that, if the Saints will have a memory of former evils in the future, it will nevertheless not be to their punishment or to the diminution of glory, but to the giving of thanks. — But if it is asked whether the sins which the elect committed will then come forth into the knowledge of all, just as the evils of the damned will be known to all: I have not read this expressed in Scripture. Whence it can not unreasonably be thought that the sins here covered and blotted out by penance are there too covered from others, but others are made known to all.

### Chap. VI. *On those who are found alive.*

It is wont to be asked, «whether those whom Christ will find alive, if they are never at all to die, or in that very point of time in which they will be caught up to meet Christ are with wondrous speed to pass over to immortality. For it must not be said that it cannot come to pass that, while they are borne aloft through the air, in that space they both die and revive». «But to this sense, by which we may think that in a small space they will both suffer death and receive immortality, the Apostle seems to urge us, where he says: *We shall all be made alive in Christ;* and elsewhere: *What you sow is not made alive, unless it first die».* «But why should it seem incredible to us that that multitude of bodies is in some manner sown in the air and there straightway revives immortally and incorruptibly, since we believe that *in the twinkling of an eye* the resurrection is to be, and that the dust of the most ancient corpses is to return with such speed into members that shall live without end». «But I would rather hear the more learned about these things». «If, therefore, we shall have believed that the Saints, who will be found living when Christ comes and will be caught up to meet him, in that same rapture go forth from mortal bodies and forthwith return to the same [bodies now] immortal; we shall suffer no straits in the Apostle's words», taking generally that which was said: *We shall indeed all rise again,* namely «both the good and the evil»; *but we shall not all be changed,* namely into the solemnity of the resurrection. Concerning this Ambrose also says: «In that very rapture of those who are found alive there will be death and resurrection; so that the soul, having gone forth from the body as it were through a slumber, may be restored to it in a moment». — On the contrary, however, writing to Marcella, Jerome seems to testify, saying that some at the end of the age, when Christ comes, are not to die, but, found alive, are to be suddenly changed into immortality. — But which of these is the more true, it is not for human judgment to define.

### Chap. VII. *How Christ is understood [as] judge of the living and the dead.*

To these things it must be added that it is understood in two ways, that Christ is said to be about to judge *the living and the dead.* For either *the living* are taken [to be] those who at his coming are found alive — though in the rapture they die — and *the dead,* those who

had died before; or *the living and the dead* are taken [to be] the just and the unjust. And since from the aforesaid it may soundly be believed that all will rise again, it must also be believed that all will rise *incorrupt,* not indeed *impassible,* because the reprobate will suffer eternal death, but, without diminution of members, they will have all the members of the human body, yet will not be clothed with the glory and the appearance of impassibility.

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