Dist. 48
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/48/q/bon-sent-IV-d48-littera
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### Distinction XLVIII.

#### Chapter I.
##### *On the form of the judge.*

It is also customarily asked, in what form Christ will judge. — He will judge assuredly in the form of a *servant*, which will appear to all in the judgement, so that the wicked may see *him whom they pierced*. But his Divinity the wicked will not see; whence Isaiah: *Let the impious man be taken away, lest he see the glory of God.* « They will see his Humanity, that they may fear, but not his Divinity, lest they rejoice. For the Divinity cannot be seen without joy ».

#### Chapter II.
##### *Of what sort the form of a servant will appear.*

But since it is agreed that he will appear in human form, it is asked whether he will appear in that *glorious* form, such as it truly is, or in the form such as he had in the passion. — Some think that he is seen by the wicked such as they crucified him, that is, *weak*, because Scripture says that they will see *him whom they pierced*. — But Augustine plainly says that the form of a servant *glorified* is then seen by the good and by the wicked, thus: « When the good and the wicked shall have seen him judging in the glorified form of a servant, the impious man will be taken away, that he may not see the brightness of God whereby he is God, which only the *clean of heart shall see*; and that will be for them eternal life ». Therefore the human form glorified in Christ will be seen by all: whence also Christ is said to be about to judge, *because he is the son of man*. For so it is read in the Gospel of John: *And he gave him power to do judgement, because he is the son of man*; not that he is going to judge out of the *power of a man*, or that he alone without the Father and the Holy Spirit is going to render judgement, but because he alone will be seen judging the good and the wicked in the form of a servant. When therefore it is said: *The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son*; it is not so to be understood as though the Son alone judges and not the Father, but because the human form of the Son will appear to all in the judgement, not weak, but glorious. But he will judge out of the power of the Divinity, not without the Father and the Holy Spirit, and he will appear terrible to the impious and mild to the just. For there will be terror for the wicked and light for the just.

#### Chapter III.
##### *Why Christ is said to be about to raise up bodies according to the form of a servant.*

And just as Christ is said to be *about to judge* according to the form of a servant for the reason set out above, so also he is said to be *about to raise up the bodies of the dead* according to his humanity, although he is going to raise them up by the power of the Divinity, not of the humanity. But this is said for this reason, that in his humanity he took on what is the cause of our resurrection, that is, his passion and resurrection. Therefore the raising up of the dead is ascribed to him according to the *man*. Whence Augustine: « Through the Word, the Son of God, the resurrection of souls comes about; through the Word made flesh, the son of man, the resurrection of bodies comes about ». Likewise, « It is not the Father who judges and raises up bodies, but the Son according to the dispensation of the humanity, in which Christ is less than the Father ». « In that he is the Son of God, he is the life which vivifies souls; in that he is the son of man, he is judge ». — See, according to the form of the humanity he is said to be *about to raise up bodies* and *about to judge*: *about to judge*, because that form will appear to all in the judgement, and *about to raise up*, because in that same form he took on the merit and cause of our resurrection; and because according to that same form he will utter the voice by which the dead will rise from their tombs and come forth. According to what he is as God, he vivifies souls — not the Father only, because not only the Father is life, but the Son with him and the Holy Spirit are the same life, which pertains to the soul, not to the body. For the body does not feel the life of wisdom, but the soul, which is illumined by the eternal light ». Although therefore Christ by the power of the Divinity vivifies souls and raises up bodies and judges; yet not idly and without reason is the vivification of souls attributed to him according to the form of God, and according to the form of a *servant* the judgement and the resuscitation of bodies.

#### Chapter IV.
##### *On the place of the judgement.*

Some think that the Lord will descend into the valley of Josaphat at the judgement, because he himself speaks thus through Joel the prophet: *I will gather all the nations and lead them down into the valley of Josaphat and will there dispute with them.* In the exposition of this chapter I have found the following: « Some understand this childishly, as though the Lord were going to descend for judgement into the valley which lies on the side of the mount of Olives; which is frivolous, because he will sit not on the earth, but in the space of this air, over against the place of the mount of Olives, from which he ascended. And as John Chrysostom says, the Angels will carry the sign of the cross before him »; whence in the Gospel Truth says: *And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man* etc. « *Josaphat* moreover is interpreted *the judgement of the Lord*; into the valley of Josaphat, therefore, that is, of the Lord's judgement, all the impious will be gathered. But the just will not descend into the valley of judgement, that is, of damnation, but will be raised up in the clouds *to meet Christ* ».

#### Chapter V.
##### *On the quality of the luminaries and of the time after the judgement.*

When the Lord comes to the judgement in strength and *great power*, the sun and the moon are said to be *darkened*, not by the privation of their own light, but because the brightness of a greater light supervenes. The *powers* also *of the heavens*, that is, the Angels, are said to be *moved*, not from fear of damnation or from any disturbance of dread, but from a certain wonder at the things they shall have seen. Whence Job: *The pillars of heaven tremble at his coming.* But before the day of judgement the sun and the moon will suffer eclipse, as Joel testifies, saying: *The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and horrible day of the Lord comes*; and it is called *great* on account of the great things that will happen there.

But when there shall have been made a *new heaven and a new earth*, then *the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun*, as Isaiah testifies, *and the light of the sun sevenfold, that is, as the light of seven days*, because, as much as the sun shone in the first constitution of the seven days before the sin of the first man, so much will it shine after the judgement. For the light of the sun and of the moon and of the other stars was diminished through the sin of the first man; but then the sun will receive the wages of its labour, because it will shine sevenfold; and then there will be no alternation of day and night, but only day. Whence Zechariah: *And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night, and at evening time there shall be light.* Because there will not then be that variation of day and night which there now is, but continual day and light. Isaiah nevertheless seems to say that the sun or the moon will not then shine, speaking to the congregation of the Saints: *There shall not be there*, he says, *any more a sun to shine by day, nor shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee; but the Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light.* But by these words he does not deny that the sun and the moon then shine, but signifies that for those who will be in eternal beatitude they afford no use of light; because, as Jerome says on the same passage, « the service of heaven and earth, of sun and moon, shall cease for us, and the Lord himself will be the light of his own for ever ». — That saying of Isaiah can also be understood as said for this reason, that the sun and the moon will then not have rising and setting, as now. Whence Isidore, expounding as it were that saying of Isaiah, says: « After the judgement the sun will receive the wages of its labour »; whence the Prophet: *It shall shine sevenfold*, and neither sun nor moon shall come to its setting, but they shall stand in the order in which they were created, lest the impious set in torments beneath the earth should enjoy their light. Whence Habakkuk: *The sun and the moon stood still in their order.* — See, he plainly says that the sun and the moon then shine, but remain fixed; where he also signifies that hell is beneath the earth. — But if it be asked what the use of the light of the sun and the moon will then be, I confess that I do not know, because I do not remember having read it in the Scriptures.

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