A Reflection upon Ecclesiasticus 31:8-11 and St. Matthew 19:27-29 for the Feast of Saint Bernardine of Siena, Confessor
Feria IV post Ascensionem
In the sacred economy of the Roman Rite, the Church in her wisdom appoints for the feast of Saint Bernardine of Siena (May 20) those very Scriptures which illumine the paradox at the heart of evangelical perfection: the praise of the rich man found without blemish, joined to Our Lord’s promise of the hundredfold to those who have forsaken all. The Epistle from Ecclesiasticus and the Gospel from St. Matthew together form a single luminous teaching upon the right ordering of temporal goods to the eternal Good, a teaching which the Seraphic Preacher of Siena embodied in his very flesh during the long pilgrimage of his apostolic labors through the cities of Italy.
The Voice of Wisdom: Beatus Vir
The Church places upon her lectern the words of the son of Sirach:
Beatus dives qui inventus est sine macula: et qui post aurum non abiit, nec speravit in pecunia et thesauris. Quis est hic, et laudabimus eum? fecit enim mirabilia in vita sua.
“Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish: and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures. Who is he, and we will praise him? for he hath done wonderful things in his life.” (Eccli. 31:8-9)
Here Holy Writ does not condemn riches in themselves, for the divine ordination grants temporal goods as instruments of providence; rather, the Sacred Author pronounces beatitude upon that rare soul who, possessing wealth, is not possessed by it. The mark of blessedness is inventus sine macula — found without stain — and the proof is negative and positive together: he has not gone after gold, and he has worked wonders in his life.
St. Ambrose, treating of this very disposition in his De Nabuthae, observes that riches are not condemned for their substance but for the affection by which men cleave to them. The Bishop of Milan speaks with that severity which the Latin Fathers reserved for avarice, that radix omnium malorum of which the Apostle warns Timothy. And St. John Chrysostom, the golden-mouthed shepherd of Constantinople, expounds with characteristic vigor in his Homilies on Matthew that the danger of wealth lies not in its possession but in its mastery — the soul that holds gold loosely walks free, while the soul that grasps gold tightly is itself grasped and held captive.
The text of Ecclesiasticus presses further:
Qui potuit transgredi, et non est transgressus: facere mala, et non fecit. Ideo stabilita sunt bona illius in Domino, et eleemosynas illius enarrabit omnis ecclesia sanctorum.
“He that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed: and could do evil things, and hath not done them: Therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints shall declare his alms.” (Eccli. 31:10-11)
Here lies the heart of virtue: the potuit coupled with the non fecit. Virtue is no mere absence of opportunity but the triumph of the will over presented occasion. St. Augustine, in his treatises against the Pelagians, would teach that such victory belongs not to nature alone but to grace operating through nature; and St. Thomas, taking up the Augustinian inheritance, distinguishes in the Secunda Secundae between liberality (liberalitas) as the virtue concerning external goods and the higher gift by which a man, freed from inordinate attachment, may give even unto poverty for the love of Christ.
The Apostolic Question: Ecce Nos Reliquimus Omnia
The Gospel for this day carries us from the wisdom of the Old Covenant to the perfect counsel of the New:
Tunc respondens Petrus, dixit ei: Ecce nos reliquimus omnia, et secuti sumus te: quid ergo erit nobis?
“Then Peter answering, said to him: Behold we have left all things, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have?” (Matt. 19:27)
The Prince of the Apostles speaks for the whole apostolic college, and indeed for every soul who has heard the summons of evangelical perfection. The question is not avaricious but trusting; Peter does not bargain with his Lord but, with the simplicity of a fisherman who has truly left his nets, asks what fruit shall come of so total a renunciation.
St. Jerome, in his Commentary on Matthew, observes that Peter’s question is bold yet pleasing to Christ, for it springs from confidence in the divine generosity. The Stridonian doctor notes that the Apostles, though their nets and boats were small, had nevertheless left omnia — all things — because to leave the little one possesses is, in the divine reckoning, to leave all. The widow’s two mites are, in the eyes of Christ, more than the great treasuries of the rich.
The Lord’s response is solemn and full of consolation:
Amen dico vobis, quod vos, qui secuti estis me, in regeneratione, cum sederit Filius hominis in sede majestatis suae, sedebitis et vos super sedes duodecim, judicantes duodecim tribus Israel.
“Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of his majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matt. 19:28)
St. Cyril of Alexandria, in his exposition of this passage, expounds the regeneratio as the universal renewal of all things in the resurrection, when the cosmos itself shall be made new in Christ. The thrones promised to the Twelve signify the judicial authority granted to those who, by their total abandonment, have become conformed to the Judge Himself. St. Gregory the Great, in his Moralia, adds that this judgment shall be exercised not only by the Apostles in the strict sense but by all who, in apostolic spirit, have forsaken the world.
And then the great promise, which is the very charter of evangelical poverty:
Et omnis qui reliquerit domum, vel fratres, aut sorores, aut patrem, aut matrem, aut uxorem, aut filios, aut agros, propter nomen meum, centuplum accipiet, et vitam aeternam possidebit.
“And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.” (Matt. 19:29)
The Venerable Bede, in his Commentary on Mark where the parallel passage occurs, marvels at the divine arithmetic: the hundredfold is given even in this life, not in the same coin but in a coin infinitely more precious — the consolations of the Holy Ghost, the fellowship of the saints, the peace which surpasseth understanding. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Catena Aurea, gathers these patristic voices and adds his own scholastic precision: the hundredfold consists in spiritual goods which exceed temporal goods as the eternal exceeds the temporal, and vitam aeternam possidebit — he shall possess eternal life — is the consummation of all promise.
Saint Bernardine: Praeco Verbi Divini
Now we may rightly ask: what manner of man does the Church set before us this day, that she joins these Scriptures to his memory?
Saint Bernardine of Siena, born of the noble Albizeschi family in 1380 at Massa Marittima, was orphaned young and raised in piety by his aunts at Siena. Even as a youth, his comeliness and grace drew the world’s attention, but he turned aside from worldly entanglement with a vigor that astonished his companions. During the plague of 1400, the young Bernardine ministered to the dying in the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, an apostolate of charity which prefigured the Franciscan vocation he would soon embrace.
In 1402 he entered the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance, that strict reform which sought to restore the primitive rigor of the Seraphic Father’s Rule. For twelve years he labored in obscurity, preparing in silence and prayer for the apostolate which would make him, in the words of his biographers, the Apostle of Italy. When at last he was sent forth to preach, his eloquence, animated by the Holy Ghost and forged in long contemplation, drew multitudes; cities were transformed, vendettas reconciled, usurers converted, and the very stones of the public squares became as the pavement of the temple.
The hallmark of his preaching was the devotion to the Most Holy Name of Jesus, which he propagated through the famous tablet bearing the trigram IHS surrounded by rays — a sign which, set above the doors of houses and in the public squares, replaced the proud emblems of factional strife with the meek and saving Name. Pope Martin V, and after him Eugene IV, called upon his counsel; thrice he was offered the episcopal dignity (at Siena, Ferrara, and Urbino) and thrice he refused, preferring the freedom of the itinerant preacher.
He died at Aquila on the vigil of the Ascension, 1444. Within six years he was canonized by Nicholas V — so manifest was the sanctity of his life and so abundant the miracles wrought at his tomb.
The Convergence of Scripture and Saint
Behold then how perfectly the Church’s wisdom joins these readings to this confessor’s feast. Saint Bernardine was that rare soul of whom Ecclesiasticus speaks: born to wealth and station, possessed of natural gifts which the world covets, he was inventus sine macula — found without stain. He could have transgressed and did not; he could have done evil and did not. The riches he might have enjoyed he forsook for the rough habit of the Observant Friars; the noble alliances he might have contracted he exchanged for the embraces of Lady Poverty, that bride whom the Seraphic Father had wedded two centuries before.
And he was, in the deepest sense, that apostle of whom Christ speaks in the Gospel. He left house, brethren, sisters, father, mother, lands — all that the world calls dear — propter nomen meum, for the sake of that very Name which became the standard of his preaching. And he received the hundredfold: not in lands or houses, but in the conversion of cities, the reconciliation of enemies, the salvation of souls, and the consolations of contemplation which made his preaching a flame.
The Holy Name which Bernardine raised before the eyes of Italy was no mere pious emblem but the very Word made flesh, the Nomen super omne nomen (Phil. 2:9) at which every knee must bow. St. Bernard of Clairvaux, in his Sermons on the Canticle, had taught that the Name of Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart; and our Bernardine, taking up this Cistercian inheritance, made of it a public proclamation, an instrument of social and ecclesial reform.
Practical Application
What then shall we, who hear these Scriptures upon this feast, take from them into the ferial week between Ascension and Pentecost?
First, let us examine our attachment to temporal goods. The text of Ecclesiasticus asks the searching question: do we go after gold? Do we put our trust in money and treasures? The blessedness pronounced upon the rich man without blemish is not a beatitude reserved for cloistered religious; every Christian, in his state of life, is called to that interior detachment by which he uses the goods of this world tamquam non utens, as not using them, in the Pauline phrase (1 Cor. 7:31).
Second, let us consider what we have left for Christ’s sake, and what perhaps remains to be left. The hundredfold is promised not in proportion to the magnitude of our renunciation as the world measures it, but in proportion to the totality of our love. The widow’s mites and the Apostles’ nets are alike accepted when given wholly.
Third, in these days of expectation between Ascension and Pentecost, let us imitate the Apostles in the Cenacle: persevering in prayer with Mary the Mother of Jesus (Acts 1:14), awaiting the Paraclete whose descent shall make us, like Bernardine, witnesses of the Name unto the ends of the earth.
A Collect for the Day
The proper Collect of Saint Bernardine prays:
Domine Jesu, qui beato Bernardino Confessori tuo eximium sancti nominis tui amorem tribuisti: ejus, quaesumus, meritis et intercessione, spiritum nobis dilectionis tuae propitius largiaris. Qui vivis et regnas…
“Lord Jesus, who didst grant to blessed Bernardine, Thy Confessor, an exceeding love of Thy holy Name: by his merits and intercession, we beseech Thee, mercifully bestow upon us the spirit of Thy love. Who livest and reignest…”
Let this petition be ours throughout the day: that the holy Name of Jesus may be honey in our mouths, melody in our ears, and jubilation in our hearts, that we too may be found, at the last, sine macula — without blemish — and may possess that life everlasting which the Lord has promised to those who follow Him.
If you wish to go deeper, the Lives of the Saints path will lead you through the great Franciscan preachers — Bernardine, John Capistran, James of the Marches, Albert of Sarteano — the four pillars of the Observance whose labors renewed Christendom in the fifteenth century. Alternatively, the Spiritual Practices and Devotions path offers a study of the Holy Name devotion which Bernardine propagated, tracing its roots in St. Bernard of Clairvaux and its flowering in the late medieval Latin Church.
Sancte Bernardine, ora pro nobis.