Speech And Requital

Quoniam auris zeli audit omnia, et tumultus murmurationum non abscondetur. Et bene dixi, quod veniet etc; quoniam auris zeli, zeli, inquam, Dei animas tanquam sponsas zelantis, audit omnia, scilicet verba tam mala quam bona quam indifferentia, sicut zelotypus homo diligenter audit et notat verba sponsae et loquentium cum ea; Exodi vigesimo: Ego sum Deus fortis zelotes, etc. Et tumultus murmurationum, quibus homines murmurant contra Deum; Ecclesiastici trigesimo tertio: Praecordia fatui quasi rota plaustri. Et dicitur tumultus, quia homo murmurans, quasi intra dentes suos tumultuet, non clare enuntiat. Non abscondetur, sed toti mundo propalabitur; Lucae duodecimo: Nihil opertum , quod non reveletur; neque absconditum, quod non sciatur. Exodi decimo: Audivi murmurationes filiorum Israel. Custodite ergo vos a murmuratione quæ nihil prodest, et a detractione parcite linguæ: quoniam sermo obscurus in vacuum non ibit, os autem quod mentitur occidit animam. Hic monet ad pravae locutionis cautelam: et primo ponit suam exhortationem; secundo, exhortationis necessitatem. Quoniam sermo, etc. Construendum autem, sive continuandum sic: Ex quo non abscondetur tumultus, etc, custodite ergo vos a murmuratione , scilicet contra Deum. Quae nihil prodest, imo multum obest; unde primo ad Corinthios decimo: Quidam eorum murmuraverunt, et perierunt ab exterminatore. Et a detractione , scilicet contra proximum; Iob sexto: Quare detraxistis sermonibus sanctis veritatis? Parcite linguae: non dicitur: Parcite proximo, sed linguae, scilicet vestrae; quia detrahens alteri, primo seipsum laedit. Unde pejor est detractio serpentino veneno. Seneca: Illud venenum, quod serpentes in aliorum perniciem ferunt, sine sua continent malitia; ipsa detractio partem sui veneni bibit. Glossa: Perniciosae sunt murmurationes et detractiones; ad Romanos primo: Detractores Deo odibiles. Detractores dicit pluraliter, quia detractio fit pluribus modis, scilicet: vel cum occultum bonum negatur; vel cum apertum diminuitur; vel cum occultum malum propalatur; vel quando apertum amplius divulgatur. Et bene dixi: Parcite linguae: quoniam sermo obscurus: Glossa: Occultus, ut est verbum murmuris: In vacuum non ibit, id est, sine poena non remanebit; quia nec sermo otiosus, Matthaeus: De omni verbo otioso, etc. Ergo multo magis de verbo malitioso. Verbum otiosum, ut dicit ibi Glossa, est quod dicitur sine utilitate loquentis, vel audientis. Hieronymus: Omne quod non aedificat loquentes, in periculum vertitur loquentium. Os autem quod mentitur, scilicet detrahendo, occidit animam: Glossa: mucrone peccati animam mentientis. Psalmus: Perdes omnes, qui loquuntur mendacium. Et notandum, quod loquitur de mendacio pernicioso, quod est mortale; non de jocoso, vel officioso. Unde Glossa: Est mendacium levioris culpae, cum quis praestando beneficium, mentitur. Sed videtur, quod aliquod mendacium sit bonum et meritorium, quia obstetrices mentientes meruerunt praemium apud justum judicem, scilicet Deum, qui falli non potest, ut patet. Dicendum secundum Glossam , quod non est remunerata mendacii , sed pietatis earum benevolentia. Sed numquid unum et idem factum fuit peccatum, et tamen habuit benevolentiae meritum? Et videtur, quod sic: dicit enim Glossa: Deus unum idemque factum , propter bonum, malum condonat , et bonum remunerat. Dicendum, quod unum fuit connexione, non indivisibile; quia aliud fuit intentio liberandi, aliud voluntas mentiendi, licet coordinata. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Librum Sapientiae, Caput I Source: Here, 362b-363a

Because the zealous ear hears all, and a tumult of murmuring shall not be hidden. 1 And well I have said that a report will come, 2 because the zealous ear, I say, of the zeal of God, who is zealous for souls as for brides, hears all things, that is, words whether they be evil, good or indifferent, just as a jealous man carefully listens and takes note of the words of the bride, and of those speaking with her: 'I am the Lord your God, mighty, zealous,' 3 Even 'a tumult of murmuring,' by which men murmur against God: 'The heart of a fool is like a wheel of a cart.' 4 And it says 'tumult' because a man murmuring is as one making a noise within the teeth but not speaking clearly. 'Shall not be hidden,' but it shall made known to the whole world:'There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, nor hidden that shall not be known.' 5 'I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel.' 6 Therefore keep yourselves from murmuring, which profits nothing, and spare the tongue detraction, because a word  that is secret shall not go for nothing and the mouth which lies kills the soul. 7 This exhorts caution against evil speech, and firstly gives its exhortation, secondly the necessity for the exhortation: 'Because a word...' must understood or put in connection with: 'a tumult of murmuring shall not be hidden...' 'Keep yourselves from murmuring,' that is, against God. 'Which profits nothing,' rather it is harmful; whence: 'Some of them murmured and they were destroyed by the destroyer.' 8 And from detraction, that is, against a neighbour: 'Why have you detracted the words of truth?' 9 'Spare the tongue...' It does not say: 'spare a neighbour,' but the tongue, that is, yours, because, by detraction one first harms oneself. So detraction is worse than the venom of a snake. Seneca: 'The poison that snakes have to harm others does not harm them, but detraction drinks a part of its own poison.' 10 Gloss: 'Murmurings and detractions are ruinous.' 'Detractors, hateful to God.' 11 He says detractors in the plural because there are many ways of detraction, that is: when a hidden good is denied, or when it is diminished when it is revealed, or when a hidden evil is revealed, or when it is disseminated further when it is revealed. And well I have said: 'Spare the tongue, because a secret word...' Gloss: 'Secret, just as is a word of murmuring,' 'Shall not go for nothing,' that is, it will not go without punishment, as neither will an idle word; Matthew: 'For every idle word...' 12 therefore, much more for a malicious word. 'An idle word,' as the Gloss says, 'is spoken without profit for speaker or listener.' Jerome: 'Everything that does not edify listeners becomes a danger for the speakers.' 13 'The mouth which lies...' that is, by detraction, 'kills the soul.' The Gloss: 'By the sword's point of sin the soul of a liar is slain.' 'You will destroy all who speak a lie.' 14 Note that it speaks here about the destructive lie, one that is mortal, not a facetious or official one, whence a Gloss says: 'A lie has less fault when someone lies to gain a benefit.' But it seems that a certain lie can be good and meritorious because by lying the midwives merited a reward from the just judge, that is, God, who cannot be deceived, as is clear in the first chapter of Exodus. 15 But according to a Gloss it must be said that 'it was not a reward for a lie but for the goodness of their piety.' But can one and the same action be a sin and also have merit as a good? It would seem that it can, for a Gloss says: 'For one and the same deed, God pardons evil for the sake of good and rewards the good.' It must be said that it was one action by connection not by indivisibility, because the intention to free was different from the will to lie, even though they are connected. Saint Bonaventura, Commentary On Wisdom, Chapter 1 1 Wisd 1.10 2 Wisd 1.9 3 Exod 20.5 4 Sirach 33.5 5 Luke 12.2 6 Exod 16.12 7 Wisd 1.11 8 1 Cor 10.10 9 Job 6.25 10 Seneca Epis 81.22 11 Rom 1.30 12 Mt 12.36 13 Jerome Epis 64.5 14 Ps 5.7 15 Exod 1.15-21