Bonaventure, on Prov 30:8

“Remove far from me vanity, and lying words. Give me neither beggary, nor riches: give me only the necessaries of life:”

“Furthermore, Proverbs thirty: Give me neither riches nor beggary; and afterward: Lest compelled by want I steal and perjure the name of my God; but nothing pertains to evangelical perfection which the Wise Man wisely refuses: therefore etc. It can be said that those things were said in the time of the written law, which promised temporal things, not eternal, in which poverty was despised. Whence Chrysostom, in the eighteenth homily on the Epistle to the Hebrews, treating the aforesaid word: Riches and beggary etc., says: "These things were said in the Old Testament, where much account was made of riches, where there was very great contempt for poverty, where this indeed was a curse, namely poverty, but that was a blessing, namely riches. But now it is by no means so. But if you wish to hear the praise of poverty, Christ Himself professed it and said: But the Son of man has not where to lay His head; and again He said to the disciples: Do not possess gold." From which it is apparent that the authority is not contrary to those who assume voluntary poverty, since that was said in the time of the written law, but this in the time of the law of grace. Nor was that said in the person of a perfect man, but rather of a weak one, as is clear from the word of Chrysostom.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.