Question I: Whether joy is an effect of charity, and of what kind

JOY is not taken here for the passion of the sensitive appetite, which is called delight, of which D. Bonaventure treats in 3. dist. 26. quaest. 1. and art. 2. quaest. 1.

JOY is taken rather as it is a diffusion of the mind in some good, and this is true only if it is of the true good, which is God, as the Saintly Doctor says, collat. 75. on John; and that it is an effect of life in the Lord, which is Charity, the Saintly Doctor proves from Philip. 3. Rejoice in the Lord always, and 17. of John, that your Joy may be full; for there, after Christ had prayed the Father that the disciples be one in God, he adds: That your Joy may be full, and that they may have my Joy fulfilled in themselves. He admonishes that this Joy is to be fulfilled, when it is said: Enter into the Joy of thy Lord, where we are not commanded to rejoice, or to receive Joy, but to enter into infinite joy, comprehending us. See the Saintly Doctor on 16. and 17. of John, and sermons 4. and 5. on the Nativity, distinguishing wonderfully concerning all the Joys, but especially concerning Joy as an effect of Charity, where he heaps up very many authorities on all of them from the Scriptures. Therefore this Joy is an act elicited by the virtue of Charity, which is therefore called its fruit, Galat. 5. The fruit of the Spirit is, Joy, etc., as the Saintly Doctor notes, 3. part. Centil. sect. 6., and Lib. 5. Compendii Theol. cap. 57.; and Gregory of Valentia disp. 3. quaest. 6. puncto 1., and Tannerus disp. 2. quaest. 4. dub. 1. num. 17.

That this Joy is perfect in the fatherland, and cannot grow, just as Charity does not grow, S. Bonaventure admonishes in 2. dist. 11. art. 2. quaest. 2. argument 1. for the opposite, with a response.

In this life, however: Joy is to do justice, as is said Proverb. 21., and therefore even the contrite penitent ought to rejoice, because he has found God; yet the Joy that he has lost that good is mixed with bitterness. So D. Bonaventure in 4. dist. 16. part. 2. dub. 10.

It surely has not of itself weariness, because it is born of wisdom. Therefore it is said, Sap. 8. Her conversation has no bitterness, nor her company any weariness, but joy and Joy, according to Ecclesiasticus 1.: He will give pleasantness and Joy, and cap. 5.: He heaped up for him pleasantness and exultation. All of which the Saintly Doctor observes on those words of Sap. 8. He is saddened, therefore, insofar as something occurs repugnant to the participation of the divine good, whether in us or in our neighbours, whom we love as ourselves, as D. Thom. teaches, art. 2.; Tannerus num. 18.

THEREFORE this Joy cannot be fulfilled in this life, the Saintly Doctor concludes on those words of John 15., That my Joy may be in you, and your Joy may be filled, and in nearly that whole chapter. The reason is, because there cannot be perfect rest while there is motion; but in this life we are always in motion, as D. Thom. says, art. 3. Therefore John 16.: A woman, when she gives birth, has sadness; and you therefore now indeed have sadness, and Christ was sad unto death, Luke 22., as the Saintly Doctor observes on those passages.