Today we celebrate the feast of St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan bishop and doctor of the church. Bonaventure was filled with the spirit and love of St. Francis of Assisi. The rule and spirituality of St. Francis imbued the spiritual and theological writings of Bonaventure. One of his most important spiritual works is called “The Journey of the Mind to God” (Itinerarium Mentis in Deum). In this work Bonaventure takes us on a journey to God through creation and human beings created in God’s image and likeness and through the Trinity.
In today’s Gospel Jesus gives praise and thanks to God for revealing himself not to the “wise and the learned” but to the “childlike.” Ultimately, we journey to God and come to know the one true God through Jesus Christ, the Son of God:
“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Jesus came into the world so that all might come to know the one true God. God sent his Son into the world out of love:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17).
God’s loving desire is that all of us come to him to receive his gifts of love, mercy, and compassion.
There are many different paths or journeys to God. The journey that St. Bonaventure maps out for us follows the Franciscan vision of the goodness of God’s creation. We journey to God not by blocking out the world but by moving through the world to the one true God. In this journey we follow the path of St. Francis:
“Praised be You, my Lord, with all your creatures; especially Brother Sun, who is the day, and through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor, and bears a likeness to You, Most High One.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars; in heaven. You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.” (St. Francis of Assisi.” (Canticle of Brother Sun)
Image: “St Bonaventure” by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.