Tuesday, July 15, 2025

 

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

(Exodus 2:1-15a; Matthew 11:20-24)

St. Bonaventure was one of the great saints of the Middle Ages.  His writings are still read and valued.  He also was an excellent administrator.  In the middle of his career at the University of Paris, he was elected General Minister of the Franciscan Order.  Bonaventure structured the large group with effective legislation and a coherent spirituality based on St. Francis’ legacy.

Today’s first reading presents another man who will become an effective leader and theologian.  It portrays Moses as a diamond in the rough.  Moses feels a righteous anger when the Egyptian strikes the Hebrew worker.   But his quick resort to violence is imprudent.  God will instruct him over years in exile so that he may lead God’s chosen people to freedom.

Neither Moses nor St. Bonaventure could have performed as well as they did without
God’s assistance.  We also need to rely on the Lord by praying often and carefully discerning His will.

Monday, July 15, 2024

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, bishop and Doctor of the Church

(Isaiah 1:10-17; Matthew 10:38-11:1)

St. Francis founded the Order of Friars Minor, and St. Bonaventure guided it through a critical period after his death.  At the time there was rivalry between Franciscan progressives who wanted the Order to adapt to the times, and the “Spirituals” who wanted to keep a rigorous poverty as they thought Francis intended.  Bonaventure, the minister general of the order, allowed friars to buy books for their teaching, a ministry that was taking hold.  But he himself practiced simplicity and frugal poverty as a model for the friars.

Bonaventure is remembered for his scholarship and his holiness. He was a scholastic to be sure, but his work is not as reason centered as Thomas Aquinas’.   His fame today is more as a mystic than a dogmatic theologian.  Those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours remember his reflection on the Sacred Heart read on its Solemnity.

Bonaventure’s name is a compound of two Latin words, bona ventura, good venture.  He was a holy person whom every one of us might emulate as a good venture.

Thursday, July 15, 2021

If you want to continue receiving homilettes by email, please send me your name and email address.  (If you have already done so, there is no need to repeat.)  I have been having difficulty adopting another mailing service.  However, Google seems to be sending them out for the time being at least.  If and when it stops, I will send out the homilettes to all who send me their addresses if the email service problem is not worked  by then. Thank you for your readership.  cm

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

(Exodus 3:13-20; Matthew 11:28-30)

St. Bonaventure was an accomplished Franciscans and churchmen.  His long tenure as General Minister earned him the reputation of second founder of the Order.  He also was a master theologian in Paris and a cardinal of the Church.  He became a major figure in the Council of Lyon during which he died.  His genius produced many volumes, one of which was entitled Journey of the Mind into God.  In today’s first reading God comes out of Himself, as it were, to enter the human journey.

God reveals His name to Moses.  Names, for sure, are important.  They give one standing in society and help one know her/himself.  The Book of Exodus may be called the “Book of Names” because it begins by saying “the names of the sons of Israel.”  God’s revealing His name to Moses is like giving him a calling card.  He will remember God more readily and can more easily seek God’s help.

God has done better than give us His name and promise to help.  He sent us His Son. Jesus shares our lot so that we might share his glory.  But we cannot do this except by his grace.  Because we need this help, we should call upon Jesus’ name always.

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church

(Isaiah 10:5-7.13b-16; Matthew 11:25-27)

St. Bonaventure was both a scholar and an administrator.  He held the Franciscan chair at the University of Paris until he served as Minister General of the Franciscan Order.  On a superficial level this background seems to eliminate him from Jesus’ company.  After all, in today gospel Jesus thanks the Father for revealing his mystery “to the wise and the learned.”

But Jesus does not mean to exclude all wise and learned.  What he cannot tolerate are those who use knowledge to lord it over others.  He has the Pharisees especially in mind.  These men advise the poor to make sacrifices while they find excuses to avoid them.  Jesus knows that true wisdom recognizes the need for divine love.  It also discerns how this love has been extended to the faithful poor.

Our task is to imitate Jesus as Bonaventure did.  We first pray to God in thanksgiving.  God is the source of everything including the benefits of life and love.  Then we make known to God our needs.  We want to ask for simplicity that recognizes the goodness of each person but pays tribute mostly to God.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, bishop and doctor of the Church

(Isaiah 38:1-5.21-22.7-8; Matthew12:1-8)

St. Bonaventure was baptized Giovanni.  It is said that his name was changed by St. Francis of Assisi who cured him of a childhood illness.  The name that stuck means good fortune. The good fortune was both his and Francis’.  Bonaventure not only experienced physical healing but also came to know the greatest of the medieval saints.  Francis found in Bonaventure a truly wise man who became his successor and biographer.  Today’s gospel shows Jesus’ disciples with similar good fortune.  They have him as their defender while he has them -- some of whom will die for him – as followers.

The disciples are being criticized for picking grain on the Sabbath.  It is not a major offense and may be justified in cases as Jesus demonstrates.  Interestingly, Jesus himself is not accused of breaking the Sabbath law here.  Evidently he is more ascetic than the others.  But he neither extols liberality or abstinence on this occasion.  He uses the situation to proclaim the urgency for practicing mercy.  He wants his followers to be less critical and more understanding of people’s needs.

We tend to judge harshly when others do not conform to the standards which we use for ourselves.  We may be practicing what we preach, but we miss the higher bar of mercy that Jesus sets.  He is asking us to discern carefully before criticizing others.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Doctor of the Church

(Exodus3:1-6.9-12; Matthew 11:25-27)

An edifying story is told of St. Bonaventure which demonstrates the humility Jesus praises in the gospel today.  St. Bonaventure was a very learned man who has been named a doctor of the Church.  Still, according to the story, he was humble enough to recognize greater genius in others.

It is said that the pope announced a poetry contest in praise of the Holy Eucharist.  Both men Bonaventure and his colleague St. Thomas Aquinas submitted entries.  On the day of competition, Thomas read his work first -- the famous “Pange Lingua” which we still sing today.  According to the story, Bonaventure listened to Thomas’ words, wept in adoration, and tore up his own entry.

We do not have to write glorious poetry to give God praise.  Like those whom Jesus recommends to his Father in the gospel, we only have to respond with loving faith to God’s goodness.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Memorial of St. Bonaventure, bishop and Doctor of the Church

(Isaiah 26:7-9.12.16-19; Matthew 11:28-30)

Is the resurrection from the dead a Christian idea or does it have origins in pre-Christian times? This question gives many people pause as they are afraid that eternal life is too great a prize to be hoped for. There may be little evidence in the Torah, the primordial Hebrew Scriptures, on eternal life, but in the reading from Isaiah today we do find testimony to its standing in Israel.

In an encomium to righteousness, Isaiah tells us that those who have lived close to the Lord will not lie in the dust forever. Rather, he says, their corpses will rise from the dead like the dew flushes the earth with life. Then they will live forever in the light of God. The writings of St. Bonaventure express how this happens. “We cannot rise above ourselves,” he states, “unless a higher power lifts us up.” Who but God, the Lord of creation, is this “higher power”?