From the Liturgical Year:
Four months after the Angel of the Schools, the Seraphic Doctor appears in the heavens. Bound by the ties of love when on earth, the two are now united for ever before the throne of God. Bonaventure’s own words will show us how great a right they both had to the heavenly titles bestowed upon them by the admiring gravitated of men.
As there are three hierarchies of angels in heaven, so on earth there are three classes of the elect. The Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, who form the first hierarchy, represent those who approach nearest to God by contemplation, and who differ among themselves according to the intensity of their love, the plentitude of their science, and the steadfastness of their justice; to the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers, correspond the prelates and princes; and lastly, the lowest choirs signify the various ranks of the faithful engaged in the active life. This is the triple division of men, which, according to St. Luke, will be made at the last day: Two shall be in the bed, two in the field, two at the mill; that is to say, in the repose of divine delights, in the field of government, at the mill of this life’s toil. As regards the two mentioned in each place, we may remark that in Isaias the Seraphim, who are more closely united to God than the rest, perform two by two their ministry of sacrifice and praise; for it is with the angel as with man; the fulness of love, which belongs especially to the Seraphim, cannot be without the fulfilment of the double precept of charity towards God and one’s neighbour. Again, our Lord sent His disciples two and two before His face; and in Genesis we find God sending two angels where one would have sufficed. [Cf. Gen. xix. I.] It is better, therefore, says Ecclesiastes, that two should be together than one; for they have the advantage of their society. [Eccles. iv. 9.]
Such is the teaching of Bonaventure in his book on the Hierarchy, [De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia, pars I., caps. i., ii.] wherein he shows us the secret workings of Eternal Wisdom for the salvation of the world and the sanctification of the elect. It would be impossible to understand aright the history of the thirteenth century were we to forget the prophetic vision, wherein our Lady was seen presenting to her offended Son His two servants, Dominic and Francis, that they might by their powerful union, bring back to Him the wandering human race. What a spectacle for angels when, on the morrow of the apparition, the two saints met and embraced: ‘Thou art my companion, we will run side by side,’ said the descendant of the Guzmans to the poor man of Assisi; ‘let us keep together, and no man will be able to prevail against us.’ These words might well have been the motto of their noble sons, Thomas and Bonaventure. The star which shone over the head of St. Dominic shed its bright rays on Thomas; the Seraph who imprinted the stigmata in the flesh of St. Francis touched with his fiery wing the soul of Bonaventure; yet both, like their incomparable fathers, had but one end in view: to draw men by science and love to that eternal life which consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
Both were burning and shining lamps, blending their flames in the heavens, in proportions which no mortal eye could distinguish here below; nevertheless, Eternal Wisdom has willed that the Church on earth should borrow more especially light from Thomas and fire from Bonaventure. Would that we might here show in each of them the workings of Wisdom, the one bond even on earth of their union of thoughts – that Wisdom who, ever unchangeable in her adorable unity, never repeats herself in the souls she chooses from among the nations to become the prophets and the friends of God. But to-day we must speak only of Bonaventure.
When quite a child, he was saved by St. Francis from imminent death; whereupon his pious mother offered him by vow to the saint, promising that he should enter the Order of Friars Minor. Thus, in the likeness of holy poverty, that beloved companion of the Seraphic Patriarch, did Eternal Wisdom prevent our saint from his very cradle, showing herself first unto him. At the earliest awakening of his faculties he found her seated at the entrance of his soul, awaiting the opening of its gates, which are, he tells us, intelligence and love. Having received a good soul in an undefiled body, he preferred Wisdom before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison with the august friend, who offered herself to him in the glory of her nobility and beauty. From that first moment, without ever waning, she was his light. Peacefully as a sunbeam glancing through a hitherto closed window, Wisdom filled this dwelling, now become her own, as the bride on the nuptial day takes possession of the bridegroom’s house filling it with joy, in community of goods, and above all of love.
For her contribution to the nuptial banquet, she brought the substantial brightness of heaven; Bonaventure on his part offered her the lilies of purity, so desired by her as her choicest food. Henceforth the feast in his soul was to be continual; and the light and the perfumes, breaking forth, were shed around, attracting, enlightening, and nourishing all. While still very young, he was, according to custom, sent, after the first years of his religious life, to the celebrated University of Paris, where he soon won all hearts by his angelic manners; and the great Alexander of Hales, struck with admiration at the union of so many qualities, said of him that it seemed as if in him Adam had not sinned. As a lofty mountain whose head is lost in the clouds, and from whose foot run fertilizing waters far and wide, Brother Alexander himself, according to the expression of the Sovereign Pontiff, seemed at that time to contain within himself the living fountain of Paradise, whence the river of science and salvation flowed over the earth. [Litt. ALEXANDRI IV.: De fontibus paradisi flumen egrediens.] Nevertheless, not only would he, the irrefragable Doctor, and the Doctor of doctors, give up his chair in a short time to the newcomer, but he would hereafter derive his greatest glory from being called father and master by that illustrious disciple. [BONAVENT. in II. Sent., dist. xxiii., art. 2, qu. 3, ad 7.] Placed in such a position at so early an age, Bonaventure could say of Divine Wisdom, even more truly than of the great master who had had little to do but admire the prodigious development of his soul: ‘It is she that has taught me all things; she taught me the knowledge of God and of His works, justice and virtues, the subtleties of speeches and the solutions of arguments.’ [Cf. Wisd. vii. and viii.]
Such, indeed, is the object of those Commentaries on the Four Books of Sentences, first delivered as lectures from the chair of Paris, where he held the noblest intellects spellbound by his graceful and inspired language. This masterpiece, while it is an inexhaustible mine of treasures to the Franciscan family, bears so great testimony to the science of this doctor of twenty-seven years of age that, though so soon called from his chair to the government of a great Order, he was worthy on account of this single work to share with his friend Thomas Aquinas, who was fortunately freer to pursue his studies, the honourable title of prince of Sacred Theology. [Litt. SIXTI IV. Superna coelestis patrieae civitas; SIXTI V. Triumphantis Hierusalem; LEONIS XIII. AEterni Patris.]
The young master already merited his name of Seraphic Doctor, by regarding science as merely a means to love, and declaring that the light which illuminates the mind is barren and useless unless it penetrates to the heart, where alone wisdom rests and feasts. [Exp. in Lib. Sap. viii. 9, 16.] St. Antoninus tells us also that in him every truth grasped by the intellect passed through the affections, and thus became prayer and divine praise. [ANTONINI, Chronic., p. III., tit. xxiv., cap. 8.] ‘His aim,’ says another historian, ‘was to burn with love, to kindle himself first at the divine fire, and afterwards to inflame others. Careless of praise or renown, anxious only to regulate his life and actions, he would fain burn and not only shine; he would be fire, in order to approach nearer to God by becoming more like to Him who is fire. Albeit, as fire is not without light, so was he also at the same time a shining torch in the House of God; but his special claim to our praise is that all the light at his command he gathered to feed the flame of divine love.’ [H. SEDULIUS, Histor. seraph.]
The bent of his mind was clearly indicated when, at the beginning of his public teaching, he was called upon to give his decision on the question then dividing the Schools: to some theology was a speculative, to others a practical, science, according as they were more struck by the theoretical or the moral side of its teaching. Bonaventure, uniting the two opinions in the principle which he considered the one universal law, concluded that ’Theology is an affective science, the knowledge of which proceeds by speculative contemplation, but aims principally at making us good.’ For the wisdom of doctrine, he said, must be according to her name, [Eccli. vi. 23.] something that can be relished by the soul; and he added, not without that gentle touch of irony which the saints know how to use: ‘There is a difference, I suppose, in the impressions produced by the proposition, Christ died for us, or the like, and by such as this: The diagonal and the side of a square cannot be equal to one another.’ [BONAVENT. Proemium in I. Sent., qu. 3.] The graceful speech and profound science of our saint were enhanced by a beautiful modesty. He would conclude a difficult question thus: ‘This is said without prejudice to the opinions of others. If anyone think otherwise, or better, as he may well do on this point as on all others, I bear him no ill-will; but if, in this little work, he find anything deserving approval, let him give thanks to God, the Author of all good. Whatever, in any part, be found false, doubtful or obscure, let the kind reader forgive the incompetence of the writer, whose conscience bears him unimpeachable testimony that he has wished to say nothing but what is true, clear, and commonly received.’ [II. Sent., dist. xliv., art. 3, qu. 2, ad 6.] On one occasion, however, Bonaventure’s unswerving devotion to the Queen of Virgins modified with a gentle force his expression of humility: ‘If anyone,’ he says, ‘prefers otherwise, I will not contend with him, provided he say nothing to the detriment of the Venerable Virgin, for we must take the very greatest care, even should it cost us our life, that no one lessen in any way the honour of our Lady.’ [IV. Sent., dist. xxviii., qu. 6, ad 5.] Lastly, at the end of the third book of this admirable Exposition of the Sentences, he declares that ‘charity is worth more than all science. It is enough, in doubtful questions, to know what the wise have taught; disputation is to little purpose. We talk much, and our words fail us. Infinite thanks be to the perfecter of all discourse, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, taking pity on my poverty of knowledge and of genius, has enabled me to complete this moderate work. I beg of Him that it may procure me the merit of obedience, and may be of profit to my brethren: the two fold purpose for which the task was undertaken.’ [III. Sent., dist. xl., qu. e, ad 6.]
But the time had come when obedience was to give place to another kind of merit, less pleasing to himself, but not less profitable to the brethren. At thirty-five years of age, he was elected Minister-General. Obliged thus to quit the field of scholastic teaching, he entrusted it to his friend, Thomas Aquinas, who, younger by several years, was to cultivate it longer and more completely than he himself had been suffered. The Church would lose nothing by the change; for Eternal Wisdom, who ordereth all things with strength and sweetness, thus disposed that these two incomparable geniuses, completing one another, should give us the fulness of that true science which not only reveals God, but leads to Him.
Give an occasion to the wise man, and wisdom shall be added to him. [Prov. ix. 9.] This sentence was placed by Bonaventure at the head of his treatise on ‘The Six Wings of the Seraphim,’ wherein he sets forth the qualifications necessary for one called to the cure of souls; and well did he fulfil it himself in the government of his immense Order, scattered by its missions throughout the whole Church. The treatise itself, which Father Claude Acquaviva held in such high estimation as to oblige the Superiors of the Society of Jesus to use it as a guide, furnishes us with a portrait of our saint at this period. He had reached the summit of the spiritual life, where the inward peace of the soul is undisturbed by the most violent agitations from without; where the closeness of their union with God produces in the saints a mysterious fecundity, displayed to the world, when God wills, by a multiplicity of perfect works incomprehensible to the profane. Let us listen to Bonaventure’s own words: ‘The Seraphim exercise an influence over the lower orders, to draw them upwards; so the love of the spiritual man tends both to his neighbour and to God: to God that he may rest in Him; to his neighbour to draw him thither with himself. Not only then do they burn; they also give the form of perfect love, driving away darkness and showing how to rise by degrees, and to go to God by the highest paths.’ [BONAVENT. De Eccles. hier., p. II., c. ii.]
Such is the secret of that admirable series of opuscula, composed, as he owned to St. Thomas, without the aid of any book but his crucifix, without any preconceived plan, but simply as occasion required at the request, or to satisfy the needs of the brethren and sisters of his large family, or again, when he felt a desire of pouring out his soul. In these works Bonaventure has treated alike of the first elements of asceticism and of the sublimest subjects of the mystic life, with such fulness, certainty, clearness, and persuasive force, that Sixtus IV declared the Holy Spirit seemed to speak in him. [Litt. Superna coelestis.] On reading the Itinerary of the Soul to God, which was written on the height of Alverna, as it were under the immediate influence of the Seraphim, the Chancellor Gerson exclaimed: ‘This opusculum, or rather this immense work, is beyond the praise of a mortal mouth.’ [GERSON Epist. cuidam Fratri Minori. Lugd. an. 1426.] And he wished it, together with that wonderful compendium of sacred science, the Breviloquium, to be imposed upon theologians as a necessary manual. [Tract de exam. doctrinarum.] ‘By his words,’ says the great Abbot Trithemius in the name of the Bendictine Order, ‘the author of all these learned and devout works inflames the will of the reader no less than he enlightens his mind. Note the spirit of divine love and Christian devotion in his writings, and you will easily see that he surpasses all the doctors of his time in the usefulness of his works. Many expound doctrine, many preach devotion, few teach the two together; Bonaventure surpasses both the many and the few, because he trains to devotion by science, and to science by devotion. If, then, you would be both learned and devout, you must put his teaching into practice.’ [TRITHEM. de Scriptor. eccle.]
But Bonaventure himself will tell us best the proper dispositions for reading him with profit. At the beginning of his Incendium amoris, wherein he teaches the three ways, purgative, illuminative, and unitive, which lead to true wisdom, he says: ‘I offer this book not to philosophers, not to the worldly-wise, not to great theologians perplexed with endless questions, but to the simple and ignorant who strive rather to love God than to know much. It is not by disputing, but by activity, that we learn to love. As to those men full of questions, superior in every science, but inferior in the love of Christ, I consider them incapable of understanding the contents of this book; unless putting away all vain show of learning, they strive, by humble self-renunciation, prayer, and meditation, to kindle within them the divine spark, which, inflaming their hearts and dispelling all darkness, will lead them beyond the concerns of time even to the throne of peace. Indeed, by the very fact of their knowing more, they are better disposed to love, or, at least, they would be if they truly despised themselves and could rejoice to be despised by others.’ [Incend. amoris, Prologus.]
Although these pages are already too long, we cannot resist quoting the last words left us by Saint Bonaventure. As the Angel of the Schools was soon, at Fossa Nova, to close his labours and his life with the explanation of the Canticle of Canticles, so his seraphic rival and brother tuned his last notes to these words of the sacred Nuptial Song: ‘King Solomon has made him a litter of the wood of Libanus: The pillars thereof he made of silver, the seat of gold, the going-up of purple.’ [Cant. iii. 9, 10.] ‘The seat of gold,’ added our saint, ‘is contemplative wisdom; it belongs to those alone who possess the column of silver – i.e., the virtues which strengthen the soul; the going-up of purple is the charity whereby we ascend to the heights and descend to the valleys.’ [Illuminationes Ecclesiae in Hexaemeron, Sermo xxiii.]
It is a conclusion worthy of Bonaventure, the close of a sublime but incomplete work, which he had not even time to put together himself. ‘Alas! alas! alas!’ cries out with tears the loving disciple to whom we owe this last treasure, ‘a higher dignity, and then the death of our lord and master prevented the continuation of this work.’ And then showing us, in a touching manner, the precautions taken by the sons lest they should lose anything of their father’s conferences: ‘What I here give,’ he says, ‘is what I could snatch by writing rapidly while he was speaking. Two others took notes at the same time, but their papers are scarcely legible; whereas several of the audience were able to read my copy, and the master himself and many others made use of it; a fact for which I deserve some gratitude. And now at length, permission and time having been given to me, I have revised these notes, with the voice and gestures of the master ever in my ear and before my eyes; I have arranged them in order, without adding anything to what he said, except the indication of certain authorities.’ [Illuminat. Eccles., Additiones.]
The dignity mentioned by the faithful secretary is that of Cardinal Bishop of Albano. After the death of Clement IV, and the succeeding three years of widow-hood for the Church, our saint, by his influence with the Sacred College, had obtained the election of Gregory X, who now imposed upon him in virtue of obedience the honour of the cardinalate. Having been entrusted with the work of preparation for the Council of Lyons, convened for the spring of 1274, Bonaventure had the joy of assisting at the reunion of the Latin and Greek Churches, which he, more than anyone else, had been instrumental in obtaining. But God spared him the bitterness of seeing how short-lived the reunion was to be: a union which would have been the salvation of that East which he loved, and where his name, translated into Eutychius, was still in veneration two centuries later at the time of the Council of Florence. On July 15 of that year, 1274, in the midst of the Council, and presided at by the Sovereign Pontiff himself, took place the most solemn funeral the world has ever witnessed. ‘I grieve for thee, my brother Jonathan,’ cried out before that mourning assembly, gathered from East and West, the Dominican Cardinal Peter of Tarentaise. After fifty-three years spent in this world, the Seraph had cast off his robe of flesh, and spreading his wings had gone to join Thomas Aquinas, who had by a very short time preceded him to heaven.
The following are the proper lessons appointed for St. Bonaventure in the Breviary:
Bonaventure was born at Bagnorea, in Tuscany. While still a child, he was smitten by a mortal sickness, and his mother vowed that he should be consecrated to the order of blessed Francis if he recovered. He came safely through the sickness at the Saint’s prayer; and consequently, when a young man, he determined to enter the institute of the Friars Minor. He was put under the instruction of Alexander of Hales, and became so eminent for learning that at the end of seven years he obtained the Mater’s degree at Paris, and lectured publicly with great applause on the books of the Sentences, which later in life he explained by lucid commentaries. He attained great eminence, not only in knowledge and learning, but also in purity of life, innocence, humility, meekness, contempt for earthly things and desire for those of heaven; and he was held as an example of perfection. By blessed Thomas Aquinas, to whom he was bound by close friendship, he was called a saint, and when St. Thomas found him one day writing the Life of St. Francis, he said: ‘Let us allow one saint to labour for another.’
He was enkindled with a great flame of divine love, and was moved with particular affection for the Passion of Christ our Lord, which was his constant matter of meditation, and for the Virgin Mother of God, to whom he wholly vowed himself. He sought, moreover, with all his power to excite a like ardour in others both by word and example, and to increase it by his books and other writings. Hence arose that sweetness of disposition, unction in speech and open-hearted charity to all men, by which he succeeded in binding the hearts of all so closely to himself. For these reasons, when scarcely thirty-five years old, he was elected at Rome, by acclamation, Minister-General of his Order; and he held the omce which he had taken up for twenty years, with remarkable prudence and praiseworthy holiness. He made a number of regulations suited to the maintenance of regular discipline and the extension of the Order: and he defended it, as well as the other mendicant orders, with great success against the charges of calumniators.
By Blessed Gregory X he was summoned to the Council of Lyons, and created Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He steered the Council successfully through the arduous tasks it had undertaken: as a result of which the disputes excited by schismatics were brought to an end, and the dogmas of the Church vindicated. In the midst of these labours, to the great sorrow of all who knew him, he died in 1274, in the fifty-third year of his age, and his funeral was adorned by the presence of the whole Council, and of the Roman Pontiff himself. He became renowned for many great miracles, and Xystus IV enrolled him among the saints. He composed a number of writings, in which he exhibited great learning and ardent piety, moving the reader’s heart by his instruction: and for this reason Xystus V deservedly bestowed on him the title of the Seraphic Doctor.
Saint Bonaventure, ora pro nobis
Topic: Saint Bonaventure (Read 651 times)