Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 15, 2020
At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to the childlike; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
I am the father of two young sons. Being a parent has taught me a great deal about how children see the world and what that can teach us about our faith. Their dependence, vulnerability, trust, and receptivity model for us what it would be like to let go of our self-reliance and really trust in God. If we could see God as a child sees God, we would recognize our need for love. We would not qualify it or resist it. We would crave it, as a child craves love from a parent.
As powerful as these insights are, there is another aspect of this gospel passage that caught my attention this time around. Jesus says, “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son…” This made me realize that I only know myself as a father because of my sons. If not for them, there would be an entire part of my identity–my identity as a father, which I now take for granted–that never would have developed. I am only a father because of my children. The same is true for them as sons. They are only sons and will know themselves as sons because of their relationship to me, their father, and my wife, their mother. And of course, the same is true for me in my identity as the son of my own parents.
What this reading showed me is that we only know each other and we only know ourselves through our relationships. The various intersections of our identities exist in large part outside of ourselves and are given to us by others. The same is true for one of our most central identities: children of God. Let us be more childlike in our faith so that we may be among those “to whom the Son chooses to reveal him [God, the Father].”
Prayer
Jesus, yesterday we prayed for your patience with us until we finally comprehend that your way is the only way to peace and wholeness. Today you pray for us. In that prayer, you tell us exactly what is needed. Please help my ego to get out of the way so that your prayer may bear fruit in my life. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Bonaventure is one of the greatest minds the Church ever produced, and he seamlessly combined a love for truth with love for God.
He was born in Italy in 1221 and became a Franciscan. He was educated at the University of Paris, and went on to teach Scripture and theology there for nearly a decade before taking on leadership of his own order.
Bonaventure dedicated even more time to prayer than he did to his study, and people could feel a deep, inward peace about him. He was always cheerful, and once said, “A spiritual joy is the greatest sign of the divine grace dwelling in a soul.”
He was ordained a priest, and wrote a number of mystical works about prayer, poverty, and the path to holiness. Bonaventure wrote with such devotion and love that his works “warmed the heart” said one scholar of his time. “Whoever would be both learned and devout, let him read the works of Bonaventure.”
He was a concise thinker who could strike to the heart of the matter. He frequently meditated on the joy of heaven, and his writing awoke in readers a desire for union with God. “God, all the glorious souls, and the whole family of the eternal King wait for us and desire that we should be with them,” Bonaventure wrote. “Shall not we desire above all things to be admitted into their happy company?”
He wrote of the perfection of Christian life—not by renouncing the world like a monk, but by simply doing ordinary things of our daily life very well. “The perfection of a religious person is to do common things in a perfect manner,” he wrote. “A constant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue.”
Bonaventure is called the second founder of the Franciscans because he was able to guide the community through important matters of interpretation about the way of life they should lead. He wrote an authoritative biography of Francis.
The pope named Bonaventure a cardinal and when the saint received news of the appointment, he was washing dishes in a convent where he was staying. The messengers were carrying the red hat of a cardinal (shown in this image from a Basilica mural), but his hands were greasy from the dishes. He had them hang it in a tree outside until he was finished, then he went and put it on, accepting the office.
When the pope called a council to discuss the unity of the Church with Greek faithful who had split from Rome, he asked Bonaventure to lead it. Bonaventure led a successful council, but died during the celebrations.
The pope preached at his funeral and said, “No one ever met Bonaventure who did not find a great regard and affection for him. Even strangers wanted to follow his advice, just from hearing him speak. He was gentle, courteous, humble, pleasing to everyone, compassionate, prudent, chaste, and adorned with all virtues.”
Bonaventure has been declared a doctor of the Church, a title given to 37 saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their words or example. He is known as the "Seraphic Doctor" after the angels who are called the “burning ones” in Scripture—his works communicated his burning love of God.
The relics of St. Bonaventure rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and the statue of him in his Franciscan habit (shown above) stands on Alumni Hall.
St. Bonaventure, you awoke in people a desire for the joy of heaven—pray for us!