From the Friars: The Seraphic Doctor

The well-known Franciscan preacher Fr. Benedict Groeschel, used to joke in his Jersey City accent that he joined an order founded by “two guys named Frenchy and Lucky.” He was referring to St. Francis, Francesco means Frenchman, and St. Bonaventure, whose name means good fortune. During this Franciscan Jubilee Year, it is very worthwhile to get to know this great Doctor of the Church, who is often called the second founder of the Franciscan Order. His Feast Day falls this Wednesday, July 15th.

St. Francis was a poet, a fearless Knight of Christ, and a free and spontaneous troubadour. His art was his beautiful life, sealed with receiving the wounds of Jesus. St. Bonaventure was a brilliant theologian who explained Francis the man and his movement. He had spent several years at the University of Paris when he was elected Minister General of the Franciscan Order in 1257. Under great stress due to problems in the now huge community, Bonaventure went for a retreat to Mount Alverna in October of 1259. There he meditated on the miracle of the stigmata that St. Fancis had received on that very spot 35 years earlier.

The Holy Spirit inspired in St. Bonaventure a deep understanding of Francis’s vision of Christ Crucified in the form of a six-winged Seraph angel. He proceeded to write his masterpiece of spiritual theology, The Soul’s Journey into God. The six wings serve as six steps that lead to the goal of our existence: spousal union with Holy Trinity through Jesus Christ. It begins with seeing the Creator Who reveals Himself in His creatures and how they point us toward Him. Next the image of the Holy Trinity is contemplated in our own soul through its powers of memory, intellect and will. Thus, we can then turn upward to God in Himself as the One Whose essence is being and goodness.

From here the soul must pass beyond intellectual knowledge and enter the darkness of the Light of the burning love of Jesus on the Cross, which is beyond our capacity to see. We close with St. Bonaventure’s own words: “Let us then die and pass over into darkness; …let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father.”

Amen.
–Fr. Peter