Mystical Wisdom
From A Journey of the Mind to God by Saint Bonaventure, bishop, and Doctor of the Church (1221-1274)
Mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
Christ is both the way the door. Christ is the staircase and the vehicle, like the throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant, and the mystery hidden from the ages. A man should turn his full attention to the throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on the cross, full of faith, hope and charity, devoted, full of wonder and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. Then such a man will make with Christ a pasch, that is, a passing-over. Through the branches of the cross, he will pass over the Red Sea, leaving Egypt and entering the desert. There he will taste the hidden manna, and rest with Christ in the sepulcher, as if he were dead to things outside. He will experience, as much as is possible for one who is still living, what was promised to the thief who hung beside Christ: Today you will be with me in paradise.
For this passover to be perfect, we must suspend all the operations of the mind and we must transform the peak of our affections, directing them to God alone. This is a sacred mystical experience. It cannot be comprehended by anyone unless he surrenders himself to it; nor can he surrender himself to it unless he longs for it; nor can he long for it unless the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent into the world, should come and inflame his innermost soul. Hence the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit.
If you ask how such things can occur, seek the answer in God’s grace, not in doctrine; in the longing of will, not in the understanding; in the sighs of prayer, not in research; seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervor and glowing love. The fire is God, and the furnace is in Jerusalem, fired by Christ in the ardor of his loving passion. Only he understood this who said: My soul chose hanging and my bones death. Anyone who cherishes this kind of death can see God, for it is certainly true that: No man can look upon me and live.
Let us die, then, and enter into the darkness, silencing our anxieties, our passions and all the fantasies of our imagination. Let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father, so that, when the Father has shown himself to us, we can say with Philip: It is enough. We may hear with Paul: My grace is sufficient for you; and we can rejoice with David, saying: My flesh and my heart fail me, but God is the strength of my heart and my heritage for ever. Blessed by the Lord for ever, and let all the people say: Amen. Amen!
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274) was born in Bagnorea, Italy, Giovanni di Fidanza and received the name Bonaventure from St. Francis of Assisi who cured him of a childhood illness. He became a Franciscan in 1238 and studied at Paris. He taught theology and Scripture at Paris. He was involved in a controversy over the mendicants in Paris. Bonaventure received his doctorate in theology with St. Thomas Aquinas in 1257 and was elected minister general of the Friars Minor. He labored to reconcile dissident factions in the Order. In 1260 he promulgated a set of constitutions on the rule with a lasting impact on the order. He helped secure the election of Pope Gregory X and was appointed cardinal-bishop of Albano and was appointed by Gregory to draw up the agenda for the fourteenth General Council at Lyons to discuss reunion of the Eastern churches with Rome. Bonaventure was successful in bringing about the reunion, but he died at Lyons while the Council was still in session. Bonaventure was an outstanding philosopher and theologian and one of the great intellects of medieval ti8mes. He authored numerous treatises, biblical commentaries, some five hundred sermons, and was the official biography of St. Francis. Canonized in 1482 he was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1588.