Bonaventure and His Lessons on St. Francis: Visitor's

AUGUSTDecember 2011 2011 BONAVENTURE AND HIS LESSONS ON ST. FRANCIS: Chapter IV—The Progress of the Order under Francis' Guidance and the Confirmation of the Rule 2. Eventually, they arrived at the valley any of the liturgical books, so that of Spoleto, still full of these good they could not chant the divine office. dispositions, and there they fell to Christ's cross was their book and they debating whether they should live studied it day and night, at the among the people or seek refuge in exhortation and after the example of solitude. Francis, who was a true their father who never stopped talking servant of Christ refused to trust in his to them about the cross. When the own opinion or in the suggestions of his friars asked him to teach them how to companions; instead, he sought to pray, he said, “When you pray, say the discover God's will by persevering Our Father, and We adore you, O prayer. Then, enlightened by a Christ, in all your churches in the revelation from heaven, he realized whole world and we thank you, that he was sent by God to win for because by your holy cross you Christ the souls which the Devil was redeemed the world.” trying to snatch away. And so he chose to live for the benefit of his fellow men, He also taught them to join with all rather than for himself alone, after the example of Him creation and praise God in his creatures, while venerating who was so good as to die for all men. priests with special reverence and holding fast to the true faith which is professed and taught by the Catholic 3. With his companions Francis now went to live in an Church. This they were to believe firmly and profess with abandoned hut near Assisi, where they lived from hand all simplicity. The friars obeyed his teaching to perfection, to mouth according to the rule of poverty, in toil and and whenever they saw a church or crucifix, even from a penury, drawing their strength rather from tears of distance, they knelt down humbly and prayed the way he compunction than from any bodily food. They spent the had taught them. time praying continuously, devoting themselves Bonaventure—Major Life of St. Francis (1263) especially to fervent mental prayer; they had not yet got VISITOR'S MESSAGE Homily by Fr. Robert Altier... Open Your Heart to the Child Who is Love In the first reading this morning these things that usually come with battle, the war that from the Book of the Prophet has to go on to be able to free slaves, to be able to end Isaiah, we hear about how things and bring about peace. As this all builds up, one every cloak rolled in blood will be burned and every boot would expect that we are going to hear about some kind that tramped in battle is going to be destroyed, and that of battle that is going to be happening. Instead, Isaiah the pole of the taskmaster and the rod upon their suddenly turns it around and says, “Because a child is shoulders is going to be broken and destroyed – all of born for us, a son is given us; and on his shoulder 1 dominion rests.” So it is not so much a matter of any kind on the natural level. It is only with the eyes of faith that of physical battle, but rather, it is a spiritual battle, and it we can understand the mystery that is being unfolded is by faith in this little, tiny Baby who is born in before us this very day. Bethlehem that one is going to be able to destroy the one who has put his yoke and his chains about us, who has There is great cause for rejoicing as there is with the put the pole upon our shoulders, who has beaten us with birth of any child: the miracle of a baby, the beauty of his rod – and that is Satan himself. The one thing Satan the absolute innocence of that little soul, the joy of the cannot handle is humility. Satan lives and thrives on face that one beholds in a little child. Yet, with this Child, pride. And so God, in His humility, comes down to us in there is greater cause for rejoicing. Even though when a the form of a tiny, helpless baby. He comes to us just as child is born family and friends rejoice with the parents, one of us, totally dependent upon His mother, and yet the child is born to those parents. This Child, however, is with the joy that a baby brings. Anyone who would see different. He was certainly given for His mother, but He Him and have faith would understand the freedom that was given for each one of us. Each one of us then shares comes only from Him. in the joy that is Our Lady’s. She alone, of course, had the privilege of being able to carry Him in her womb and In looking upon this little Baby in the manger, the to give birth to the Savior of the world, but each one of shepherds were also able to discern something that did us, like Saint Joseph, is able to share in the joy. Saint not seem to make any sense to them. The sign that was Joseph, knowing that the Child was conceived by the given to them was one that would be highly unusual: a power of the Holy Spirit, knew fully well that he was baby wrapped in swaddling brought into the mystery clothes. Swaddling clothes of the Incarnation but he were the clothes of the himself was not part of it. dead, the strips of cloth So it is with each of us. that would be wrapped We can look at the crèche around the body of the and there we see Mary dead the way that Lazarus, and Joseph: Mary, whose when he was in the tomb, fiat nine months earlier was all wrapped up. And has now borne fruit and this is the way Our Lady given birth to God; and clothed her Son. Now one there is Saint Joseph, the could try to explain that just man, adoring the away and say, “Considering Child on behalf of each it would have been cold, it one of us. probably was the most reasonable way to wrap up Mary, His mother, extends a child to make sure that he stayed warm.” But when we Him with great joy to the poor, humble shepherds who look at it, we can understand it from a different came to worship Him – and she does the same thing for perspective; that is, the very purpose of the birth of this each one of us. We come before Him with the same kind Child was to die. He came into this world and is born for of humility as the shepherds and it is important for us to us so that He could die for us. And right from the very recognize that it was to the shepherds that God first first moment of His appearance on earth, with the revealed this mystery. Shepherds, in the ancient world, newness of life and the joy that a baby brings, there is at were the lowest of the low; they were the unskilled the same time this tinge of sorrow, there is this irony laborers; they were the ones who were at the bottom of that is present right from the very beginning. There is the pile in the societal pecking order. And yet in God’s new life and it points to death. Yet each one of us knows mercy, He sent His Son to be a shepherd, the Shepherd fully well that it is His death that brings about life. of our souls. He turns then to the lowly and to the humble, to the ones who would be the most apt to The Church, in the readings over the last few days, talks recognize the grandeur of the mystery that was taking about how our salvation is near at hand and how in the place. They came at the message of an angel to be able Birth of Christ we are saved. Yet at the same time, we all to see this Baby who looked just like any other human know it is not in His Birth that we are saved, but rather it baby, but they understood that this was the all-powerful is in His Death and Resurrection that we are saved. But God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who has there would be no Passion, Death, or Resurrection now become created in His mother. without His Birth. And so the beginning of our salvation has come in that God is willing to take on our human And now the angel speaks to each one of us and calls nature and He is willing to be born in time. The One who each one of us to come and behold the glory of God that is outside of time, the One who created time is born in is shining on the face of a newborn Baby, to behold His time. The One who created the Blessed Virgin Mary glory, the glory of an only Son, and to be able to became created within her. The One who is uncreated understand that in this Baby we have freedom for our from all eternity took on a created nature and was born souls.

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