WEDNESDAY 15TH JULY 2020
MEMORIAL OF ST. BONAVENTURE
Isaiah 10:5-7,13-16, Matthew
11:25-27
MAKING GOOD USE OF YOUR GIFT
Today we celebrate the memorial
of St. Bonaventure, an outstanding character and father of faith. He entered
the Franciscan order in 1243 and had a great influence in the order and the
Church at large. Bonaventure is called the second founder of the Franciscan
order after St Francis of Assisi because of his devotion, passion and zeal for
the work of God in the Church through the order. He was a very gentle and
simple man who never craved for big positions and wealth which kept coming his
way. He was elected the first General of the Franciscans, a position he
reluctantly accepted. He refused to be Archbishop of York in 1265 and only
reluctantly agreed to be cardinal bishop of Albano 8 years later after much
pressure from the pope. Many who encountered him as cardinal testify that he
was a simple man. Someone recounted how he visited him and met him washing the
dishes, placing his cardinal's hat on a nearby tree until he finished.
Bonaventure was involved in many
diplomatic activities in the Church, Pope Gregory X asked him to prepare for
the second Ecumenical council of Lyons in 1274, and he was very much involved
in the deliberations.
It was Bonaventure who in 1263,
ordered that bells be rung at nightfall in each monastery in honour of the
Annunciation, this practice gradually gave birth to the Angelus we have today.
Bonaventure never competed with
anyone for anything. His very close friend St Thomas Aquinas was very
intelligent and influential too, who wrote many great works both dogmatic and
doctrinal. St Bonaventure in his own way also wrote great works both mystical
and dogmatic, which have been part of our catholic heritage.
In all these achievements of St
Bonaventure, he was not proud. His famous maxim is that you use whatever you
have to preach the word of God. For him, it is not enough to occupy positions
and soeak grammar because you are intelligent,
what is important is preaching the word of God.
This is why Jesus in the gospel
reading of today, tells us that God has hidden the secrets of the kingdom to
the learned and cleaver who become proud, and has revealed them to the simple
of heart. The prophet Isaiah also tells us in the first reading that we should
always acknowledge God for whatever we achieve instead of attributing the glory
to ourselves. God help us. Amen.
Fr Michael Osatofoh Eninlejie MSP
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