WE MUST LOVE CHRIST ABOVE ALL THINGS


ST. BONAVENTURE, BISHOP, DOCTOR

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP 

Isa 1:10-17; Ps 50:8-9,16-17,21,23; Mt 10:34-11:1

Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of Me

In a very cynical expression, the prophet Isaiah referred to the rulers of Israel as rulers of Sodom and the people as people of Gomorrah. “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the command of our God, you people of Gomorrah.” Our Lord referred to Sodom and Gomorrah while sending out his disciples to preach the Gospel in the passage of Matthew we are considering these few days. According to our Lord, it would be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the judgment day than for any town that refuses to listen or receive the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, prophet Isaiah’s plain reference to the people of Israel as people of Gomorrah and their leaders as rulers of Sodom is mild in comparison to the statement of our Lord. As we mentioned in the reflection on Sunday, it is a horrible thing to reject the word of God proclaimed to us by anyone, not to talk of the Son of God himself. The most important aspect of our worship of God is to listen to his word and keep it in faith. It is a fundamental religious duty because the word of God carries the presence of God. To fail in this most important duty is to end up doing our own will in place of worship of God. “What are your endless sacrifices to me? Says the Lord. I am sick of holocausts of rams and the fat of calves. The blood of bulls and of goats revolts me. When you come to present yourselves before me, who asked you to trample over my courts?”

God does not come to us to do our wills. No, he comes to reveal his holy will to us who have gone astray in sin. He comes to bring us salvation, which consists in our knowledge of his divine will and not to do our wills or desires. The revelation of God initiates religion and guides us back to wonderful and heavenly blessings with which he had blessed us in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. To pretend to worship God without listening to his word is to attract evil to ourselves by preventing the doing or realisation of the divine will of God. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for thwarting the will of God in natural creation. So, to be in the Church or answer a Christian without the desire to listen to the word of God and pattern our lives on it is to be worse than the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. To do good is not to do the good we conceived and the way we conceive it but to know the will of God and do it. Israel’s sacrifices were part of their wrongdoings because they were doing them without interest in God’s will. “Take your wrong-doing out of my sight. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.”

Our vocation is to show God’s salvation to the upright. God’s salvation is Jesus Christ, who embodies the holy will of his Father. To worship God in truth and in spirit is to fall in love with Jesus Christ and enthrone him in our hearts. The essence of the war Jesus brings is in this fact: that we must now subdue our individual, family, village, and communal wills and replace them with the will of the Father revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. “Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me.” St. Bonaventure excelled in this love for the divine will embodied by Jesus Christ. Bonaventure was born in Bagnoregio, Italy, around 1221. He joined the Order of Friars Minor in 1238 and rose to become the Servant General. He taught both philosophy and theology and was known as a mystical writer. His astute knowledge, vibrant faith, and love for Jesus Christ crucified earned him the title of ‘seraphic doctor.’ Though very learned, he emphasized the need for the grace of the Holy Spirit for us to reach God. This is true, for the Holy Spirit is the one who leads us into the mystery of Jesus Christ. Hence, Bonaventure believed that a devoted, poor, and uneducated woman could know and love God better than a doctor of theology. A true and effective religion is to ask for the will of God and do it.

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, just as we celebrate the heavenly birthday of the Bishop Saint Bonaventure, we may benefit from his great learning and constantly imitate the ardour of his charity. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BECOMING A DEPENDABLE FRIEND

Image
FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME Eccl 6:5-17; Ps 119:12,16,18,27,34-35; Mk 10:1-12 Making and being a Good Friend The usefulness of a faithful friend is the subject discussed in the passage of Sirach we are considering. From the qualities that make a good friend, we understand that faithfulness depends on the perfection we attain in the formative school of wisdom. The first lesson we learn in nature is faithfulness. The quality of faithfulness is so closely aligned with nature that we consider nature and faithfulness synonyms. The faithfulness of nature, and subsequently of wisdom, is hinted at when we read that wisdom stands at her post/gate daily to beckon the passers-by to turn in and partake of her table. Everything that God made participates in this faithfulness of wisdom in the sense that each remains faithful to his will without failing or leading our minds astray. First, Sirach admonishes us on friendliness to people in general: “A kindly turn of speech multiplies a ...
Read more

UNDERSTANDING OUR AFFLICTIONS

Image
ST. JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR Job 1:6-22; Ps 17:1-3,6-7; Lk 9:46-50 Salvation of the Just from the affliction of evil We have the beginning of Job in the first reading today. The reading has many hidden lessons we can learn to foster our relationship with God. The first that seems very obvious is the fact of Satan attending to God with the sons of God. By this, we must understand that every rational creature of God is among his sons. They all attend to God, from whom they receive life and sustenance. God sustains all his creatures in being, both material and immaterial creatures. They also ask God for permission to carry out a course of action. Nothing moves in the heavens and on earth without God knowing and permitting it. The attending of rational creatures is what we call prayer. The good and bad angels pray to God for permission to carry out actions or bring about ends that agree with his divine will. God usually hears or permits these prayers based on his divine justice in acco...
Read more

The offsprings of the Old man and the New Man

Image
Monday, fifth week of lent/2024 Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP Offsprings of Old man and New Man To be able to live the new life within the new Covenant in Jesus Christ, the old life must come to an end. The distinctive difference between the old man and the new man is the focus of desires. The old man and all who live by him have their desires focussed on the satisfaction of self. On the other hand, the new man and those living by him desires only to fulfil God's holy will. Thus, the old man and his offspring obey the law of sin and death. Living for self alone breeds sins, and sin causes death. So, the old man and all living by him are dead and harbingers of death to others. They are adept at manipulating the Law of God to perpetuate their interest and selfish desires. An example of this skill is the treatment the two old judges of Israel in Babylon meted out to Susanna, wife of Joachim, employing the Law of Moses as given in the first reading. “Two elderly men had ...
Read more