In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. Well, being known far and wide from my unbiased, open minded, unprejudiced attitude towards things in general, It behooves me this morning to speak about Saint Bonaventure, second founder of the Franciscans. Now, the reason I have prefaced my remarks with that prologue is this, that there's a very strange and startling association and connection in time and space between Saint Bonaventure, OFM, and Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican, OP, order of preachers. They died in the same year, 09/1274.
Bonaventure was about a dozen years older than Aquinas. That means he was born earlier. And they both were, I guess, you could call first generation in their respective religious orders. Neither one of them knew their found person, but their dates of birth were very close to the dates of their founder's death. Dominic, Saint Dominic for the preachers, and of course, Saint Francis of Assisi for the Franciscans, who when a Bonaventure comes on the scene were already split.
Now, these two men's lives came together at least in Paris, and came together very closely. Although there's not a single bit of documentary evidence that they actually met. But it's simply impossible to think that two men of their prestige who were united on some causes and very much separated on others, were living in the in the environs of what was called the University of Paris and never actually met. It's simply impossible to assume that. But there's no documentary evidence.
So if you're a good honest to God historian, what isn't written down didn't happen. Now, the one thing that I believe, there's an awful lot to be said about these two men, believe me. Not to mention the differences between them and all that all that those differences have met down the centuries. Today, the Dominicans and the Franciscans have smoked the pipe of peace, They've smoked it for quite some time. And one of the evidences of it is that on the feast of Saint Dominic, the Dominicans have a Franciscan to deliver the sermon, the harmony, whatever you wanna call it at their mass of celebration.
And then the Franciscans in turn have a Dominican on their day, which is of course today. The one thing I believe well, before we get into that, these men were very different men in every way. Notice, Bonaventure was a cardinal, he was an archbishop, he was a bishop, he was a teacher, he was a writer, he was a scholastic, he was a professor at the University of Paris, He was a man of great activity, and he was a devout follower. Now, I'm not going to say of Saint Augustine, but of Augustinism or some other word. Because in the thirteenth century, when Thomas Aquinas, when the when Bonaventure were at their best in the University of Paris surrounded by all kinds of conflicts, the very idea of the begging friars, the mendicant friars have been a sale very crudely.
The religious, the Franciscans, and the Dominicans were being assaulted, physically assaulted by the other professors at the University of Paris who said they didn't want them around. It was a very vigorous time that these two men lived in. And as I say, some issues they were together and another issues they were very divided. And one of those issues was the introduction of Aristotelianism into the Western world, chiefly in the University of Paris. They were very much divided on this.
A Bonaventure belongs solidly to the Augustinist group. And that means chiefly that in the thirteenth century, you had a more an amorphous body of truth that used the name Saint Augustine, but a lot of it had nothing to do with Saint Augustine. Although, they didn't know it. So they were called Augustine Augustinians, not in this not in the sense of belonging to that congregation. But it would be better to use another word for it, such as Augustinists.
Whereas on the other hand, Aquinas was in the forefront of those who were welcoming the introduction of Aristotle to the Western world and were trying to bring it in and to interpret Christianity in the light of Aristotelian metaphysics. And this may sound awfully high polluting or, you know, you say, what in the world is this to do with my going to heaven? Well, actually, you know, I don't know whether it has anything to do with it, really in the last analysis. Because as far as I know, when you read the New Testament, our Lord didn't say much about Plato or Aristotle or Alexander of Hales or Donskotis. You don't find those men names mentioned frequently in the New Testament.
That's one thing I'll stake my life on. What our Lord said is you have to follow him and take up his cross daily and save your souls. It's what our Lord said. Now, all the rest of this stuff that we contribute as human beings with our mental and psychological faculties, I'm the last one to downgrade it. But Christ never said you had to be a Thomist or a Scotist or an Aristotelian or an Augustanist or a Platonist to go to heaven.
Far as I know, I stay I can stand corrected, of course. Although, I want some written proof. So keep that in your mind. Now, before I come to the chief point of my well chosen remark, I wanna read you a I wanna let Saint Bonaventure speak to you himself. Because it's alright to talk about Augustine was an intellectual.
He favored the intellectual and the reason whereas Saint Bonaventure, he spoke more of the heart. Antecedent Pascal, who's not a great friend of mine. And and all of that kind of slush, That's what I think of it. But anyway, here I'm reading you a translation of Saint Bonaventure's account of these the journey of the notice now, this is a translation. I didn't and I have no way of getting at the Latin because I don't have it.
The translation is, the journey of the mind to God. Right away, I I see red as soon as I see that because it's not my mind that's journeying to God, it's I journeying to God. As Saint Thomas would say. Well, you see my prejudice is showing. Now, I'm quoting Saint Bonaventure.
If you ask how such things that can occur, seek the answer in God's grace, not in doctrine. Now, I'm very sure that that word there was disciple, but I'm not sure. Where doctrine means teaching, some sort. In Now, I better repeat it. 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 size as IGHS, in the size 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 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 God and live. Now, that's in the abbreviary for the Matins of today.
That that gives you a a flavor of Bonaventure's thought and expression. You'll find nothing like that in Saint Thomas. Nothing. Not a not a thing. The closest he might come to that is the Yadouro take.
Now, here's the point I want to make. Oh, gee, what is it? These two men are both equally saints in the holy Roman Catholic church. Both of them are doctors. Bonaventure is a bishop.
Saint Thomas is simply a doctor. He was proclaimed the doctor of the church as number five. And who should follow him as number six? Guess it, Saint Bonaventure. But these men were very different.
And that in many ways, they were very very severely different, and yet both are holy saints in God's church. Don't have to be a philosopher. You don't have to accept one or another philosophies to be saved. All you have to simply do is to follow Jesus Christ and carry his cross behind him. Name of the father, the son, the holy spirit.
Amen.