The priest and Philosophy, José María Montiu Phd, offers this reflection on the wisdom of Saint Bonaventure compared to Saint Thomas.
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For the young Saint Augustine, it was very important to find the idea of wisdom in Cicero. Today, there are many environments in which the word “wisdom” no longer exists. The cat ate it. It was swept away by the thoughtless gale of fashion. It urges getting it out of the trunk of oblivion.
Saint Bonaventure was a wise man. He was a wise man first because he was a saint. Well, vanity of vanities and everything is vanity, except loving and serving God. The only wise conduct is good acting. Holiness is the highest wisdom. Holiness is the purity that beautifully crowns the high mountains.
The wise man moves towards the end for which he has been created. He who is saved, knows that who is not saved, knows nothing. Furthermore, the highest and most beautiful wisdom is that of the saints in heaven. There is no better music than heavenly music.
The following anecdote can serve as a synthesis or global vision of the work of Saint Bonaventure. One day one of the two greatest Doctors of the universal Church, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Common Doctor, went to see him and asked him, very interested: Tell me, Bonaventure, where do you get these wonderful, wonderful, fantastic speeches from? , so admirable? Tell me, what materials do you base yourself on, what books, what authors? What are your sources?
Saint Bonaventure then showed him which book was from which he derived that torrent of wisdom. He pointed to a crucifix and said: this is my book! Saint Bonaventure extracted all those magnificent treasures of wisdom from the loving contemplation of Christ crucified. This shows us in a crystalline, pure and transparent way, that Saint Bonaventure is a wise man, because in himself he has the genius of love for God, “amor Dei”, which is in him the source of an immense and beautiful sea of wisdom. Here we have caught Saint Bonaventure red-handed, “red-handed”, in his deepest intimacy, in his madness, here, he has indeed been portrayed! Fully portrayed! He has no escape! Yes, he has been portrayed as the sweet and chaste, loving dove that makes its nest in the intimacy of the opening of the Most Holy and Sacred Heart of Christ. Blessed is he!
It is interesting to compare these two Doctors of the Church, these two holy men, these two giants of humanity. Saint Thomas is the light. Saint Bonaventure is the burning of fire. I believe that the thought of Saint Thomas, Angelic Doctor, is like an ever ascending ray of light that reaches the Heart of Christ, while that of Saint Bonaventure, Seraphic Doctor, is a flaming arrow of love that always ascends until it hits the Heart of Christ. Or, as the great Italian poet, Dante, said: one, he was all seraphic in ardor. The other, splendor of cherubic light.
But, with this comparison, I do not mean that Saint Thomas was not also a great mystic. The photograph of both is the same: a volcano of love for God. As an example, it is enough to immediately consider the supreme lesson of Saint Thomas. After having a great mystical experience, in which he greatly enjoyed the infinite divine beauty, he remained mute forever. With this gesture, he recognized that everything he had written in his life was just like straw compared to what he had tasted from God. He could no longer fly his pen to write what fell so short of the wonder of God that he had experienced. And this happened like this, although Saint Thomas has been one of those who in the entire history of humanity, since the creation of the world, has written more accurately and more wonderfully about God.
But, it is also true that, as the very sharp mind of Benedict XVI has observed: yes, Thomas, you are absolutely right! What you have written is just straw! But, this straw gives rise to the ear. And bread is made from this wheat. And, in the Holy Mass, this bread becomes the most holy body of Christ, Corpus Christi. And, thanks, then, to this straw, the adorable Savior God, may he always be blessed, is born on the altar.
The theology of Saint Bonaventure, like that of Saint Bernard, is mystical theology. Passionate, vibrant, fiery, ardent theology, from the Platonic-Augustinian tradition. Kneeling, fervent theology, which is done more with the knees than with the pen. But, mysticism is the wisest degree of knowledge, since it is the one that most tastes and likes the infinite treasure the most, the one that most penetrates into its highest depths. Also, therefore, for this reason, Saint Bonaventure is a wise man.
Wisdom is interested above all in God, who is infinite wisdom. Well, it is clear that infinite and eternal good is more interesting than that which was not before, or that expires like yogurt, or that, like flowers, withers, giving off a bad smell. The supreme good is more interesting than that which in comparison with it is almost imperceptible and deflates. But, the Catholic religion is the one that delves most deeply into the treasures of God. For this reason, as Saint Clement of Alexandria said, only the true Christian is wise. Saint Bonaventure was wise because he knew more and more of Christ, the true and perfect God. There is nothing higher than fervently kneeling at the feet of the crucified Christ.
A seal of the wisdom of the Italian Saint Bonaventure is also the fact that he is one of the few outstanding wise men, less than forty, who in the entire history of Holy Mother Church, more than two thousand years old, has been proclaimed Doctor of the universal Church .
May the burning fire of these wise torches of love for God, which were Saint Bonaventure and Saint Thomas, light in our hearts and ignite them. And may they, in their love for us, help us do this.
