for July 15
St. Bonaventure, Memorial

My 5-year-old grandson is crazy about cars. He knows them all. When he told me about his drive-by birthday recently, he named both his friends and their cars: “Henry came in a Toyota, Katie came in an Audi, Simon came in a Subaru.” Living in Los Angeles, he shares this interest with many adults. But he is oblivious to one aspect of the car pantheon—their relative values. Unlike the adults, he finds a VW just as exciting as a Tesla. In a place where your car is an indicator of status, it’s striking.

These two ways of knowing cars is the kind of distinction about knowing that Jesus is making in the Gospel passage. The wise and the learned know what study and experience of the world have taught them; the childlike know what moves them. Jesus is not saying there is no value in learning. He is saying that to know God requires more than learning. When adults see someone drive up in a Tesla, they bring meanings to bear on it that are not intrinsic to the car itself. The car speaks to them of the affluence of the owner and imbues him or her with prestige. When my grandson sees a Tesla, he responds to the car itself and its various attributes. He’s not distracted by assumptions about the owner. The point Jesus has been making leading up to today’s passage is that people have seen him perform great deeds but have failed to know who he is because of their assumptions about the messiah. If they had simply let themselves be moved by his healing deeds, they would know him and the Father would be revealed through him. Learning teaches us about God. Responding to God in love is the way to know God.

St. Bonaventure, whose feast day the Church celebrates today, exemplifies both kinds of knowing. A 13-century Franciscan, scholastic theologian, and doctor of the Church, he dedicated much of his life to learning about God. But the heart of his knowing was his love of Jesus. He was a contemplative and wrote works on the spiritual life as well as on theology. Yet he was also an able administrator, serving both as Minister General of the Franciscans and as Bishop of Albano. Bonaventure had the gift of healing divisions between groups as well as reconciling opposing viewpoints. He reformed the Franciscans and helped bring the Greek Church back into communion with Rome. Through it all he maintained an aura of holiness, sharing with all around him the love he shared with Jesus. After his deeply mourned death, he was given the title “Seraphic Doctor” in recognition of his angelic disposition.

The first reading and the psalm pick up the theme of not seeing what’s really happening. It appears that Israel is being attacked by external forces, but God makes it clear he is allowing the attacks because of the degradation within Israel. Nonetheless, he will not abandon his people but will guide them to regeneration.
—Christine Szczepanowski

The readings can be found on the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.