Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Today’s readings give us two beautiful windows through which to see the heart of our God. In the first reading from Exodus, God reveals to Moses that the sufferings and slavery of His People in Egypt breaks His heart and moves Him not only to set them free through numerous miracles, but also to settle them in a place of refreshment and prosperity, a land flowing with milk and honey. In the Gospel, Our Lord tells us directly that His meek and humble heart is that place of refreshment, light, and peace. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.” (Mt 11:28)
Contemplating the moment when Christ’s side was pierced and blood and water flowed from His most sacred heart, St. Bonaventure calls us to see the love of that heart in the sacraments as he writes, “Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting. Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove ‘that nests in a hole in the cliff’, keeping watch at the entrance ‘like the sparrow that finds a home’. There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, ‘draw water from the wells of your Savior; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers’, inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile.” Through the intercession of St. Bonaventure, may we listen as God speaks from His heart of His infinite love for us, and may we find peace by giving our whole hearts to Him!