G e n e r a l   C h a p t e r	B o l o g n a   '9 8
Order of Preachers	Français | Español

Homily for Eucarist
Feast of St. Bonaventure, July 15 1998.

Fray Juan José de León Lastra, O.P.

In the Order the figure of St. Bonaventure has been understood, on the one hand, because of his dedication in the study of theology, as a sample of the approaching of the carismas of Francis and Dominic. On the other hand, he has been understood as different from the form of theology considered as our own in the Order. However, with these forms of appreciation aside, in St. Bonaventure we are to discover here and now, in this General Chapter of Provincials of the Order, one who has been able to put into dialogue the efforts placed in the pursuit of the truth and its teaching with the art of government. And along with that, what may seem most surprising, he was able to develop the sensibility of a mystic who nurtures from his contemplative listening.

As I set out to prepare this homily, in Madrid, I was reading a text that a friar from the province has published as a summary of his doctoral dissertation. There I found this assertion by the German poet Hölderlin:, "Perhaps some of the wisdom to sputter and of being dumbfounded may be the inheritance that our spiritual culture ought to transmit to the next generations". I thought it might be an object for reflection for us friars who are called major superiors, and the reason why we are gathered here in Chapter. We celebrate the feast of a saint to whom we give the title of "doctor", having before our eyes the Gospel text we just heard, in which Jesus praises the simple.

Being preachers seems the opposite of the knowledge of when to be quiet and when to sputter. Nevertheless, the silence and the sputter are a form of wisdom. It is the wisdom of the humble mentioned in today's Gospel. No one knows better how to be silent than the wise one, and no one speaks with greater fear of not communicating well than the wise-one. No one is more humble than the wise-one. And no one is more wise than the humble, he has grasped the Father's revelation.

Doctors in our Church have spoken much, written much, yet we know by way of our doctor par exellence, Thomas Aquinas, that all which is written and spoken is but a pile of straw, in the face of a profound experience of that which he wished to approach by the efforts of his own reason. Silence ends up being the proper attitude before the mystery of God and men.

What I present, on the line of the Gospel and the feast of the mystic St. Bonaventure, is not a plea against reason nor against preaching. It is nevertheless a concern for the inner attitude that will guide our reflections, our word in the Chapter. We are not masters who will dictate to our brothers what they are to do. Nor are we the wise who know everything. We are friars who in facing our life &emdash;that of everyone&emdash; feel inadequate to understand our world, our God and ourselves. And out of this inadequacy, sputtering, wish to address those we represent.

In the book mentioned above I found in its title something which can complete what I have been saying: "The dialogue that is us." We must understand our word as spoken in dialogue, and as such preceded by the 'silence of listening'. This sprung from the words of a philosopher of our century: "We men are word in dialogue. Men's own being is founded in the word, yet word comes to being in dialogue...only in so far as dialogue is the essential word of men..." Heidegger. We don't have the last word, much less the only word. To be human is to be in dialogue, it is to be "word in dialogue so that we can hear one another", Hölderlin.

The one who originated dialogue in men was God, the same one who made him. He hears us, has heard us throughout history, and according to that history. He has been in dialogue with us revealing himself and removing the veils of our own truth. "Let us have the ears of God to hear as a first step before we dare to proclaim his Word". Bonhoeffer. Let us learn mystery of listening, of silence, of the humble word, and our sincere love. In order to say something in our Chapter that would be believable.

Only from simplicity can one dialogue. Sophistication, complexity, loss of vision to what is substantial in favor of the many and different faces of the accidental makes communication difficult. The more dogmatic and intransigent attitudes tend to arise from the more accidental aspects of our being and life: our habit, our rites...

But simplicity is a product of a struggle we do not have it "by default" as they say in computer language, one must know to go to the essence, to raise the consideration in order to have higher visions, overcome the details that differentiate and support ourselves in what unites us. In the end we must try to see all sub specie aeternitis, form God and the values of the Kingdom.

Thus the Father will find us simple and humble and will continue to reveal his truth, our truth. And our brothers we will receive our reflection, our word, will understand our word and our silences. Also our errors.