20260715 Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

[그리움하나]

(Is 10:5-7, 13-16, Mt 11:25-27): Where We Taste True Wisdom

As the days of my life add up, I find myself praying ever more deeply that I may be a person who remains constantly awake and vigilant, so that this precious time does not slip away in vain.

Faced with our fateful human limitations—things we cannot hold onto no matter how hard we try—it would be a deeply sorrowful thing to miss the grace of God, which opens all things before us. As we live with our two feet firmly planted on this earth, a growing and earnest longing stirs within me: to use our five senses, our reason, and our souls—all of which were so beautifully fashioned to resemble our Lord—to reach out and touch even the outermost edge of God’s sweet truth and wisdom.

That truth and wisdom do not belong solely to the complex speculations of philosophers. Although the truth of God is an infinitely deep mystery beyond the grasp of our intellect, it is at the exact same time a grace ever open, simple, and close at hand for those who actively live out His love. Today, we remember Saint Bonaventure. Though he was a great scholar who left behind brilliant works in philosophy and theology, he ultimately confessed that he learned true wisdom only at the foot of the Cross.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 11, verses 25 and 27, our Lord tells us: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. (...) No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."

Just as these words promise, the only condition to reaching the true wisdom opened by God is to be united with the path of love that He unfolds. Sometimes, we fail to find the Lord because we are looking too far into the distance. In truth, He speaks to us through the ordinary, unremarkable person right beside us, teaching us the true path of life and the wisdom of the soul. Likewise, those who only look upward or rush blindly forward fail to recognize Him. He does not hesitate to seek out the darkest, most humble places, pausing beside the smallest among us to pour out His love without reserve.

Therefore, the one who truly recognizes the Lord and is bathed in His truth is someone who looks upon every person with the warmth of Christ’s face. It is the poor in spirit who, free from prejudice, can open their entire soul to receive every event and every word. It is someone who can pause to appreciate a single flower blooming in harsh, barren soil. It is one who opens a corner of their heart to accompany the lonely, weeping with those whose wrinkled faces tell the story of this world's heavy burdens. In doing so, they humbly acknowledge: "I, too, am a weak soul who hurts just as much, who yearns for a loving gaze, and who must find strength only through the presence and companionship of the living Lord."

As the Book of Isaiah reminds us: "For he says: 'By my own power I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am shrewd.'" How foolish indeed is the one who boasts in this way!

Having come into this world utterly naked under the heavens, what is there that we have truly acquired on our own? Are not our knowledge, our understanding of the world, and even the daily bread and shelter that sustain us all graces freely bestowed upon us by God? Is it not a beautiful, unmerited blessing that our individual lives are made to support one another, like scattered puzzle pieces coming together to sustain this world?

Upon these blessed gifts, the only thing we can truly do is to clothe one another with the loving heart and the song of the soul given to us by the Lord. To cover each other’s shortcomings with that grace, to fill the empty spaces with love, and thereby to give each other a reason to keep living—this is the beautiful providence of God written into our lives.

Today we weave this tapestry of love, and tomorrow will be given to us once again as a blessed gift of time and space to do the same. If we can live with this wise realization, then we are indeed a blessed people, completely open to the revelation of our Lord. Amen.