Dear brothers and sisters!
The solemn Eucharistic celebration this morning in Viterbo opened my pastoral visit to your diocesan community, and our encounter here at Bagnoregio practically brings it to a close.
I greet you sll with affection - religious, civil and military authorities; priests, religious, and pastoral workers; young people and families - and I thank you all for the cordiality with which you have welcomed me.
I renew my thanks first of all to your Bishop for his affectionate words which recalled my ties to St. Bonaventure. And I greet with deference the Mayor of Bagnoregio, grateful for the courteous welcome which he addressed to me in the name of the whole city.
Giovanni Fidanza, who became Friar Bonaventura, joined his name to Bagnoregio in his famous self-presentation in the Divine Comedy.
Saying "Bonaventura's life in me behold, from Bagnororegio, one, who in discharge of my great offices still laid aside all sinister aim" (Dante, Paradise XII, 127-129), it underscored how, in the important tasks that he had to carry out in the Church, he always put off dealing with temporal realities ['all sinister aim'] in favor of the spiritual welfare of souls.
Here, in Bagnoregio, he spent his childhood and adolescence, and then followed St. Francis, towards whom he had special gratitude because, as he wrote later, he had 'snatched him from the jaws of death' when he was a child (Legenda Maior, Prologus, 3,3) and had predicted for him 'buona ventura', good fortune, as your mayor reminded as just now.
With the Poverello of Assisi, he established a deep and lasting bond, drawing from him ascetic inspiration and ecclesial genius.
And now you jealously guard of your illustrious townmate the important relic ot the "Holy Arm'; you keep his memory alive and study his teaching in depth, especially through the Centro di Studi Bonaventuriani founded by Bonaventura Tecchi, which every year organizes a specialized conference of studies dedicated to the saint.
It is not easy to summarize the ample philosophical, theological and mystical teachings left to us by St. Bonaventure. In this Year for Priests, I wish especially to invite all priests to place themselves in the school of this great Doctor of the Church and study well his teaching of wisdom rooted in Christ.
Towards that wisdom which flourishes in holiness, he oriented every step of his speculation and mystical tension, going through all the stages, starting from what he called 'uniform wisdom' regarding the fundamental principles of knowledge, to 'multiform wisdom', which is the mysterious language of the Bible, and then to 'wisdom that takes all forms' [omni-form] which sees in every created reality the reflection of the Creator, and finally to 'formless wisdom', which is the experience of intimate mystical contact with God, as man's intellect silently makes contact with the infinite Mystery (cfr J. Ratzinger, San Bonaventura e la teologia della storia, Ed. Porziuncola, 2006, pp. 92ss).
In memory of this profound searcher and lover of wisdom, I wish moreover to express encouragement and esteem for the service which, within the ecclesial community, theologians are called on to render to the faith that seeks the intellect, that faith which is 'a friend of intelligence' and which becomes new life according to the plan of God.
Of St. Bonaventure's rich doctrinal and mystical patrimony, I wish tonight to limit myself to certain paths of reflection, which may be useful for the pastoral course of your diocesan community.
He was, in the first place, a tireless searcher of God, since he began his studies in Paris, and he remained so until he died. In his writings, he indicates the itinerary to follow.
"Because God is on high," he wrote, "the mind must raise itself towards him with all its powers" (De reductione artium ad theologiam, n. 25). He traces a path of demanding faith in which "reading without unction, speculation without devotion, research without admiration, meditation without exultation, industry without piety, science without charity, intelligence without humility, study without divine grace, reflection without divinely inspired wisdom" are insufficient.
(Itinerarium mentis in Deum, prol. 4).
This journey of purification involves the entire person in order to reach, through Christ, the transforming love of the Trinity. Since Christ, always God and always man, works in the faithful a new creation through his grace, the exploration of the divine presence becomes contemplation of him in the soul "where He lives with the gifts of his uncontainable love" (ibid. IV,4), until one is finally transported to him.
Faith is therefore perfecting our cognitive capacity and participating in the knowledge that God has of himself and the world. We see hope as a preparation for the encounter with the Lord, which will mark the complete fulfillment of that friendship which links us to him. Love introduces us to divine life, making us consider all men to be brothers, according to the will of our common heavenly Father.
Besides being a searcher of God, St. Bonvaventure was the seraphic singer of creation, who, following St. Francis, learned to "praise God in everything and through all of his creatures", in which one sees "the omnipotence, the wisdom and the goodness of the Creator" (ibid I,10).
St. Bonaventure presents a positive vision of the world, a gift of love from God to men. He recognizes in the world a reflection of the supreme Goodness and Beauty which, like Saints Augustine and Francis before him, he defines as God himself.
All this is given to us by God. From him, as the original source, comes the true, the good and the beautiful. Towards God, as through the steps of a ladder, one climbs until reaching and almost grasping the Supreme Good, and finding in him our happiness and our peace.
How useful it would be if even today we can rediscover the beauty and the value of creation in the light of divine goodness and beauty! In Christ, St. Bonaventure noted, the universe itself can go back to being a voice that speaks of God and urges us to explore his presence - a world that exhorts us to honor and glorify God in all things (cfr ibid. I,15). One notes here the spirit of St. Francis, whose love for all creatures was shared by our saint.
St. Bonaventure was a messenger of hope. We find a beautiful image of hope in one of his Advent sermons, where he compared the movement of hope to the flight of a bird, which opens up its wings as wide as possible, and uses all its strength to move them. In a sense, it becomes all movement, projected in flight towards the heights.
To hope is to fly, says St. Bonaventure. But hope demands that all our limbs become movement and be projected towards the true height of our being, towards the promises of God. Whoever hopes, he wrote, "should lift his head, directing his thoughts on high, towards the height of our existence, namely, toward God" (Sermo XVI, Dominica I Adv., Opera omnia, IX, 40a).
The mayor in his address posed the question, "What will Bagnoregio be tomorrow?" In fact, we all ask ourselves about our future and that of the world, and this question has a lot to do with hope, for which every human heart thirsts.
In the encyclical Spe salvi, I noted that not just any hope will suffice to face and overcome the difficulties of the present - a 'reliable hope' is indispensable, which, by giving us the certainty of reaching a 'great' goal, justifies the 'effort of the journey" (cfr No. 1).
Only this 'great hope-certainty' assures us that notwithstanding our failures in personal life and the contradictions of history in its entirety, the 'indestructible power of love' will always protect us.
When such a hope sustains us then we will never risk losing the courage to contribute, as the saints have done, to the salvation of mankind, opening up 'ourselves and the world to the entry of God: of truth, of love, of goodness" (cfr No. 15).
May St. Bonaventure help us to 'open the wings' of hope which urges us to be, like him, incessant searchers of God, singers of the beauty of creation and witnesses to that Love and that beauty which 'move everything'.
Once more, dear friends, thank you for your welcome. As I assure you of remembrance in my prayers, I impart through the intercession of St. Bonaventure, and especially of Mary, faithful Virgin and Star of hope, a special apostolic blessing which I gladly extend to all the inhabitants of this beautiful land so rich with saints.
The Pope proceeded from here to the heliport from where he returned to Castel Gandolfo shortly after 7 p.m.