Reason Must be Conquered by Revelation

In a class on the updated Mass I find myself constantly going back to Lk 11, 29-32 and that there IS Something Greater than... (myself) Here.  Then on the feast day of St. Bonaventure appearing in The Magnificat was this reflection and also found here: The Journey of the Mind to God .

Living for the "SOMETHING GREATER"

If you should ask how these things come about,

question grace, not instruction;

desire, not intellect;

the cry of prayer, not pursuit of study;

the Bridegroom, not the teacher;

God, not man;

darkness, not clarity;

not light, but the wholly fire

which inflames and carries you aloft to God

with fullest unction and burning affection.

This fire is God,

and the furnace of this fire leads to Jerusalem;

and Christ the man kindles it

in the fervor of His burning Passion,

which he alone truly perceives who says,

"My soul chooses hanging and my bones death" [Job, 7, 15].

He who chooses this death can see God because this is indubitably true:

"Man shall not see me and live" [Exod., 33, 20].

Let us then die and pass over into darkness;

let us impose silence

upon our cares, our desires, and our phantasms (imaginings).

Let us pass over with the crucified Christ

from this world to the Father [John, 13, 1],

so that when the Father is shown to us

we may say with Philip:

"It is enough for us" [John, 14, 8];

let us hear with Paul:

"My grace is sufficient for thee" [II Cor., 12, 9];

let us exult with David, saying:

"My flesh and my heart have grown faint; Thou art the God of my heart, and portion forever" [Ps. 73, 26].

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting; and let all the people say:

So be it, so be it! Amen! Hallelujah!" [Ps., 106, 48].

In my formation studies with the SFO I gleaned that for Bonaventure, divine revelation, not human reason, is the way to God. God is to be revealed, not reasoned. Truly there IS Something Greater than... (myself) Here [Lk 11, 29-32]. Bonaventure's emphasis on revelation does not mean that we do not make use of reason. Bonaventure plainly demonstrates that devotion has to be prior to mere intellectualism.

I believe that Rome's revisions of the word use at the Mass is challenging us to move out of the false notion that we only represent an independent 'self' and enter more fully into the Mystery just as Bonaventure says, "(W)e may come to think that mere reading will suffice without fervor, speculation without devotion, investigation without admiration, observation without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge without love, understanding without humility, study without divine grace, the mirror without the divinely inspired wisdom." (P.4). On the other hand, Bonaventure tried to be well-balanced in his reasonings, that is, being scholastic without leaving the realm of monasticism; being religious and spiritual but also intellectual.

In whatever Bonaventure wrote he intended to awaken us all to the One Reality: that there is something greater than... (myself) here. Reason has to be conquered by revelation. Contemplation can not stop on the first or second level, where the rational soul contemplates the outer world and itself but recognizing that it is not complete in itself. The true and final contemplation is when the soul sees beyond the outer world and itself; when it ascends with the whole of creation above itself. There IS Something Greater than... (myself) Here!

So I contend (with Bonaventure's help) that the revised wording of the Mass challenges us all to enter more closely, more reverently and more humbly into this Mystery of Sacrifice, Real Presence and Communion.  Suddenly the words, "Lord, I am not worthy" ring so powerful.