WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:03.040 Here's a question from today's first reading. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:08.720 God asks, Will the axe boast against him who hews with it? 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:10.560 Think about that image. 00:00:10.880 --> 00:00:14.160 An axe is only useful because someone is holding it. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:16.800 The tool has no power by itself. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:21.600 It can accomplish great things, but only because someone else is using it. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:26.160 Yet Isaiah imagines the axe saying, Look what I've accomplished. 00:00:26.480 --> 00:00:27.920 Sounds ridiculous. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.199 And yet, isn't that exactly what pride does? 00:00:31.519 --> 00:00:35.039 Pride convinces us that we're the source of our own success. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:36.079 I built this. 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:37.039 This is mine. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:38.159 I earned this. 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:39.520 I accomplished this. 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:41.200 I don't need anyone. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:49.039 The king of Assyria had forgotten whatever whatever strength he possessed had first been given to him by God. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:53.119 He mistook being an instrument for being the author. 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:57.039 This is one of the oldest temptations in human history. 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:02.079 Every gift we possess is exactly that, a gift. 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:06.799 Our intelligence, our health, our talents, our opportunities. 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:11.359 Even the next breath we're taking is not something we own. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:13.280 It is something we receive. 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:15.439 The saints understood this. 00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:20.640 That's why the holiest people are almost always the most humble. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:25.599 Not because they deny their gifts, but because they know where their gifts come from. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:28.799 Humility is not pretending you have no talents. 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:36.640 No, humility is recognizing that every talent is entrusted to you for the glory of God and for the service of others. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:41.760 That brings us to today's beautiful memorial, Saint Bonaventure. 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:46.239 Saint Bonaventure was one of the greatest minds in the history of the church. 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:53.519 He was a brilliant theologian, philosopher, teacher, and eventually the minister general of the Franciscan order. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:02:01.920 His intellect was extraordinary, yet what made him a saint was not simply his intelligence, it was his humility. 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:14.240 There's this famous story that when Saint Thomas Aquinas visited him and asked him to see the library from which he drew such profound wisdom, Bonaventure silently pointed to a crucifix. 00:02:14.639 --> 00:02:23.599 In other words, his greatest wisdom did not come merely from books, it came from the prayer life and before Christ crucified. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:31.360 Whether the story is historically exact or not, it captures something profoundly true about Bonaventure's life. 00:02:31.680 --> 00:02:40.639 He believed that theology was not simply about knowing about God, it was about coming to know God Himself. 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:44.240 That's exactly what Jesus is teaching us today in the gospel. 00:02:44.719 --> 00:02:54.240 He says, I give praise to you, Father, although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned, you have revealed them to the childlike. 00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:58.000 Now, Jesus is not criticizing education. 00:02:58.479 --> 00:03:08.159 After all, the church has founded universities, preserved learning, produced some of the greatest scholars in history, including Saint Bonaventure himself. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:12.159 The problem is not intelligence, the problem is pride. 00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:16.719 And there's a difference between being intelligent and being teachable. 00:03:17.120 --> 00:03:18.800 A child is teachable. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:22.000 A proud person already thinks he knows everything. 00:03:22.319 --> 00:03:31.120 One of the great ironies of the spiritual life is that the more we think we know, the harder it becomes for God to teach us. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:38.159 The greatest scholars of the church were also the greatest disciples because they never stop approaching God with wonder. 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:44.159 They understood that God is not a problem to be solved, he is a mystery to be loved. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:49.599 And perhaps that's why Jesus says that the Father reveals himself to the childlike. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:56.800 Children know how to trust, they know how to receive, they know how to depend upon one another. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:00.560 And that's the posture every Christian must have before God. 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.960 So today's readings invite us to examine two more questions this week. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:09.680 First, have I begun to take credit for gifts that ultimately belong to God? 00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:15.280 And second, am I approaching God as an expert who thinks he already knows everything? 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:19.519 Or do I approach God as a child who still wants to learn? 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:27.759 Saint Bonaventure once wrote that no one truly comes to wisdom unless he first passes through the fire of love for Christ. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:28.800 There it is. 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:30.480 That's the secret. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:37.920 The goal of the Christian life is not simply to have a full mind, it is to have a heart completely surrendered over to God. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:49.839 Because in the end, the people who know God best are not always those who have read all the books, they are the ones that have spent their whole life at the foot of the cross. 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:50.800 Amen.