Healing Memory: A Bonaventurian Response to Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti
Independent Researcher, St. Augustine, FL 32084, USA
Religions 2022, 13(9), 819; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090819
Submission received: 22 July 2022
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Revised: 26 August 2022
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Accepted: 29 August 2022
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Published: 2 September 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition: Sustaining Hope Amid a Climate Emergency and Political Polarization)
Abstract
:In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis identifies a need to “heal open wounds,” as well as a “need for peacemakers … prepared to work boldly and creatively to initiate processes of healing and renewed encounter.” This paper aims to address the Holy Father’s call to “heal wounds” within our societies by first identifying memory as the primary domain that needs healing, and then proposing the wisdom of St. Bonaventure as providing the remedy. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis in Deum reveals how affectus acts as a “healing agent” upon memory as the soul ascends to God; if understood primarily as a “healing journey”, Bonaventure’s Itinerarium can shed significant light on the “processes of healing” so desperately needed today. This paper will follow each of the three major “steps” in the soul’s journey to God, as identified in Bonaventure’s Itinerarium, by identifying the role of memory in the first step; the role of affectus and its interplay with memory in the second step; and how affectus acts as a healing agent upon memory in the third step. Concluding thoughts will be offered regarding how this path given by Bonaventure can provide a foundation for building peace in the world today.
1. Introduction
In Chapter Seven of his 2020 Encyclical dedicated to fraternity and social friendship, entitled Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis identifies:
“a need for paths of peace, to heal open wounds. There is also a need for peacemakers, men and women prepared to work boldly and creatively to initiate processes of healing and renewed encounter.”
What are these “open wounds”? The Holy Father notes at the start of his Encyclical that “Our own day … seems to be showing signs of a certain regression. Ancient conflicts thought long buried are breaking out anew.” (Francis 2020, para. 11). Pope Francis is ultimately speaking of a wounded memory that is in need of healing: that past or buried wounds and injustices have not, in fact, been resolved over time, as many would believe, and that this is a root cause of division contributing to today’s social and political unrest.1 However, he continues:
“Renewed encounter does not mean returning to a time prior to conflicts. All of us change over time. Pain and conflict transform us … [we must] learn how to cultivate a penitential memory, one that can accept the past in order not to cloud the future … Only by basing [ourselves] on the historical truth of events will [we] be able to make a broad and persevering effort to understand one another and to strive for a new synthesis for the good of all.”2
Thus, in order to move forward, the Holy Father believes we must first reconcile with our past, both as individuals and as a people. Yet, this reconciliation cannot simply entail a “re-writing of history” for the purpose of shifting blame3; it cannot burden the present generation with making reparations for the sins of past generations4; and it cannot be demanded of an entire people all at once: for in the end, reconciliation and forgiveness—which is truly the ultimate goal—is, and must always be, a personal act.5 How then might such a societal reconciliation be achieved at, not just the individual, but also the communal level?
This paper seeks to answer this question and address the Holy Father’s call to “heal wounds” within our societies, by first identifying memory as the primary domain that needs healing, and then proposing the wisdom of St. Bonaventure, as contained within his greatest spiritual treatise, the Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, as providing the remedy. I will claim that Bonaventure’s Itinerarium reveals how affectus—namely, the soul’s natural desire for God—acts as a “healing agent” upon memory as the individual soul ascends to God; if understood primarily as a “healing journey”, Bonaventure’s Itinerarium can shed significant light on the “processes of healing” so desperately needed today.
To expound this claim, I will follow each of the three major “steps” of the soul’s journey into God, as identified in Bonaventure’s Itinerarium: I will first identify the role of memory in the first step; I will then identify the role of affectus and its interplay with memory in the second step; I will then identify how affectus acts as a healing agent upon memory in the third step. Finally, I will offer some concluding thoughts regarding how this path, given by St. Bonaventure, can provide a foundation for building peace in accordance with Pope Francis’ call in Fratelli Tutti.
2. The Role of Memory in the First Step of the Itinerarium
Pope Francis’ encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, is ultimately a plea for peace in today’s world, that God might enlighten the hearts and minds of men and women globally for the sake of building peace. Similarly, St. Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis in Deum is a plea for the same peace: He opens his greatest work on the spiritual life with a similar prayer, that God might “grant enlightenment to the eyes of our mind and guidance to our feet on the paths of peace, that peace which surpasses all understanding.”6 Bonaventure then relates the example of St. Francis of Assisi, “the man of peace,” as the exemplar par excellence upon whom God’s peace had come to rest.7 Why Francis? Bonaventure states that Francis had become “like Daniel, a person of desires,”8 whose cultivation of affectus or desire for God culminated in his reception of the stigmata.
For Bonaventure, affectus is understood to be the soul’s innate longing for, and drawing close to, God, known and experienced as the Supreme Good during this present life.9 Bonaventure regards affectus as an a priori natural desire on the part of the soul for God and the things of Heaven; yet, if consciously cultivated10, affectus enables the soul to more easily glimpse the “rays” of God’s light through and in one’s lived experience of the world.11 Bonaventure thus affirms that one must first learn to earnestly desire this ecstatic peace; that is, happiness (beatus) which is none other than the enjoyment of the highest good. However, he states,
“Since happiness is nothing other than the enjoyment of the highest good, and since the highest good is above us, we cannot find happiness without rising above ourselves, not by bodily ascent, but by an ascent of the heart.”(Itinerarium, chp. 1, para. 1)
But a higher power must intervene to lift the soul above and beyond itself, and for this, the soul can do nothing other than sit and long for this highest good, hoping for God’s intervention:
“But we cannot be elevated above ourselves unless a superior power lift us up. No matter how well-ordered the steps of our interior life may be, nothing will happen if the divine aid does not accompany us. But divine aid comes to those who pray from their heart … We just sigh for it through fervent prayer …”12
For Bonaventure, St. Francis had indeed learned to sigh for God through fervent prayer. When Francis was alive, all of creation reminded him of God, the Creator and Divine Artist of all, as if through a series of “souvenirs” or “mementos” given from his true home in Heaven with God. Thus, all of creation brought Francis deep joy; but, also, a deep and bitter sadness, because these glimpses of God simultaneously reminded him of his current “exile” from Heaven while living his bodily life.
Like the bitterness that Francis felt when faced with the world’s reminders of Heaven juxtaposed with his current “exile”, people are often triggered13 by the world’s many reminders of the past, both at a personal individual level, and at a general communal or societal level. However, the first step of Bonaventure’s Itinerarium requires precisely this “return” to the world:
“In harmony with this three-fold progression, our mind has three principal ways of seeing things. [The first] way relates to the corporeal beings outside the mind, and this is known as … sense power.”(ibid., chp. 1, para. 4)
[…]“Now since we must ascend before we can descend on Jacob’s ladder, let us place the first step of our ascent at the bottom, putting the whole world of sense-objects before us as a mirror through which we may pass to God, the highest creative Artist.”(ibid., chp. 1, para. 9)
Thus, the individual must return not only to the natural world [creation], but also—and perhaps more so—to the concrete and oftentimes painful hardships of daily life experienced personally by many, fraught with problems which are physical, emotional, psychological, sociological, political, and otherwise. Nevertheless, even such bitter reminders in everyday life can become personal invitations into the Itinerarium. St. Bonaventure’s first step, therefore, challenges the reader to seek a recognition of God, the Divine Artist, in all things as if held in “vestiges”14—even within those things most difficult to face.
3. The Role of Affectus and Its Interplay with Memory in the Second Step of the Itinerarium
If one is to begin accepting even the world’s bitter reminders as invitations into the ascent to God, Bonaventure reminds his reader of the foremost need to cultivate affectus for God. Bonaventure names two ways to increase affectus: first, through the cry of prayer “which makes us cry aloud with groaning of the heart,” and second, through the brightness of contemplation, “by which the mind turns most directly and intently to the rays of light.” (ibid., Prologue, para. 3) At this midpoint in the Itinerarium, Bonaventure describes how “the mind looks at itself and within itself; and this is called spirit.” (ibid., chp. 1, para. 4) Looking to the rays of God’s light within oneself with courage, the soul must choose to allow the bitterness of the present moment to indeed “trigger,” awaken, and reveal the past, and the unexamined wound(s) that lie within, for these are the very “open wounds” described by Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti that must be addressed.15 This second step presents difficulty, however, because it necessarily entails a turning (conversio) on the part of the soul initially towards itself, in order to confront itself “face to face.” This confrontation must include an honest recollection of hidden, buried, or forgotten wound(s) precisely for the sake of locating God’s presence within them. Yet, it is by way of this ultimately “purifying” encounter with the self that the soul may begin to sojourn towards its true healing.
At such a crossroad as this, it is ultimately only insofar as the soul’s desire for God (affectus) moves it that the soul is brought through this confrontation and difficulty: conscious affectus for God will lead one through this initially adverse encounter with the world if intentionally developed. Bonaventure insists that it is truly the ardor of one’s love for God16 that will aid in purifying the memory, healing the wound, and simultaneously preparing the soul for the “ascent” into God. He prompts the reader:
“Therefore, enter into yourself and recognize that your mind loves itself most fervently. But it cannot love itself if it does not know itself, for we do not grasp anything with our understanding if it is not present to us in our memory … here you can see God through yourself as through an image. And this is to see through a mirror in an obscure manner.”(Itinerarium, chp. 3, para. 1)
It is imperative to note how a particularly effective engagement of memory is essential at this point in the Itinerarium in order to continue along the way.17 For Bonaventure, the soul’s power of memory is what truly makes it imago Dei and therefore capable of God.18 He contends that memory is similar to eternity, is formed by phantasms external and from above, and already has within itself the “changeless light of God.”19 He states:
“The function of the memory is to retain and to represent not only things that are present, corporal, and temporary, but also things that are successive, simple and eternal. Memory holds past things by recall, present things by reception, and future things by means of foresight.”(Itinerarium, chp. 3, para. 2)
This “holding together of all things” by memory is not static, either; rather, it is a living memory, dynamic, and therefore not only capable of transporting the soul into ascent, but also, by its very nature, is the very space in which the soul is met by God. To help elaborate this point, Pope Francis, taking inspiration from the same Franciscan spirit as St. Bonaventure, during his recent homily given for the Solemnity of Pentecost 2022, referred to the Holy Spirit’s presence and action in human history as “living memory” where, if actively sought there—even within the bleakest moments of recollection20—the Spirit will teach the soul where to begin, what paths to take, and how to walk along the road to God, which is, simultaneously, the road to recovery:
“The Spirit himself reminds us of this, because he is the memory of God, the one who brings to our minds all that Jesus has said. The Holy Spirit is an active memory; he constantly rekindles the love of God in our hearts … The Holy Spirit is practical … He wants us to concentrate on the here and now, because the time and place in which we find ourselves are themselves grace filled.”
Memory, therefore, being already enlightened or illuminated by God Himself as if through an embrace21, also, by its very nature, contains the space for contact between the soul and God. Thus, in naming the soul’s likeness to God in the first place by virtue of the natural proximity or closeness the soul has to its Beloved via memory, Bonaventure also denotes the crucial moment of synderesis, in which the soul is moved towards God, the Supreme Good:
“Behold, therefore, how close the soul is to God, and how through their functions the memory leads to eternity, the intelligence leads to truth, and the power of choice leads to the highest Good.Furthermore, if one considers the order, origin, and relation of these faculties to one another, one is led to the most blessed Trinity itself … These three, namely the mind that generates, the word, and love, are in the soul as memory, intelligence, and will … Therefore, when the soul reflects on itself and through itself as through a mirror, it rises to the consideration of the blessed Trinity of Father, Word [Son], and Love [Holy Spirit].”(ibid., chp. 3, para. 4–5)
Indeed, for the affectuosa anima, the realization of one’s likeness and closeness to the Blessed Trinity not only reminds the soul of its most noble origin, as one stamped with the very pattern of God Himself, but also simultaneously stirs the soul onward in its journey towards this same Trinity, as if to its final end.
4. Affectus as “Healing Agent” upon Memory in the Third Step of the Itinerarium
Bonaventure continues, “Therefore, our mind, enlightened and filled with such splendors, can be guided to reflect on this eternal light through itself if it has not been blinded. The irradiation of this light and the reflection on it lifts up the wise in admiration.”22 At this third step of the Itinerarium, Bonaventure recounts how the mind begins its true ascent as it “looks above itself,” (ibid., chp. 1, para. 4) namely by reflecting upon God under the philosophical names of Being (esse) and Goodness (bonum):
“It is possible to contemplate God not only outside ourselves and inside ourselves but also above ourselves. Outside ourselves this is done through the vestiges; inside ourselves by the image; and above ourselves by the light that shines on our mind. This is the light of the eternal truth … With this we understand two modes or levels of contemplating the eternal qualities of God. The first of these concerns the essential attributes of God [Being]; the second concerns the properties of the persons [Goodness].”(ibid., chp. 5, para. 1)
Recalling the importance of affectus and its role in the soul’s ascent, it is precisely through this “love-infused” contemplation of the names that the soul begins to be elevated, while also inviting the descent of God’s healing simultaneously.23
Thus, when engaging the “wound” within one’s memory, the realization of God as Being should flood the soul with consolation, comfort and hope, knowing that the Being that “embraces all things,” embraces one’s darkest and most painful experiences too.24 Nothing exists beyond the embrace of God:
“Looking over the way we have come, let us say that the most pure and absolute being … Because it is supremely one and all-embracing, it is all in all … Therefore, from him and through him and in him are all things, for He is all powerful, all knowing, and all good. And to see him perfectly is to be blessed …”(ibid., chp. 5, para. 8)
This realization of God’s ever-present embrace should stoke the flame of affect for God, as one is then led to the consideration of God as Goodness itself. Bonaventure states:
“See and take note that the highest good in an unqualified sense is that than which nothing better can be thought. And this is of such a sort that it cannot be thought of as not existing, since it is absolutely better to exist than not to exist. And this is a good of such a sort that it cannot be thought of unless it is thought of as three and one. For the good is said to be self-diffusive.”(ibid., chp. 6, para. 2)
Here, reflecting on God as both Being and Goodness, the soul meets a juncture in the road again; but, this time, it cannot resolve to move forward on its own. Bonaventure claims that only an affect that is decidedly Christocentric in its love for God—to the abandonment of all other intellectual operations—can truly bring the soul into God.
“When we have contemplated all these things, it remains for the mind to pass over and transcend not only the sensible world but the soul itself. And in this passage, Christ is the way and the door. Christ is the ladder and the vehicle, like the Mercy Seat placed above the ark of God and the mystery that has been hidden from all eternity. Anyone who turns fully to face this Mercy Seat … will behold Christ hanging on the Cross.”(ibid., chp. 7, para. 1)
Although it is a motion of the soul’s will25 and of God’s Will simultaneously, it must first be a motion of abandonment on the part of the soul26 so that nothing might impede the soul’s natural “fall” into God’s loving embrace.
When this embrace is realized within the soul’s memory of the wound, God’s light will shine its healing rays upon that wound, effecting a healing change27; namely, by changing the way in which the soul will move forward, despite carrying these wounds within.28 Thus, this third step of the Itinerarium is ultimately eschatological: turning towards the light of God as He is to be found in the past provides the remedy for beginning anew the journey towards Him, who is the soul’s final end. The soul then descends from this realized remembrance of God’s embrace refreshed, renewed, changed, healed.
5. Conclusions
This healing journey for the soul, as laid out by St. Bonaventure in his Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, is available to all people. Although it describes a personal journey that is to be undertaken by the individual soul, I propose it can also be provided here as a model for building peace at the communal and societal level. The key to bridging this gap from the one to the many once again lies within the example of St. Francis of Assisi.
In the final, seventh chapter of Bonaventure’s Itinerarium, the example of Francis is presented again to draw the reader back to the beginning, from whom this path to God was inspired. He states:
“All this was shown also to blessed Francis when, in a rapture of contemplation on the top of the mountain where I reflected on the things I have written here, a six-winged Seraph fastened to a cross appeared to him … Here he was carried out of himself in contemplation and passed over into God. And he has been set forth as the example of perfect contemplation … So it is that God invites all truly spiritual persons through Francis to this sort of passing over, more by example than by words.”(Itinerarium, chp. 7, para. 3)
Echoing this same sentiment, the Holy Father states in Fratelli Tutti that:
“… each individual can act as an effective leaven by the way he or she lives each day … This means that everyone has a fundamental role to play in a single great creative project: to write a new page of history, a page full of hope, peace and reconciliation.”
Thus, the prayer for peace, iterated in the words of St. Bonaventure and Pope Francis alike29, is ultimately a peripatetic one.30 It is a journeying prayer31 that, although necessarily undertaken by the individual soul through life and through the physical world itself, nevertheless finds its fullest expression and fulfillment when it is pursued in community. Indeed, if this path is tread intentionally and with the ardor of love by those who are conscious not only of their own personal journey towards God but, also, of how their journey involves and includes others, this movement can lead to a fundamental healing that is contagious: just as St. Bonaventure learned how to walk the path of peace from the example of St. Francis, society can learn to walk this same path today by way of those individuals who have personally experienced God’s healing, and who have in turn allowed themselves to become a point of contact for others, through whom the Divine Physician may impart a ray of light to illuminate this road to recovery for others.
Funding
This research received no external funding.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflict of interest.
| 1 | “When conflicts are not resolved but kept hidden or buried in the past, silence can lead to complicity in grave misdeeds and sins. Authentic reconciliation does not flee from conflict, but is achieved in conflict, resolving it through dialogue and open, honest and patient negotiation. Conflict between different groups, if it abstains from enmities and mutual hatred, gradually changes into an honest discussion of differences founded on a desire for justice.” (ibid., para. 244). |
| 2 | (ibid., para. 226). Pope Francis states later in the text: “On numerous occasions, I have spoken of a principle indispensable to the building of friendship in society: namely, that unity is greater than conflict… This is not to opt for a kind of syncretism, or for the absorption of one into the other, but rather for a resolution which takes place on a higher plane and preserves what is valid and useful on both sides.” (ibid., para. 245). |
| 3 | “Building social friendship does not only call for rapprochement between groups who took different sides at some troubled period of history, but also for a renewed encounter … to recognize, protect and concretely restore the dignity, so often overlooked or ignored, of our brothers and sisters, so that they can see themselves as the principal protagonists of the destiny of their nation.” (ibid., para. 233). “A not unusual Catholic move to make in such a situation is to try to locate on each side some reflection of a resplendent truth and then to see if, instead of insisting on the ‘either’ or of binary opposition, there might in fact be greater wisdom in a ‘both-and’ approach. And this is precisely what [Fratelli Tutti], the third of Pope Francis’s pontificate, sets out to do, sketching out in the process a vision that is conscious of its own ambition and yet intensely practical … In Fratelli Tutti, the very liberal-sounding idea of universal fraternity is put into dialogue with the gospel message which points so strikingly in the direction of the brother- and sisterhood of every human being.” (Howard 2021, p. 22). |
| 4 | “To be sure, it is no easy task to overcome the bitter legacy of injustices, hostility and mistrust left by conflict. It can only be done by overcoming evil with good and by cultivating those virtues which foster reconciliation, solidarity and peace. In this way, persons who nourish goodness in their heart find that such goodness leads to a peaceful conscience and to profound joy, even in the midst of difficulties and misunderstandings. Even when affronted, goodness is never weak but rather, shows its strength by refusing to take revenge. Each of us should realize that even the harsh judgment I hold in my heart against my brother or my sister, the open wound that was never cured, the offense that was never forgiven, the rancor that is only going to hurt me, are all instances of a struggle that I carry within me, a little flame deep in my heart that needs to be extinguished before it turns into a great blaze.” (Francis 2020, para. 243). |
| 5 | “Of those who have endured much unjust and cruel suffering, a sort of “social forgiveness” must not be demanded. Reconciliation is a personal act, and no one can impose it upon an entire society, however great the need to foster it. In a strictly personal way, someone, by a free and generous decision, can choose not to demand punishment, even if it is quite legitimately demanded by society and its justice system. However, it is not possible to proclaim a “blanket reconciliation” in an effort to bind wounds by decree or to cover injustices in a cloak of oblivion. Who can claim the right to forgive in the name of others?” (ibid., para. 246). |
| 6 | “In the beginning, I call upon that First Beginning from whom all illumination flows as from the God of lights, and from whom comes every good and perfect gift … [that] God might grant enlightenment to the eyes of our mind and guidance to our feet on the paths of peace—that peace which surpasses all understanding.” (Bonaventure and Hayes 2002), Prologue para. 1. [referred to hereafter as Itinerarium]. |
| 7 | “What is the [Holy Father’s] source of such vision and encouragement [in Fratelli Tutti] at a time when hope seems impossible to come by? … The answer is, of course, Francis of Assisi … The profound spirituality of il poverello is palpable throughout Fratelli Tutti.” (Howard 2021, p. 27) “In the world of that time, bristling with watchtowers and defensive walls, cities were a theatre of brutal wars between powerful families, even as poverty was spreading through the countryside. Yet there Francis was able to welcome true peace into his heart and free himself of the desire to wield power over others. He became one of the poor and sought to live in harmony with all.” (Francis 2020, para. 4). |
| 8 | “For no one is disposed in any way for those divine contemplations which lead to ecstasies of the mind without being like Daniel, a person of desires.” (Itinerarium, Prologue para. 3). “Affective vocabulary is used by St. Bonaventure in his descriptions of all stages of the spiritual journey, but it becomes predominant at the higher stages where the intellectual is subsumed into the affective, so that only the “heart” remains in the final ecstatic experience of union with God. In spite of the predominance of affect, St. Bonaventure presents an artistic and powerful articulation of the harmony between the intellect and the affections. Desire is central to both the initial and continuing stages of the journey. Without it, the mystical cannot even be undertaken.” (Dreyer 1983, pp. 4–5). |
| 9 | The realm of affectus is regarded as the locus of the will within the soul (Davis 2012, p. 153). Elizabeth Dreyer also references the work of Franz Sirovic, who concludes that affectus has primarily and nearly exclusively to do with the will in the theology and thought of St. Bonaventure. The will is one of the three powers of the soul; memory and intellect are the other two. For a detailed philosophical explanation of Bonaventure’s unique understanding of the distinction between the soul and its powers, see (Löwe 2021, p. 26). |
| 10 | Bonaventure discusses both conscience and synderesis in his Commentary on the Sentences, Book II, distinction 39. He places conscience squarely within the rational faculty, specifying that it is part of the practical reason since it is connected to the performance of actions. It is thus also connected to both the will and the emotions. On the other hand, he places synderesis in the affective part of human beings, for he regards synderesis as that which stimulates us to the good.” (Langston 1993, p. 80). |
| 11 | “St. Bonaventure’s emphasis on experience and his vision of theology as basically a practical, not a speculative science, contribute to his preoccupation with affectivity. The goal of theology and therefore of Christian life was to transform oneself into a resemblance of the Beloved through love. Medieval persons saw a close connection between words and the realities behind them. This is nowhere more obvious than in the realm of affectivity as recorded in St. Bonaventure’s description of the soul’s journey into God.” (Dreyer 1983, p. 5). |
| 12 | ibid. Although Bonaventure affirms the soul’s natural receptivity to the “exemplary virtues” which “flow from the Eternal Light into the hemisphere of our mind and lead the soul back into its Origin,” (in Bonaventure and Hammond 2018, p. 301), the supernatural experience of ecstatic peace is ultimately divinely given. |
| 13 | According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology (American Psychology Association 2022), the term trigger refers to any psychobiological stimulus that elicits a reaction, primarily in response to any present reminder of a past trauma. |
| 14 | “For creatures are shadows, echoes, and pictures of the first, most powerful, most wise, and most perfect Principle, of that eternal source, light, and fullness; of that efficient, exemplary. and ordering Art. They are vestiges, images, and spectacles proposed to use for the contuition of God. They are divinely given signs. These creatures are copies or rather illustrations proposed to the souls of those who are uneducated and immersed in sensible things, so that through sensible things which they do see they may be lifted to the intelligible things which they do not see, moving from signs to that which is signified.” (Itinerarium, chp. 2, para. 11). |
| 15 | “Nowadays it is easy to be tempted to turn the page, to say that all these things happened long ago, and we should look to the future. For God’s sake, no! We can never move forward without remembering the past; we do not progress without an honest and unclouded memory. We need to keep alive the flame of collective conscience, bearing witness to succeeding generations to the horror of what happened, because that witness awakens and preserves the memory of the victims, so that the conscience of humanity may rise up in the face of every desire for dominance and destruction.” (Francis 2020, para. 249). |
| 16 | Dreyer references the work of philosophers Bernard Lonergan and Karl Rahner who, each in their own right, pick up on a prevalent theme in Bonaventure’s understanding of affectus: namely, that Bonaventure analogizes religious experience with the human experience of falling in love, and regards the qualities inherent to religious experience as being the very same as those of the experience of love. “ (Dreyer 1983, pp. 3–8). |
| 17 | “Bonaventure’s work on memory is drawn from his work on the Soul’s Journey to God. In the third chapter he writes ‘on Contemplating God through His Image stamped upon our Natural Powers’. Contemplation requires that the heart leads and the intellect follows. In this way a growth in understanding may lead us to a greater love than we had ever dreamed of achieving. Bonaventure’s intent…is that we may learn from ourselves as images of God in our human nature.” (Gillian 2004, p. 206). |
| 18 | “In its first function, the actual retention of all temporal things past, present, and future, the memory is similar to eternity whose undivided presentness extends to all times. In its second function, it is clear that memory is formed not only by phantasms from external objects, but also from above by receiving and holding within itself simple forms which cannot enter through the doorways of the senses or by means of sensible phantasms. In its third function, we hold that memory has present within itself a changeless light by which it remembers changeless truths. So through the operations of memory, it becomes clear that the soul itself is an image of God and a similitude so present to itself and having God so present to it that it actually grasps God and potentially has the capacity for God and the ability to participate in God.” (Itinerarium, chp. 3, para. 2). |
| 19 | Memory acts in three ways: (1) By holding and displaying items “present, corporeal, and temporal”, as well as “successive, simple and eternal things.” (2) Some simple principles are also held from memory. (3) There are also principles and axioms from the sciences that are ‘everlasting truths held everlastingly.’ “Without memory we would know nothing and would be unable to develop a second nature.” (Gillian 2004, p. 207). |
| 20 | “There is also a powerful treatment of the duty to remember the horrors of human history: notably the Shoah, Hiroshima and slavery. Memory of such things, Francis points out, is an essential component of social and political love: ‘Those who truly forgive do not forget. Instead, they choose not to yield to the same destructive force that caused them so much suffering. They break the vicious circle; they halt the advance of the forces of destruction. They choose not to spread in society the spirit of revenge that will sooner or later return to take its toll. Revenge never truly satisfies victims. Some crimes are so horrendous and cruel that the punishment of those who perpetrated them does not serve to repair the harm done. Even killing the criminal would not be enough, nor could any form of torture prove commensurate with the sufferings inflicted on the victim. Revenge resolves nothing.’” (Francis 2020, para. 251 in Howard 2021, pp. 21–27). |
| 21 | The same may be said for the other two powers of the soul: Bonaventure says “it is clear that our intellect is united with the eternal truth itself. And if that truth were not teaching our intellect, it would be impossible to grasp anything with certitude.” Itinerarium, chp. 3, para. 3.) Regarding the will as the “power of choice,” the root of affect ultimately lies within the will, as an ultimate desire for the Supreme Good. “Finally, desire tends above all to that which moves it the most. And that which moves it the most is that which is loved the most. And that which is loved the most is to be happy. But happiness is attained only by reaching the best and ultimate goal. Therefore, human desire is directed at nothing but the Supreme Good, or that which leads to it or reflects that Good in a certain way. The power of the Supreme Good is so great that nothing else can be loved by a creature except through a desire for the Supreme Good. (Itinerarium, chp. 3, para. 4). |
| 22 | (ibid., chp. 3, para. 7) He continues in (ibid. chp. 4, para. 8): “Flooded with all these intellectual lights, our mind—like a house of God—is inhabited by the divine Wisdom … made into the temple of the Holy Spirit … It is the most sincere love of Christ that brings this about, a love which is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. And without this Spirit we cannot know the secret things of God. Just as no one can know a human person’s innermost self except the spirit of that person which dwells within, so no one knows the things of God but the Spirit of God.”. |
| 23 | “… for Bonaventure affectus plays at the boundary of body and spirit and names a force that is more fundamental than the distinction between the corporeal and the incorporeal.” (Davis 2012, abstract p. iv). “For Bonaventure, I suggest, affect is not simply the other of intellect, or a modification or deepened form of knowledge. Rather, affect is privileged at the highest point of encounter possible in this life, not because it is more powerful, or superior to knowledge, nor more like God than intellect, but because the nature of affection is to cleave and unite—affection is movement and touch, and the affectus names the capacity for that movement and contact in the soul.” (Ibid., p. 22). |
| 24 | “How remarkable, then, is the blindness of the intellect which does not take note of that which it sees first, and without which it can know nothing … Accustomed as it is to the darkness of things and to the phantasms of sensible objects, when the mind looks upon the light of the highest being, it seems to see nothing. And it does not understand that this darkness itself is the highest illumination of our mind, just as when the eye sees pure light it seems to it that it sees nothing.” (Itinerarium, chp. 5, para. 4). |
| 25 | See synderesis: “Bonaventure is…explicit in identifying synderesis with the affective part of the soul and as the motive principle toward the good, both in his university writings on the divisions of the soul and in his treatises on the soul’s ascent.” (Davis 2012, p. 17). |
| 26 | “… The abandonment of intellectual operations that Bonaventure describes in the final state of the Itinerarium is not a simple passage from knowledge to love. In the first place the force of amor is present throughout the journey as that by which each stage exceeds itself, and by which the soul is drawn into and out of itself. In addition, to describe the mystical transitus as a passage from knowledge to love is to miss what is for Bonaventure a more fundamental transformation—to put it into the simplest terms…it is a transformation from moving to being moved … which entails the abandonment of will properly speaking.” (Ibid., pp. 25, 29). |
| 27 | The Holy Father says, “That is precisely where the Holy Spirit asks you to let him in. Because he, the Consoler, is the Spirit of healing, of resurrection, who can transform the hurts burning within you. He teaches us not to harbor the memory of all those people and situations that have hurt us, but to let him purify those memories by his presence.” (Francis 2022, para. 4). |
| 28 | St. Francis is again revealed to be the exemplar witness: “Because Francis was inflamed with love, his heart was supple enough to receive the imprinting of the sign of Christ … The symbolic transfer of molten iron to a loving heart occurs through Francis’ physical body, which, due to the fiery love in his heart, was able to be imprinted visibly with the marks of the cross. And in turn Francis’ imprinted body bears witness to a heart, melted by love, whose receptivity to divine wounding made the physical imprinting possible. The entire spectacle serves as a powerful homiletic exemplum aimed at cultivating in Bonaventure’s audience a more fervent affective devotion to Christ through Francis.” (Davis 2012, p. 4). |
| 29 | “I ask God to prepare our hearts to encounter our brothers and sisters, so that we may overcome our differences rooted in political thinking, language, culture and religion. Let us ask Him to anoint our whole being with the balm of his mercy, which heals the injuries caused by mistakes, misunderstandings, and disputes. And lets us ask Him for the grace to send us forth, in humility and meekness, along the demanding but enriching path of seeking peace.” (Francis 2020, p. 254). |
| 30 | In “Dream Bodies and Peripatetic Prayer: Reading Bonaventure’s Itinerarium with Certeau,” Dr. Timothy Johnson describes the Itinerarium as a “mystic travel story”: a “narrative of peripatetic prayer” that is “recounted in the recollection of Francis of Assisi, whose stigmatized body enunciates what [Michel de Certeau] identifies as the millennial march of humanity.” (Johnson 2005, p. 414). |
| 31 | “Walking through the world with Francis will become for the brothers and sisters [of the Friars Minor], slowly but discernibly, the extension outward into the world of the ascent upwards into God.” (Ibid., p. 424). |
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Currie, L. Healing Memory: A Bonaventurian Response to Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti. Religions 2022, 13, 819. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090819
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Currie L. Healing Memory: A Bonaventurian Response to Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti. Religions. 2022; 13(9):819. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090819
Chicago/Turabian StyleCurrie, Laura. 2022. "Healing Memory: A Bonaventurian Response to Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti" Religions 13, no. 9: 819. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13090819
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