Saturday, March 21, 2020

Lent XII

He is the Lord who alone does wondrous deeds; who changes material substances, multiplies the loaves, walks on the waters and calms the waves; who restrains the demons and drives them to flight; who cures the sick, cleanses the lepers, and raises the dead; who makes the blind to see, the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk; who restores sensation and motion to the palsied and the withered.

Our sinful conscience cries out to Him, now with the faithful leper: "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean"; now with the centurion: "Lord, my servant is lying sick in the house, paralyzed, and is grievously afflicted"; again, with the woman of Canaan: "Have pity on me, O Lord, Son of David"; with the woman suffering from hemorrhage: "If I touch but His cloak, I shall be saved"; and with Mary and Martha: "Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick."

Bonaventure, The Tree of Life 1.11.

[Bonaventure, The Works of Bonaventure I: Mystical Opuscula, José de Vinck, tr., Martino Publishing (Mansfield Centre, CT: 2016), pp. 110-111.]