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Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke’s Gospel Thirty Days of Reflection and Prayer 28 Day Eleven: Read and meditate on Luke 9:10-17 Luke 9:16: “Jesus gave the loaves to his disciples to distribute to the crowds.” Bonaventure tells us: From this a lesson is provided for preachers that they should not search out new things from their hearts, for the Lord did not create new loaves to feed the crowd. But as the Lord multiplied five barley loaves by means of a divine blessing, so too must every abundance of true teaching be taken from the foundation of Sacred Scripture, multiplied by prayer, through which one looks to heaven, and devotion, through which it is blessed, and meditation, through which it is broken, and preaching, through which it is distributed and explained. For catholic teaching is first to be taken from Sacred Scripture through reading, whose words are bread. Matthew 4:4 reads: “It is written: Not by bread alone do human beings live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” But to reading one must join prayer. Matthew 7:7 says: “Seek, and you will find. Ask, and you will receive. Knock, and it will be opened to you.” We ask by reading. We seek by praying. We knock by working with our hands. But to prayer must be added devotion and thanksgiving. Whence Colossians 4:2 has: “Be assiduous in prayer, being wakeful therein with thanksgiving.” So Matthew 26 reads: “having lifted up his eyes to heaven, he blessed and gave thanks.” To devotion must be joined meditation and explanation of the truth, which is nothing other than the breaking of the bread. Isaiah 58:7 reads: “Break your bread with the hungry, and bring the needy and homeless into your house.” And it is distributed when it is ministered to people according to their capacity to hear…. And from this the listeners are filled. Sirach 15:3 reads: “She will feed him with the bread of life and understanding and will give him the water of salvific wisdom to drink.” And so it is clear that the Lord formed preachers not 29 only through his own example of fellowship, but also through a mystical and figurative example. For the Lord performed this miracle more to form minds than to feed bodies. And the reason is that as Wisdom 11:27 says, he is an extraordinary lover of souls. Reflection Bonaventure knows of the Old Testament background of this gospel in the story of the miraculous manna in the desert and in the story of Elisha feeding one hundred men with twenty barley loaves. He realizes, too, that it points ahead to Jesus’ last meal and to his post-resurrection meal at Emmaus with two disciples. Yet he ends his interpretation not with another literal explanation, but with one that explores its meaning on the level of mystery. Mystery, among other things, refers to a passage’s Old Testament background, its New Testament resonances, its contemporary application, and the meaning of its numbers. In this instance Bonaventure ,like some contemporary commentators,emphasizes that Jesus gave the loaves to his disciples to set before the crowds. Indeed, the disciples of old and disciples today are able to feed the people through Jesus’ power. But as Bonaventure underlines, such feeding requires much of those distributing. Prayer Lord God, how often have I heard from people: “You’re a scripture scholar. It should be easy for you to break open the bread for us.” Help me to approach the bread of life with prayer, devotion, and humility. Help me to be open to the promptings of your Spirit, so that I might inform, inspire, and entertain as you will, not as I will. ...

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