By the rod of the cross he passes over the Red Sea, he enters from the desert of Egypt to taste the hidden manna, he rests with Christ in the tomb as if dead to all that is without. Yet he hears, so far as is possible to one who is still on his journey, the words Christ spoke from the cross to the thief who took his part: “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
If this pass-over is to be perfect, we must set aside all discursive operations of the intellect and turn the very apex of our soul to God to be entirely transformed in him. This is most mystical and secret. No one knows it but he who has received it. No one receives it but he who has desired it. No one desires it but he who is deeply penetrated by the fire of the Holy Spirit, the fire Christ sent on earth. This is why the apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed through the Holy Spirit.
If you want to understand how this happens, ask it of grace, not of learning; ask it of desire, not of understanding; ask it of earnest prayer, not of attentive reading; ask it of the betrothed, not of the teacher; ask it of God, not of man; ask it of darkness, not of radiance. Ask it not of light, but of a fire that completely inflames you and transports you to God with extreme sweetness and burning affection. This fire is God himself; the furnace is in Jerusalem; and Christ kindles it with all the burning fervour of his passion.
This was grasped only by the man who said: “My soul rather chooses hanging, and my bones death.” A man who loves death in this way can see God, for it is a sure truth that ‘man shall not see me and live’. Let us die, then, and enter into darkness.
~from the treatise of St Bonaventure The Journey to the Mind of God
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