Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
We're continuing our series on Franciscan spirituality, and we're asking what are the essential elements of the mystical life, which we've been talking about in previous reflections. The union which we've called mystical because it's realized by the mystery of grace, which operates in the soul. It's the point of arrival, the goal of our activity; actually, it's the goal of the interior life itself.
The essential elements of the mystical life are brought to light by Saint Bonaventure, who is the most profound and faithful interpreter of Saint Francis and of Seraphic spirituality in general. The French philosopher Étienne Gilson said that the doctrine, quote, "The doctrine of Saint Bonaventure is the culminating point of Christian mysticism and constitutes the most complete synthesis that's been realized," unquote. Quite a compliment coming from anyone, actually.
It's especially in his mystical works where Bonaventure's spirituality shines through, but even in his other works, especially the Itinerary of the Soul to God and in the Breviloquium you can see all of his thoughts. Bonaventure said God, who is Himself the highest good, is for the soul the only one who's desirable, the "all desirable" as he says. And man, for his part—Saint Bonaventure said—man must be like Daniel, Daniel who's called in the book of Daniel a "man of desires" (Daniel 9:23). We must truly desire the Lord, to be united to Him, if we want to become the person that God created us to be.
According to Bonaventure, the fundamental elements of the mystical life are the following things in this order: one, grace; two, infused virtues; three, the gifts of the Holy Spirit; and four, the beatitudes. We'll take a brief look at each of these today, starting with grace.
Grace is infused in our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit from the moment of our baptism. It comes to us from Christ—Christ into whose most holy humanity God poured grace in superabundance so that He can make it a part of all the members of the Mystical Body, of whom He is the Head. Grace, as Bonaventure says, quote, "is a gift that purifies the soul, illuminates it, and renders it perfect. It gives life, reforms, and establishes us in the good. It elevates the spirit, assimilates it, and unites it to God," unquote.
Therefore, it's not just the medicine that heals us of original sin, but it also is an elevating principle. Grace is the supernatural life infused in us—the communication of divine life, of God's own life. And like human nature with its faculties of intellect and will being the principle of our natural activity, so too grace, with the infused virtues of faith, hope, and love, is the principle of our supernatural activity. From the action of grace comes all the development and the work of our sanctification—from the first moment we receive baptism to the highest levels of perfection that we can reach, to our last breath as well.
Grace doesn't destroy or annihilate nature, but it also doesn't just cover over nature like something foreign to it or something which, if we wanted, we could do without if we were aspiring for perfection. No. Grace is harmoniously united to, or inserted into, our nature, elevating and strengthening its faculties and qualities. And it's what makes us Christian, a member of the Mystical Body, rooted and grounded in love in Christ, as St. Paul says in Ephesians 3:17.
Everyone who comes into the world is destined to be a Christian and is a Christian in potency, because the perfect, quote-unquote, "natural man" doesn't exist in God's plan. God's plan is for everyone to be conformed to Christ. That's His plan. Whether we cooperate with it or not is on our end. God established a destiny for us, a supernatural end in union with and by means of the merits of Christ, Son of God by nature. 
We are to become adopted sons and daughters of God by grace and possess Him in glory, and God gave us the means to reach this end. Those means are His grace and the infused virtues.
Since this is God's plan, then those who refuse His gift, His grace, can't even reach a natural perfection, nor the full development of their personality either. So grace can never be set aside when you speak about the interior life and the work to reach perfection. In other words, you can't be who you're created and called to be without God's grace. 
It's no wonder, then, why so many people have no direction in life, or why so many people are so unhappy and so unfulfilled—because they're lacking the one thing that will make them happy and fulfilled and will give them direction and purpose in life. They're lacking God's grace and His friendship. So many people—that's why they need our prayers. That's why they need to see Jesus in us.
And the culmination of our end or purpose will be in the next life. It will be the mystical union with God, seen face-to-face as He is, as we read in 1 Corinthians 13 and 1 John 3. And God, possessed intimately by us—not just seen by us, but possessed by us too. That goal requires us in this life to have an adequate preparation, through progressively, step-by-step, day-by-day, becoming more united to the Lord God. That happens by faith and grace, and so it's substantially mystical; it's a mystical reality, as we've mentioned before.
Let's ask Our Lady, then, for the grace to cooperate with the Lord and how He's working to bring us closer to Him each day—closer to Him by means of His grace.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.