Fr. Buela - "A Brief Dialogue of the Friend with the Beloved" Given in Washington, DC on May 30, 2009 - Cont...

The Beginning of the homily

José María Pemán seeks to creatively imitate him in his poem “Homage to Ramon Llull” (1950), which we will follow in this sermon on the occasion of the Mass of Perpetual Vows of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, here in the USA. On one hand, Pemán emphasizes in “Meeting in Majorca” the qualities of Lull as “the most captivating giant”, and as “mad, mystic, rational.”On the other hand, Pemán praises his implacable logic and his openness to all branches of knowledge, “he was the man of the total assimilations of all things in the unity of Truth.” He also argues that Llull understood “all the  unity of the world, later to leave it, to touch it and embrace it,” like the saints in Heaven. (OS, I, pp. 150-151). In addition, he utilizes the Spansih mystics who came after Llull as sources. “Homage to Ramón Llull” respects Llull’s epigrammatic planning, but limits himself to 57 propositions of which we will see only a few. Like Llull, Pemán introduces the Friend and the Beloved (both words capitalized by Pemán) as the protagonists of this dialogue of love.  The Friend is each baptized person—particularly each person consecrated with vows because of their special consecration—who should seek union with the Beloved, who is Jesus Christ.   

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Fr. Buela - "A Brief Dialogue of the Friend with the Beloved" Given in Washington, DC on May 30, 2009

In homage to the friendship with my friend Dr. Antonio Borrell and his distinguished family.

Ramón Llull was born in Palma, Majorca around 1232 and died in 1315. He was a mystic, apologist, philosopher, theologian, poet and saint. The work that brought him renown was Blanquerna, composed as a fruit of Llull’s hermitic life around the year 1285. Included in this work is a part entitled Book of the Friend and the Beloved [Libro del amigo y del Amado] of 366 brief and concise sentences. He cites several aphorisms surrounding the dialogue between the friend and the Beloved.  He does it in such a way that the symbols, allegories and metaphors are combined with dialogues, more narrative phrases and proverbs. Scholars concur in emphasizing that the main sources of inspiration oscillate between the Bible, Franciscanism, Neo-Platonism, Sophism, and troubadour poetry. Sophism and Franciscanism influenced his vision on the nature as revelation of the divine presence, while the troubadour current provided him with the appropriate resources to let his mystical and philosophical thoughts intertwine in a dialogue of love.

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