Living in the Franciscan Way
Part II – Book 9
Table of Contents
introduction3
this is what i want, this is what i seek3
francis discovered the humility of god.
friars/sisters will go to the world
subject to all5
to live the gospel is to witness
to god’s unconditional love.
living “reconciled diversity”7
the canticle of brother sun and
integrity of creation8
reconciliation is a franciscan way
to live the gospel9
a text to ponder upon10
mary of the passion: “francis her light”12
the institute, contemplative and active,
was a gift to the franciscan order14
‘to go to the poor is a need of my soul”15
mission, beginning from contemplation17
notes18
Living in the Franciscan Way
Introduction
Notwithstanding the time lag of centuries, the image of Francis continues to exercise a powerful attraction not only over Christians of different denominations but also over peoples of different beliefs and cultures. He remains the one who transcends all frontiers because he exemplified the return to the Gospel and he was the one who made humanity aware of itself. “With him, in him humanity yearned to renew itself and, to speak as the Gospel speaks…” (Paul Sabatier). Mary of the Passion had the same yearning: “Beside Jesus, my soul look upon Francis. He takes the Gospel, he takes Jesus and he reproduces Him. My soul in your turn, take the Gospel, take Jesus… in order to continue His Mother’s mission and walk among your daughters as a living Gospel” (29 January 1888, NS, 288).
This is what I want, this is what I seek.
At San Damiano Francis met his God who lowered himself even to the humiliation of the cross, and he felt interiorly driven to become one with Him, identify with the God who showed so much love for him. Since that meeting in San Damiano, (2Cel 6: 10 in Omnibus; LM 2:1) Francis’ soul was full of compassion for the Crucified Christ who bore intensely the sufferings of this world, and became one with the misery of the human family and he strove to cultivate compassion for the poor more and more[1]. Francis was stigmatized, stamped and shaped in his inner-most being by the cross of Christ before the visible signs of the stigmata appeared.
When Francis discovered the distress of the poor something began to stir in him.Moved by the Spirit of the Lord he kept searching and praying, and finally, at Portiuncula he heardthe Gospel message, not just with his ears but with his whole being. That was the decisive moment and Francis rejoicing exclaimed: “This is what I want, this is what I seek, and this is what I desire with all my heart”[2] (1C, 22). He hastened to implement the words of salvation with great care and reverence. For he was not a deaf hearer of the gospel; rather he committed everything he heard to his excellence memory and was careful to carry it out to the letter (1 Celano, Ch. 6 22). In the heart of Francis there took place an extraordinary confrontation between the demands of the Gospel and the deepest urgings of his time. He stripped himself of everything that would prevent him from embracing the totality of the Gospel message and living it in its fullness. In that very morning Francis welcomed the Gospel it was indeed his whole century which, through him, took the Gospel to its heart. [3]
Scripture Readings and the Franciscan sources:
Francis discovered his vocation: 1C Ch. IX: 21-22
Mt 10: 5-10; Mk 6:7-10
Lk 9:1-5; Lk 1:47.
Requirements for following Christ: Mt 19: 16; Mk 1:17-18; Luke 9: 58-59; 14:33.
Ph 2: 6-11 To be minor consists in total self-emptying like Christ.
John 12: 24;
Gal 2:20; 2Co 8: 9
Francis discovered the humility of God.
Friars/Sisters will go to the world subject to all
Through prayer, Francis entered into the mystery of Christ, therefore he entered into the mystery of the Trinity and to live in the Trinity is to live in relationship of love, source of mission. In that contemplation of the humility of the Incarnation, Passion and the Eucharist (Jn.1:14; Ph 2: 6-11, Letter to the Entire Order: 26-29) he discovered and the understood the mystery of the self-emptying of Christ as true wisdom which became central for Francis and he endeavored to integrate his whole life in this kenosis of Jesus. The humility of Jesus is a reflection of “God’s relationship to the world and God’s fidelity to the world, even when everything in the world seems to fail.”[4]
Francis resolutely chose this road of poverty and humility of Christ who went about among his people speaking to them of the Father’s love. Following Christ his brothers and sisters will go to the world “subject to all.” “Friars as pilgrims and travelers for God, straining towards the goal of their journey, should not be hindered by possessions. With Francis there was a close link between poverty and being a mystical missionary pilgrim. It was an inner atmosphere of surrender more than a permanent geographical displacement.”[5] Since poverty is born of contemplation, it is a mystery of faith.
Jesus’ mission was a personal passing over (kenosis) from what was familiar and secure into a world of sinners, outcasts, the indifferent, the corrupt, and the impure. His mission was already an opening out of self, a walking towards others for a new unity. Friars were sent in pairs to proclaim the Kingdom of God through the whole world and to every creature. Being “a Gift of Spirit,” religious and Franciscan life refused boundaries, defied geographical limitations. ‘Lady Poverty” asked the friars to show her their cells, they took her to the top of a hill and answered: “Our cloister is the world.” (Sacrum Commercium 63). They went, like the apostles, from city to city to make known God’s unconditional love (John 3:16)[6] theirs was a life of itinerancy in total poverty.
Scripture readings
Mt. 28:18-20; Lk. 10: 1
Acts 10:1-49
Acts 10: 9 What God has done you are not to call it profane
Acts 10: 33 Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to listen to all that you have been commanded by the Lord.
Acts 10:34-35 Peter said: “In truth, I see that God shows not partiality.”
Acts 11: 19. God has granted repentance to the Gentiles too.
Franciscan Sources
1C Ch XII: 29-31: Friars sent into the world
Earlier Rule Ch XVI: 1-21. Among the Saracens and non-believers
Later Rule Ch XII: 1-4. Among the Saracens and non-believers
Earlier Rule Ch 8: 9: Let Brothers not receive money but if there is a sick brother.
Later Rule Ch 4: 1-3 not to take money
Later Rule: Ch III 10-11, 13-14: How they should go about in the world
Questions for personal reflection:
- The Gospel inspiration by penetrating the rich nature of Francis brought all its potentialities into full play, he became a new person, more creative in living the Gospel. Do I allow the Gospel to shape my whole life and how, concretely?
- How do I understand and live as a FMM the injunction of Francis to the Friars to go to the world subject to all?
To live the Gospel is to witness to God’s unconditional love,
Living “reconciled diversity”
Francis, in his youth, had shared the enthusiasm of the birth of a new world liberated from the servility of the old feudal world. The establishment of the free commune of Assisi filled him with hopes, free men and women could come together as brothers and sisters. When one morning, like struck by a flash of lightning, Francis “discovered the worm at the core of the fruit; the world of the communal liberty was secretly devoured by greed for money; it too had its list of undesirables, its victims of oppression, its pariahs.” Francis then set out for something different. He associated with the poor, the unimportant people… and reread the Gospel with changed eyes and heart, attuned as he was with the aspirations of his time; he chose a path to genuine brotherhood/sisterhood. Many men and women attracted by the same interior vision embraced a life of penance.
A life of penance, from its beginning required evangelizing oneself in fraternity and in sisterly community, listening to the Word of God and caring for one another, becoming free of every material preoccupation; like the mother who forgets herself for the sake of her household, brothers and sisters will serve and let themselves be served. A life of penance means conversion and transformation and it entails the love of God and for every man and woman with whom they come into contact. Friars were called to witness to the Community of God’s Love, that is, the Trinity because together they had the mission to bring to birth the “spirit of the truth of the Gospel. Washing of the feet was the foundation of the relationships among the Friars. Relationship defines the entire project of Clare and Francis of Assisi. Profoundly aware that the imprint of God’s own self was on all of creation, Francis and Clare gave to the Church and the world a whole new form of religious life with fraternity[7] /sisterhood at its very center.
The Canticle of Brother Sun and Integrity of Creation
This canticle epitomized the culmination of Francis’ long journey under the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord. The birth of this beautiful song followed a dark night of the spirit. Francis was bed-ridden at San Damiano, completely blind, he was plunged into the physical and psychic depths of suffering; suddenly he was full of compassion upon himself writes Thomas of Celano. Francis then turned to God in prayer, with a sudden burst of hope, opened himself to the certitude of the life to come which awaits him: sister bodily deathwhom no one living can escape. He dictated this song which celebrates his victory over despair, a gaze at the beauty and the harmony which God creates in the universe. Because he gazed, Francis discovered a sort of parentage with inanimate beings.[8]
The canticle is an invitation of a man who all his life had worked, struggled and suffered to bring about a little more brotherhood/sisterhood among humankind, to let God’s humanity shine out at last in the society of his time.”[9] In this hymn of praise Francis “appeared to have arrived at the conviction that he was no better than any of the other pieces of creation and that he and they were members of the same family bound to reflect the goodness of their Creator.”[10] The refrain: “Praised be You my Lord, with all Your creatures” captures the full meaning of the canticle: we can perceive God’s presence or continuing activity in each of those creatures mentioned in the canticle. The creation is full of the goodness of Triune God. Therefore we have to treat the earth with respect and reverence.
Reconciliation is a Franciscan way to live the Gospel
Francis, while singing his hymn to the Creator God he remembered that the town of Assisi was torn by the conflict between Guido, bishop of Assisi and the city’s Podestà (mayor).
Francis said to his companions: “It is a great shame for us, the servants of God, that at a time when the podestà and the bishop so hate each other that no one can be found to re-establish peace between them!” Francis added a strophe on reconciliation and the Brothers sang the entire canticle in the presence of the two antagonists who put an end to their conflict and took their rightful place in the canticle of Creatures.
The song is an exhortation to faithfully follow the humble and poor Christ by repudiating the power of money; opting definitively for a world where unity must in the end win out over division and dislocation, refusing to raise oneself above others and treating them like things. To establish fraternal/sisterly relation with all creatures meant “Seeking to transform all hostility into brotherly/sisterly tension, within the unity of God’s creation”[11](Paul Ricoeur). The universal fraternity/sisterly community is something that we must strive for every day.
Scripture readings
Mt 20: 26-28 the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve
Jn. 13: 1-15. God bends low to wash his creatures’ feet
Jn 15: 1-17: “No one has greater love than to lay down his
life for his friends
2Co 8:13-15: Encouragement to be generous.
Ph 2: 1-5 Fundamental attitudes to build deep relationships.
Franciscan sources
1Cel, 38-41
Brothers and sisters are a gift from God: (Testament: 14, 15)
Earlier Rule 3: 11; Later Rule 11: 3
Earlier Rule 4, 6; Earlier Rule 5: 5-8, 13-15; 9: 10-11.
Later Rule 6: 7-9; 10: 1-10
Admonition 4; 13; 14; A Letter to a Minister vv. 9-20.
Questions for personal reflection
- How do I live the Franciscan call to reconciliation in my daily life?
- Am I an active participant in the activities that promote the safeguard of the integrity of creation?
A Text to reflect upon
Franciscan Mission is a fundamental attitude of listening, of communicating with others.
“Seven hundred and eighty year ago, at the time of Crusades, our brother Francis traveled to the East with the intention of preaching to the Sultan, the enemy of his people. If the Sultan would convert to Christianity, there would be peace. Francis was fortunate because the sultan was a wise and open man. Rather than being angered by Francis’ preaching, the Sultan invited him to live in his camp and to continue their discussions over a period of time. It was Francis who experienced a conversion, something he may not have expected. He did not become a Muslim, but he returned to Assisi with a great respect for the Saracens. He was more deeply evangelized himself than was the Sultan.
In the First Rule for our life (Chapter16), Francis wrote that the brothers who go among the Saracens or other unbelievers” should live among these people being “subject to all,” quarrelling with no one, and by their lives give witness to their faith as Christians. Only if and when it pleased God should they preach and baptize.” Francis gave us a wonderful model for evangelization and mission. We go into a situation that is foreign to us and we live respectfully with people as we are come to understand their way.
Mission is a fundamental attitude of listening, of communicating with others. It is a viewpoint with a deeper inner conviction of our own identity, an inner transformation which allows us to see what is really there - to see, to experience the humble and the simple God living among us or, to put it in a different way, we live in God. Mission is choosing to have our eyes opened and to be witnesses to the Reign of God. It is to believe and to hope in the Reign of God that is around us, that is beneath the surface of life, that is within each person, not only the Christian, It is a chosen attitude, a disposition toward justice, desiring to see all as it is intended to be by God.. It has the ability to bring out what is hidden, like “the steward who brings treasures from the store-room.” It is a way of seeing and understanding the world and its people with faith in God’s Incarnation in Christ.”[12]
Readings
Herman Schaülck, O.F.M.”Our Identity is Mission: Missionary Vision for the Franciscan Family in the New Millennium.” In The Cord A Franciscan Spiritual Review. Volume 51, No. 1, January/February 2001; p 2-14.
Eloi Leclerc, O.F.M. Francis of Assisi: Return to the Gospel. Translated by Bro. Richard Arnandez F.S.C. Franciscan Herald Press. Chicago, 1982; p. 57-68
Mary of the Passion: ‘Francis her light’
Mary of the Passion came into contact with several spiritual currents, and she chose the Franciscan spirituality, which could support the missionary action of the Institute because she understood the value of the absolute renunciation that binds together mission and poverty, mirroring the paschal journeying of Francis.[13] She firmly believed that God wanted to give the Institute the precious grace of the seraphic spirit and she must be the first of all to receive this heritage from Jesus.[14] Mary of the Passion received that Franciscan heritage: “The beauty of perfect selflessness was shown to me in these word: “The greater you are, the less I am”, and, “The greater I am, the less you are.” The name “minor” inflamed me with love and I felt that it also had inflamed with love my Seraphic Father. If one but knew in becoming nothing, one becomes all.”[15]
In the meditation of the vigil of the Epiphany, Mary of the Passion wove together two themes dear to her: the grace of the foundation of the Institute and the grace of our affiliation to the Franciscan Order. “We should rejoice that our missionary Institute was born on the feast of the Epiphany, and thank Saint Francis who on the same day, promised us through his successor, that he would always shelter us beneath his mantel, and recall that counsel he gave us at the time: “To find a place under this mantel, to be a ray of the Immaculate Star which calls souls to Jesus, you must be very pure and very little.” The light of Mary is the light of the Seraphic Order and also of love and humility (MD 77, 78).
Through contemplation, mother Foundress deepened her understanding of the stigmata of St. Francis and Mary of Passion concluded that the love of poverty was but an external manifestation of the interior attitude of detachment from all that is not God. Francis no longer lived, he had died so utterly to himself, that the wounds if Christ crucified became visible on hisbody.[16] Francis so stripped of himself that Jesus took full possession.