These are written by a variety of friars and they can include any topic and in any form which could also be a poem. The objective is to have them write something that may resonate with people in the community. The friars at one time may have been living here but have moved to another state or retreat house or mission within our province. It is a good way for us to provide communication from these friars to people here in this community.
A Happy Sunday of Baptisms!
People have asked me recently why the Church baptizes infants. It seemed to them that baptism was really a sign of what happens in a conversion experience and that presumes some adult level of faith. The best place to begin a consideration is with scripture since this includes most of the first texts produced by our faith tradition. In Acts 2, Peter teaches that the promise of remission of sin attached to baptism is for both adults and children. Lydia and her whole household were converted and then baptized by St. Paul (Acts 16) as well as the household of Stephanas (I Cor. 1). There is no line that says...”except for the children.” St. Paul taught that baptism replaces circumcision and we all know that circumcision was normally done to infants (Col. 2). The comparison is clumsy if only adult baptism had been practiced, yet Paul offers no qualifiers to his comparison of circumcision and baptism.
One of the earliest Church writers, Origen (died about 254 AD), wrote in his Commentary 5,9 that the Church received the practice of baptizing infants from the apostles. The Council of Carthage held in 252 taught that infants should not be witheld from baptism for eight days. St. John Chrysostom (died 407) taught that we baptize infants so that they may become members of the Body of Christ. It’s also interesting to note that not a single early Christian writing against the baptism of infants has come to light. I think the position that baptism is only for adults is based in the idea that salvation comes through an intellectual act of acceptance of Jesus as Savior. We see it as an act of Christ accepting and joining new members to his body. Let’s rejoice in these new members! -Brother Joe Schwab, OFM
A Most Special Day and The Portiuncula
The feast of St. Mary of the Angels of the Portiuncula “Little Portion” is the day I was received into the Order of Friars Minor. This happened a number of years ago. It is a moment I should always remember for there were six of us receiving our habits that day and believe it or not, one year and one day later, six of us received our first vows as Franciscans.
When this feast on August 2nd arrives, you might think I would remember the moment I was received into the Order of Friars Minor, but I do not. On that day I recall the moment I first saw the tiny chapel sitting in the center of the large basilica in Assisi. It overwhelms the beautiful tiny structure that is so intimate a place where one can go to pray and experience what St. Francis experienced when he first saw the chapel. It was hidden away in the woods and marshes near Assisi in the time of St. Francis.
Little did I realize that this diminutive chapel is far more superior than the structure that encases it. Even earthquakes damaged the basilica but not this tiny structure we call the Little Portion. My first impression when seeing this cozy chapel was one of peace. I could not wait to take my seat hoping I was not being selfish in sitting when others were on the floor. There were 30 plus men and women gathered in this small chapel snuggled together waiting for Mass to begin. It was a touching moment for me. The expression on their faces was one of peace and good. That made me think of the sign at the entrance to the Casa “Paz y Bien.”
I could feel God’s grace and love coming from each person present. We were tight in those tiny pews. Some sat on the floor or stood by the doors when I realized that all were experiencing the same type of feelings. They felt the presence of St. Francis—this place symbolized his heart. I felt as if our own intimate group of men and women were the only ones present. I could only focus on the little chapel and the feeling of peace and good.
Not wanting to get off track, but a wonderful legend about the Portiuncula might be of interest. I read it in the Pilgrim’s Companion to Franciscan Places. “…It is said that in the year 352, four holy men from Palestine came to visit the shrines of Rome. Having completed their pilgrimage, they asked Pope Liberius to suggest some remote place where they could retire from the world. He advised them to go to the mountains of Umbria. They came to Assisi; and in the woods beneath the city, they built a chapel and 4 huts.” St. Francis then came upon this place many years later and saw the beauty of this cherished chapel and rebuilt it for he and his companions. While waiting for mass to start, I read in Thomas of Celano’s, First Life that this holy man of God, St. Francis, had a great devotion to the Mother of God and from that moment when he first saw the chapel he began restoring it.
I gathered what he did was to make this place his home even though he slept most anywhere because he was always on the move, but when he returned to Assisi he made The Little Portion his home. St. Mary’s is the place St. Clare went that Palm Sunday evening and became one of his followers. It was also the place where Francis passed from this life to the next.
St. Francis found his mission in a message in the gospel read at a mass held inthis tiny chapel. The priest explained it to him. It stated that one should have nothing of value and the main purpose is to preach the kingdom of God. If I recall it comes from the Gospel of Luke 10:1-9. Without going into detail, St. Francis took that gospel reading to heart. It changed the life of all who followed him. It was a total foreign element to give-up all that one has to follow God in this fashion. This was something new for the culture and society of St. Francis’ era. It worked when a few thought it would not. St. Francis gathered followers that numbered in the thousands.
There must be something about his life that attracted these men to it. I remember my own reasons for joining these men many years ago on that August 2nd day. I follow the way of life of St. Francis simply because this group of men never asked anything of me. They never had any great expectations of me. These Franciscans took me as I am as God created. WOW! I must be something special. -Fr. Micah Muhlen, OFM
The ministry of Jesus brings the idea of kingdom into realization both in his time and in mine. Living in the kingdom requires impacts beyond the personal and spiritual into the communal and physical. It requires another look and another way of living at the present time.
Dissatisfaction with the present time among religious people is nothing new. Certainly in the time of Jesus it was very common among the great mass of Jewish poor who were hoping for something better in life. The term “poor” referred to more than those economically deprived, it included many types of social outcasts. Their daily experience was one of burdensome taxes, social and religious exclusion, foreign occupation, repression of political aspirations and a lack of charismatic, enlivening leadership within the authority structure of religion and politics. Many people had turned to the deep wells of their religion in order to maintain a sense of hope in the presence of dictatorial authority. They were longing for the news that God would intervene to bring about a new way of living in a different kind of world order. They wanted something far more than the feeling of righteousness gained by observation of the minutiae of religious law proposed to them by those who were learned.
At the most, feeling righteous only satisfies a personal desire and feeds a personal conceit. The very fact that the poor failed to keep the multitude of rules was a constant reminder to the poor that they had nothing to be conceited about. They knew that they didn’t count, and so they turned to something greater as a place for aspirations. What they wanted was something much more social – a certainty that the spirit of God would pervade and change the drudgery of daily life, dullness of legalistic religious experience, and deadened national aspirations. What the poor wanted from God was the dawn of a new era in history and religion in which their oppressed and marginalized group would count for something.
A sign that this new era was about to begin was believed to be the return of the quenched spirit of prophecy into Israel. The coming prophet was promised to them by God’s own word in their scriptures (Deut. 18:15, Mal. 3:23), and this prophet would be the herald of the arrival of God’s era, the Kingdom of God. They believed that this Kingdom would be characterized by just economic, social, religious, and political structures. Religious expression would be freed from the stifling entanglements of incredibly numerous legalistic restrictions and be characterized by a strong sense of immediacy in the experience of God. The times would be very different. The sign that the change was beginning to happen would be the return of the spirit of prophecy in Israel. Jesus will be recognized by people as this prophetic sign, a prophet whose veracity is destined to be challenged as an attempt to prove him a “false” prophet and thereby worthy of execution (Deut. 18:20). What did it mean to be regarded as a prophet? What does a “return of the spirit of prophecy” mean?
There are many definitions possible of a prophet in ancient Israel and no doubt a complex of characteristics would serve to help decide the question. In the case of this particular presentation, however, a brief definition serves. A prophet is one who is recognized by a group to possess the spirit of God and who proclaims this through words and deeds. The also difficult to define spirit was understood in various ways in ancient Israel. The more prominent definitions include: the life-giving breath that belongs to God (Psalm 104:29); spiritual and physical vitality or driving force which can be shared (Nm. 11:17 and 25); God’s word, that is, what God wants the prophet to communicate (2 Sam. 23:2); God’s news for the poor and outcast (Isaiah 61:1-3). A true prophet would have to demonstrate the ability to display these and similar characteristics along with the ability to do wondrous deeds.
Belief was widely shared at the time of Jesus that the spirit of prophecy was gradually withdrawn from Israel in stages because of the presence of sin in the community. The first withdrawal occurred at the time of the Exodus when the people worshipped a statue of a calf. The spirit was withdrawn even more when chosen men such as high priests, kings, and even (so-called false) prophets fell into sin and the people rejected the prophecy of the true prophets. Finally, it was withdrawn completely with the last of the writing prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. It was said that the spirit was quenched because of sin.
Belief was also strong that prophecy would return when the new era or Kingdom of God begins with the day of judgment, usually called “The Day of the Lord.” In theology, the Greek term eschaton is used for the idea of consummation of the world, divine judgment, and a new age. At the eschaton, God would speak again through the medium of the unnamed prophet (Deut. 18:15-19) or prophets who will speak with God’s authority and not the authority of learned men such as scribes. Clearly the speech of the future prophet or prophets would be characterized by spiritual energy and vitality derived from the immediacy of God acting through the person of the prophet rather than indirectly through writings and teachings. All the revelation in the Mosaic law would be brought to completion in the words and deeds of the prophet like Moses mentioned in Deuteronomy 18. Some people perceived Jesus to be this new prophet and it seems that he accepted this designation. Indeed, during his passion he is specifically mocked with “…play the prophet” (Matt. 26:68). Because he spoke “with authority [his own, not that of someone he learned from] and not like one of the scribes” (Mark 1:22) and did wondrous things, they believed that the new era was beginning. The wondrous things that he did were important signs of the legitimacy of Jesus’ prophetic vocation and speech. Not only did the signs point to the divine origin of his ministry, they pointed to the overthrow of the Kingdom of Satan, a very important ministry for the latter day, eschatological prophet to be involved in.
For the people of the time, wondrous signs (what we call miracles) functioned as a kind of necessary credential for a prophet, much as we require a medical degree for a doctor. They would not prove that Jesus was the long-expected prophet of the Kingdom, but they were certainly a necessary element of this possible identification. One reason wondrous signs would not be enough was that Jesus was not the only miracle worker in Palestine or the Roman Empire. We cannot even claim unique qualities for all the miracle stories told about him and preserved in the Gospels. Parallels existed in Hellenistic and Jewish culture. The Hellenistic style of telling a miracle story utilized emphasis on the process of working a miracle: the techniques, the gradual process of healing, and the privacy of the event (cf. Mark 8:22-26). By contrast, the Jewish/Palestinian form emphasized the personal authority of the healer and the social setting. Healings are immediate, no techniques are noted, and a crowd is typically present: adversarial at first and then astounded by the result (cf. Mark 10:46-52) which serves to heighten the personal authority of the healer.
This move of crowds from being adversarial to astonished tells us that these stories have a strong historical basis because of similarities remaining to this day in Palestinian culture. Jesus’ astonishing abilities were important to his contemporaries and to him. Why? To use the example of healing miracles noted above: Illness was considered to be a sign of the presence of personal evil or demons. The Kingdom of Satan as destroyer of creation was seen as very real and very present, and it was diametrically opposed to the Kingdom of God. Someone having power over the destructive presence of Satan or demons would demonstrate to people that maybe the new era of God was beginning through the one who does wondrous deeds.
These signs indeed demonstrated for the people of the time that the beginning of the destruction of the Kingdom of Satan was present which also meant that the beginning of the Kingdom of God was here. Jesus rejoiced in the destruction of Satan’s power (Luke 10:18) which would have served as a sign of personal legitimacy in his prophetic role. As did some prophets before him, he shared prophetic power with his followers (Mark 3:14) as did Moses (Numbers 11:17) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:9,10). Through his own ministry and that of his followers, the Kingdom of God is being realized in history. This sense of realization of the kingdom is unique to the followers of Jesus. There was no parallel in contemporary Judaism.
The dawn of the kingdom was manifested in Jesus’ words also. We can safely claim that the Kingdom of God was the central theme in Jesus’ preaching and seems to be unique to him. A nearly identical term, Kingdom of Heaven, first makes it appearance in Jewish preaching outside of Jesus’ circles with Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai in the year 80. Matthew’s gospel also utilizes the term Kingdom of Heaven which was doubtless a circumlocution employed by the Jewish followers of Jesus to avoid the use of the term God as an act of reverence. So what would the use of the term Kingdom of God (or heaven) mean for the people to whom Jesus was preaching?
There were at least six ways of understanding the term at the time of Jesus. Probably people used several in combination as a way of grasping it. First, the Hebrew Scriptures rarely used the term kingdom to refer to a piece of geography. It much more frequently described the power or authority of a king or government. Second, it typically referred to something in process of becoming rather than totally actualized. Third, it was something desired in this age (cf. Daniel 4:34). Fourth, it was also promised in the new era to come (Daniel 2:44). Fifth, its presence was thought to be limited to places where people followed the Law of Moses. Sixth, the new era would be a world-wide phenomenon (cf. Zechariah 14:9). It should also be noted that in Jesus’ time the Jews prayed the Kaddish twice daily for God’s name to be revered and for the kingdom to come: “Eternal and hallowed be his great name…may he rule his kingdom in your lifetime and in your days…speedily and soon…”. Note the request for it to come. It is not assumed to be present.
The first and second petitions of the Our Father (hallowed be your name, your kingdom come) are both mirror petitions to prayer in the Kaddish. In joining the first two petitions to the petition for daily bread, Jesus uses the petitions in the eschatological sense, that is: the end time is here, the dawn of the new era is upon us suddenly. “Our bread for tomorrow” was an expression of the time referring to the food of the new era of salvation, of the kingdom. Considering the linguistic complexities involved in translating Aramaic into Greek, then Latin and English, a more likely original wording of the prayer in Luke would be as follows. Dear Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, our bread for tomorrow, give us today. And forgive us our debts as we herewith forgive our debtors. And let us not succumb to the trial [the testing of faith during these end times]. Even the last petition has an eschatological tone.
Many of Jesus’ sayings about entering the kingdom imply or refer to the presence of the last judgment (cf. Mark 9:43-48), still others refer to the contemporary image of the banquet in the new age (Luke 13:28, 29). In answering the question of when the kingdom would come, Jesus responds indirectly: “the coming…cannot be observed…”. His statements refer to a quality of its arrival rather than a chronology, so we end with the response to the question of when (chronologically) as suddenly (quality).
Jesus is not speaking of a kingdom which can be encapsulated in terms of geography and chronology. Rather, he perceives the kingdom as the culmination of the age and the reestablishment of communion between God and humanity. God’s reign will be an eternal one, not a chronological one (Daniel 2:44), and it begins with the consummation of the world, the end of “the times” as we know them. The kingdom is not controlled by space and time, but it does affect the here and now primarily through the establishment of relationships and the overthrow of the power of evil. Especially through his healing ministry he demonstrates that the reign of Satan, the destroyer of creation, is at an end.
Jesus’ frequent use of the kingdom theme in preaching is original with him. In proclaiming the presence of the kingdom at the synagogue of Nazareth (Luke 4:18) he combines the prophecy of Isaiah (29:18, 35:5, and 61:1ff) and expands on the prophecy by adding – on his own authority - the cleansing of lepers and the raising of the dead to demonstrate that the fulfillment of the kingdom in him, today, goes beyond the expectation of Isaiah. Upon reminding people that “No prophet is accepted in his native place…” (Luke 4:24ff) and giving examples from the stories of Elijah and Elisha, his claim to fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy is challenged. The response is one of rejection so typical in the stories of the prophets.
Not as typical of the prophets is the use of the banquet image referring to the kingdom. This image was known to his contemporaries and Jesus consequently employs it. When asked why his disciples don’t fast (a sign of repentance), Jesus replies that they are attending a wedding banquet with the groom present (Mark 2:18, 19) and it is inappropriate for them to do so. By doing this he has taught that the kingdom is present. His personal presence is sign and symbol of the reality of the new era.
Jesus also performs symbolic actions - typical of Israelite prophets - to display the presence of the new age. Expelling merchants from the temple is an actualization of Zechariah 14:21 in which the prophet proclaims that “On that day [the Day of the Lord when the judgment happens and a new era begins] there shall be no longer any merchant in the house of the Lord of hosts.” The day has come with the presence of Jesus. The dawn of the new age is further revealed in Jesus’ ministry to Gentiles (Matt. 8:5-13) in the story of the cure of the centurian’s servant. At the end of this story, the gospel tells us that Jesus notes the arrival and participation of the Gentiles in the eschatological banquet while those who assumed they were invited are thrown out. The marginated and unwanted are being brought in to the feast.
Preaching to the poor seems to be inoffensive. To people of today, the need to perform this aspect of ministry seems self-evident. However, the use of the term “poor” allowed for many layers of meaning in the world of Jesus, much more so than in our times when it typically refers to the economically destitute. To Jesus, the poor were made up of a number of groups. These included the destitute and those who did not live up to all the stipulations of the law and so were considered disreputable, despicable, and often ritually unclean besides. We can name toll collectors (aka publicans), prostitutes, herdsmen, gamblers, robbers, and the religiously uneducated to enumerate only some. Jesus refers to them as “little ones” (possibly meaning “no accounts”) and “burdened.” Perhaps his followers were referred to in this way by the opponents of Jesus as unworthy of a place in the reign of God. He claims that people such as these are entering the kingdom – even forcing the doors – before the righteous. “…the kingdom suffers violence, and the violent are taking it by force.” (Matt. 11:12).
In Jesus’ preaching, anyone in physical or spiritual need is poor. The self-righteous who live up to the maxims of the law are not. The poor includes anyone who is a beggar before God. The good news for them is that God is intervening now through forgiveness. Jesus uses illustrations from daily life to demonstrate this: debt remission, finding something lost, the return of a son, release from prison. He strikingly illustrates and enacts God’s intervention in the lives of sinners through table fellowship. This means that all present share in the blessing of God offered by the host just before the bread is broken to be shared. Such meals are also the expression of the festive meal that marks the new era of God’s kingdom. Despicable sinners are not only invited, they’re getting into the feast in place of those who practiced the law carefully (Matt. 21:31,32). The new era brings a reversal of the values of the old era. Reversal of values will certainly provide room for resentment from the righteous.
Not surprisingly, many are offended and protest at being displaced when they followed all the rules and expected a reward. They believed that God wanted them to keep away from sinners and the unclean. To them, Jesus is perceived as attacking the religious and social order ordained by God and revealed through the law and the prophets. Their objection isn’t to his call to repentance, it’s the displacement of the righteous with the poor. Why should God choose “the poor”? They didn’t even learn the law carefully, much less abide by it. It would have seemed to the righteous that a true prophet wouldn’t undercut the spiritual and ethical system set up by the great prophet Moses.
Jesus responds in three teachings. One, it is the sick who need a doctor, not the healthy (Mark 2:17). Those healed will be grateful. The righteous aren’t because think they deserve something. Two, the righteous are far from God because they don’t recognize their need. Instead, they rely on their deeds (Luke 18:9-14). Three, it is in God’s nature to be generous and gracious, rejoicing at the return of the lost (Matt. 18:12-14). In welcoming the poor to fellowship, Jesus is acting as God’s representative. He is an uncommon preacher in Roman Palestine. Some claimed that he was a false prophet, to which Jesus responded by teaching about false prophets in Matthew 8:15-20. Opposing this false prophet viewpoint, some suppose him to be Elijah (Malachi 3:23) or another prophet returned - perhaps the long-awaited prophet of Deuteronomy 18 (Matthew 16:13, 14). Jesus was curious about what people were saying concerning his identity.
We must recognize the uniqueness of Jesus’ preaching about the Kingdom of God being actualized in the hearing of his followers, many of whom were the poor and outcast. One of his unique themes within kingdom preaching is that God only wants fellowship with sinners, not the righteous. Such claims were not found in contemporary Judaism and they predate the formation and preaching of the church. Such preaching puts us in touch with the very voice of Jesus. Perhaps the most unusual word that Jesus voices in his preaching ministry concerns his manner of addressing God.
Abba as a form of address for God is also unique to Jesus. It is not that ancient Judaism did not address God as Father. It did, although not frequently. It is the use of the word abba, a familiar homey word for father when addressing God that is unique to Jesus. In the history of Israel the word father when used for God implied the creator who chose Israel as his firstborn in an actual historical situation, the Exodus. Its use did not imply a mythical ancestor as it did in other neighboring cultures. Israel was typically seen as an unfaithful chosen son (Jer. 3:19-20) who asks for forgiveness (Is. 63:15-16) and can expect to receive it (Hosea 11:3,8). The relationship was one of a creator to an unfaithful son.
By the time of Jesus, God was considered to be a father only to those who fulfilled the law, that is, those who were faithful sons. God is father to these Israelites who can address God as “Our Father, our king, for the sake of our fathers who trusted in you…have mercy upon us…” (Mishna). The fact remains however, that God is never addressed as my father, nor with the intimate expression abba. This must have made the way Jesus prayed seem to be extraordinary to his disciples as he virtually always prayed to God as my abba/father. Mark 14:36 also notes that he used the homey term abba. The word has passed on unchanged into the Greek gospel. From there, it passed into the practice of the early church as Paul notes in Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:6. These two early communities (Galatians being founded by Paul) used the address “abba, father” in their prayer as having come from Jesus himself. The use of abba as a divine address is not found in Judaism of this time. Why not?
Abba was considered to be a kind of babbling sound that children learned to make when first forming speech. However, it was not only used in this context. Adult children also used it in common speech for their fathers, although not in formal settings. By the time of Jesus abba had replaced the older form abi even for adults. It could mean my, the, his, or our father. It was a familiar form of speech, even intimate. Perhaps “dad” would be a close modern English equivalent, although it is worth noting that some modern scholars (Pilch, Barr) believe that it isn’t all that familiar and so disagree with Jeremias. If this familiar use is accurate, than Jesus is speaking to God in familiar, intimate terms. This type of speech reveals the kind of communion that Jesus claims to have with God.
In the gospels we have recorded 170 times in which God is referred to as father, more frequently in Matthew and nearly always in John. In some of these, Jesus refers to God as “your” father. Here he is speaking to the disciples. The enigmatic saying that “No one knows the son but the father, and no one knows the father but the son and anyone to whom the son wishes to reveal him…” found in Matthew 11:17 and Luke 10:22 actually means that only father and son truly know each other. The reason for the complicated way it is stated comes from the fact that Aramaic has no reciprocal pronouns (one another, each other), so it has to utilize a more complicated way of expressing the idea. The saying is teaching us that God is like a father who personally taught Jesus his revelation. Therefore, Jesus is uniquely qualified to pass on this revelation to others. When Jesus calls God “my” father, he is referring at least partially to the unique revelation that he alone enjoys. This is the source of his authority. It is quite different from that of the learned scribes as the people who heard him noted (Matt. 7:28-29). His ability to call God abba is unique because his revelation is unique.
Jesus’ use of abba is also messianic in scope for it calls to mind the special relationship that king (messiah) David had with God. David can call God father (2 Sam. 7:14) and so can his royal descendents (Ps. 89:26-27). By connecting himself with these messianic expectations through his use of abba as a familiar term of address for God, as well as his use of “my” father, Jesus asserts his unique role in Israel’s history. Here we come in touch with the historical Jesus who broke the boundaries of his religious world. Based on this understanding , we can now appreciate much more fully the depth of spirituality expressed in the “Our Father.”
This prayer is found in Luke 11:2-4 and Matthew 6:9-13. The shorter Lucan form is assumed to have preserved the original form, as it is unlikely that anyone would have deleted part of Jesus’ prayer while it is quite possible that it would be expanded upon as it apparently has been in Matthew. The context is one in which the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. At the time, other disciples of other teachers had their special ways to pray as Luke 11:1 notes. The request was not unusual. Such prayer helped build the bonds of communion among disciples.
In this prayer, Jesus gives his disciples authorization to address God in a way which reveals his own intimate relationship with God. In their prayer, they will now participate in this familiar relationship. It is a type of relationship enjoyed in the kingdom, and therefore it makes the new era present. It is realized eschatology. The kingdom of God is present now in this prayer. In the later church, Paul notes that praying in this way proves that the Christian possesses the spirit of God (Jesus noted his possession of the spirit in the commentary given at the synagogue of Nazareth) and sonship with the father who is now the father of the Christian. In this prayer, there is a realization of intimacy and familiarity with God quite unique in world of the time of Jesus. It is this realization that needs to be brought into the ministry of the Church.
I have to say that in my years as a friar I’ve come to realize that a large group of Christians are functionally monophysite, that is, they readily believe that Jesus is divine without a corresponding emphasis on his humanity. In effect, they perceive him as a divine person in a human costume, in full possession of a conscious, mental awareness of his Godhead. How a human brain could possibly know what God knows is not a question dealt with. His miracles are seen as a waiving of the laws of nature. The more this setting aside of science is true, the better to offer proof of his divinity to a remarkably stubborn audience who willfully refuse to believe that God is incarnate. The reluctance of anyone to believe in Jesus as God becomes inexplicable. Faith in Jesus becomes an act of intellectual assent.
His whole life becomes interpreted as an effort to offer demonstrable proofs of his divinity to the human mind, with the resurrection being the summit of these proofs. It seems that he consciously hides his divinity and secret powers at times while manifesting them at others for reasons best known to him alone. The idea of being a person of the Trinity of God is simply passed off as mysterious for the average person and explanations are seen as best left to theological professionals. Scripture is utilized as a font of proof texts to show that Jesus is God, period.
A result of this is the understanding of and relationship with a Jesus who functions primarily as one who has power to save, that is, protect the supplicant from sorrows and difficulties in daily life as well as to provide an escape from the world as it is and gain access to heaven. Access to this power is gained through intellectual assent to expressed truths usually confused with faith, fidelity to a community or book (Bible), or certain spiritual practices. The ups and downs of the experience of relationship with Jesus, a community or personal challenges presented by the gospels are minimized in favor of a level of comfort, certainty and reasonable expectation – if I do this, God owes me that. Our cultural norms are strongly based on an exchange of goods, so such an approach to God fits well with our expectations of what is fair.
Secondly, there are those who are convinced of the need to follow particular rules and selected elements of tradition at all costs in order to be validated by Jesus or his valid representatives. Those who do not follow the rules and select elements of tradition are considered to be invalid representatives who are to be exposed and ostracized. The embracing of rules provides perhaps the most essential part of the development of personal and communal holiness to such people. In this scenario, Jesus functions as the great rule-giver, providing the key to salvation: following the chosen rules based on certain elements of the tradition. Such people are strikingly similar to the Pharisaical element of Judaism at the time of Jesus noted in the text of Jeremias. The best we can do in ministry for such people is to offer them an assurance of the presence of a loving father who actually prefers sinners over the righteous in table fellowship. It is their image of Jesus that needs to be changed for the sake of conversion. The righteous are hungry for love, frightened about the possible loss of salvation and seek validation from authority as a way of obtaining both. As a result, it is the loving Father image of God in the gospels that they need for a new foundation in spirituality.
Today we also have the phenomenon of a new group of people raised in a post-Christian society with no catechesis in their history. To them, Jesus is a historical figure of considerable interest. They’re not impressed with facile answers concerning belief in his divinity. They are interested in getting to know him. In terms of church ministry they are among the most fascinating of people, because in some ways they replicate the experience of new believers in the Apostolic age of the church outside of Palestine.
Finally, there is the mass of people who have come to love God in simple or even sophisticated ways and do their best to act out of their Christian convictions. Neither obsessed with rules nor ignoring rules, pretty sure of the divinity of Jesus but unclear about what it meant for him to be human, ordinarily trustful of the guidance and experience of the Church and its ministers, they typically carry the weight of ministry in action and in finances. Curious about God and the story of salvation, they are hungry for those things which can help them deepen their relationship to God and each other. The depth of their experience is often profound, and yet they may think that their experience is relatively unimportant as they’re typically not in a position to influence Church structures or governance. They feel the call to discipleship, but other charismatic gifts such as evangelization and leadership have often not been recognized. It is my contention that of the above three groups, numbers one, three and four are the most prepared for the development of faith that can come from a serious consideration of the life of Jesus.
The Church’s liturgy, sacraments, and teaching offices provide eminently useful avenues for just such a consideration of Jesus in whom the transcendence of God and the immanence of God meet in communion. Neither “just God, period.” (I’ve heard people state this often) nor merely a great ethicist and teacher, it is the human Jesus in whom God is incarnate that we can come to love and know as the one who best reveals God to us.
Like the incarnate God, the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus is both immanent and transcendent. Proclaiming and living it as liturgy does makes it present, but does not contain all of its reality which is to be lived outside the assembly in social, economic, and political structures ideally enlivened by the commissioned assembly. If the assembly does incarnate the God Jesus proclaimed and revealed, then its potential for unity and healing in a divided and hurting world will be noticed and impactful.
The great themes of the preaching of Jesus need to resonate the Kingdom of God is present and the Kingdom of Satan is being overthrown; the spirit of prophecy has returned; God is a loving father with whom we are to be very close; the poor, sinners and the outcast are the chosen of God, not the righteous; and the value systems of this world are being turned upside down in the kingdom. The liturgy enlivens spirituality and social action by its nature, for at its heart is the Christ who is immanent in assembly, presider, word and sacrament and yet transcends them.
SacramentsBy their very nature sacraments are signs and symbols in which God is both immanent and transcendent. Signs are straightforward. They convey information but can be used to point us to a deeper level of understanding which we can choose to uncover or not. Symbols provide something more. Symbols convey information, point to, confirm and carry deeper meanings which enrich our experiences and relationships. A wedding ring conveys the information that someone is committed to another, but there is a depth of reality in the present experience of commitment and in what the future can bring that the ring itself points to and confirms. The reality that the symbol represents is more important than the symbol itself, but simultaneously the symbol carries something of the reality with it, confirms its present reality and points toward future realization. Jesus’ physical body clearly served as sign and symbol of the kingdom in his ministry.
Through signs and symbols, the sacraments invite us into a deepening of relationship with God and others. They are spirit-filled events in which physical objects, senses, and personal as well as communal experiences point to, convey and confirm the presence of God in the here and now. Jesus’ preaching ministry was oriented toward this goal – that people encounter the presence of God through the actualization of the kingdom. This was done through touch, hearing, sight, teaching and prayer. We can even claim that Jesus himself is the primordial sacrament of the encounter with God, for his historical presence as incarnate God served as both sign and symbol.
Sacraments remain enlivening, spirit-filled events for us when we subsequently act in accordance with the event. This was certainly true for the people who encountered Jesus, for there were many who rejected him after their encounter with him, while those whose lives were changed by the Jesus event built on their encounter and carried the ramifications of it throughout their lives.
Spiritualizing without actualizing the presence of God in daily life would be to betray the kingdom message. There are ramifications in the development of social, political, economic and religious structures, and the social teaching of the Church provides a rich source of material for consideration.
What does it mean to people to be set free or made whole, considering both the miracle stories of the gospels and contemporary experience? How was the life and death of Jesus salvific? What would it mean today to experience living in a new era in which the kingdom is present for the sake of the poor? Who are the poor? How might this affect everyone throughout the world and the planet itself?
Ending with questions is not a bad place to end in the discussion of relationship with Jesus and his message. While we can come to know a great deal, Jesus is about relationship more than knowledge, and relationship is always open-ended. By broadening relationship within a community context and utilizing knowledge that we can come to know our experience of Jesus will always lead us to new horizons. He remains an endlessly fascinating person, one who stands at the intersection of God and humanity, the prophet of the present and yet to be fulfilled Kingdom of God, the loving Father.
Download the "Christology" Word document
Have you developed your personal life plan? This is a plan for growth in faith and holiness. Each of us is called to be Holy as our God is Holy. How this happens depends upon our daily commitment to the process. If you have developed your plan, please take time to reflect upon it and see how it is working. If you have not developed one, then now is the time to consider it. Here are 5 areas for growth that might prove helpful for your reflection.
1. Free my heart from hatred, malice, judgement, unwillingness to forgive, vengeance...
2. Free my mind from worry, anxiety, stress...
3. Live simply...
4. Do more...
5. Expect less...
Developing a personal life plan will allow each of us to share our gifts given by God with our sisters and brothers. Together, we will continue to build the Kingdom of God and proclaim the Good News. Remember what St. Francis said: "What you are in the sight of God is what you are and nothing more."
Dear family and friends,
Today is our community “Day of Recollection” – once a month we Franciscan friars in Ussuriysk set aside a day for quiet prayer and to discuss a spiritual theme. Br. Mario suggested the theme “new beginnings.” One of St. Francis’ quips was, “Brothers, let us begin again, for up to now we have done nothing.” And so, I am beginning again. A few weeks ago I turned 43. Oct. 3,“Transitus”, the day St. Francis died, marks 2 year since I arrived here in Ussuriysk, Premorskie Kray (“The edge of the sea”) in SE Russia. I finished my formal language studies last June, and after several weeks in the States, began my full-time ministry as pastor of Arceniev. Yesterday I read a short book of quotations of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She says nothing new, nothing that I have not heard or reflected on before. But when she talks about prayer, love, generosity, holiness of life, joy, sacrifice, serving the poor, her words have power because, like Jesus, she lived those virtues without compromise. Her words cut to my heart because my life is a portfolio of compromises. I became a friar, a monk whose cloister is the world, in part to live a radical Gospel life. I have been a friar now for 17 years. I confess, my attempts at the virtues Mother Teresa names and lived are presently, for the most part, lame and half-hearted. My life is not so different from any money-grubbing capitalist (my apologies to any money-grubbing capitalists who are reading this.) I am not talking about externals – money, clothes, cars, houses. I am talking about worrying about myself more than others. Of being afraid to love, afraid to make the personal sacrifices that are integral to really caring about another person. Since Jesus taught that love is the greatest Commandment, this is a troubling shortcoming.
I came to Russia because, I was told, people here are hungering for spiritual food, and there are few volunteers to teach them and walk with them. After 2 years, I realize that I have shared very little that is specifically spiritual. True, I am a pleasant enough fellow, and the Russians seem to like me. But Jesus’ mission was not to be nice, nor is my mission one of trying to be likeable. If I am living authentically the Gospel life, I will ruffle people’s feathers, I will at times offend and be misunderstood. As one of my brothers loved to say when I joined the Franciscans, “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” It occurs to me, that afflicting the comfortable begins at home, i.e. with myself. If my daily goal is to be comfortable, to anticipate and fulfill my daily needs, to plan my life and live my plan, something is awry. I have no reason to do such a thing; I have never worried about my daily bread. I tell people that I am one of God’s spoiled brats – God has always provided. But since I have so many advantages, I know that God expects a lot. If I am not living a prophetic life, it is sheer laziness. Mother Teresa notes: Often we Christians constitute the worst obstacle for those who try to become close to Christ; we often preach a gospel we do not live. This is the principle reason why people of the world don’t believe.” I think that she is not saying that Christians are bad people. I think she is saying, no one is inspired by milquetoast. One of my advantages in Russia is that I blend in. I was the only foreign student who was not hassled on the street by the police – because I was the only one who was not Chinese or Korean. Of course my accent and pitiful grammar give me away as soon as I speak. But getting back to Mother Teresa, I am an obstacle not because I do bad things, but because I do nothing. I could just as easily be a pleasant atheist. I do nothing to inspire people to take Jesus’ teachings seriously. So this is where I hope to begin again. Most of us have our fears. I like to think of myself as fairly fearless – I am not troubled by dark streets or rats or the unknown or death. But I am afraid to love, to be generous, to allow someone else’s needs to interrupt my daily agenda, to commit (typical guy), to get personally involved with someone else’s life and problems with no foreseeable convenient escape route. I am afraid to pray with my whole heart, because then, of course, God will take me where I don’t think I want to go. So, you can pray for this for me, since I am typically too weak to do so myself.
It is a cool fall day, a little rain off and on. Leaves are quickly turning and falling. Winter will soon pounce. It looks more like a time for endings than new beginnings. Many of you I have not written for a while. As if, from my end, our friendship is dormant. To invest myself more wholeheartedly here, likely means less letters home and other parts of the world. You my cherished friends are the hardest to write because there is always too much to say.
I will ask the people in Arceniev how I can best serve them. I will pray with more sincerity, asking Jesus how I can best serve Him here. I will risk more – nothing big screen, simply to make myself more selfless – less self, more for others. And to not apologize for my vocation and my faith in Christ. These are my thoughts today. I see it is more journaling than letter-writing, oh well. Another time I will talk about the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of life here, like home remedies for a sore throat (my favorite was to “drink kerosene – not too much.”) That all makes for entertaining reading, but sometimes I need to remind myself that I’m not a travel writer. I need to get more deeply involved with the people’s lives here so I can tell you about them, and not just what I think about, abstractions.
Construction has started, finally, on the church, the walls are half up. I’ll try to attach a couple photos with this. I’m still raising $$ but I believe I have enough for the structure – thank you for all who have generously helped with this. The parishioners in Arceniev have been wonderful in welcoming me and doing their part to make their church a reality. They have prayed and waited 7 years for a priest and a church – finally their patient prayers are being answered! Please keep us in your prayers. I continue to pray for you and be grateful for the blessings of our friendship.
Beginning in the fourth century when Christians were able to practice their faith openly without fear of persecution, pilgrimage has been an important path of development and expression of spirituality for the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Because of the incarnational nature of God's self revelation in Jesus Christ, it is natural that Christianity has embraced the journeying to and visiting of the places associated with the dispensation of God's grace in time and space.
The concept of pilgrimage - journey and visit - as a spiritual exercise is not unique to Christianity. Jesus himself took part in the pilgrimages, especially to Jerusalem, that are part of the Jewish tradition. One of the five pillars of Islam is the requirement to make haj or pilgrimage to Mecca. For Buddhists visiting the places associated with the life of Buddha and for Hindus going to the Ganges Rivers are important expressions in their religious life.
For almost ten years now I have been involved in facilitating the experience of pilgrimage in the Holy Land. During that time I have been able to accompany hundreds, including many from the Franciscan Renewal Center community, as they experience the lands of the bible where Jesus was born, lived, taught, healed, died and rose from the dead.
The great advantage of this experience is that religious concepts can move from just ideas to deeper spiritual awareness when considered anew in the specific places God choose to reveal them. For pilgrimage to be a rich source of blessing and insight, the pilgrim must be open to encountering God in new and exciting ways along the way.
Going to the places where we share a collective memory of God's activity in our human history can enable us to understand that story anew and to understand more clearly God's activity in our personal story.
Making pilgrimage has never been easy; things worth doing seldom are. Violence and conflict have made people reluctant to travel in general in the post 9/11 world. This has been especially true for those considering pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The last three years I have been able to accompany small groups who have made safe and successful visits to the Holy Land. Without exception I think those who made these trips have found the experience not only full of the grace hoped for in making pilgrimage, but free of the dangers one might fear from the violence to which the region (and indeed the whole world) is too often subject.
This month (August) I will return to live in the Holy Land, working again with pilgrims from around the world. Already with some small signs of progress toward resolving some of the conflicts in the Holy Land, pilgrims are returning in large numbers not seen since the busy years of relative peace leading up to the millennium in 2000. Together let us pray for peace, especially in Israel and Palestine.
If your plans include a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the next few years, I hope to see you there. And wherever your pilgrimage leads you, be sure to be open to the new and exciting ways God wants to touch your life.
Our story is dominated by a star that has risen out of the East, the mysterious East, the realm of the unknown.
Some fifty years ago I stood in the Arizona desert on a clear, moonless night and looked up into a pitch-black sky filled with a million stars. At first it was the big, bright, showy ones that grabbed me. But then I was drawn to the wee, faint pin-pricks that were the most distant. Tiny as they were, some of them, I knew, were suns hundreds and thousands of times larger than our own, and that the light I was seeing had left them not only before I was born, but before the human race was born, and probably even earlier. Their light had been traveling through intergalactic space for eons, and I was there that night to catch it.
The epiphany of that night gave me a whole new way of looking at myself and everything else, because that’s what epiphanies do; we know things, something happens, and suddenly we REALLY know them because our frame of understanding has been enlarged. Since that night, life has made me increasingly aware that I exist in context and ONLY in context. And my context is vast-for all practical purposes, infinite. And that context is incredibly dangerous: massive galaxies spinning madly, stars dying and stars being born, huge bodies colliding, columns of flaming gases shooting thousands of miles from molten surfaces that would melt our earth in seconds. And so much more.Terrifying beyond ultimate terror. And yet…
And yet, if anything were different, if, for instance, one of those massive stars I glimpsed that night didn’t exist, the entire universe would have to reconfigure itself, and in that reconfiguration would there still be an Earth, let alone an Earth with the very narrow, precise and delicate conditions necessary to sustain life as we know it? Sweet chance! In other words, either this insanely dangerous universe that has room for you and me, or a different, saner, safe universe without us. Take your choice.
The star triggers our story, but center stage belongs to the Magi. These are the “nations [that] shall walk by the light…the kings {who} shall walk in the shining radiance” that Isaiah describes in our first reading, they are “the Gentiles {who} are our co-heirs, members of the same body and [our] co-partners in the promise of Jesus Christ” that Paul celebrates in Ephesians.
If my physical context is a wild, bucking, exploding universe traveling at breakneck speed toward god-knows-where, then my human content is every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth, past and present. Thanks to breakthroughs in DNA, we now know that every human being, past and present, has descended from a dozen or so mothers, and thus, no matter the nationality, ethnic make-up, or race—white, black, yellow, red, whatever- all, ALL of us, are ONE PEOPLE, ONE family with only incidental differences. The millions whom the tsunami in a matter of minutes turned into the mourned or the mourning are my sisters and brothers and cousins, the children are my nephews and nieces. The solidarity of all peoples is not just a nice idea; it has a solid foundation in fact.
The other dominant figure in the story is poor, pathetic Herod, who thought he could manipulate history, fortress himself against life.
For over one-hundred years the U.S. Corps of Army engineers worked to control the recalcitrant Mississippi. And when one flood or another outsmarted them, it was back to the drawing boards, still confident some tweaking would do it. But after the massive floods of the 1990s, when, among other things, the Missouri decided to return to one of its earlier beds (from which the engineers reportedly had diverted it), causing death, suffering and billions of dollars in damage, the government finally came clean with the people along the river and told them, if they didn’t want to get flooded out again, they’d have to move to higher ground.
Yes, we have to take reasonable precautions against the vagaries of nature (usually in how we build and where we build), but do we really think that we can keep the universe from being the universe, or the earth from being the earth? Or do we, like silly ol” Herod, think we can save ourselves from the way things are? This earth is going to go on coughing and sneezing and stretching and yawning whether you and I like it or not. Like our own bodies, it ceaselessly adjusts to maintain homeostasis, an equilibrium between forces within and without.
In the last few days, many of us have wondered how we can get our minds around the enormity of what has happened. We can’t. Nor should we feel guilty on that account.
Like you, I’ve also asked myself what I can do.
I can mourn. I can mourn with empathy and compassion. But, if I’m honest, I won’t push myself to mourn beyond the limits of my experience. Beyond that lies sentimentality, that is, feeling for feeling’s sake; a popular but numbing indulgence.
I can also join, in my own way, the relief effort to help the survivors find a way to go on. I can deepen my solidarity with those distant people by admitting and up-rooting the vestiges of bias and discrimination in my attitude towards those close at hand.
As a human being with intellect and will and memory and emotions, I can learn, and I learn by taking time beyond the bright lights and noise and quick fixes to ponder-ponder the mystery that is life and is death, that is my significance and insignificance. I can grow beyond myself toward the dimensions of the mystery. In short, I can become wise, prizing the always--challenging important over the always--easy unimportant, largeness of soul over pettiness.
I can also become a better person to be around, because we never know how long we’re going to have one another.
It’s a story with a star, mysterious wise men, and a really dumb king. But first and foremost, it’s a God-story. A God-story against the backdrop of Christmas. It’s part of a story about a God who so loved his creation, especially his human creation, that he chose to become part of it, to know helplessness and confusion and total dependence on others. It’s a story finally of love and hope and people coping because they have one another.
I don’t pretend to know God’s over-all plan, or even whether he has one. In the meantime, I walk in wonder at the largeness and weirdness and unpredictability of it all. And I thank God every day that he’s invited me along for the ride.
*Epiphany appears here with two meanings. Originally it meant the sudden appearance of a god or goddess which gave special meaning to the event that triggered the appearance. The Church took this over to name God’s appearance in the infant Jesus to the non-Jews, the nations, the world-at-large. The second meaning, used and defined above, originated with James Joyce and is now commonplace among literary critics and other snobs.
My brother, a great teacher, traveled the Mediterranean. His studies in history and in the culture of these countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea never made an impact on him until he visited the area. Everything he learned not just in books but through his travels had a place in his heart and mind. He is able to cherish those times he spent traveling for the rest of his life. This is the same experience I had when I finally visited Assisi this past year. Everything I ever read about Francis and his followers meant a lot more to me by visiting these sights. I had the opportunity to visit Rome, Rieti, and Assisi. I visited many of the places associated with St. Francis, and I walked the same walk that he walked in these areas. It is a memory I will keep with me until the day I die. I cherish what my brother told me before I left on pilgrimage to Assisi, “Everything I learned made complete sense since I was there.”
Assisi meant a great deal to me even before my visit. Now, it means even more since I spent several weeks in this small medieval town set on a hillside. It is all so fresh and alive in my memory. It has been several months since my visit, but it is like only yesterday I walked the streets of Assisi. A group of us discovered and learned the best time to visit the tomb of St. Francis was early morning before the crowds from all over the world arrived and disturbed the peace of the world famous basilica. My best time of the day was the early morning, quiet time and prayer at the tomb of St. Francis, and the walk to the Piazza for a cappuccino. How amazed I was to see the crowds of people from all over the world enter the basilica and pray — Christian and non-Christian. I would love to hold on to the quiet and peace that the crypt offered for prayer, but I knew that many wanted to experience what I was experiencing—that what this man has brought to all humanity.
My interest in St. Francis goes back a long way. I could state much more about St. Francis and his influence on my life by my visit to where St. Francis grew up and lived. I felt like I was home in those holy places. Nevertheless, by going to Assisi it taught me to appreciate the impact of the influence St. Francis has on my life and how it has influenced the lives of the people at the Franciscan Renewal Center, the folks I minister to and the Friary community in which I live.
You begin to sense the importance of everyone in your life. I learned to look at people as being created in the image and likeness of God and are loved by God. I should do the same. I should cherish all life at all stages and not pick and choose what I feel as being necessary. I recently attended a JPIC conference for the Casa. All that had been discussed by the presenters made a deep impression on me. The importance of issues that I took for granted are no longer unimportant to me. They are important not only on a local level but on a global level as well. The Ecology Conference that we just had here at the Franciscan Renewal Center had new meaning for me since my pilgrimage to Assisi. Everything has a new look after the trip to Assisi.
If you have a love for St. Francis, I stress the importance of visiting Assisi. Someone had to beg me to go and experience what this place had to offer an individual. I encourage you to be a pilgrim and visit all the sights of the city, but take the time to experience the people, experience the geography of the place, experience the buildings and experience the history and the culture. You come back like Francis by having a better appreciation of things around you. That came to life for me through the Franciscan Pilgrimage Programs Inc. in Franklin, WI. I want to thank all who made this trip for me possible.
Who was this man Francis? Even his name began a controversy as he was baptized John the Baptist but called Francesco, or Frenchie. Seen on countless birdbaths with cute tweetie birds, dressed in something that looks more like a shapeless bathrobe than our religious habit, his dewey-eyed image is mass-produced on countless holy cards. Most people know that he prayed a lot and liked animals. Most people also think he composed the “Prayer of St. Francis,” condemned the institutional structure of the Church and said “Preach always, when necessary use words,” none of which is true. Anyway, he’s been dead since 1226. Overall our culture has made him into the rather fun, iconoclastic, consistent and easy to understand hippie of the saints. On we go to something more difficult to understand and more challenging. Our cultural understanding of Francis is formed by a poor image of the man. A much clearer image of the saint can be formed by accepting the challenges he poses to us today.
There are challenges from Francis which haven’t died and among other possibilities these challenges take the form of human relationships and the form of the metaphor of a mirror. What is Francis challenging us to do through these two forms? First, let’s look at relationships.
All relationship is ultimately based on the relationship that exists within God at the deepest level. We call this relationship the Holy Trinity. It is a perfect relationship of self-giving in which each person of the Trinity gives away totally what each person is. In this sense, we can say that God embraces the poverty of giving away all so that the other can be enriched. We can say that God has an excess of love, and that this love giving itself away is the basis for the existence of all created things, ourselves included. If we would only accept the challenge of reflecting on the Trinitarian relationship as Francis did we could see that giving is the foundation of relationship, not receiving – receiving is a step toward more giving. It is because of this total act of giving that St. Bonaventure spoke of the poverty of God, that is, the God who is always giving himself away totally for the sake of the other. Sister Ilia Delio, a present day Franciscan theologian, claims that the poverty of God is the distinctive theme of Franciscan spirituality and theology.
In Francis’ life this love of poverty led to challenging relationships which were both nourished and destroyed due to his commitments. His love of poverty destroyed his relationship with his natural family and at least some friends, yet it also led men and women to become his brothers and sisters. And furthermore, within this love of poverty he kept on giving until he had nothing left to give. In this, he reflected Jesus who gives away to the point of giving flesh and blood to this very day.
And what of the challenge of the metaphor of a mirror? Francis was called the “Mirror of the World” by his early biographers. Why? In order to be what it is, a mirror has to have 1) a particular material form and substance and 2) the quality of reflection rather than projection of an image. Its function for us is to reflect what we look like, but Francis begins to see Christ in the mirror rather than himself. This was a challenge for him and it is a challenge for us. How could he and how can I, sometimes clever, sometimes slow, alternately sinful and a vessel of grace see in our mirrored reflection the face of Christ? For Christ is the incarnate expression of the Father, the enfleshment of the one necessary relationship of the Holy Trinity from which all reality derives its source. How do I see Christ mirrored in me? The mirror is a challenge to us all. Why?
The mirror forces a question and a response. It is: how is my image conformed to that of Christ Jesus in the midst of paradoxical challenges? Major candidates for political office do not offer a consistent life ethic. Our culture values looks over substance. We train our minds for technical achievement and neglect art. We dream of love and find our life journey strewn with wrecked relationships. We long for peace and trust in war. The world we see reflected is a paradoxical one.
Francis challenges us to not put the mirror away, but to allow the image of Christ into the reflection, the Christ who reconciles heaven and earth in himself. The challenging question of Francis is alive. How is my image conformed to that of Christ Jesus in the midst of paradoxical challenges? In his paradoxical world, Francis reflected Christ so well that, at La Verna, he became a living icon of the paradoxical Lord of Glory rejected and dying on the cross of Calvary. How do we ever become icons of this Lord?
We must learn the processes of reconciliation within ourselves and with others. We must practice truth, justice, peace, and self-giving if we are to become an icon of Him who is so totally an icon of the Father. We must accept the challenges Francis places before us. These are the challenges of relationships and the need to confront and transform the reflected images of who we are. May we do all in God’s holy grace.
The phone call came in early January. Would I be willing to serve as Visitor General for the Holy Name Province? The request caught me off guard. I felt honored, humbled and challenged. I asked for a few days to consider the request. I weighed the pros and cons. I took it to prayer (our Jesuit friends call it discernment) and then I said: YES!
So what does a Visitor General do? He goes to a Franciscan province (about 96 in the world) and helps it prepare for the election of its provincial at their upcoming Chapter (convention). He "visits" with each friar and each community. He encourages, challenges, and invites the friars to implement its own priorities along with the Order’s priorities. And, yes, there are a number of reports.
And where is the Holy Name Province? It covers a good deal of the East Coast from Massachusetts to Florida. It is headquartered in Manhattan (isn’t there a street called Broadway there?). With over 425 friars, it is one of the largest provinces in the world. Many are its ministries - among both the poor and the influential. Oh yes, it has friars in foreign countries, too, e.g. Japan and Peru.
So how does this appointment impact San Damiano? It means that I will be gone from October of this year to July 2005. Plans are being made to appoint an acting director. The stellar staff will continue to provide stellar service. I am confident we will not miss a beat.
This is the close of a letter I recently wrote to all the friars of Holy Name Province:
In the words of the psalmist "...young men ... and old men ... let them (us) praise the name of the Lord." I also hear the words of an East Coast sage: "Go West, young man." And I’m willing to change direction and modify the adjective!
The Franciscans of my province have given me a way of life. The Holy Name Province has given me warm hospitality and lasting friendships. I am not unaware of the challenge this task brings. However, I feel it a call, and with God’s goodness, one that I can answer. I’ve no doubt that the venture East will be transformed into an adventure best.
Let’s keep each other in prayer.
Dear Lord Jesus, pierce the most intimate part of my soul with the sweetest and healthful wound of your love; with truth, purity, holiness, and apostolic charity so that my soul itself may be consumed with love and desire for you alone. I yearn for you and I would love to become your dwelling place and I hope to be able to be with you.
Make my soul hungry for you, the bread of Angels. Give health to souls, you who are our daily bread, for you have every delight and sweetness and bring the greatest happiness.
The angels desire to contemplate you constantly. Cause my heart to hunger for you and be satisfied. May the most intimate part of my soul be filled with your sweetness. May my soul always be thirsty for you the fountain of life, the fountain of all wisdom, the source of eternal light, the stream of delights, flowing from the house of God. To you, I always aspire. I look for you, I seek you, you are my goal. I reach for you, I think of you, I speak of you, and everything done for your glory and honor is done with humility, with love and pleasure, with ease and with affection and with perseverance that endures until the end.
And may you, Lord, always be my hope and my faith, my riches and my delight, my joy and happiness, and my rest. You are my tranquility, my peace, my gentleness, my fragrance, my sweetness, my food, my rest, my refuge, my help , my wisdom, my portion, my good, my treasure, my solid rock of strength, my firm roots, always remain in my mind and heart.