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Audio Course: St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian

Blog Author: Br. William Short

Greetings from Assisi! I am just returning from a meeting with 50 representatives of our Poor Clare Sisters from around the world, commemorating the 800th anniversary of the beginnings of the Franciscan Family. This pilgrimage to the place of our origins took us to St. Mary of the Angels of the Portiuncula, a place of conversion for both Francis and Clare, and to San Damiano, where Francis worked on repairs, and where Clare spent most of her life.

We venerated the memories of our founders at their tombs, at the Basilica of St. Clare and that of St. Francis. And we took the long, winding mountain road to the peak of La Verna to pray in the Chapel of the Stigmata, remembering the ecstatic encounter of Francis with the Crucified. The weather was cold, foggy and rainy, yet each place brought a certain warmth.

To spend nearly two weeks with a community of my Sisters dedicated to a life of contemplation was a new experience for me, and a good one. The way they sought moments of silence in the midst of important meetings, or found a small corner in which to sit and look at the beautiful countryside — these small gestures reminded me of the strength of the vision of St. Clare among her daughters across the centuries.From Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, France, Poland, the US and many other countries, the spiritual heirs of Clare of Assisi are an amazing phenomenon! Yes, they are women of prayer, yet they are also great fun — we celebrated “Carnevale” together in grand style, with a Brazilian Sister playing a kind of samba on the guitar, and funny Italian pastries that seemed to be fried dough sprinkled with a lot of powdered sugar.

They are also quite practical: one of my jobs was trying to track down the proper sulfur compound to protect wine-grapes Sisters are growing in Africa (I suppose this is because I have dabbled in California wine-making, but I am certainly not a chemistry student!) The rich blend of scholarly conferences, pilgrimages to important Franciscan sites, and prayerful moments in liturgy together gave me an even deeper love for my twenty-thousand Poor Clare Sisters around the world.

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Audio Course:  St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian

Blog Author:  Br. William Short  

 The late Franciscan theologian, Fr. Eric Doyle, has written in this way about the importance of Christocentrism:

If there is one word which does complete justice to Franciscan theology and spirituality it is “Christocentric,” and they have this as their distinguishing feature, because the faith and holiness of St. Francis were totally centered on Christ. In Jesus Christ the revelation is made to us of what the world, as a whole and in all its parts, means to God.

The doctrine of Christ as center can already be found in Francis’ own writings, and has been developed by outstanding theologians, especially by Alexander of Hales and his student, Bonaventure. Later it takes on even greater importance in the teaching of John Duns Scotus.

Francis contributes to the tradition with his own insight about the central role of Christ in the Rule of 1221, where he writes: “All things spiritual and corporal were created through the Son.” In a long meditation of these few, simple words, Doyle remarks:

“his devout love of the humanity of Jesus Christ brought him to understand that everything in heaven and on earth has been reconciled with God through Christ (Letter to a General Chapter). Francis reminds us all to realize the dignity God has bestowed on us: our body he formed and created in the image of his Son, our soul he made in his own likeness (Admonition V). This reflection is one of the most profound and far-reaching in the writings of St. Francis. For it seems clear that he is asserting in it that the first Adam was created after the image of the second Adam, Jesus Christ. The body of the Incarnate Word, Jesus of Nazareth, was the blueprint for the bodies of the first human beings. A little after the time of St. Francis, the learned doctor of the Order, Friar Alexander of Hales, explained that the image of God in whose likeness mankind was created, was the Saviour, who is the firstborn of all creatures.  For all their simplicity and clarity, these sentences of Francis just quoted, have a rich theological content. Contained in embryo is the Christocentric vision of the Franciscan school and even the doctrine of Christ’s absolute primacy as formulated and expounded by John Duns Scotus.”  

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Audio Course:  St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian

Blog Author:  Br. William Short 

Wherever one turns in Franciscan spirituality, one finds Christ. He functions as the center of devotion, of ministry, of life together, of authority, of charity. It is a truism to say that such a spirituality is Christocentric. The word, so technical in appearance, in fact breathes and moves beneath every authentically Franciscan text and life.

Christ becomes the answer to the philosophical question, “Why is there something and not nothing?” The answer is, “Because of Christ.” From the atom to the universe, and including every level and phase of life and love within that compass, the radiating life and presence of Christ hold all things together, as he vivifies and completes them.

While Christ must always be central to the faith of any Christian, there is a way in which we can speak of a special insistence on that centrality in the Franciscan tradition. We can speak of a “radical Christocentrism,” which willingly sees Christ within human psychology, social life, mathematics and physics, music and drama. Wherever something or someone is, there is Christ. He is the inescapable, though often unrecognized, meaning behind all things.

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Audio Course:  St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian

Blog Author:  Br. William Short  

To supplement the Franciscan audio course with this blog, let’s now explore St. Francis’ theology and how it relates to Franciscan spirituality, which has even more profound meaning for us in this time of Lent.  Francis was a theologian in the ancient sense, “one who speaks of God.” Rarely expressed in dogmatic form, Francis’ theology reveals itself in praises, letters, scraps of sermons, blessings, admonitions. Traits called characteristically and authentically Franciscan derive from this source.

Over the centuries Francis’ theological vision has received more systematic presentation in the works of such disciples as Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus.Here we will interweave pieces from various parts of the Franciscan theological tradition, presenting a God who is good. Here is one possible beginning for Franciscan theology. God’s goodness has special force because it is eminently real. The goodness of God the Creator (fontalis plenitudo for Bonaventure) is fully self-aware, this awareness being so real that it is personal, and is called “the Word” (exemplar omnium). The bond between the fullness and the exemplar is likewise eminently real and personal, and is the Spirit (cogeneratus).

The very life of God is one of goodness expressing itself generously, fully. This divine goodness lives in personal communion. God is interpersonal and relational.This communion has at its center the Word, the core or middle of God’s life as Trinity. Wishing to express overflowing goodness, God wishes to pour out an expression of the divine life.God’s desire to share goodness is expressed as creation. But creation is not merely to receive some partial, limited sharing in God’s goodness and life. God will actually give away even the very heart of the divine life, the Word.With this in mind, the will to give away the very core of divine life, God forms the world through the Word.

Since the Word will be the crowning glory of the creation, God makes light and darkness, trees, stones and fish, all the creatures, according to the Word as model, or blueprint or form. The human person, man and woman, resembles most closely the model that God uses to create. Since the Word is to come among human beings, as one of them, they resemble the Word very exactly.In all this work of creation God shows one of the divine characteristics—outpouring of what is within, giving away all that is inside. This we may call the bowing over of God, the gesture typical of one who offers. We may also call this the humility of God, divine condescension. God gives away all, holds nothing back as property: this is the poverty of God, showing in the visible things of creation the invisible and constant self-giving which is the life of the Trinity.

The world mirrors, now clearly, now obscurely, this inner, divine life of unending bowing over in generosity.The universe and all creatures reflect God, speak of God, reveal God because they are made according to a pattern, the model of God’s own heart, the core of the Trinity, the Word. The human person, coming at the completion of creation, gives voice to the praise of all creatures for the Creator.The creation is fully understandable at the birth of Jesus. Here is the “missing link,” always present, now visible. The core, the middle, the center of God’s own inner communion comes, in order to be a creature.

With the coming of the Word as one of them, creatures find their model enfleshed. Christ is no alien in a strange universe: he was from the beginning the reason and the Creator’s blueprint for every particle of matter, for all things visible and invisible, for everything and everyone.Whatever is beautiful reflects his beauty; whatever is living, lives because of him; whatever is true discloses him who is true; whatever is, is in him. “Everything was made in him, and without him was made nothing of that which was made” (John’s Gospel, Prologue).In his well-known love for creatures, Francis acts out this recognition of God’s presence. He delights in the world of creation, and simply the touch of a creature can leave him enraptured. Francis continually exhorts every person and thing to “praise, bless and magnify the Creator.”

He treats them with deference and reverence, reminding his followers to be subject to every creature out of love for God. He calls every creature “brother” or “sister,” and shows toward them, not simply curiosity or interest, but a tender affection.Here is the full expression of God’s identity: complete bowing over to offer the innermost reality of God as a gift. God’s complete generosity is revealed in the Incarnation—nothing is held back, nothing is “property” to God, all is given away, God’s true identity is communicated as poverty, holding on to nothing.The religious world that humans developed cannot contain this mystery: God does not come as an angel, or as a burst of light, nor even as an idea or a vision—God comes as a baby. And the Word, incarnate, comes to a place and to people marked by poverty, because these are most fitting to express the mystery—the surprising revelation of who God really is.These theological reflections were not systematized by Francis, yet they help us to understand the importance of certain gestures and phrases of his.

The feast of Christmas recalls that great humility and self-giving of God. Francis celebrates the feast dramatically, composing a living scene of animals and people in a cave at Greccio—recreating in his gesture the mystery of God’s poor love.Jesus shows in his life this identity of God, in his choices, his words, his friends, his enemies, his gestures and signs. In the suffering he endures, and most fully in his Passion, Jesus reveals the unexpected identity of a God bowing over to give away all.Even as he prepares to leave his friends, at table with them, Jesus continues to reveal this identity, so hard for them to accept.

According to John’s Gospel, he removes his outer garments, binds himself with a towel and bows over to wash their feet. Here is the true image of God. In the Synoptics, he takes the work of peasants’ hands and gives away his own life as a cup of wine and a piece of bread.These gestures are anticipations of the great giving away, the bowing over of death. Stripped of everything, pouring out his own lifeblood, water and blood flowing from his opened side, breathing forth his spirit, completely broken and emptied, suffering physical agony and spiritual desolation, Jesus at the moment of his death gives away God’s own life.Francis speaks of the “crucified poor man,” Christ, and knows that his death is the great act of God’s loving graciousness. And in the Eucharist Francis recognizes the continuing gift—the Lord Jesus Christ gives himself fully as bread and wine.

This divine life is given, eternally and irrevocably, for creatures.The Trinitarian life of God, fully revealed and fully given away, shines with glorious joy in the Resurrection of Jesus, the glorification of Christ who becomes the first of creatures to be born into God. God’s generosity now has opened the arms of the Trinity to every creature. Their full destiny is revealed— not only were they conformed to the Word in their origins, they are to be transformed in the Word as their fulfillment. All that God has given away begins its return to that personal and generous communion, glorified and transformed.God’s self giving is a gift, freely given.

The very life of God is a continual giving of self in the Trinity. The divine gift of life and communion is poured out through the Word. The Word, born as a creature, a person, is the full gift of God’s own self.In the life of Jesus, in his death, and his being raised up, the creation can finally, fully return to God as a gift, the gift of the Word. This circle of giving, in which Creator and creatures give all and receive all, rests on a single premise: that one does not hold back what has been given. When this happens, the gracious circle is broken, the exchange of gifts is interrupted, the whole creation risks losing its meaning and its very life.

In Franciscan terminology, this is a definition of sin—the sin described in Genesis, and the sin that follows: refusing to give away the gifts one has received.For some Christian authors, the primary sin of Adam and Eve was pride, for others, it was disobedience. For Franciscans, it was the will to possess.Reading the Genesis story in this light, we see the man and the woman are made “in the image and likeness of God.” They receive all from God as a gift, and they give away all to God as praise and loving thanks. The serpent comes and proposes to offer them something, the fruit “that will make them like God.”

The offer is ludicrous: they are already like God. (The Father of Lies is at work, with a trick as old as civilization—selling you what is already yours). The difference, of course, is that this time it will not be given as a gift, it will be taken, grasped, held onto.And in this moment, the circle of the gift is broken. Harmony in creation fails. The image of God is obscured.We begin to see here the reason for the preeminence of poverty and gratitude in Francis’ vision. They are the two faces of this holy exchange of gifts: gratitude acknowledges that everything has been given to us, and poverty gives it all away.

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Audio Course:  St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian

Blog Author:  Br. William Short 

Francis marks the beginning of his new life with the sign of meeting the leper. Those suffering from leprosy in the thirteenth century lived a radical poverty. They were “dead,” with funeral services celebrated over their still living bodies. Their property was confiscated; their family ties, friendship and social relations were broken. They lived by the gifts of others.

“The Lord led me among them”—Francis attributes this leading to the Lord. “What was bitter to me became sweet.” Francis finds among the lepers a quality, “sweetness,” which he usually attributes to God’s presence.

And he wishes to stay among them, to be with “persons looked down upon, among the poor, the weak, the sick and the lepers, and those begging on the side of the road.” Among these, the persons looked down upon, Francis wishes to live. They are like Jesus “who was poor, and a guest, and lived by begging, himself and holy Mary the blessed virgin, his mother.”

In the poor, Francis sees the image of Christ, the Image of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is poor in his birth, poor in his life, and poor in his death. And he wants to be in the world as one “looked down upon, needy and poor.”

Francis embraces the leper, and with that gesture embraces the “holy Lady Poverty,” and her sister, “holy humility.” He does this out of a profound intuition that, through giving away everything, he will share in a truly divine activity; he will be accepting his true identity as made in the image of the poor God. “God created and formed you to the image of his beloved Son according to the body,” Francis said, “all spiritual and bodily things and ourselves were made to your image and likeness.”

With his discovery of God’s poverty, Francis knows his own identity as made in God’s image, and recognizes his connection with all creatures—like him, they are images.

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Audio Course:  St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian

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Blog Author:  Br. William Short

Because they wished to live all the Gospel, the new form of life Franciscans inaugurated fit neither the category of the contemplative nor the active life as these were being defined. They were classified as being of “mixed life,” that is, both contemplative and active. This characteristic can help us to understand how the Franciscan family can include full-time contemplatives and missionaries, heads of families and hermits within its wide embrace. They all form a part of the whole, and the Gospel demands that wholeness.
Clare serves as a reminder that the Franciscan movement at its origins has no need to struggle with the issue of the importance and centrality of the contemplative life, but rather with the question of preaching and its place within a life dedicated to the spirit of “prayer and holy devotion.”

In the Major Life of Francis by Bonaventure, Francis asks two people to help him discern the shape of his life. The two people are Sylvester, one of the brothers, and Clare. His question was this: Could he best serve God by living in a hermitage or by preaching? Clare and Sylvester prayed about this matter, and both replied that he should continue preaching.

The question, as Bonaventure presents it, probably concerned others besides Francis. Clare lived as a “contemplative” (to use our modern categories); Sylvester, a priest, is known to us chiefly as a hermit, another contemplative. The question is directed to these two trusted advisors, and their answer is that Francis continue the “active” life of preaching.

Yet the terms “active” and “contemplative” are rather misleading when speaking of the early Franciscans. Neither Francis nor Clare use the word “contemplative.” They do speak of “contemplation” in various ways, Clare more often than Francis, but it refers generally to “looking at” or “beholding.”

Both Francis and Clare speak of the “spirit of prayer” as a guiding principle in the life of their brothers and sisters. And both expect that work will be an essential part of their lives.

The Brothers and Sisters of Penance, those who live in their own homes, have families and occupations in society, are called to a contemplative life of prayer in the circumstances of their lives.

Clare and her sisters give a special witness to the contemplative dimension of the Franciscan vocation. In solitude and communion as sisters, the Poor Sisters express this gift in complete poverty, mutual love, liturgical prayer, attentive listening to the Word of God, and in work.

This life is a form of preaching. Clare asks her sisters to live this evangelical life “in the sight of all,” so that by their example people may be brought to Christ, to be “a mirror and example for all living in the world.”
Francis writes a Rule especially for those brothers who live in hermitages, and in his own life witnesses to the importance of the contemplative foundation of his life of conversion. His biographers picture Francis spending as much as seven months a year living in the silence and solitude of the many early Franciscan hermitages. In these places (Greccio, Fonte Colombo, La Verna, among others) three or four brothers lead a contemplative life, alternating roles of “mothers” and “sons.”

This easy exchange of roles which we would call active and contemplative, shows the difficulty of characterizing Francis’ “form of life” as being either contemplative or active. It is quite simply, fully both.

Francis himself frequently lived in these solitary places, frequently celebrating a “Lent” of fasting and prayer. His biographers indicate that he observed as many as five “Lents.” These included the Lent of the Incarnation, from the Feast of All Saints in early November until Christmas; and another period from the Feast of the Epiphany in January to the beginning of what we usually call Lent, the Great Lent of the Redemption for forty days before Easter. From the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul in late June until the Feast of the Assumption in mid-August he observed another period of solitude and prayer. From the Assumption until late September, he observed a Lent that ended with the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel. We do not know whether Francis observed all of these Lents every year. If he did, more than half the year was dedicated to contemplative solitude: early November through March or April (depending on the date of Easter), and late June through September.

Other brothers imitated this practice to a greater or lesser degree—they were obliged only to observe the “Great Lent” before Easter and the “Lent” preceding Christmas. We can suppose that some would spend this time in the hermitages, alternating that form of life with the more “active” life of the suburban places and preaching journeys. Some brothers seem to have stayed at the hermitages year round. Whatever the time individual brothers may have spent in the hermitage, it was an important component of the life of the early fraternity of Lesser Brothers.
 

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Related Audio Course:  St. Francis of Assisi: A New Way of Being Christian
 
Blog Author:  Br. William Short

It is all very well to have a theology, to develop a spirituality, and to have an impact on popular devotional life. But a spiritual tradition must do other things in order to survive and flourish within the Church. It must have a form of life, some system of relationships, structures and programs that help to translate the vision into lived experience, and to turn the lived experience constantly toward its founding vision.

The Franciscan “form” may be called the vita evangelica, the evangelical life, the Gospel life. That in itself would not seem to distinguish it from the ordinary life of dedication lived by any committed Christian. However, the reader may find, on closer analysis, that the specific meaning and interpretation of that term contains much that is distinctive.
 
First of all, Franciscans intend to live the whole Gospel. Again, this may not seem surprising. But in fact most traditions within the Church claim to live one facet, or a couple of important dimensions of the Gospel. For example, one group may intend to imitate the hidden life of Jesus, while another models itself on Jesus the preacher during his public ministry. A third may seek to model itself on the suffering of the Lord, and a fourth on the glory of Christ’s resurrection.

Franciscans have claimed from the very beginning that they wished to live every part of the Gospel, the “full Gospel.” This desire to include all the many parts of the Gospel within its life has led the Franciscan family, in its many branches, to live with paradox, even seeming contradiction. The following posts and blog articles will sketch some important features of the Franciscan way of life, showing how it includes many different parts of the “full Gospel.” 

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