Day 20 . . . our last reflections on Poverty. Though I have been blessed to be part of this retreat two times in the past, I have to say Kirvan's writings on poverty have struck me more deeply this year and, on some days, I found his thoughts extremely challenging. What we know is that Francis minced no words about being poor. His life was a full-blown, way-out-there commitment to poverty. His friars and Clare's nuns froze in the winter and sweated in the summers. On some days, neither groups had anything to eat. And yet, they were committed, devoted, JOYFUL!
People with families cannot live this way. They are not called to. We, as friars and woman religious, do not live this way. Yet: we are drawn to Francis and surely are challenged by his life and his message. Francis was a phenomenally happy man in his great poverty! People sought him out.
As we move away now from these reflections on poverty, it is good to ask:
-- what has struck me most deeply from these 10 days of readings on Franciscan poverty?
-- what thought, action, desire am I taking away with me?
-- how do I live the Franciscan challenge to be poor in spirit in the midst of our present society and my present life circumstances?
Any thoughts or sharings?
Tomorrow: PEACE.
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FRANCIS AND HIS MISSION
ReplyDeleteTo every town, to everyone,
Francis proclaimed the kingdom of God.
From the poorest to the most learned
people flocked from everywhere to hear the holy man
and to embrace a new life.
His message seemed to them like a light sent from heaven.
The face of the land changed.
Cheerfulness replaced the dour face of sin.
New growth sprang up in neglected fields.
Untended vines gave way to new blossoms that
proclaimed the Lord.
The land brought forth new fruit.
Thanksgiving and praise blossomed everywhere
and many put aside their worldly lives
to learn from the blessed preacher
how to love and revere their Creator.
To everyone
he presented new standards of living.
He demonstrated the way of salvation
in every walk of life. (1 Celano XV)
For the past 10 days we have read and prayed about poverty, and what it meant to St. Francis to be poor. Certainly today, as anytime in history, there are a myriad of reasons behind being homeless, destitute, and hungry; these states in life being caused by what many people will tell you is mental illness, laziness, or stupidity. And while these are indeed the safe answers, i.e. they do not make us feel bad about ourselves because we feel that other people’s poverty is not our fault, because we can stereotype and define homeless people as mentally ill, lazy, and/or stupid. It is a lot harder to come to understand the problem of homelessness when we realize that so many times, the individual is in his or her situation in life because of neglect, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteSister Christen had told a story back on Mission Day about being at a High School, walking up the stairs, and seeing a boy that she said ‘good morning’ to. Now if you know anything about Sr. Christen, it is that she says ‘hello’ and engages everybody she meets! But why this particular story was different, was that because Sister read this young man’s face; a face that said, ‘Do you see me?’ This, my friends, is the type of neglect that leads to poverty (poverty understood and/or seen as homelessness by isolation, in the lonely, alone, and one reason behind ‘loners’; a poverty through neglect that manifests into compulsion, then addiction, and finally dependence). These forms of poverty are the last place a person wants to be.
But poverty as a choice?! What was Francis thinking; how is ‘nothing’ the way to ‘everything’? Francis’ key insight, and what was at the center of his person, was that through living in literal poverty (not just spiritual poverty) true faith in God was had by a complete dependence on God for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g (from where he would find his next meal, to where he would lay his head to sleep). Francis’ poverty can therefore be understood in terms of detachment from the material world; not in the neo-platonic sense of matter being ‘bad’ and humanity being mired in it, but in the sense that we are not our possessions. So many times today we are associated with or by the things we own (sports cars, houses, Tiffany jewelry, Rolex watches, etc.) that it is not long before our things own us. Through a true life of poverty Francis found a way to break away from the burden of ownership, the weight of ‘want’ (what we ‘want’ is not always what we ‘need’), and the encumbrance of possessions.
Through a real dependence on God through a life of poverty, the heart, soul, and mind can truly become free; and this freedom is not for self-fulfillment, but rather, allows the individual to really be present to those in need; those needy, those homeless, those liminal peoples whose poverty was not a choice, but who none-the-less believe in the salvation of Jesus Christ. The model of St. Francis, through the model of Jesus Christ, completes the human circle of dependence on God. St. Francis, by his poverty which led to an utter dependence on God, was Christ (showed Christ through his person) for the people of his time, as we are all called to be Christ for each other in our everyday activity.