Fr. Dan Riley, OFM, and Mike Fenn offer their thoughts about the Feast of St. Francis. Please share your thoughts and reflections.*********************
Matthew 11: 25-30
At that time Jesus said in reply, "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light”
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By Dan Riley, OFM
Reflecting with Mike Fenn I think of how so many of us might consider ourselves clever and well educated. Francis did not see himself that way, but he certainly understood himself as a “child of God.”
Occasionally we might hear someone speak of hoping for or espousing “a new world order,” “a new consciousness.” We roll our eyes, don’t we sometimes not in wonderment, but I would suggest in judgment. Ironically … tragically, the judgment is actually on ourselves.
Jesus, the Christ, is the new consciousness and he has ushered in a whole new world order … truly a wonderment to behold. It is only as a child, “child like,” that we are able to see that we wonder more than worry and behold rather than shut down or close out this most amazing “new.” With all that is going on and the pain within our families and our country, this promise is at our door, invites us to open up the eyes of our hearts.
As Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father.” He also instructs us to say, “OUR FATHER!” All of us are children and we have a new life for us to live as we choose not to roll our eyes, but open our eyes to this new order, this new reign, this Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Even as we might be gripped by a sense of powerlessness or with tragedy in the midst of ourselves, a new hope wants to blossom, a hope only a child could see, a hope we are invited to see as children of the same God. A whole new order wants to break out on the place and the feeling of powerlessness. It is the power of God’s reign which only comes to children, to the child like. I dare say that it is the “plenty” that we only sense when we feel empty. It is the hopelessness that carves at our hearts at times that opens us space for the light to break in.
The reflection of Mike recalls for us now, as brothers and sisters, the risk of believing that there is One who calls us from our labor and our burdens to find rest, the arms of a loving God and in a family of faith. Especially when we feel we carry the burden of the world, Christ asks us “to take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” The One who is “meek and humble” is also the One who empowers us in the conversion of our hearts and the change in our world.
Let us risk, then, seeing as children on this Feast of our little brother Francis and work for it as grown-ups, brother and sisters, who share this re-newed consciousness. Let us step up and step out risking, as a child, to believe that Jesus means each of us when he says, “Come to me … my yoke is easy … my burden light.”
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By Mike Fenn
As I reflected over this reading and what is going on in the world today, I thought about the uncertainty our country faces, and the anxiety that coincides with this. Seemingly the past two national elections couldn’t have been more divisive, yet once again we face polarizing alternatives, with partisans on either side perceiving doom and gloom if their choice doesn’t get elected. In the personal finance sector, there’s been a jolt to the fundamental structure of our economy that my generation has never experienced before. In times like these, I find it impossible not to think about the worst case scenarios, and how I will support my family if those circumstances arise.
It is easy to withdraw and want to insulate ourselves from the risk of the world, taking care of only those we care for the most, while we try to make sense of all this from “the wise and the learned” on Fox News, or CNBC.
Opportunities such as these shared reflections help me break away from this cocooning instinct, and to ask how Francis would behave in such times. We know the world Francis lived in was a time of turmoil as well. The middle class was slowly forming, with the world predominantly made up from the wealthy and the poor.
Yet while Francis chose to turn away from a life of riches, he did not focus on two classes of haves and have-nots, or party affiliations of Democrats and Republicans. Francis followed the words of Christ that taught we all called to be brothers and sisters with one another and nothing more.
If our political and business leaders behaved in this manner, I wonder how much worse off we would be?
In these times of volatility and confusion I find great joy from a God Who implores me that revelation comes from behaving like a child, and great solace from my troubles when Jesus reminds me that “All who labor or are burdened, I will give you rest.”
(Post a comment below to share your thoughts.)
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Christ is found through humility. This world is full of distractions. Distractions that blind us, feed our pride, our arrogance. But by the example of Christ who's obedience to the Father, and accepted his will and fate at the hands of mankind - showed us true humility. Humility empties us to make room for Him. Just as sin serves as a barrier to his grace, so does pride occupy the space that our Lord should occupy in our hearts. Just as Matthew reminds us, give up these worldly yokes to our Lord, and we can be truely free.
ReplyDeleteBeing a dad of two and learning more what it means to be in our natural state as adults -- for me, the word childlike requires a simple yet innate ability of constant letting go. I am as late recognizing how much I hold
ReplyDeleteon and how much life and love requires us to let go -- at every moment. In recognizing resistance in life to just about anything -- a strong-willed child, an opposing point of view, someone wanting to control 'me' -- and yet learning to let go, to release in the face of these, is to be child-like. When we carry less, hold on to less, our burden is
light. We seek not to power over others, but simply to be with others ... and let go.
Peace and hope,
Mike Camoin
Albany, NY
I appreciate both Mike Fenn's and Dan Riley's reflections above and the resonances they strike within me on this Feast of Francis. I offer a simple extension of their thoughts - one effort of a "pastoral application," if you will.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty we all find in Francis is, I think, in the point that, because he was humble and open, he was able to see all people and all of creation as brother and sister. This is indeed the call we have as well. This realization that Mike brought out, and Dan reflected on theologically, requires an inner commitment - an "askesis" as the ancient Greeks would call it, a "discipline of life" as we might say. It then requires that we go forth into the world and discern the Spirit of God at work in the choices we face.
It is not enough to simply reside in a vague awareness of our brotherhood and sisterhood to one another and to all creation, but to reflect on the ways we are called to take a concrete stand on what that means. Francis, after achieving the highest heights of contemplation, always knew that that experience led him to make concrete choices and take concrete actions about right relationships. He also at times turned people away from the Order, not because he was exclusive, but because of his discernment about the person's readiness to live the life that he felt the community should live. But he would always encourage people on their journey toward the God who loves us all, following the example of Christ who gave all so that all might be given a way Home.
For us today, in these uncertain times, it means, as Mike invites, to think beyond our small circle to our larger human family. It means, among many other things, discerning how we are to make political choices and who we choose to support as a reflection of those values. It means, I think, to make sure that we are not "scared to the sidelines" of history but take a stand on the "new hope" for a "new world order" that the Gospels speak of as the full flowering of God's promises.
Francis, and certainly Jesus, would, in my view, clearly claim all as brothers and sisters across today's partisan divides. But then we are faced with that most dreadful, most hopeful, duty we have as humans created in God's image. We have to choose! We have to decide not only how we as persons, as a family, will live, but how we hope our nation and world might live. We have to strive to see things, as Francis saw them, from the side of those whose lives are broken apart, those who are poor and marginalized and can see no hope.
Francis was not apolitical. He knew when choices had to be made -- choices that may have seemed to at times exclude, but which, if looked at through the lens of his deepest commitment to the Gospel, seem to include all people on that journey that all creation must make, back to the One who has called it into life and into relationship.
These seem to me the themes that today's Feast of Francis in this moment call us to reflect upon.
Thank you to Dan and to Mike for inviting us to see, hear, and wonder in new ways. I was especially captured by the power and paradox of Dan's comment: "It is the hopelessness that carves at our hearts at times that opens us space for the light to break in". What a remarkable possibility...or...what a wonderful expression of God's promise to bless us, at all times and in all places, the grace of His love, mercy, and forgiveness...
ReplyDelete