Chapter Two:
The Way of Life
Because of General
Constitutions always shed more light upon the Article of the Rule itself, it is
good to remind us of what they say:
Article 10: Rule 10 "Christ, poor
and crucified", victor over death and risen, the greatest manifestation of
the love of God for humanity, is the "book" in which the brothers and
sisters, in imitation of St. Francis, learn the purpose and the way of living,
loving, and suffering. They discover in
Him the value of contradictions for the sake of justice and the meaning of the
difficulties and the crosses of daily life.
With Him, they can accept the will of the Father even under the most
difficult circumstances and live the Franciscan spirit of peace, rejecting
every doctrine contrary to human dignity.
Article 11: Mindful that the Holy Spirit is the source of
their vocation and the animator of fraternal life and mission, Secular
Franciscans should seek to imitate the faithfulness of St. Francis to His
inspiration. They should listen to the
exhortation of the Saint to desire above all things "the Spirit of God at
work within them."
Article 12:
1. Gaining inspiration from the example and the writings of St.
Francis and, above all, filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, each day the
brothers and sisters faithfully live the great gift which Christ has given: the
revelation of the Father. They should
bear witness to this faith before all: — in their family life; — in their work;
— in their joys and sufferings; — in their associations with all men and women,
brothers and sisters of the same Father; — in their presence and participation
in the life of society; — in their fraternal relationships with all creatures.
2. Rule 10 With Jesus, obedient even to
death, they should seek to know and do the will of the Father. They should give thanks to God for the gift
of freedom and for the revelation of the law of love. In order to carry out the will of the Father,
they should accept the help which is offered to them through the mediation of
the Church by those who are constituted as authority in her and by their confreres. They should take on the risk of courageous
choices in their life in society with decisiveness and serenity.
Well, that’s a lot
to take in! So, let’s break it down into
small pieces so that we may better understand what it all means.
Uniting
themselves to the redemptive obedience of Jesus…
We begin with the
simple idea of uniting ourselves to a special principle. In this case, we are asked to unite with the
“redemptive obedience of Jesus.” Those words sound to our ears as a scary
option. When we think about Jesus, we
remember how he submitted his life to God’s Will and through Gethsemane and the
Cross he redeemed us from our life of sin.
He gave himself over completely to the Father’s Will!
Wait a minute! That ended up being an excruciating painful situation! Are we expected to go to the cross to be a
faithful follower of Christ?
What was it he said?
“24 Then Jesus said to his
disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,* take up his
cross, and follow me. 25 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and
forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?” (MATT 16)
That doesn’t sound
very cushy to me. Well, that’s the
point. Following Christ is NOT
an easy job. As we read the Beatitudes
and remember many of his sayings, we find that they are countercultural--just
the opposite of what society says we should be and do. St. Francis quickly picked up on this idea as
he formulated his way of following Christ through Gospel living.
This whole idea of
“redemptive obedience” is going to be difficult. When we consider that
Christ's whole life is a mystery of redemption. Redemption comes to us above all through the blood
of his cross, but this mystery is at work throughout Christ's entire life:
·
already in his Incarnation through which by becoming poor he
enriches us with his poverty;
·
in his hidden life which by his submission atones for our
disobedience;
·
in his word which purifies its hearers;
·
in his healings and exorcisms by which "he took our infirmities
and bore our diseases";
·
and in his Resurrection by which he justifies us. (CCC 517)
If we are to follow St.
Francis in his obedience to the Will of God, we will find ourselves becoming “…obedient unto death…”, just as Jesus
did. Now, this “death”, while we are living, is one of sacrifice. Living simply, and that’s what we’re really
talking about, is giving up—foregoing—turning away from—those things that are
not required for life in Christ—detachment from the things of this world in
favor of union with Christ—where true happiness lies.
We are not without
help, however; even amid this challenge
In order to carry out the will
of the Father, they should accept the help which is offered to them through the
mediation of the Church by those who are constituted as authority in her and by
their confreres. They should take on the
risk of courageous choices in their life in society with decisiveness and
serenity. (GC 12.2)
All of this is not
as complex as it sounds. The Catechism
reminds us:
Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of
spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken
spirit...." The prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices
that were not from the heart or not coupled with love of neighbor. Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea:
"I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross
as a total offering to the Father's love and for our salvation. By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we
can make our lives a sacrifice to God. (CCC 2100)
In our obedience,
then, we become a sacrifice when we supplant our own personal desires for those
of God. We stop trying to be “in-charge”
and allow God to show us how to live out our lives in an honest, other-centered
fashion. Simply put, we think of others
before ourselves and give our time, talent, and treasure for their benefit. In so doing, we truly follow St. Francis’
example of Christ’s way of living—loving God with everything we have and our
neighbor as ourselves.
…let
them faithfully fulfill the duties proper to their various circumstances of
life.
We are called the Secular Franciscan Order. That Secular
is a very important part of who we are!
We live in today’s world and are charged to change it as a result of our
witness to the Gospel values that we profess.
Though our daily lives, we encounter the world and infuse it with the
gifts of faith, hope, and love. What we
say and do truly reflects the Gospel lives that we live and, hopefully, infects
those around us with similar desires.
By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to
seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them
according to God's will.... It pertains to them in a special way so to
illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated
that these may always be [affected] and grow according to Christ and maybe to
the glory of the Creator and Redeemer. (CCC 898)
We are obligated to
change the world into a Gospel centered society through our interaction with
society at our job, school, home, sports, arts, extended family, and…. well, the
list goes on. Essentially, everywhere we
go, we should leave the mark of the Christ-life as an example and role model
for everyone we meet. Now, you can
easily understand why we have already talked about prayer and devotion to
Mary—both will help us achieve this goal, when we remember that we are obedient
to God’s will, not our own.
Let
them also follow the poor and crucified Christ, witness to Him even in difficulties
and persecutions.
The Catechism offers
clarity to this last phrase of Article 10:
The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one
mediator between God and men". But because in his incarnate divine person
he has in some way united himself to every man, "the possibility of being
made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery" is offered
to all men. He calls his disciples to "take up [their] cross and follow
[him]", for "Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example
so that [we] should follow in his steps." In fact Jesus desires to
associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first
beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was
associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his
redemptive suffering. (CCC 618)
Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may
get to heaven... (CCC 618)
Christ unites us with his Passover: all his members must strive
to resemble him, "until Christ be formed" in them. "For this reason,
we . . . are taken up into the mysteries of his life, . . . associated with his
sufferings as the body with its head, suffering with him, that with him we may
be glorified." (CCC 793)
Hence the laity, dedicated as they are to Christ and anointed by
the Holy Spirit, are marvelously called and prepared so that even richer fruits
of the Spirit maybe produced in them. For all their works, prayers, and
apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind
and body, if they are accomplished in the Spirit - indeed even the hardships of
life if patiently born - all these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ. In the celebration of the Eucharist these may most
fittingly be offered to the Father along with the body of the Lord. And so,
worshipping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrate the world
itself to God, everywhere offering worship by the holiness of their lives. (CCC 901)
We encounter the
difficulties of daily life with all its vicissitudes in the Spirit of Christ as
a follower of St. Francis. In so doing,
we help bless the world and make it more holy.
Our witness to the good life that Christ calls us to live is a
transformative experience for everyone we encounter, if we are in proper
alignment with God’s will. This is
accomplished through our obedience to the commandments of Jesus outlined
throughout his entire ministry. We watch
St. Francis and follow in his footsteps. We bring grace to a troubled world! Much of Chapter Two of our Rule is designed
to show us specific ways that we accomplish this ministry and, through
understanding and living this Way of Life, we evangelize the world and
transform it into what God intended in the first place.
Pace e bene.
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