Chapter Two:
The Way of Life
11.
Trusting the Father, Christ chose for Himself and His
mother a poor and humble life, even though He valued created things attentively
and lovingly. Let the Secular Franciscans seek a proper spirit of
detachment from temporal goods by simplifying their own material needs. Let
them be mindful that according to the gospel they are stewards
of the goods received for the benefit of God’s children.
Now let us turn our
attention to the Gospel (Evangelical) Counsel of poverty. We are all aware that St. Francis has been
called il Poverello and is reputed to
have considered Lady Poverty his “fair maiden” in his quest as a Troubadour of the Great King. But the important thing to remember is that
even with his common reputation of extreme poverty,
“Saint Francis of Assisi's concern with poverty was secondary in his
life and stemmed from his utter reliance on and love for God. In the encounter with
the leper, we can see right away that for St. Francis his reason for embracing
poverty was not poverty itself, but that with no resources of your own, you are
“totally dependent on God.” (Augustine Thompson, O.P.; CNA, 21 MAR 2013)
“So, for Francis poverty was also about going to the
place of social poverty and serving, accepting that one might himself be
rendered unfit to rejoin respectable society…In this way it was also for him a
following of the poor and humble Christ...the poverty of Christ is a footstep
to follow.” (Charles Sammons, OFM Cap; CNA 21 MAR 2013.)
As with much of St.
Francis’ example, poverty is a means to an end—the complete and total trust in
and subservience to God and, through that humbling nature, a service to others
who are less fortunate whether economically or spiritually.
Naturally, in today’s
consumerist society, our approach to life is just as radical as it was in St.
Francis’ time. Once again, we see the
message of our Catholic Christian faith as counter-cultural—diametrically
opposed to the accepted patterns of today’s world. To be faithful Franciscans, we are radically
changed by our Profession and find ways to do things “differently” from
everyone else. The question always
arises, “How do we do that?” Let’s examine
how our Franciscan documents and our Catechism help inform our approach to this
idea of radical poverty and how it is to be lived out today.
Article 15 of our
Constitutions amplifies the concepts found in article 11 of our Rule of Life:
1. Rule 11 Secular Franciscans
should pledge themselves to live the spirit of the Beatitudes and, in a special
way, the spirit of poverty. Evangelical poverty demonstrates confidence
in the Father, creates interior freedom, and disposes them to promote a
more just distribution of wealth.
2. Secular Franciscans, who must provide for their own families and
serve society by means of their work and material goods, have a particular manner of living evangelical poverty. To understand and achieve it requires a strong
personal commitment and the stimulation of the fraternity
in prayer and dialogue, communal review of life, and attentiveness to the
instructions of the Church, and the demands of society.
3. Secular Franciscans
should pledge themselves to reduce their own personal needs so as to be better
able to share spiritual and material goods with their brothers and sisters,
especially those most in need. They
should give thanks to God for the goods they have received, using them as good stewards and not as
owners. They should take a firm
position against consumerism and against ideologies and practices which prefer
riches over human and religious values, and which permit the exploitation of
the human person.
4. They should
love and practice purity of heart, the source of true fraternity.
(EMPHASIS IS THE
AUTHOR’S)
Some of what we have
learned about St. Francis’ approach to poverty—completely trusting God and
service to others—is clearly contained within our Constitution. The phrases that have been highlighted in the
passages above point to this direction and provide for us a clearer
understanding of what our Gospel Poverty is all about. In his Encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis spends much time on these ideas of right
relationship with the temporal order and material goods. Even the Pope’s personal example comes right
from St. Francis: “if there's anything
about Pope Francis' entire life, it's his attempt to put himself at the service
of others, and that expresses itself in his simplicity of life too.” (Augustine Thompson,
O.P.; CNA, 21 MAR 2013).
So, with this
understanding of what Franciscan Gospel poverty is all about, let’s examine the
separate elements of Article 11 and delve into a little more detail for each of
the major points.
Trusting the Father,
Christ chose for Himself and His mother a poor and humble life, even though He
valued created things attentively and lovingly.
The very first element
of this Article are those three words—trusting the Father. With this very recognition at the beginning,
we clearly understand, as did Francis, that for this way of living to work, we
must fully place ourselves into the complete care of our Father in heaven. We must give over every single facet of our
lives to Him and to His service.
Remember, “living evangelical
poverty…demonstrates confidence in the Father.” (GC 15.1). Without this level of trust, we will find it
difficult, if not impossible to achieve the standard set by Christ’s and St.
Francis’ example.
In
humbling himself, [Jesus] has given us an example to imitate, through his
prayer he draws us to pray, and by his poverty he calls us to accept freely the
privation and persecutions that may come our way. (CCC
520)
St. Francis and Pope
Francis both understand this important point.
Prayer is the basis for our being able to give our lives fully to God
and from that relationship, we can embrace the poverty that follows. Once again, this poverty is one in which we
recognize the overall importance of God in our lives and fully understand how
much we rely on His gifts for our sustenance—both physical and spiritual—how
everything is to be used for the common good.
The
seventh commandment…requires respect for the universal destination of goods and
respect for the right to private property. Christian life strives to order this
world's goods to God and to fraternal charity.
(CCC 2401)
As Secular
Franciscans, this doesn’t mean that we are required to divest ourselves of all
our possessions, “[we] who must provide
for [our] own families and serve society by means of their work and material
goods, have a particular manner of
living evangelical poverty.” (GC 15.2.) Fr. Benet A. Fonck, OFM, calls this living out our Rule a “…detachment and simple living for the sake of
the kingdom of God…” (Called to Proclaim
Christ, Franciscan Press; 1998)
Achievement of this
level of living “...requires a strong
personal commitment and the stimulation of the fraternity in prayer and
dialogue, communal review of life, and attentiveness to the instructions of the
Church, and the demands of society.” (GC 15.2) How else can one muster the required level of personal commitment
without recourse to prayer and the support of the rest of the Fraternity. It is only through our collaboration and
dialogue with like-minded persons that we can fully understand what this commitment
means and how to live it in our own lives.
Acceptance of this
idea leads to the second part of Article 11:
Secular Franciscans
should pledge themselves to reduce their own personal needs so as to be better
able to share spiritual and material goods with their brothers and sisters,
especially those most in need.
In living this way, we
recognize the importance of WHO owns all the material and spiritual goods of the universe; and,
we accept that our blessings are indeed gifts from God aimed at helping us to serve
others, especially the most needy and marginalized people in our society. Both Jesus and St. Francis (following in his
master’s footsteps) set this example for us:
Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to
the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst and privation. Jesus identifies
himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the
condition for entering his kingdom. (CCC 544).
As we understand more
about the Franciscan poverty, we learn to accept that we don’t need as many
material goods to accomplish our mission.
We understand and recognize that we are merely “stewards of the goods received for the benefit of God’s children.”
Fr. James Meyer, O.F.M. outlined this detachment in his “Program
of Tertiary Economics.” It’s still valid
today: use gifts leased to us by God in
a spirit of justice, moderation, and generosity. Practically speaking, this three-fold
principle can take on [this not exhaustive list of] modern-day applications:
1) Making one’s
life-style more uncluttered by listing possessions under three categories: needs, conveniences, luxuries; begin to
eliminate luxuries, then work on non-vital conveniences.
2) Clean out closets and
knick-knacks regularly and give unused or unneeded items to needy people and
institutions.
3) Change eating habits
to decrease amounts of high-cholesterol, high-triglyceride and high-fat foods
which contribute to ill health, and to eliminate foodstuffs whose consumption
perpetuates hunger in other parts of the world.
4) Use more fresh foods
and less processed foods in order to decrease the consumption of unnecessary
additives, to reduce the grip of over-pricing, and to provide a balanced
program of profit-sharing for producer and farmer.
5) Reduce consumption of
energy (especially gasoline and electricity).
6) Boycott products
produced by, or resulting in, injustice.
7) Buy products that aid
human dignity and a just environment (both products made in the U.S.A. and in
foreign countries).
8) Remove investments
from financial institutions that support oppressive or discriminatory
governments or institutions.
9) Place investments in
institutions that build up minority situations and work toward just and humane
causes.
(Benet A. Fonck, O.F.M.; Called to Proclaim Christ,
Franciscan Press; 1998)
In the end, what
really matters is how we use the goods and spiritual life that we have been
given in service to others.
In
economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue
of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world's goods; the practice
of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbor's rights and render him what
is his due; and the practice of solidarity, in accordance with the golden rule
and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord, who "though he was rich,
yet for your sake . . . became poor so that by his poverty, you might become
rich." (CCC 2407).
We, Franciscans,
recognize that our “richness” is exemplified through our service to the less
fortunate. We understand that these
unfortunate people are not only to those who are materially poor and without
resources, but also to those who are spiritually poor and without belief—that
our love “…extends not only to material
poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty. (CCC 2444.) Through our witness we reach out to “all who labor and are
burdened” and “give [them] rest.” (NAB Matt. 11: 28--30)
Thus, in the spirit of the Beatitudes, and as pilgrims
and strangers on their way to the home of the Father, they should strive to
purify their hearts from every tendency and yearning for possession and power.
Yes, we are on a
journey—a journey back home! The quality
of that journey is dependent upon how we relate to others—how we place
ourselves secondary to the needs of others.
We improve our chances for a good journey as we recognize and understand
that our hearts need to be purified from the yearning for possession of goods
and amassing great power.
The
Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and portray his charity. They
express the vocation of the faithful associated with the glory of his Passion
and Resurrection;
they shed light on the actions and attitudes characteristic of the Christian
life; they are the paradoxical promises that sustain hope in the midst of
tribulations; they proclaim the blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly,
for Christ's disciples; they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all
the saints. (CCC
1717)
Our Gospel poverty is
inherently found in our living the Beatitudes, following the examples of Jesus
and St. Francis, and in the pureness of our heart in rejecting the glories and
possessions of this world for those of the next. How do we humble ourselves? How do we treat others? How do we strive to express our poverty and
love through the service of all others—many of who are less fortunate in so
many ways? The answer to these questions
lies in the longstanding tradition of the Church:
The
Church's love for the poor . . . is a part of her constant tradition."
This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus,
and of his concern for the poor. Love
for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to
"be able to give to those in need." (CCC
2444)
And so, we who profess
to be Franciscan understand that our obligation to accept Gospel poverty places
upon us a burden of serving others through a right recognition of how goods are
gifts from God and, thus, belong to all.
Therefore, we must share our blessings with those who are less fortunate
in both material and spiritual ways. We
go forth with joy and spread the peace of God to all whom we meet through our
service to them.
Pace e bene.
