12. Witnessing to the
good yet to come and obligated to acquire purity of heart because of the
vocation they have embraced, they should set themselves free to love God and
their brothers and sisters.
The third evangelical counsel to which we are devoted
is that of purity of heart. Throughout
our journey of reflecting upon our Rule of Life, we have already encountered
both obedience (¶ 10) and poverty (¶ 11). We recognize
that these three ideals form us into the faithful followers of St. Francis that
we truly wish to become. As we continue
our journey, perhaps this counsel is the least understood of the three. So often, we believe that it is related
solely to our chastity in sexual matters alone.
But as we reflect more deeply, we find that it has much broader
meaning. Let’s begin this step of our
journey with a phrase from our Constitutions:
4. They should love
and practice purity of heart, the source of true fraternity. [General Constitutions; article 15]
The first thing we notice is that this paragraph
speaks of purity of heart, not just conjugal purity. As we come to understand what this means, we
are directed back to the two great commandments that are Jesus’ response to the
question of a Pharisee [scholar of the law]:
34 When the Pharisees heard
that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35and
one of them [a scholar of the law] tested him by asking, 36“Teacher, which commandment in the law is
the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “You
shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and
with all your mind. 38This is the greatest and the
first commandment. 39 The second is
like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 The
whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” [ Matthew 22; New
American Bible]
How does this relate to the concept of purity you may
ask? As we look at the definition of
purity, we see
1--the condition or
quality of being pure;
freedom from anything that debases, contaminates, pollutes, etc. [Dictionary.com]
“…freedom from anything that debases, contaminates,
pollutes…” In other words, any thing
that diverts our attention from the utmost principles of our faith are counter
to the idea of purity. We must give our
full attention to the love of God and the love of others. We can’t be distracted by social standing,
material desires, positions of power, temptations of the flesh or spirit—a full
and complete voluntarily giving over our lives to the sole purpose of loving
God through our love of others in order to bring the Kingdom of God to this present
world. Benet Fonck, OFM puts it another
way:
It is placing limits
on our attitudes and actions so that we can work toward true liberty: that
moral stance that give our inner and outer self complete reign to achieve a
Christ-centered life and to give witness to the person and message of Jesus in
our everyday dealings. [Called to Follow Christ; Franciscan Press; 1997]
We put everything that detracts from this purpose
aside and intransigently focus our lives on this concept of love—love of God
with everything that we have and love of our neighbors (without exception).
The Catechism sheds a little more light upon this
ideal:
2055 …The
Decalogue must be interpreted in light of this twofold [love of God & love
of others] yet single commandment of love, the fullness of the Law:
The commandments:
"You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal,
You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this
sentence: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no
wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 10
2067 The
Ten Commandments state what is required in the love of God and love of
neighbor. The first three concern love of God, and the other seven love of
neighbor.
…charity comprises the
two commandments to which the Lord related the whole Law and the prophets . . .
2072 Since they express man's fundamental duties
towards God and towards his neighbor, the Ten Commandments reveal, in their
primordial content, grave obligations. They are fundamentally immutable, and
they oblige always and everywhere. No one can dispense from them. The Ten
Commandments are engraved by God in the human heart.
Thus, the Church clearly states that we have no option
but to live by these commandments. In so
doing, we develop a purity of heart and brings us closer to following our Lord
through following the steps of our Seraphic Father.
2519 Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God.
Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as "neighbors"; it
lets us perceive the human body - ours and our neighbor's - as a temple of the
Holy Spirit, a manifestation of divine beauty. [Catechism of the Catholic Church]
In living this way, we gain a freedom that those who
live for possessions and power do not.
1738 Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings.
Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be
recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of
respect. The right to the exercise of freedom,
especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the
dignity of the human person… [Catechism of
the Catholic Church]
Typically, we have less issue with loving God,
although often we restrict our love of God to Sunday mornings. What we begin to understand is that this love
of God is without limit nor restriction.
It is a total, complete love that engulfs our entire life. We give, unreservedly, our love, attention, and
obedience to God’s Will. This effort is
very great and causes us to reflect upon our actions prayerfully each day: How have I been selfish today? How have I not listened to God in my
prayers? Do my possessions rule me, or
do I rule my possessions? As we attempt to see with the eyes of Francis, whom
do we perceive to be the “blessed” ones? [Benet Fonck, Called
to Follow Christ; Franciscan Press; 1997]
Often, our understanding of loving others, although it
may intellectually spread to all peoples, is, rather, restricted to our
personal political beliefs. In other
words, we limit ourselves to whomever we believe are deserving of our love: our
friends, neighbors, and certain other people for whom we have a political
affinity. As always, Francis shows us
the way. If we are to follow in his
footsteps, we must significantly broaden our understanding of “others.” If he lived his life in the restrictive
definition of others that we frequently use, we wouldn’t have the Franciscan
order. It is because of his expansive
definition of others, that we exist at all.
Francis’ first recorded step of love of others was the embracing of the
leper. In his time, lepers were the
scourge of humanity—to be avoided at all cost.
Francis turned that belief upon it head and reached out in love to another
person who was in great distress and need.
This embrace led to his developing belief that all of God’s creation is
our brother and sister and deserving of our love.
So, then, we ask ourselves, “What
does this mean for my own life?” If we truly are to call ourselves Franciscan,
we must ask ourselves, “Who is my leper? Who is so very repugnant to me that it
turns my stomach? Who is so undeserving
of love?” The answer to these questions and joyful embrace of the people
identified will guide us in our adherence to the command to “love our neighbor
as ourselves.” Does this mean that we
can pick and choose between the various groups who are the needy of society?
Can we emphasize one group over another in our response to God’s great gift of
grace to us? Can we say, “I don’t care
about them. This other group is more
important to me.” NO! The one thing that we mustn’t do is to
restrict our love of others to only those whom our own political group says are
worthy of care. In fact, to be a true
follower of Francis, we must set aside all political inclinations in favor of
the expansive love of God and Others enumerated in Jesus’ explanation of the
Ten Commandments. Who are your lepers? Who are your blessed ones? How you answer these questions determine how
fully you have decided to follow Francis and our own Rule of Life and thus
define your purity of heart.
Just a final comment from the
Catechism:
2013 "All
Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian
life and to the perfection of charity." All are called to holiness:
"Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
In order to reach this perfection,
the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ's gift, so
that . . . doing the will of the Father in everything, they may wholeheartedly
devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor.
Thus, the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly
shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.
And,
a final meditation on the three evangelical counsels from Philip Marquard,
O.F.M.:
A practical manner of
helping ourselves to live in the spirit of the three counsels is to pray the Angelus
each day.
In the first invocation and response,
V. The
Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
R. And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail
Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen
The Lord is with Thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen
We think of Mary’s and
our own openness to God and detachment from things [spirit of poverty].
In the second invocation
and response,
V. Behold
the handmaid of the Lord.
R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.
R. Be it done unto me according to thy word.
We consider Mary’s [and
our own] dedication to doing God’ will [spirit of obedience).
In the third invocation
and response,
V. And the
Word was made Flesh.
R. And dwelt among us.
R. And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with Thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen
The Lord is with Thee;
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen
We reflect on Mary’s
purity of mind and heart and our own [spirit of chastity].
Then, in the prayer that
follows, we pray for God’s help:
V. Pray
for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
LET US
PRAY
Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our
hearts, that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was made known by the
message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of
His Resurrection. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.
[P. 47; Called to
Live the Dynamic Power of the Gospel; Franciscan Press; 1998]
Pace
e bene
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