|
Dear Friars,
I recently
drove one of our Sri Lankan friars to visit his spiritual director
at a Conventual retreat center far from the grit of north
Minneapolis.� As we rode through the quiet neighborhood, I sited a
birdbath statue of St. Francis on top of a rolling yard amid melting
snow.� It caused me to consider what relevance birdbath St. Francis
has for today�s world.
I�m not proud
that my initial reaction was one of judgment: How can somebody
reduce this man to a symbol of triteness and kitsch?� Yet there he
was in the midst of this grey March day for this household.� Maybe
the family would say this innocuous statue gives them hope after
months of cold, dark days.� Maybe they would say this man is one for
all seasons, connected to all creatures, in relation to all of
creation, as he proclaimed in the lofty Canticle of the Creatures.
Maybe he is
asking me how my relationships with other people, other creatures
and the Earth are.� Although I know there is a long way to go with
the relationships with other people, I think I am on the journey.�
When it comes to the Earth, I may still be grasping for
enlightenment.� When I read articles and books, such as the recent
Care for
Creation, a Franciscan spirituality of the earth,
I know that I don�t walk the talk of
my Franciscan charism.� How far I have to go in my conversion to
live simply, sacrifice and do justice for our suffering planet.� How
much do I consider the life of an earthworm when Francis saw it as
sacred to the earth and God?� I wonder if Francis knew how integral
to the soil that earthworm�s work was.
The food we buy
and where we buy it are some examples of my disconnectedness.� I
have grown accustomed, as has my culture, the authors say, of
expecting and buying different foods throughout the year.� I rarely
think about the thousands of miles and gallons of fuel my apple has
to travel so I can enjoy it in January.� I just learned that the
meat I and others around the world eat contributes more greenhouse
gases than emissions from all the world�s cars and trucks.�
Moreover, that meat takes 30 times more resources to produce than
grain, upon which most of my brothers and sisters in the world
subsist.
Francis didn�t
contend with these ecological challenges but he showed in his
poverty how to prepare for them.� His constant conversion to the
Lord brought him deeper in dependence of and relationship to others
and to the Earth itself.� �Once we begin to adopt Francis' worldview
of our deep interrelatedness to all creation, and God incarnate in
all living things, it is impossible to continue �business as
usual,�� according to
Care for
Creation.
Conversion to
poverty is conversion to justice, according to St. Bonaventure.�
�Justice is right relationship,� says
Care�s
authors, �the sister of poverty because it acknowledges that nothing
in this finite, earthly life truly belongs to any particular
individual.�� I think in our present time we are called by our TOR
charism of conversion to do justice and thereby build up those who
suffer because of the destruction of the Earth.� Maybe the birdbath
saint has moved my heart in a deeper way than I thought.� Yours,
too?
�Your brother in
Christ and Francis,
�
�
John�������������������������������������������������������������������������������
�
newsletter index
Formation Updates
|
Page Up
| |
