Franciscan Resources - Be Penitents

The major point of interest and excitement among the Franciscan sisters and friars of the Third Order Regular during the last few years has been the challenge of the Madrid Document and subsequent rule proposals best summarized by the statement, "We are Franciscan Penitents.

A Pastoral Response

Fr. Michael Scanlan, T.O.R.
Analecta TOR, Rome, 1983.

1. The Challenge

" When this is reduced to its pastoral meaning to local Franciscans, it can be stated as: "be penitents." This exhortation, whether implied or explicit, normally encounters at least initial resistance on the part of the hearers. This article deals with the nature of the resistance and the pastoral response needed to overcome it.

The resistance to "be penitents" comes at two levels: penitential practices and interior conversion. The Franciscan hearers resist first of all because they identify penitents with doing penance. Doing penance immediately raises memories of fasts, vigils, Lenten resolutions, hair shirts, pebbles in shoes, taking the discipline, black drapery, and, in general, grim living. These practices are remembered frequently as less than successful attempts at holiness and frequently misguided zealous preoccupation with self. Such practices are usually said to have very limited relevance in the post Vatican II Church which, in turn, is identified as emphasizing the works of charity and social justice.

When "be penitents" is clarified as primarily involving continual internal repentance or conversion (metanoia) normally the hearers again resist. They speak of Church Renewal, Incarnational Realities, Theology of Hope, and Resurrection people. They challenge the penitential emphasis with statements asserting that Christ's death redeemed people once and for all. Therefore, an emphasis on repentance denies the suffering of Jesus as Savior. Such an emphasis, they say, can only be explained as an expression of masochism or an extension of Manichaean or Jansenistic heresies.

The hearers consider "be penitents" as a call to revert to the pre-Vatican II Church and their inclination is to reject the "penitential" renewal. They frequently end with the refrain of St. Irenaeus: "The glory of God is man fully alive."

This article will deal with these two objections: first, with the internal issue of continual conversion and then with the external issue of penitential practices. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate the freedom and joy of living as penitents. Such living is based on an internal reality being expressed in action. To live as penitents is to live fully in the Church today and in accord with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

2. The Internal Reality

One of the most successful approaches in counseling in the United States during the past twenty years has been Reality Therapy. This system emphasizes that the counselor or therapist establish a loving relationship with the client and then concentrate on reflecting back to the client the reality of his or her situation. Thus, the counselor would relate to a person suffering from a persecution complex the truth that people are neither plotting against nor are they concerned with the client.

A person suffering from megalomania would similarly hear the true facts of his or her position as being one among a crowd of unique persons, no one of whom is superior in a significant way.

The call to "be penitents" is a call to reality living. Our current generation tends to deny, ignore or minimize sin. One of the foremost experts in psychotherapy in the United States wrote a best seller entitled Whatever Became of Sin? (Karl Menninger, Dutton, N.Y., 1973). The reality of our existence is that we are sinners, we struggle with sinful tendencies, we omit doing the good we know we are called to do, and to various extents we regularly sin. Thus, religious life has traditionally emphasized daily examination of conscience and contrition, although this practice is far less prevalent today. Chapters of faults and penitential disciplines have almost disappeared and few would resurrect them in their forms of twenty years ago.

Nevertheless, sin is intertwined in the reality of our lives. It is a truth about ourselves that needs to be faced honestly and handled. Occasional recourse to the Sacrament of Penance is not sufficient to deal with our continuous sinful condition. A commitment to be a penitent is a commitment to acknowledge our sin daily and to convert. It is a commitment to a life of continual conversion, a life of living out more and more a fundamental choice of God, a life of metanoia. It is also a commitment to a therapeutic reality, each day, dealing with the reality of our sinful condition. It is, therefore, an honest, healthy form of living which yields peace and freedom. To be penitent means to be free, to experience the freedom of dealing with our sins and our sinful condition.

It is essential to note that in the Christian life we do not just acknowledge our sins; we do not just engage in Reality Therapy. We repent; we are forgiven; and we receive the grace and power to change so that we need not fall into our confessed sins again. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is given to us so that we can overcome and be the conquerors of the spiritual death of sin (Romans 8:35-39). In the sixth chapter of Romans, Paul teaches that by baptism the Christian has come to the Cross and died to sin which formerly ruled his life. By baptism, the Christian has been born to a new life in the Spirit. Through this living union with Christ, the Christian can constantly experience being ever more freed from the power of sin. The source of this magnificent grace is the Cross embraced by Jesus and completed in His death and resurrection. St. Paul clearly teaches that the Christian has the power, under grace, to grow constantly in overcoming sin and uniting his life to God. This is true freedom (Romans 6:6).

This is why St. James calls the law of God "freedom's ideal law" (James 1, 25). It is a law which reflects who we are called to be and who we are empowered to be. Therefore, if a person looks into the law of God and then goes forth and forgets it, he is as foolish and stupid as one who looks into a mirror and then wanders off forgetting what he looks like. (James 1:23-24). To be a penitent is to choose this way of freedom in overcoming the sin in our lives. It is not an expression of suppression or avoidance, nor is it masochistic or negative in its essence. It is an experience of dying to sin and being born daily to a new life.

Indeed, many religious today suffer from a spiritual schizophrenia, in which they split their thinking into two levels: the level of vocation - what they ought to be and the level of reality - what they are. The vocation proclaims the virtues and the reality trumpets the failures and the sins. The reality seems to deny the vocation to holiness. More than a few religious have entered a vocation crisis because they experienced being split: the ideal self and the failing self. They try to deal with these two selves and often conclude they are hypocrites or hopeless failures. Some faulty psychological practices have urged such people to be the sinner, accept the sin and actively pursue the sin. This is a self destructive course of action leading to separation from God and death. The Christian answer is to acknowledge the sin, repent, receive forgiveness, and the power to live with "the freedom of the sons of God. " This Christian answer bridges the spiritual schizophrenia and enables the religious to be a whole, free person who accepts and integrates the ideal of gospel living. The religious can live personally the kingdom of God as present but not yet fully present in his or her life. Repenting and converting do not become failures in living the religious vocation. They become intrinsic to the vocation, the way to live. The vocation is one of becoming, not one of having arrived. Being a penitent is truly being a Christian.

This is the truth that Francis discovered w hen he embraced the penitential life. He decided to do penance and he announced with his first followers that they were "Penitents from Assisi" (Legend of the Three Companions, n.34.36.37.in F.F. 1437,4440,4441). He raised being a penitent to a new level of celebration. He recognized that being a penitent was a vocation to spiritual poverty. It was impossible for a person to brag about his virtues and holiness when he was publicly proclaimed as needing to do penance and to convert daily. Surely, this was the spiritually poor. Francis' directives to preachers in the Rule of 1221 included the statement, we have nothing of our own but vices and sins. Francis recognized with glee that this spiritual poverty was also spiritual freedom. The daily conversion, the daily repentance is living the life of the religious poor for God. Such a penitent experiences the Spirit of God daily freeing him or her, and the fruit of the Spirit's action is joy (Galatians 5:22). Francis stated that "that which seemed bitter was changed into sweetness." Francis did not proclaim it as easy living, rather he called it sweet and joyful (1 Celano, 17). Indeed, he saw the gracious gift of the penitential life when he stated in his Testament: "The Lord granted to me, Brother Francis, to do penance. "

Pope John Paul II addressed a letter to priests on Palm Sunday, 1979, in which he stated that daily conversion was for everyone in the Church and that being converted has five meanings: (italics added for emphasis of the five meanings)

We must be converted anew every day. We know that this is a fundamental exigency of the Gospel, addressed to everyone and all the more do we have to consider it as addressed to us. If we have the duty of helping others to be converted we have to do the same continuously in our lives.

• Being converted means returning to the very grace of our vocation; it means meditating on the infinite goodness and love of Christ who has addressed each one of us and calling us by name has said: "Follow Me."

• Being converted means continually "giving an account" before the Lord of our hearts about our service, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God.

• Being converted also means giving an account of our negligence and sins, of our timidity, of our lack of faith and hope, of our thinking only in a "human way" and not "in a divine way." Let us recall in this regard the warning that Christ gave to Simon Peter.

• Being converted means, for us, seeking again the pardon and strength of God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and thus beginning anew. and every day progressing, overcoming ourselves, making spiritual conquests, giving cheerfully, for "God loves a cheerful giver."'

• Being converted means "to pray continually and never lose heart." In a certain way prayer is the first and last condition for conversion, spiritual progress and holiness.

(From the letter addressed to priests: "We Are One. " John Paul II. April 9, 1979,

L'Osservatore Romano. 4/17/79.)

These five meanings can be identified as: (1) stirring up the grace of vocation; (2) giving an account of stewardship; (3) giving an account of personal sin; (4) every day beginning anew; (5) praying daily without losing heart. The penitent sees these five points, not as a support system for apostolic service but as, in fact, the essence of his or her vocation. The penitent takes his or her identity from these elements of conversion. Indeed, the penitent goes further and identifies with the whole world, with all its struggles and failings.

3. The External Reality.

In addition to dealing with the internal reality of sin and the need for conversion, the call to be penitents enables one to deal effectively with the sin in the world around us. Men and women frequently experience depression when they allow themselves to experience the sinful atrocities of the contemporary world. Whether it be the ovens of Auschwitz and Dachau, the charred bodies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the ravages of saturation bombing, the starvation of Bangladesh and Calcutta, the destruction of family life and morals, the prevalence of abortion and pornography, the teenage drug addicts and alcoholics, the crime waves, the imminence of a nuclear holocaust, the practical atheism of pagans and nominal Christian peoples, or the individual tragedies that touch all our lives, the sin around us is real and must be faced. Who does not experience powerlessness in the face of all this? Add to this the division of the Body of Christ into denominations and rivaling factions. And yet, as St. Paul says, in the resurrected life in the Spirit we are "more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37) Our conquest is not just in our individual lives but in winning the world for the Kingdom of God. The penitent is not an isolated figure dealing only with the need for ongoing personal conversion, he or she is confronting the world with the power of the Kingdom of God. A penitent mourns and grieves for more than personal sin, indeed for all sin and infidelity because he or she sees that "Love is not loved." A penitent does penance through intercessory prayer in order that the world be converted. The penitent is involved in the process of ongoing universal conversion. Francis wrote: "I have received more the charism for praying than for speaking" (Letter to a Minister General 12: 1). The penitent does not experience depression when experiencing evil in the world for he is equipped to confront it and pray. The penitent can face it, deal with it, and do so confidently with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power by which he or she became a conqueror in Jesus Christ.

4. Penitential Practices.

This article began with the challenge to deal with the negative response to the call "be penitents. " The pastoral reality is that being a penitent enables one to confront sin in oneself and in the world and to emerge in freedom, peace and joy. This confrontation becomes not a setback in life but a way of life.

What then of penitential practices? What should be said of penitential dress, fasting and vigils, sackcloth and ashes, pilgrimages and not bearing arms? What about all these practices? Are they but heritages of a medieval Church? The true penitent desires to express the internal reality in external behavior. The penitent manifests the internal conversion in signs of external converting from sin to God, from the world to the Kingdom of God. The penitent converts not just within but with all that his or her life encompasses. Does this mean embracing the traditional penitential practices? Maybe, but not necessarily. It depends on the leading of the Spirit which is renewing the internal life, leading to a deeper and deeper reality of the fundamental choice for God. The Holy spirit may lead to traditional penitential external expressions and external witnessing to the world. When God is calling for it, the practices will bear the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patient endurance, kindness, generosity, faith, mildness and chastity. Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22). Penitential practices should be primarily a matter of the spirit and not the law, and they. should be tested by their fruits. Where the fruit is good, they should be embraced with joy. Francis expressed his love through numerous fasts, vigils, and bodily deprivations; the followers of Francis are called to do likewise so long as it is in the same spirit.

What, then, is the Spirit of God calling today's Franciscan penitents to do and manifest? This is always a challenging question since the calls can be as diverse as the different groupings of Franciscans and, indeed, as diverse as the individual members of these groups. Yet, there are some general guidelines which appear evident. Francis and his followers were counter-culture in their way of life. Francis intended to stand out in contrast to the patterns of his society. He intentionally refused to incorporate a hierarchy within his followers. There were to be no lords and servants, no "majores" and "minores"; all were to be "minores." Francis refused to dress as belonging to any group but the "minores. " He refused money and property so as to stand out as living for the Kingdom of God and not living for the kingdom of money and worldly success. Isn't the Spirit, at least, calling the Franciscan penitents of today to stand out as a counter-culture to the values of the predominant society of today?

One special note of emphasis by Francis was his insistence that all his followers, including the married, not bear arms, Francis knew from his own life the need to break from the warring and rivaling lords and armies of his day. He knew that to serve the Great King and to proclaim a Kingdom of Peace, his followers had to break from the warring kingdoms of their own day and from their means of conflict. This is a challenge to the Franciscan penitents of today. How do we break from the nuclear warring nations of the day? How do we stand as a counter-culture based on the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ? To do nothing and to appear no different is in some way to support the current race to nuclear holocaust. Aren't we called to preach the gospel and witness to the gospel life in a manner which is an apparent break from the value systems of secular powers? Shouldn't this preaching and witnessing be in season and out of season, when convenient and inconvenient, when popular and unpopular?

Francis responded to the Crusades by passing through the warring lines and preaching the gospel to the Sultan at his headquarters in Egypt. Somehow the Franciscan penitent must also be seen as representing an alternative life of living for and in the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of nations. We live in an apocalyptic hour when the solutions of the flesh are exhausted and grossly inadequate. No treaty, league, or balance of power is equal to the task of preserving world peace. More than ever the Kingdom of God is the "now" and lasting answer. The Franciscan penitents proclaim loudly, "reform your lives, the Kingdom of God is at hand," and the witness of their lives makes that proclamation credible.

The secret, again, is in embracing the penitential life as our vocation. This may mean that we appear unreasonable or impractical to those about us. "The message of the Cross is complete absurdity to those headed for ruin but, to us who are experiencing salvation, it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1: 18-20).

Conclusion

To "be penitents" is to embrace an honest, relevant gospel life for today. Once the penitential charism flows through our lives, we become so convinced of the rightness of this life that we begin to wonder how we could live any other way. We rejoice in sharing life with our brothers and sisters on fire with the same charism and gospel view of the world. We struggle daily, know failure, know opposition, and wonder when and how the Kingdom will be realized. We identify with the words of Francis as penned by Nikos Kazantzakis:

"God is conflagration, Brother Leo. He burns and we burn with Him." (nikos kazantzakis, St. Francis, Simon & Schuster 1962, p.25)

Fr. Michael Scanlan, T.O.R.
Analecta TOR, Rome, 1983.

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