Letter of the Minister General and General Council to all the
Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis on
the Occasion of Christmas 2004
CHRISTMAS AT GRECCIO AND THE FRANCISCAN EUCHARIST
During this year dedicated to the Eucharist by Pope John Paul II
with his letter Mane Nobiscum, we would like to focus our
Christmas message on this important topic
with the hope that it will help reawaken a love and adoration for
the "Memorial" of the death and resurrection of the Lord in the
entire Order.
The word "Memorial" is an appropriate term which captures the events
of both the Old and New Testaments. It is a also a word that is able
to express the force and energy that makes real and
"contemporaneous" the events of salvation and makes us feel
personally involved in the dynamics of the Sacrament and of the
Word.
In this regard, the life and gestures of St. Francis can also be of
tremendous help. In the writings and actions of the Saint we find a
great encouragement for us to enter into the mystery of the
Eucharist.
In particular, the events at Greccio offer some wonderful
suggestions to us as we approach the Solemnity of Christmas.
I. Greccio - The Memorial of the kenosis of the Incarnation: the
"contemporaneous" nature of Christmas brought about by the Eucharist
St. Francis organized a living cr�che on Christmas evening of 1223.
He wanted to have a real living baby and to celebrate the
Eucharist with the
active participation of many people - while an ox and ass were
eating nearby from a trough. He desired to see the abasement
(kenosis) of the Son of God with his own eyes - to see the
simplicity, poverty, and humility of God in the face of a baby, in
the faces of the townspeople, and in the midst of the domesticated
animals.
The sacred representation of the cr�che was completed around the
altar of the Eucharist. In this sacrament the mystery of the
Incarnation of Jesus Christ became an actual and palpable
experience.
Celano affirms that, "in the hearts of many the Child Jesus had been
given over to oblivion. Now he is awakened and impressed on their
loving memory by His own grace through His holy servant Francis" (I
C 86).
It was with genial creativeness that the Saint was able to combine
the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord with a visual and
dynamic representation that captured the natural elements of the
mystery. The presence of a baby in flesh and blood, the simplicity
and poverty of a stall, and the presence of domesticated animals all
served to portray the Divine power of a sacramental gesture.
This is the method by which St. Francis invites us to experience the
Divine in our midst and the presence of the Word who pitches a tent
in our midst. It is an also an invitation to make our own
Eucharistic celebrations alive and vibrant.
To contemplate visible things as manifestations of the invisible is
a constant theme in Franciscanism and Franciscan spirituality.
In this way every baby becomes the Baby - and daily we are
brought to see the Divine in
the human, the supernatural in the natural, the extraordinary in
the ordinary, and immense richness in the poverty of real things.
For example, how many times do we find ourselves contemplating the
incredible texture in small things like a leaf of a tree? What
wisdom of life in a small, poor place! Poverty, understood as the
purity and wisdom of heart, allows one to see even small things as
marvelous. From this a true understanding of faith is born.
This is also a reality for us here and now when we are touched by
salvation. Through the mysterious initiative of God men and women
are invited to embody in their own lives the Divine Word. Through
the pregnancy of the Christian community Jesus Christ is born anew
through us - just as it occurred long go with the intimate
cooperation of Mary.
At this point it is important to highlight a reality that involves
us in a profound way - we, like Mary, are called to give birth to
Christ. St. Francis tells us that we are "mothers when we carry Him
in our heart and body through love and a pure and sincere
conscience; and give Him birth through a holy activity, which must
shine before others by example" (2LtF53).
This challenge is also found in the Prologue of our TOR Rule.
II. Veneration for the Sacrament of the Eucharist and for the
Word of God
It is clear in the writings of Saint Francis that he had a
tremendous veneration for the Body and Blood of Christ - and for
priests because they were ministers of the Eucharist. In this
regard, he was very much in tune with the Church of his day.
For us, the same invitation to love and venerate the Eucharist can
be found in the appeals of Vatican II. The teaching on the Council
calls us to keep in mind the following:
The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as
she venerates the body of the Lord, since, especially
in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the
faithful the bread of life from the table both of God's word and of
Christ's body. (DV 21).
To preach this Gospel the Lord sent forth His disciples into the
whole world, that being reborn by the word of God men might be
joined to the Church through baptism - that Church which, as the
body of the Word Incarnate, is nourished and lives by the word of
God and by the Eucharistic bread. (AG 6)
These dispositions are present in the life of our founder if we
remember how much he loved to listen to the Word of God. He declares
explicitly: "We know It cannot be His Body without first being
consecrated by word. For we have and see nothing bodily of the Most
High in this world except His Body and Blood, His names and words
through which we have been made and redeemed from death and life"
(1LtCl 2).
This devotion can also be heard in the Saint's entreaty to the
custodians: "With all that is in me and more I beg you that, when it
is fitting and you judge it expedient, you humbly beg the clergy to
revere above all else the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ and His holy names and the written words that sanctify His
Body" (1LtCus 2). He even wished that pieces of paper with writing
that may contain some word of the Gospel be collected with devotion
and placed in a suitable place - almost as if they were fragments of
the Eucharistic host. Therefore directs that even "the names and
written words of the Lord, whenever they are found in dirty places,
be also gathered up and kept in a becoming place" (1LtCus 5).
It is also clear that the Saint's vocation was born in the context
of a Eucharistic celebration when he heard the Gospel reading
concerning the calling of the apostles (LM III:1).
With a sense of healthy pride we can even say that the Council's
insight that the Sacred Scripture is nourishment for all the
faithful can already be found as a normal aspect of the life and
spirituality of St. Francis. The famous passage in Prysbeterorum
Ordinis that that the Mass celebrates a "double meal of the Sacred
Scripture and of the Eucharist" (PO 18) is anticipated in numerous
passages in the Franciscan sources and attests to the Saint's equal
and special veneration of these two realities.
With these thoughts in mind it is easy to see that our love for the
Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord must be nourished by the
Word of God. Further, the more we are able to make this insight of
St. Francis our own the more our minds will be awakened and our
hearts set on fire by the Holy Spirit. As St. Francis himself points
out "it is the Spirit of the Lord, therefore, That lives in Its
faithful, That receives the Body and Blood of the Lord." (Adm 1:12).
The Holy Spirit, dwelling within us, empowers us to receive the Lord
with full and faithful devotion.
The importance of a profound love of the Eucharist nourished by the
Word of God is also confirmed for us in the wonderful reflection of
the Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II, Mane Nobiscum, in which
the Holy Father considers Jesus as he explains the Scriptures and
breaks the bread for the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
Jesus was able to "burn" the hearts of the two pilgrims through his
reflections on the Sacred Scripture.
All this means that a genuine Eucharistic piety is inseparable from
a continuous willingness to be converted. It develops within us the
capacity to welcome the invitation of the Lord for "continuous
formation." In this sense, the year of the Eucharist can be seen as
an intense period of "mystagogical catechesis" (MN 17).
III. The Eucharist: The Real Presence of Jesus until the end of
time and the experience of the Holy Spirit.
The real presence of the Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament of the
altar is a firm belief and treasure that the Catholic Church has
consistently defended against both ancient and modern theories to
the contrary.
St. Francis and his early companions eagerly sought out churches
in which to adore
the Divine Presence. One of their favorite prayers at these times
was: "We adore You, Lord Jesus Christ, in all Your churches
throughout the whole world and we bless You, because by Your Holy
cross You have redeemed the world" (Test 5).
The Saint also had a wonderful understanding that it was the Holy
Spirit who continuously makes the crucified and risen Lord present
among us. We find the following significant expressions in Francis'
own writings: The Lord Jesus says to his disciples: I am the way,
the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through
me. If you knew me, you would also know my Father; and from now on,
you do know him and have seen him. Philip says to him: Lord, show us
the Father and it will be enough for us. Jesus says to him: Have I
been with you for so long a time and you have not known me? Philip,
whoever sees me sees my Father as well. The Father dwells in
inaccessible light, and God is spirit, and no one has ever seen God.
Therefore He cannot be seen except in the Spirit because it is the
Spirit that gives life; the flesh has nothing to offer. But because
He is equal to the Father, the Son is not seen by anyone other than
the Father or other than the Holy Spirit. All those who saw the Lord
Jesus according to the humanity, therefore, and did not see and
believe according to the Spirit and the Divinity that He is the true
Son of God were condemned. Now in the same way, all those who see
the sacrament sanctified by the words of the Lord upon the altar at
the hands of the priest in the form of bread and wine, and who do
not see and believe according to the Spirit and the Divinity that it
is truly the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned.
This is affirmed by the Most High Himself Who says: This is my Body
and the Blood of my new covenant [which will be shed for many]; and
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. It is
the Spirit of the Lord, therefore, That lives in Its faithful, That
receives the Body and Blood of the Lord. All others who do not share
in this same Spirit and presume to receive Him eat and drink
judgment on themselves. (Adm 1: 1-12).
In his Apostolic Letter, Pope John Paul II recalls Pope Paul VI's
reflection of the real presence:
With the entire tradition of the Church, we believe that Jesus is
truly present under the Eucharistic species. This presence is called
"real" not in an exclusive way, as if to suggest that other forms of
Christ's presence are not real, but par excellence, because Christ
thereby becomes substantially present, whole and entire, in the
reality of his body and blood� The Eucharist is a mystery of
presence, the perfect fulfillment of Jesus' promise to remain with
us until the end of the world. (MN 16)
Many Franciscan saints have had mystical experiences through
their belief in the Real Presence. For example, Blessed Raymond
Lull writes,
My soul, my friend, you know well that the humility of God is great,
and that united to this greatness is His power; and from the moment
that this humility and power are joined together with holiness,
wisdom, will, truth, glory, and perfection under the species of the
bread of the sacrament of the altar our bodily eyes, disobedient as
they are, do not wish to bow before the above mentioned Divine
virtues that are so sublime that they are able to be made present
under the real body and the real blood of the body of the Most Holy
Jesus Christ. (Raymond Lull, Libro de Evast y Blanquerna, BAC,
Madrid 1948, pp. 563 - 564)
IV. The Eucharist makes the Church and the Church makes the
Eucharist
This phrase, typical of Eucharistic theology, was taken up in the
Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucaristia (n.26). It points out that there
is a strict relationship between every Christian community and the
Sacrament of the altar - and, therefore, between every Franciscan
fraternity and the Eucharist.
According to the legends, one day St. Francis and his companions
entered the little church of St. Nicholas located in the piazza in
the middle of Assisi. During the celebration of the Mass the Gospel
that refers to the calling of the
disciples was proclaimed. It could be said that the first Franciscan
fraternity was formed during that celebration. The force of that
Eucharist gave life to a new ecclesial congregation, a movement that
would eventually be spread throughout the world. The Eucharist makes
the Church when it is truly celebrated with an open and welcoming
spirit.
In its turn the Church makes the Eucharist. It is not out of place
to call to mind the Saint's recommendation to not multiply Masses in
the Letter to the Whole Order. As one cardinal stated recently, we
should celebrate "less Masses and more Mass." That is, we should
take great care and attention to the Eucharistic celebration which,
in a sense, is tied directly to the quality of our fraternal life
and vice versa.
V. The Eucharist, a giving of thanks
Unfortunately it is very difficult to fully understand the profound
significance of word "Eucharist," which, as we know, literally means
"thanksgiving."
But, it is not a simple giving thanks for some gift or service
received.
It is so much deeper than that. One who utters an existential
"thanks" from the bottom of his or her heart comes close to this
depth because celebrating this sacrament makes him or her a
"participant in the Divine life" itself (2 Pt. 1:4). Again, as the
Holy Father tells us:
In Jesus, in his sacrifice, in his unconditional "yes" to the will
of the Father, is contained the "yes," the "thank you" and the
"amen" of all humanity. The Church is called to remind men and women
of this great truth. This is especially urgent in the context of our
secularized culture, characterized as it is by a forgetfulness of
God and a vain pursuit of human self-sufficiency. Incarnating the
Eucharistic "plan" in daily life, wherever people live and work-in
families, schools, the workplace, in all of life's settings - means
bearing witness that human reality cannot be justified without
reference to the Creator: "Without the Creator the creature would
disappear." (MN 26)
The Canticle of the Creatures, one of St. Francis' most important
works, interprets the best spirituality of the Psalms and is an
expression of a soul that "gives thanks." For St. Francis, being
full of gratitude also means having a love for all of creation,
beloved and respected as a sign of the goodness and beauty of the
Creator. This gift he passes on to us.
Through a Eucharistic attitude of giving thanks the blessings,
the praises, the adoration, and the desire to pray that accompanied
our first awareness of God are brought clearly to mind. Every
movement in the heart of a person - from cursing to blessing, from
sadness to joy, from resentment to welcome, from "I will not serve"
to "Your will be done" - is the fruit of the death and resurrection
of the Lord which we announce with the
celebration of the Eucharist until He comes again.
We also see examples of this in Mary and St. Clare. Mary, who is
truly a "Eucharistic woman," gives us a wonderful example of praise
and blessing in her Magnificat. St. Clare of Assisi, who is often
portrayed with a monstrance while outlaws flee in the distance and
whose life was marked by intense contemplation, is a "Eucharistic
woman" to the point of death. Even the her short prayer she prayed
on her deathbed, "O Lord, may you Who have created me, be blessed"
(Process of Canonization 3:20), demonstrates a wonderful awareness
of God's continual presence in her life.
Conclusion
With this Christmas letter we would like to challenge all the friars
and sisters in the Order to accept with great love the invitation of
the Church to rediscover the Eucharistic piety that St. Francis
practiced and taught in his life and
writings. This is a proposal that is able to help us celebrate this
year dedicated to the Eucharist in a fitting manner. Also, the
meditations on our past should spur us on in the present to become
more involved in the "Memorial" of the death and resurrection of
Jesus and from this to draw strength to move to action.
The Holy Father states that,
If the only result of this Year were the revival in all Christian
communities of the celebration of Sunday Mass and an increase in
Eucharistic worship outside Mass, this Year of grace would be
abundantly successful. At the same time, it is good to aim high, and
not to be content with mediocrity, since we know we can always count
on God's help. (MN 29)
We brothers and sisters of the Third Order Regular, following the
essential elements of this meditation, are challenged to deepen
our own appreciation of the richness of
the Eucharist - paying particular attention to that "mystagogical
catechesis" which is mentioned in the Pontifical Letter (MN 17) and
which values the precious customs and traditions of the Franciscan
tradition.
With sincere best wishes for a Blessed Christmas and New Year,
Convent of Sts. Cosmas and Damian.
Christmas, 2004.
Fr. Ilija Zivkovic, TOR Minister General
Fr. Michael Higgins, TOR Vicar general
Fr. Corpus Izquierdo Barrero, TOR 1st Councilor and Secretary generale
Fr. Matthew Puthenparambil, TOR 2st Councilor general
Fr. Fernando Scocca, TOR 3st Councilor general
Fr. Mark Fernando, TOR 4st Councilor general
CONVENTO DEI SS.COSMA E DAMIANO - VIA DEI FORI IMPERIALI, 1 - 00186
ROMA - ITALIA
TEL. (+39) 06.6920441 - FAX. (+39) 06.6784790
