In her comment on yesterday's post, Steph brought up the sometimes thorny question of how religious communities do or don't support themselves.
Some classic monastic communities have an ideal of self-sufficiency. Thus a monastery runs a school, or publishes books, or makes fudge to support themselves through their own work.
Franciscans, though, are not monks but mendicants. They are supposed to live in a less secure way that the self-sufficient monastery. Francis recommended to his brothers that they receive their daily sustenance in exchange for their labor, so long as they didn't receive money. If this wasn't enough, they were to beg.
This is more or less how we live to this day. We are supported in part by our own work, and in part by fund raising. In fact, we owe much of our livelihood to the generosity of others.
St. Clare was even stricter with her sisters. Being cloistered, they weren't able to work outside their monastery or beg. And yet Clare insisted that they have no stable means of support through rents or endowments. And it was a hard life, as you can imagine for yourself if you read the Acts of the Process of Canonization for Clare.
So, are we mendicants moochers off the world? Why should people support us with their hard-earned resources? Well, hopefully we offer something in return: our availability, our ministry, our witness to the Risen Lord and the life of the world to come. Of course if our witness to these things become incredible, no one ought to support our life.
The Franciscan ideal is not indepedence but inter-dependence. Hopefully we try to show how resources and economic realites can be used to produce solidarity and mutuality among people, rather than simply individual financial security.
This is the economic sense of what we mean by universal fraternity. Mutuality and solidarity, inter-dependence among persons is ultimately an imitatio Dei, an imitation of the perfect mutuality Who is the Trinity.
July 7, 2006
July 6, 2006
Things to Do
There's a monastery of Poor Clare Nuns less than two miles from our house. Unfortunately, their semi-public Mass is at the same time as our Morning Prayer, so I rarely get to go. But today I was out of the house early to drop off a brother at a doctor's appointment, so I was able to attend Mass at the monastery.
They really are something to see. All of these women, young and old, living an enclosed, secret life. They don't do or accomplish anything by the world's standards. But we almost instinctively recognize the holiness of their hidden life.
It's important for us who live in the world (though hopefully not of the world!) to remember the contemplatives, the recluses, the hermits. Many who don't understand our faith learn to appreciate us Christians from what we do. We work on the side of the poor. We seek non-violence and a more humane world. And there's nothing wrong with this; Jesus himself warned us that we could recognize true and false disciples by their fruits.
But we must remember that our Christianity, our faithfulness does not depend on what we do or what we accomplish. If we allow ourselves to absorb the world's standards of visible results and productivity, our religion will turn into what one of my theology professors called a "grim activism." Social justice is important, but it is not the standard by which everything else is measured.
Christianity is not, in the first place, about what we do, but about what God has accomplished and continues to do. God has adopted us into the life of the Trinity through the humanity of Christ. Whatever good works we do in response to this great gift, great. But just to appreciate the gift full time is enough for those who have enough love.
They really are something to see. All of these women, young and old, living an enclosed, secret life. They don't do or accomplish anything by the world's standards. But we almost instinctively recognize the holiness of their hidden life.
It's important for us who live in the world (though hopefully not of the world!) to remember the contemplatives, the recluses, the hermits. Many who don't understand our faith learn to appreciate us Christians from what we do. We work on the side of the poor. We seek non-violence and a more humane world. And there's nothing wrong with this; Jesus himself warned us that we could recognize true and false disciples by their fruits.
But we must remember that our Christianity, our faithfulness does not depend on what we do or what we accomplish. If we allow ourselves to absorb the world's standards of visible results and productivity, our religion will turn into what one of my theology professors called a "grim activism." Social justice is important, but it is not the standard by which everything else is measured.
Christianity is not, in the first place, about what we do, but about what God has accomplished and continues to do. God has adopted us into the life of the Trinity through the humanity of Christ. Whatever good works we do in response to this great gift, great. But just to appreciate the gift full time is enough for those who have enough love.
July 4, 2006
Nota Bene
I've added a new site to the "Become a Friar" sidebar section. It's an interesting jurisdiction of the Order indeed, with an interesting history, including the imprisonment of friars during the Second World War.
I Don't Know
I find Independence Day a little depressing. As I try to reflect on the questions facing these United States, I have few answers.
What to say about immigration? I've spent my life in the Franciscan order living and working in churches built by Germans, but now populated by folks of various Spanish-speaking cultures. I ride on the railroads built by the Chinese and the subways built by the Irish. Should it be any surpise that people are still seeking a share in our wealth and spirit of self-determination?
What to say about our conflict with violent Islam, the so-called war on terror? Yes, people need protection from harm. But there is part of me that has some sympathy with the "terrorists." Theirs is a theological world, and perhaps they feel threatened by the economic and cultural imperialism of the secular west. At least the paganism of the classical pagans was one of beauty and order; ours is the much more crass paganism of power, wealth, and security.
We (and our allies) are the only ones allowed to have nuclear weapons. Unfriendly states are only allowed defenses that we can beat easily. We decide what defenses and economies others are allowed to have; what is this but the colonialism whose rejection we allegedly celebrate today?
When I was in school and they taught us about the American Revolution, we were told about how the American soldiers used subterfuge and guerilla tactics to defeat the orderly British army. But they weren't terrorists, we were taught, they were creative, do-it-yourself, American freedom fighters.
What to say about immigration? I've spent my life in the Franciscan order living and working in churches built by Germans, but now populated by folks of various Spanish-speaking cultures. I ride on the railroads built by the Chinese and the subways built by the Irish. Should it be any surpise that people are still seeking a share in our wealth and spirit of self-determination?
What to say about our conflict with violent Islam, the so-called war on terror? Yes, people need protection from harm. But there is part of me that has some sympathy with the "terrorists." Theirs is a theological world, and perhaps they feel threatened by the economic and cultural imperialism of the secular west. At least the paganism of the classical pagans was one of beauty and order; ours is the much more crass paganism of power, wealth, and security.
We (and our allies) are the only ones allowed to have nuclear weapons. Unfriendly states are only allowed defenses that we can beat easily. We decide what defenses and economies others are allowed to have; what is this but the colonialism whose rejection we allegedly celebrate today?
When I was in school and they taught us about the American Revolution, we were told about how the American soldiers used subterfuge and guerilla tactics to defeat the orderly British army. But they weren't terrorists, we were taught, they were creative, do-it-yourself, American freedom fighters.
July 3, 2006
Doubting Thomas
Today is the feast of Thomas the apostle, famous for doubting the Resurrection. He wanted to put his hand in Jesus' wounds before he would believe, and the Risen Lord indulged him.
The Cross is, quite literally, an intersection. It is where God meets humanity most deeply. Mysteriously, God meets us most strongly in the most unlikely place: in the depth of human suffering, pain, and despair.
So if we want to know God, if we desire the presence of God, we must imitate Thomas and put our hands into the wounds of Christ. We must get involved with the suffering of the world. God has identified his own life with the suffering of the poor, the sick, the desparing, the unwanted; this is the meaning of the Cross.
When we're willing to get our hands dirty with the pain of the world, to be in solidarity with those who suffer, to accept the vulnerability of having all of our easy answers fall apart in the depth of their despair, that's when, like Thomas, we can find the eyes to see the Risen Christ.
The Cross is, quite literally, an intersection. It is where God meets humanity most deeply. Mysteriously, God meets us most strongly in the most unlikely place: in the depth of human suffering, pain, and despair.
So if we want to know God, if we desire the presence of God, we must imitate Thomas and put our hands into the wounds of Christ. We must get involved with the suffering of the world. God has identified his own life with the suffering of the poor, the sick, the desparing, the unwanted; this is the meaning of the Cross.
When we're willing to get our hands dirty with the pain of the world, to be in solidarity with those who suffer, to accept the vulnerability of having all of our easy answers fall apart in the depth of their despair, that's when, like Thomas, we can find the eyes to see the Risen Christ.
Franciscan Spirituality
Be sure to catch the series of posts that Paula is up to these days. She is posting insights from Franciscan Prayer, a fine book by sister, scholar, and brilliant Franciscan popularizer Ilia Delio.
July 2, 2006
Clean and Unclean
Mark's story of the woman with the hemorrhage, contained in today's gospel, is a brilliant story of reversal. According to Jewish law and belief, her touching of Jesus ought to have transmitted her uncleanness to him. Instead, his power makes her well.
The world can seem entropic; it seems to tend toward the worse. It's easy to see how often the corruption of evil infects and ruins our good intentions. These are all symptoms of a world made tired and old by the effects of original sin.
And yet the touch of Christ not only transforms illness into wellness, but also destroys the power of evil itself to corrupt others into its downward spiral. And what else do we celebrate in the sacraments but this same touch of Christ?
O.k., that's probably enough metaphors for one day!
The world can seem entropic; it seems to tend toward the worse. It's easy to see how often the corruption of evil infects and ruins our good intentions. These are all symptoms of a world made tired and old by the effects of original sin.
And yet the touch of Christ not only transforms illness into wellness, but also destroys the power of evil itself to corrupt others into its downward spiral. And what else do we celebrate in the sacraments but this same touch of Christ?
O.k., that's probably enough metaphors for one day!
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