Category: Franciscan Footprint

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

August 10 – August 17

 

 

1 — “So will my heavenly Father do to
you [handed over to torturers], unless each of you forgives his brother from
his heart.” (Mt 18:35)**

 

Extended meditation

As Franciscans try to follow the way
and life of Jesus, we will be guided by Jesus’s thoughts on love. It was how he thought; it was what he wanted
us to do. Among the actions of love in
our consideration must be the whole thought of what it means to forgive.

A
couple of years ago the General Board of the Mennonite Church released a statement
on violence. They reminded their members
that “No violence committed against us,
or those we love, justifies our committing violence in return. No suffering, not even death, can separate us
from the love of God. Jesus calls us not
to resist evil with violence, to forgive rather than to seek revenge, and to be
peacemakers.” The statement was a
statement accepted by all Mennonites as well as a reform of the Mennonites
known as Amish.

Not
too long after the statement, a non-Amish gunman shocked the nation when he
entered an Amish schoolhouse and systematically killed five Amish children,
wounded a number of others, and then killed himself. The reaction of the Amish community likewise
shocked the nation. An Amish spokesperson released this statement to the press: “I don’t think there’s anybody here that
wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have
suffered a loss but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these
acts.”

They indeed reached out to that family, comforting them only
hours after the shooting and extending forgiveness to them. In fact, the Amish who do not usually accept
donations set up a charitable fund for the family of the killer.

The “Lord’s Prayer” is the most common prayer in Christian
churches. The prayer is significant for
the Christian because of a number of reasons, one of them being the stress that
Jesus placed on forgiveness. As he
verbalized the prayer, Jesus said that a principal part of our prayer to God
must be asking for forgiveness, and at the same time, saying to our God that we
will forgive others. Then he repeated
the idea in his own words after he taught the prayer.

Jesus knew that we must ask for forgiveness of God and
others and he wanted us to recognize that words alone were not enough. We must prove by our actions that we mean
what we say.

 

 

2 – Turn back and
live! (Ezekiel 18:32)

…Have I sufficiently turned away from
sin and chosen what God wants of me?

 

 

3 – “Persevere in running the race…while keeping
our eyes fixed on Jesus.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

…Remembering that we profess
the Gospel as Franciscans.

 

 

4 —“My soul proclaims the greatness of
the Lord; my
spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Lk 1:46-7)**

…Is
there too much self-pride in my life?

5 – “For
God all things are possible.” (Mt 19:26)**

…Do I place my trust in God in as complete a way as humanly
possible?

 

 

 

 

 

** One of the most
important passages of the Gospels

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

August 4 – August 10

 

 

1 – “Who do people say
that the Son of Man is?” (Mt 16:13)**

…Is Jesus the pattern and measure for everything we do?

 

 

2 — Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,^* take up his
cross, and follow me.” (Mt 16:24)**

 

(…from the Secular Franciscan
Gathering 2022)

Extended meditation

There are three elements
to the following of Jesus: denial of self, taking up the cross each day, and
following Jesus’ steps. If one of the
three is missing, then the following of Jesus is imperfect and incomplete and
may bring about evil rather than good, even if the disciple is a Franciscan.

It is intriguing to look
at the scenario if one of the three is missing for a Franciscan disciple.

+ If we leave out the denial of self, what happens?

The chances are that even
as we take up the cross and follow Jesus’ thoughts, we will do it in a selfish
way. We become very self-righteous in
our approach to what should be and will not admit the possibility of any
involvement in evil on our parts. We
become judgmental of others and refuse to admit any fault ourselves. We justify ourselves since we argue that we
are taking up the cross and following Jesus.

If we do not attack
selfishness (the number 1 cause of sin), we will create evil, no matter how
religious (Franciscan) we might think we are.

+ What happens if we leave out “taking up the
cross”?

The chances are here, that
even though we admit our selfishness and try to follow Jesus’ ways, we will not
face the crosses that are part of this world, that is, the pain and suffering
which are always present in one form or another. And we go into the “pity party”—the “poor me”
syndrome—criticizing God and everyone else for making us suffer. We won’t look on the every-day living as
something that we must work at, and accept the crosses which are there every
day, and work with them.

There was a great line in
the true life adventure of the movie “Apollo 13”. When everything was going wrong, the Director
of Operations, Gene Frantz said, we have to “work the problem.” He took
everything that the trapped astronauts had in their capsule, threw them on a
table in front of his engineers, and said those words—work the problem—figure out
from what you have, exactly what they have to do. That is, “Do
the best you can with the circumstances that you are given as a Franciscan—what
might be called the prime directive of the spiritual life. (Television series:Star Trek)

The person who is not
accepting the crosses of daily life are not “working the problems” of daily living.

+ And, what if we leave out “following Jesus’ steps”?

Here, we have denied
ourselves, and we have taken up the crosses of every-day living, but we don’t
have a guide—namely, Jesus and consequently Francis.

We will not consciously do
this since we are indeed Franciscans, but it is something that happens because
of our busyness. We just don’t take the time that we should. We don’t do the meditation, we don’t do the
spiritual reading that we should.

Bishop
Weisenburger a couple of years ago in one of his writings said that we are
spending the majority of our time pursuing these five things, and therefore
following them instead of following the Lord:

– busyness—we follow our work, play, the
things that make up day-to-day living;

– materialism—we want more and more
things even though we do not need them at all;

– revenge—we follow the thought of
getting back at people;

– individualism—I follow what I want;

– entitlement—I want what I think I
deserve in life.

Another problem in our
Christian world is ignorance. And in the same way, one of our major
problems might be Franciscan or spiritual ignorance. We don’t do the spiritual reading that we
should. We should be reading the
thoughts about spiritual development and Christian theology every day in one
form or another, and from every point of view, conservative as well as
progressive.

The exaggeration of John
the Evangelist to close his Gospel is a great one to think about as we think of
the reading that we must do: “There are also many other
things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not
think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.”

 

 

3 – “It is good that we are here.” (Mt 9:33)**

…Do I have a positive
attitude in my life right now?

 

 

4 – “This is my chosen
Son; listen to him.” (Mt 9:35)**

…Do I read the
Scriptures with the intention of letting them affect my thoughts, words and
actions?

 

 

5 – “Where your treasure is, there also
will your heart be.” (Lk 12:34)**

…Is my treasure the
presence of God in my life?

August-3-2022.pdf

(Article attached for printout in pdf format)

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

July 28 – August 3

 

 

1 – “Like clay in
the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand,
house of Israel.” (Jeremiah 18:6)

…Do I honestly try
to let the Lord shape my thoughts, words, and actions?

 

 

2 — “Do
you understand all these things?” (Mt 13:51) **

…Do
I try to understand the Lord’s words in the Gospels?

 

Extended meditation

In
Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus was a perfect teacher. He wanted his students, that is,
his disciples and consequently his followers, to learn well what he was trying
to teach. He asks them as he teaches them the important question of whether
they understood what he was teaching.

For
coach Jim White of McFarland High School in the small city of McFarland,
California, that understanding happened in two ways, the first with himself,
and the second, as he directed his student-athletes.

With
himself, he saw that his previous teaching experiences had not been totally
what he wished. And after he began
teaching in the McFarland School District, he slowly became aware of what his
job of teaching was all about.

His understanding as a teacher began to
mature only when he began to see his students to be people, not unlike himself,
who needed to be taught different values than the ones they knew. It is a fact of California high school sports
history that with his help, his “runners” all became successful in their lives.
(Movie: McFarland USA)

Understanding usually happens in our
human natures with two ends in mind, the first being a shaping and forming of ourselves. It comes about only when we maturely accept
the principles which Jesus gives to us in his words of the Gospels. Indeed, the Franciscan vows to make the
Gospel her/his life.

Secondly and simultaneously, the other accomplishment
of understanding comes with the same principles of the Gospel as they relate to
other people. Such an understanding
directs us to recognize the “personal world view” of another with the intention
of helping them as much as we can. As
the Secular Franciscan Rule phrases, it, “As the Father sees in every person
the features of his Son, …so the Secular Franciscans with a gentle and courteous
spirit accept all people as a gift of the Lord and an image of Christ. A sense of community will make them joyful
and ready to place themselves on an equal basis with all people, especially
with the lowly for whom they shall strive to create conditions of life worthy
of people redeemed by Christ.” (Rule of the Secular
Franciscans, 13)

 

 

3 — “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies,
will live, and anyone who lives and
believes in me will never die. Do you
believe this?” (John 11:26)**

…We readily
answer the Lord that we believe that he is the resurrection and the life. How can
I show that belief a little more during the upcoming days?

 

Extended
meditation

Perhaps more than any other
doctrine, the Christian belief in life after death depends solely on
faith. No human being has ever returned
from the dead. We have stories from
people who claim to have experienced life after death in “near death
experiences,” but there is no proof that there is life after death except for
what Scripture offers. But Scripture is
very clear. This life that we are living
is merely “part one” of life. “Part two”
is what we choose while we are involved in “part one.” If we choose the path of good, we will have
our eternal reward in heaven; those who choose evil will have an eternal
punishment.

A person familiar with the
Christian Scriptures knows that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. But the important fact of the story of
Lazarus and his sisters is that it did not matter whether Jesus brought Lazarus
back to earthly life or not; what mattered was that Lazarus was already alive
in the eyes of God. As Jesus tells
Martha, whoever believes in him will never die.

An interesting thought from
our belief in part two of life, or eternal life, is that part one, our life
here on earth, can be better because of our belief in heaven. The thought is cleverly portrayed in the
movie “Hereafter.”

Psychic George Lonegun knew
that he had a gift of communicating with the dead. He called the gift a curse because inevitably
he discovered many people who wanted to know about their past, but the
knowledge often did nothing more than make them miserable. At her persistent request, however, George
finally listened to Marie Lelay about her experience.

The movie’s philosophical
conclusion is portrayed in the present life of George and Marie as they fall in
love. They are drawn together by their
knowledge of the afterlife, and the unwritten statement is that they will live
happily together. Their life “part one”
is better because of their mutual belief in life “part two.” (Movie, “Hereafter”)

Such a conclusion is, more
or less, the conclusion of Christianity and therefore Franciscanism: once we
understand that the afterlife—or in Christian terms, “heaven”—exists,
our present life here on earth should take on a different and more profitable
meaning.

Further, and a negative
thought that must accompany the thought of eternal happiness, as we experience
life “part one” here on earth, we must be very much aware that although our
present life can be enhanced by our belief in the “afterlife,” we believe that
we can also choose the opposite. We
still possess a free will. We may choose
to have “eternal death” if we refuse to live that good life.

Knowledge of a good ending
is an incentive to work diligently toward such an end. If we do God’s work, and do it well, living a
truly Christian life, a happy life on earth will be ours, as well as the
“afterlife” in heaven.

 

 

4 — “His
heart was moved with pity for them.” (Mt 14:14)**

…In my life, in general, do I look at others with a desire to
help them if they need it?

 

 

5 – “Woman,
great is your faith.” (Mt 15:28)**

…In what ways can I show my faith in a
stronger way?

 

 

 

 

** One of the most
important passages of the Gospels

July-27-2022.pdf

(Article attached for printout in pdf format)

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

July 21-27

 

1 – They have dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns,
that hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)

…We tend to dig broken cisterns that hold no water, that is,
we tend to look at solutions which are really not solutions. Do I turn to God
enough as I seek solutions to the problems I have?

 

 

2 – Mary Magdalene “saw
two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where
the body of Jesus had been.” (Jn 20:12)

…There are people in
my life who are “my” angels. Who are they and have I thanked them for what they
have done?

 

Extended
meditation

It’s interesting to study the “empty
tomb” as theologians call the beginning of the Resurrection experience in the
various evangelists. Each one gives a
different rendition of the empty tomb.
In John’s Gospel, there are two angels who make the announcement to Mary
Magdalen.

We can only prove the existence of
angels by reading the Scriptures and in every instance, they are presented as
workers or messengers of God. But there
are many instances of angels in human form.

Chloe needed an angel that night, and
the angel came in the guise of a rather large African American man by the name
of Donovan. She had lost her husband
because of what her neighbors called “The Chicago Violence,”—a drive-by
shooting that happened all too often in her neighborhood, and her husband was a
victim. Chloe was completely distraught.

At the hospital while she was awaiting
the horrible news, Pastor Donovan who called himself a “street pastor” came to
her and prayed with her. He prayed for
love and peace and unity. And he came
back to her home a couple times the following month. He was the angel she needed.

Pastor Donovan is a real person who has
made it his mission to care for the survivors of gun violence around the troubled
spots of Chicago. NBC News heard about
him, and followed him around one evening.
“I’ve been blessed to be loved,” he said in the interview, “it’s
important that I love now.” He said that
he has cared for over a thousand different survivors of families that had a
homicide due to gun violence.

One of the frequent names that is given
Francis of Assisi in the stories known as “The Little Flowers of Francis of
Assisi” is that of an “angel.” He spoke
like an angel, he helped like an angel, and so forth.

A follower of Francis must take note of
that calling. There are people all
around us who need an angel who will deliver the message of God to them. Maybe we can find a mission in helping those
people.

 

 

3 – “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for
a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg?”
(Lk 11:11-12)

…God knows more than I do. In
my prayer of petition, I may be asking for things that would have been harmful
to me.

 

 

4 – “…the great ones make their authority over them felt.But it shall not be so among you.” (Mt 20:25-26)

…How strong is my self-pride?

 

Extended
meditation

According
to St. Thomas Aquinas, a capital sin is that which has an exceedingly
desirable end so that in one’s desire for it, the person goes on to the commission
of many sins, all of which are said to originate in that sin as their
chief source. And first and foremost among the capital sins is the sin of
pride or vainglory. It was the sin which transformed Lucifer into Satan, and is
called the sin of sins.

And
so, Jesus calls attention to it often.
Here, Jesus’s disciples suddenly had power that they never expected to
have, and their human natures wanted to exercise that power. Quite naturally, they wanted to exploit their
authority. Human nature has been
predictable since the day God created humankind: we always want more than
others. Here, quite directly, the Lord
says to them and to us: “It shall not be so among you.”

In
our history, American historians have ranked the 1960’s in the southern United
States to be one of the most painful moments in American history. Black Americans
found themselves in a state of desiring freedom from the oppression that had
been accepted behavior up to that time in that part of the world. (see Movie:
“The Help”)

Part
of that moment in history resonates with the sin of pride because the American
white person probably without knowing what he/she was doing thought themselves to
be more than the black servants who were employed in various jobs. Did they know what they were doing? After all, a College Study had recently
stated that blacks were inferior to whites.

A
recent song described that pride to be “noise.” Singing of a person who is
taken up with self, and therefore a victim of pride, the person who feels less than
another says, “You don’t know the way that you look when [your] steps make that
much noise.” (Song: “Cooler Than Me”)

If
we want to be truly Christian, that is a member of a group who are called to be
“Christianity squared,” we must face the feeling of always wanting more. We naturally try to be better and better at
what we do, but too often we find ourselves judging others to be “less.” We
feel superior over others who don’t do as well as we do. It is but a short step then to make them “slaves.”

The
noise of pride is loud. It tends to
drown out any attempt to do good.

 

 

5 –
“…sells all that he has…” (Mt 13:44, 46)

…”Sells
all that he has” is central to Jesus’s stories here. Obviously it cannot be taken literally
because I need things to live. But as a
Franciscan, what things in my life should I give up to show my dedication to
the Lord in a better way?