by Joe Makley OFS Vice-Chair, National JPIC Commission

It was Pope Francis, in Laudato Si, who said of Saint Francis: “[He showed us the] inseparable bond between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace.” He was talking about Francis’ whole life and ministry, and he wanted us to understand that these things are connected. To put it in the terms of the moment, it is difficult to stop a pandemic when large segments of the society do not have proper health insurance or clean drinking water. The spirit of Laudato Si is a spirit of justice and peace, integral to life in a clean and healthy Earth.

I was to attend the Ecumenical Advocacy Days in Washington at the end of April. The theme was environmental justice (on the anniversary of Laudato Si). After it was cancelled, I caught one of the guest speakers online, Joan Brown, Sister of Francis, who directs New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, a group that works on environmental issues with native American and vulnerable populations. Her presentation called for that change of heart described in our Rule, from the temptation to exploit nature, to one of universal kinship. Sister spoke directly to how the pandemic provides an opportunity for a conversion to realize essential elements of the Laudato Si vision, through direct changes to our own lifestyles, and working to correct societal injustices brought to light by its stresses on our institutions. “What is our call now,” she asked, “in this mysterious moment of death and birth?”

I’ve been thinking and praying about that, as I’m sure you have. During these weeks we’ve had a close visit from Sister Death, a unique physical separation from our human families, and a pause in the bustle, under skies clearer and bluer than I can remember seeing in decades. Whole fleets of commercial jets are parked. Even trains and buses have stopped rolling. The human costs of perpetual war, weak institutions and social inequities are placed under a bright light. Surely now we can hear the cries of those who are not in the protective bubble of the “developed” world, or its dominant groups. Surely now we can see how our own habits of consumption are connected to the problem. Surely now, we will hear God speaking to us, and our hearts will be made ready for a truer, deeper, and more complete conversion to Christ, and with our Seraphic Father St. Francis, to see all creatures, animate and inanimate, praising the Most High, to renew our gratitude for them, and to raise our voices in the same chorus.

All our popes since Pope St. John XXIII have called us to this, most recently Pope Francis, but also Pope St John Paul II in his articulate description of “human ecology” in Centesimus Annus. Our Rule (p. 18) calls us to ecological 2 conversion, universal kinship. Over the past few weeks, we have also been shown (in a new way) that we can’t do it all. So what action will we choose? How will a renewed love, a new, less stony, more natural heart for everyone and all creation, be made manifest in each one of us?

I know we are all helping to reduce suffering, through volunteer work, donations, etc., so we are already taking visible action out of love. We have been asked to work more on “root causes and structures,” so I’ll mention a few practical steps, trying to stick to things that I have done or someone that I know has.

✤ Monitor legislation at the state, local, or national level. See what is being proposed in each session and follow the OFS Rule to support just laws and oppose unjust laws, to seek the common good, to demonstrate solidarity with the marginalized. This includes contacting the diocesan public policy office and writing to or calling legislators, offering comments to legislative committees. As Kent Ferris, of the Davenport, Iowa, diocese, said at the 2019 JPIC: “If a person prefers to work directly with the poor and doesn’t like politics, that person’s voice may be the most important one the legislators hear on that day.” Like many of us, I am reluctant to trust an email alert; I need to know myself what is going on, so it takes time. In Maine, we do have a diocesan office of Public Policy, and its director, Suzanne Lafrenier, lets us know about things coming up at the state legislature if we get on her email list. Some dioceses have an office of Pro-Life or other title.

✤ Send thank you messages to legislators and others who work on behalf of the marginalized, the poor, and the vulnerable.

✤ Look for authentic dialogue opportunities. Specifically, have a respectful online discussion with, for instance, a vocal Catholic who disagrees with the Church’s activity of refugee placement. Practice that loving dialogue. Ask questions. Seek to understand. “How did you come to be at such odds with Church teaching on this?” Develop a relationship, rather than trying to “win.”

✤ Continue to work to get St Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures out there among Catholics, in print, but especially in recital to music. The Canticle is a picture and an inspiration of ecological conversion. The Transitus service is a great way to feature it at a Parish. Holy Family Fraternity has a service that does this, and we’d be glad to share.

✤ Reduce consumption: It’s a key Franciscan lesson from the pandemic: buying stuff can cause harm. Buying less can be transformational. Look at what we just achieved by not buying air travel! Buying intentionally (avoiding sweatshops and child labor, choosing Fair Trade, avoiding petrochemicals, supporting worker-owned companies and coops, etc.) can make a real difference, too.

✤ Use less food: More rice and beans. More soup. Make things rather than buy. Fewer onetime purchases “for supper,” better planning. Food takes a lot of energy to produce and transport. David Seitz, a board member of the Franciscan Action Network, said recently of the pandemic: “I am eating healthy and spending way less money. I’m going to keep doing this.

✤ Drive less. I am amazed at the lack of movement of our car’s odometer. I’m partial to a road trip, but I can get used to the savings, and the substantial contribution to Mother Earth.

✤ Hold onto that deepened sense of gratitude for what I already have. I think all of us have felt we would come out of this transformed. I pray that our conversion will also be a collective one, where the voice of the OFS is more unified and gains volume and is heard by those who in Pope Francis’ words “are still waiting.”

(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Fall Issue 2020.)

Conversion and Action on the Anniversary of Laudato Si’

(This article originally appeared in the TAU-USA Fall Issue 2020)

2018-2021 National Priority: Fraternity Life

BUILDING FRATERNITY: ADVICE FROM SCRIPTURE AND ST. FRANCIS

by Mary Bittner, OFS

“Fidelity to their own charism, Franciscan and secular, and the witness of building fraternity sincerely and openly are their principal services to the Church, which is the community of love” (OFS General Constitutions Art. 100).

Given that building fraternity is intrinsic to Secular Franciscan life and forms one of our principal services to the Church, how do we go about it? St. Francis in his Earlier Rule and the words of Scripture give us much practical advice about fostering fraternity spirit and growth. Take some time to ponder each quotation. As followers of Christ in the footsteps of Francis, how might we put his words into practice?

Love is the basis of fraternity. “And they should love one another, as the Lord says: This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you (Jn 15:12). And let them express the love which they have for one another by their deeds (cf. Jas 2:18), as the Apostle says Let us not love in word or in speech, but in deed and in truth (1Jn 3:18)” ER XI 5-6.  “In brotherly love let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression” (Rm 12:10). This may seem so obvious as to be not worth mentioning, yet Francis stresses that a genuine love of the brothers and sisters is of primary importance in fraternity life. He reminds us that it is easy to assume that we love someone until we’re called upon to do it.

Make building fraternity a priority. “And wherever the brothers are and in whatever place they meet other brothers, they must greet one another wholeheartedly and lovingly, and honor one another without complaining (1 Pt 4:9)” ER VII 15.

From the La Verna Vision: “Jeff is always busy with something: family, high school teacher, working with Secular Franciscans, Lambeau Field Stadium tour guide. Now, his busy schedule also includes baking a cherry pie! Jeff says that one of his joys of living in Northeastern Wisconsin during late July is cherry picking, and Door County, Wisconsin, is famous for their cherries. So now is your opportunity to join in and enjoy a piece of cherry pie. But first you have to prepare it.” “And each one should confidently make known his need to the other, so that he might find what he needs and minister it to him. And each one should love and care for his brother in all those things in which God will give him grace, as a mother loves and cares for her son (cf. 1 Th 2:7)” ER IX 10-11. “So then, let us be always seeking the ways which lead to peace and the ways in which we can support one another” (Rm 14:19). Fraternity doesn’t happen automatically, without significant effort on our part. It takes time to develop. We need to give it high priority and be willing to work to make it a reality.

Don’t be judgmental. “Let them not judge or condemn. And as the Lord says, they should not take notice of the little defects of others (cf. Mt 7:3; Lk 6:41)” ER XI 10-11. “And let all the brothers, both the ministers and servants as well as the others, take care not to be disturbed or angered at the sin or evil of another, because the devil wishes to destroy many through the fault of one; but they should spiritually help [the brother] who has sinned as best they can, because it is not the healthy who are in need of the  physician, but those who are sick (cf. Mt 9:12; Mk 2: 17). “Let us each stop passing judgment, therefore, on one another and decide instead that none of us will place obstacles in any brother’s way or anything that can bring him down” (Rm 14:13). Being judgmental is one of the easiest ways to poison the spirit of the fraternity.

Don’t gossip. “Let them not murmur nor detract from others, for it is written: Gossips and detractors are detestable to God (Rm 1:29-30)” ER XI 8. We don’t usually think that indulging in gossip is a serious matter, but it too poisons the spirit of the fraternity.

Willingly show forgiveness. Francis, in his Letter to a Minister, gives the topic of forgiveness a telling introduction: “And by this I wish to know if you love the Lord God and me, his servant and yours – if you have acted in this manner: that is, there should not be any brother in the world who has sinned, however much he may possibly have sinned, who, after he has looked into your eyes, would go away without having received your mercy, if he is looking for mercy. And if he were not to seek mercy, you should ask him if he wants mercy. And if he should sin thereafter a thousand times before your very eyes, love him more than me so that you may draw him back to the Lord” Letter to a Minister 9-11. Even in our fraternities, we will have many opportunities to apply this advice.

“Well,” someone might say, “this emphasis on building fraternity is all well and good, but isn’t it a bit inward-looking? Are you saying we should just focus on ourselves and our own little group?” No, not at all. As Secular Franciscans, as we build fraternity, we serve the Church, and we assist our members to bring the Gospel life to the world.

Discussion Questions

1. Francis’s emphasis on love always comes with the admonition to show love in deed, as indeed does Scripture. Which articles of the OFS Rule relate to this most basic element of building fraternity? What do they ask us to do?

2. Is building fraternity a high priority for you and your fraternity? Would others agree with your self-assessment? How has your fraternity grown in this over the last several years? How might you try to improve?

3. Francis particularly asks that we not take notice of the little defects of others. Why? Why do you think Francis was so concerned that his brothers not judge each other, and not be angered by the sin of another? What happens when we do get angry at another’s sin? How do we then respond to the one who sinned?

4. Why are gossip and being judgmental so detrimental to a fraternity? How can they be countered?

5. Why does Francis consider the way in which we forgive and show mercy to our brothers and sisters to be evidence of whether we “love the Lord God and me, his servant and yours?” What experiences have helped you learn to forgive?

2018-2021 National Priority: Fraternity Life