WOULD SAINT FRANCIS BE PLEASED?

Would Saint Francis be pleased if he were in Florida today? So much of the natural resources of this state have been lost due to sharp population increases over the last 25 years and thus acquisition of land for housing, etc. There are some bright points though. Take a major significant land acquisition in coastal Indian River County (that's the County where Vero Beach is located), the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. This refuge protects a large population of marine turtles.

Then there is the Environmental Learning Center, offering a hands-on approach to investigating the environment with an elevated boardwalk that creates a trail through a mangrove forest. There's a butterfly garden, native plant garden, wet labs and more. And admission is free. Very close to Vero Beach (actually between Vero Beach and Fort Pierce) there's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution where they explore the world of underwater science. In Vero Beach is McKee Botanical Garden, founded in 1932, a historic jungle garden which is a lush, tropical Florida hammock, filled with both native and exotic tropical plants from around the world.

Each Florida town, in the Florida Keys or along both coasts has something special by way of natural resources. There are birds and other animals which are protected and a joy to look at. Take, for instance, the Florida Scrub Jay. This species is very tame and for that reason is also a protected species. It occurs only in Florida. There is a similar bird in California but not the same species. The Florida Scrub Jay has the habit of flying onto ones' outstretched hand particularly if there happens to be a shelled, unsalted, peanut offered. Although Saint Francis spoke to the birds (and to wolves, too), we should keep our distance so that we don't inadvertently lessen its chances for survival. That's a Florida Scrub Jay on the left. I believe this picture was taken by the people of Archbold Biological Research Station (Lake Wales, FL) where this bird is being studied.

As Franciscans we need to do our best to keep the wildlife, plants, birds and other animals alive. The Rule of Saint Francis says it so well: "Moreover they should respect all creatures, animate and inanimate, which bear the imprint of the Most High, and they should strive to move from the temptation of exploiting creation to the Franciscan concept of universal kinship."

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In Response to the Sacred: Living for God
by
Charles G. Spencer, SFO
 

To believe that the earth is the Lord's is to believe that all life has divine purpose. It is to believe that every blade of grass and leaf has been counted. It is also to believe that every bird that calls, calls to you, if you have ears to hear, and every flower in your path has been put there for you, if you have eyes to see. It is the same for every puddle and thicket. If not for the valleys as someone once said, we would not be able to appreciate the peaks. To place God at the center of every natural occurrence is to become a witness to the divine order of everyday life. It is to lend nothing to coincidence, but everything to providence. It is to sense and accept creation in full. Succumbing to the moment is to understand the full meaning of freedom. It is to believe that nature cannot be destructive of itself It is to value the forest no more than volcano, or the tree more than the insect, or the prey more than the predator, or the calm more than the storm, nor distinguish life from death. It is to accept our own ignorance, and guard against placing values on that which did not create or cannot fathom, including creatures we so despise. Ecology is an attempt to unlock the physical mysteries of life. Looking at life through Franciscan eyes confirms that it can't be done, in so much that the full intent and favor of God cannot be realized. In this we are made free to accept creation for creation's sake, and not for the sake of our own self- serving values, but free to trust in God, free to thank God, free to love God, and above all, free to serve God. To be free is to enter into and accept the fullness of creation.. .the fullness of God.

To experience creation as St. Francis did is to never stop praying: "Bless us Oh Lord and these Thy gifts 'which we are receiving constantly' through Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen." When we thank God before meals do we acknowledge the life given up for the packaging, as well as the food inside, or that life destroyed under wheel in transporting that food to our table? In everything that comes and goes by way of our hands we should be asking what life is so deserving that it be given up for me? To quote the 18th Article of the Secular Franciscan Order Rule, "Moreover they should respect all creatures, animate and inanimate, which bear 'the imprint of the Most High,' and strive to move from the temptation of exploiting creation to the Franciscan concept of universal kinship." But do we know how to strive, or what it is to exploit, or do we care? Do we have the conscience to care?

To displace the natural is to minimize the sacred, thus our dependence on God. Purity and simplicity are companions to the sacred, which offer a means of expressing thanks to God and respect for His creation. To capture the essence of purity is to capture the essence of God. Simplicity allows that choice to be made. It is to read every label, to emphasize the organic over the synthetic, the native over the hybridized and genetically engineered, and the recycled over the consummation of life.

If we were to visit St. Francis Basilica and deface a fresco, the world would quickly know, and we'd be chastised. However, for the corporate culture to purge endangered species, develop biological polluting genetic mutants, bio-load toxic metals, acid, dioxin, and other persistent chlorinated compounds and hormone disrupters into our environment, spread toxic sewage sludge and pesticides over pure and fertile ground, incinerate waste without regard to the chemical complexities of the waste stream or resultant emissions, cause untold animal suffering, etc., etc., we are told is the price for progress. This violence reflects an ever growing separation between ourselves and the divine. However, we cannot love what we do not know, and it shows!

If we were to visit a busy street corner in any major city at rush hour it would appear chaotic. However, to return every day, we'd begin to notice the same vehicles and people moving in the same direction. Eventually we'd begin to recognize order amid the chaos, and see ourselves as part of that order. The same goes for creation. If we were to sit or saunter quietly in a natural setting on a regular basis, even an overgrown urban lot or street corner, we'd eventually notice the same ants coming and going from the same hill, the same bees visiting the same flowers, the same birds, etc. We would soon observe distinct schedules, languages, and territories among these same creatures. As our observations became more developed, relationships would form with these creatures, and we would soon associate and appreciate our place with their place, a communal place. Every square inch of creation is alive to that same order. Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II says, "the human race is called to explore this order, to examine it with due care and make use of it while safeguarding its integrity."

It's not remarkable that St. Francis would move small worms to the side of the path, even though Thomas of Solano, historian and companion, mentions it in his writings. What is remarkable is how much we make reference to that today as something extraordinary. I think St. Francis would find it remarkable that we do, as well. It's an indicator of how far removed.. .how much we've become separated from our brothers and sisters of creation. To care for the worm lest it becomes trampled is a neighborly act, and not necessarily uncommon to caring people today. St. Francis cared for even the tiniest of creatures, not only because he came to know them as neighbors, but he recognized each one as "an imprint of the Most High." If we came to know, love, and care for God's creatures as St. Francis did, the birds would flock tots as well. Stake your life on nature, and she'll stake her life on you. We do live in the Kingdom, if only we could see beyond the shallow facade of materialism to find value as St. Francis found value.

When Francis stripped of all his earthly possessions, giving up his family inheritance before his bishop, father, and citizens of this community, he walked straight through the gates of Assisi into the hands of God. In abiding by Lady Poverty, as he referred to her, apart from the "Word" of God, creation was all he really had. It was through his poverty that he not only came to know God, but the value of grace, humility, faith, trust, patience, compassion, justice, plus, a whole other dimension of peace and love. In poverty he had no choice but to become completely dependent upon God, thus savored and welcomed every brush stroke of creation, bitter or sweet, and made living the Gospels fun. Obviously, if had pursued the textile business as his father had wanted, as most of us would have done, God's creatures would not have become his brothers and sisters, and St. Francis would not have become a saint.

However, it doesn't take a saint to find value beyond the marketplace. Many of the great poets did as well. "Go forth beneath the open skies and list to nature's (creation's) teachings." William Cullen Bryant (1794 - 1878). "Come forth into the light of things and let nature (Creation) be your teacher." Williams Wordsworth (1770 - 1850). "Nature (creation) speaks in signs and symbols." John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 -1892). "Nature (creation) is the living visible garment of God." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1842). As St. Francis was always beneath the open skies he came to recognize and interpret in own way the many signs and symbols of God's presence in his life. In these signs and symbols he discovered a language that spoke directly to him, the same divine intervention available to us. So that when we hear or see the crow or that which repeatedly touches us, the message imprinted upon our hearts is do not worry, do not be anxious, do not be sad or burdened, for "I, the Lord God, am with you." God is available to us all in this way, if we could only give back to Him the ears and eyes He gave to us.

However, our eyes and ears have been lured by a dominating corporate culture, and in so doing we've become separated and desensitized from our brothers and sisters of creation. We have in turn become blinded to materialism, regimented to a consumer-driven society, placing the earth's life-giving resources into the hands of shallow minds and cold hearts with self-centered ambition. In return we've become this inefficient waste-based society wedded to the emission stack, exhaust pipe, drain pipe, culvert, dumpster, spewing toxic residues desecrating the earth from Pole to Pole. As a result, human health, bio-diversity, water quality, etc., have all declined. Creation has become something to contend with, rather than be thankful for and dependent upon. Much of the western world's relationship to creation has been minimized and reflected by a chemical-dependent lawn monoculture society alien to the sanctity of life. However, regardless of our growing disassociation with the natural world, as long as we must depend on clean air, water, fertile soil, and other natural life-sustaining resources, we will remain an earth-based culture, however far removed. We need only to lift the vale and look toward southwest Siberia to get a glimpse of where we might be headed. Entrusting the care of the earth to the multinationals is and has been a mistake of the most immense proportions. The fertility and treasuries of creation are on a crash course with bankruptcy.

The corporation systematically sets the tone and example for the way business is conducted and the way life is lived and accepted, void of sharing, caring, and certainly not complimentary to generational sustainability. The entrenched corporate tag team leading us down this destructive path, includes weak-willed politicians, scientists and lawyers whom corporations buy up, the propagandizing public relations industry they have made their own, the "front groups" they create and fund, and the media which sits in the palm of their hand playing to the lowest ebb of human denominators. There is little the corporations have not commercialized. They wield control over our educational institutions, and infiltrate environmental organizations, offering handouts for compromise. Organizations that refuse are discredited, individual activists ostracized, some even sued or threatened for speaking out. In the process science is distorted to confuse the public so to defuse any form of reformation. Yes we need a strong economy, but not to the point of demoralizing and demonizing the world, and to remember a strong economy is a localized economy. These points are made so to understand what we have lost and why. Its time we bring down the corporate facade and expose these destructive giants for their true image, void of ethical, moral, or religious principal.

Corporate reform rests upon a God-centered foundation, thus cannot, and should not remain a peripheral issue with religious institutions, but central to the sanctity of life upon which the Church rests. The same is true for all organizations and institutions concerned with morality and ethics. Also, religious orders, organizations, and congregations must begin to include within their studies and formation programs the basics of environmental justice, ethics, and stewardship. and become more understanding of the sufferings of those victimized by chemical exposure and other forms of environmental injustice. Ecological audits, and adopting a pure and simple lifestyle further opens the door allowing God the freedom of His own creation. Sustainability depends upon it. Otherwise, life will continue to decay. As we read in Scripture, "the spirit lives because ofjustice." To know the creation is to know the Creator, and to know the Creator is to know the creation. If this be questioned, then the divinity of the Word of God must also come into question. We either believe or don't believe. There is no middle ground. To quote British Statesman, Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797), "all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." To live for God is to act for God. The earth has been given to us in trust. We have an obligation to that trust, and be cognizant that the sin of submission is no less greater than the sin of omission. To place creation first is to place God first, so that when we use a pesticide or other toxic substance we realize that trust has been broken, momentarily or otherwise. But how do we continue with this reformation process? First we must recognize an obligation to become informed, for without knowledge there can be no viable voice or organization. Applied levels of participation are many. We've all been given our own gifts, and are endowed to use them, great or small, for His glory. As William James (1842 - 1910) American psychologist and philosopher wrote "the greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it," and whatever we do, let us do it with reverence.

To believe that the earth is the Lord's is to apply the words St. Francis heard from the crucifix at San Damiano 730 years ago, so fitting today in more ways than one, "go, repair my house, which you can see is falling completely to ruin." And to add the dying words of St. Francis, "let us begin for up until now we have done nothing" to thank God, to trust God, to love God, to serve God, to live for God. Thank you.