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FRANCISCAN SAINTS
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SAINT CLARE OF
ASSISI
A SONG OF PRAISE
A
Letter of the Minister General
Brother Giacomo Bini, ofm
Rome 2002
Introduction
In the
Name of the Lord!
I greet you, Poor Sisters of Saint Clare!
I greet you, contemplative sisters who have embraced
the spirituality of Francis and Clare!
I greet all of you, Brothers and Sisters
who love Clare and Francis,
and as Minister and servant of all I wish you
"peace from heaven and sincere love in the Lord"
(2 EpFid 1).
"Since
by divine inspiration you have made yourselves daughters and handmaids of the
Most High Sovereign King, the heavenly Father, and have betrothed yourselves to
the Holy Spirit by choosing to live according to the perfection of the holy
Gospel, I desire and I promise always to maintain, personally and through my
brothers, the same tender care and individual concern for you as I do for them"
(RegCl 6:3-4; cf. FormViv)
Inspired by these words and in obedience to them I, your brother, decided to
write to you, my dear sisters, who occupy a special place among the followers of
Francis and Clare. In the name of all the rest of the Franciscan Family, the men
and women who cherish the Gospel project of Clare and Francis, I thank you for
the rich spiritual heritage you continue to preserve and develop: it is your
special contribution to our common charism. We are grateful for your profound
communion with us in the Holy Spirit: it sustains us as we carry the Gospel
along the highways of the world. We thank you for the unfailing fidelity with
which you are true to your vocation to be silent "sentinels of the dawn", alert
to ponder and descry, amid the obscurity of human events, the buds of new life
already stirring on the earth. You help us to interpret the vocation we share
with you and to find our joy in it. At the beginning of her Testament Clare
breaks into this ecstatic cry of thanksgiving: "Among the benefits we have
received and continue daily to receive from our Benefactor, the Father of
mercies, and for which we must give heartfelt thanks to the glorious Father of
Christ, is our vocation. And the more perfect and strong that vocation is, the
greater is our debt of gratitude" (TestCl 2-3). We are therefore bound to
progress in knowledge of our vocation, to love it and to respond to it
faithfully and generously.
Next year we shall celebrate the 750th anniversary of the death of our mother
and sister Clare. This should be a special time of grace for us to revitalize
within ourselves the 'spousal' love that directed Clare's entire life. My
thoughts turn, as I write, to those precious words and gestures that took place
during the days before her final Exodus. Clare's poor unadorned bed in San
Damiano then became a focus of relationships and encounters rich in profound
human and spiritual significance.
It seems to me that even a letter such as this can become a place of communion
and of fraternal sharing, where we too are permitted to discover what Clare
looked for from Juniper - "something new about the Lord". This is exactly what
people today are eagerly hoping to receive from us: "something new about the
Lord".
As I've visited the brothers round the world I've had the privilege of meeting
you also; of listening to you, sharing with you and praying in your company. I
always find it deeply moving to experience the intense friendship that binds you
to the friars and to the whole Franciscan Family and to feel the consuming
thirst for God that motivates your communities and that you would willingly
share with us. We certainly have much to learn, we brothers and sisters who go
as pilgrims through the world, from your mystical experience, radical and
absolute to a degree that only one who has been vanquished by Love can
comprehend or surmise.
Brother Rainaldo, Brother Leo, Brother Angelo and Brother Juniper were there,
close to Clare during those final days. They listened and they talked to her,
and the words they spoke fanned the flame of their passionate quest for God. My
hope is that through this letter we can begin to achieve the same result, as it
prolongs in our day that intimate friendship of our beginnings, which has
sustained the Friars Minor and the Poor Sisters ever since on the path of their
earthly pilgrimage.
These reflections are directly intended for the Poor Clares on the occasion of
the 750th anniversary of the death of Saint Clare. All the texts I quote refer
in fact to her. But I would like to think that my fraternal message might find
an echo in the hearts of all the Franciscan contemplative sisters in the world;
I was certainly thinking of them too as I wrote it, and I feel that my
suggestions and invitations may be helpful to them.
Lastly, I hope that the sisters and brothers of the worldwide Franciscan Family
may have an opportunity of reading these pages, since responsibility for our
complementarity and reciprocity is an obligation that devolves on us all.
I.
The Mission our Communities have in common
There
are two indivisible components in every personal relationship with the Lord, and
in every religious charism. These are vocation and mission, "follow me" and "go
forth", give witness before others to what you have seen. The Lord calls us in
order to make us his disciples and send us to be his witnesses throughout the
world. By accepting this mission we become a living 'memorial' of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ in our own day, always alert and adept at finding fresh ways to
focus people's attention on the Kingdom - which is in fact already present among
them. As sisters and brothers of Clare and Francis we have a clear and specific
message to deliver, even though we do it in different ways. Our Rules provide a
clear map which highlights the fundamental elements of our religious journey.
To live and bear witness to the Gospel
"I rejoice to see that you have, through humility and strong faith, embraced in
the arms of your poverty the incomparable treasure which has lain hidden in the
field of the world and of human hearts: that treasure which serves to buy that
by which all things were made out of nothing. Indeed, in you the words of the
apostle are literally true: I regard you as 'a co-worker' with God himself and a
support to raise up the failing members of his ineffable body" (3EpAg 7-8).
The rule of life common to all members of the Franciscan Family is "to live the
holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Cf. RegB 1:1; RegCl 1:2; RegSFO 4). They
desire above all things "to have the Spirit of the Lord at work within them" (RegB
10:8; RegCl 10:9). They hold prayer and contemplation to be the absolute
priority of their lives (Cf. RegB 5:2; RegCl 7:2). The path they follow through
life is also the same for all, and it is clearly mapped out: it is the humility
and poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his poor mother. Clare expresses it
simply: "The Son of God became for us the Way" (TestCl 5).The life of Jesus of
Nazareth, lived in poverty from Bethlehem to Calvary, was an epiphany of God
that totally absorbed and revolutionized the lives of Francis and Clare. Their
passionate devotion impelled them to conformity with Christ in everything. They
allowed no watering down of this commitment and would accept no relaxation of
its demands to the last day of their lives. When people came to Francis
suggesting other ways of serving the Lord, other Rules that were well tested and
more clearly structured his invariable answer was that "the Lord revealed to me
that it was his will that I become a fool like him in the world, and this is the
only learning God wants us to be concerned with" (cf. LegPer 114). And when the
Pope suggested to Clare that she mitigate the rigors of her absolute poverty she
answered, in a reference that looked well beyond the requirements of the vow:
"Holy Father, on no account, now or ever throughout eternity, do I wish to be
dispensed from the following of Christ" (LegCl 14).
This, then, is our calling, this our "science" and our diakonia: to become ever
more attentive hearers and faithful executors of the Word of God, contemplating
and radically following the poor Christ with all our heart. From this clear and
concrete identity spring the diverse but complementary forms of evangelization
and the different specific missions of the Franciscans-Clarian Family within the
Church of God for the sake of the Kingdom.
The "lesser brothers" scatter freely through the world, which is their
"cloister" (cf. SC 63), the place where they engage in fraternal and
contemplative relationships (cf. RegNB 16). "It was for this that [the Lord]
sent you into the whole world, that by word and deed you would bear witness to
his voice and make known to everyone that there is no Almighty except he" (EpOrd
9).
The "poor sisters" from within the "cloister" of their interiority follow the
example of Mary (cf. 3EpAg 19) in making of themselves a welcome and a
dwelling-place for, and thus an icon of, the God of love. This witness is
"mirrored" and projected throughout the world. The enclosure becomes an opening
to the whole universe and a place which is transformed into a space for
relationships, just as the tiny space of the garden at San Damiano was
transformed for a suffering and almost blind Francis into a vision and a
canticle of all creation. One doesn't enter the cloister to find a refuge or to
flee from the problems of the world but rather to immerse oneself in the mystery
of hospitality: to share more deeply in human lives, being in touch with their
most secret and confused longings, and to be part of the shaping of all that
makes up their human story in accordance with that plan of God that only saints
and prophets can discern.
Since it thus assumes a universal dimension, the cloister becomes for Clare a
reality transformed by a boundless spiritual dynamism. Before her illness she
was strongly tempted to leave for Morocco no less! where the first friars
had witnessed to the faith by 'martyrdom' (Cf. Proc 6:6). During the last thirty
years of her life, as she suffered the 'martyrdom' of illness, she maintained an
incredible variety of friendships. She was visited by the Pope, by cardinals, by
friars, by humble and powerless people and by those of great consequence... It
was the fire of love that burned brightly in her "cloister" and invested so many
relationships with a special warmth (cf. Fior 15) that flamed out beyond the
limitations imposed by the enclosure. Clare was truly a "mystic", consumed by a
single passion which identifies her with Christ. Everything else is "relative".
Everything revolves around that "center".
How much waste of vitality and goodwill we have noticed in some monasteries
where energies are dissipated instead of being directed towards the quest for
the oneness, for the Essential! Whereas one of the most outstanding traits of
the genius of women is their unerring ability to home in on what is essential
and relegate what is secondary to its appropriate place.
On the Way of the Cross
"If you suffer with him, you shall reign with him; if you weep with him, you
shall rejoice with him; if in union with him you die on the cross of tribulation
you shall possess the heavenly mansions with him in the splendor of the saints"
(2EpAg 21)
"When I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to myself" (Jn
12:32). Raised up on the cross, Jesus has become God's offer of salvation for
the whole human race. As we follow Francis in his missionary journeys we are led
to La Verna and the stigmata; following Clare in her cloistered life leads to
her sick-bed, since her illness began around the time Francis received the
stigmata and continued through the second half of her life. Once again we can
trace a remarkable correspondence in their charisms: they follow two paths that
are equally 'missionary', itinerant preaching and the cloister, both culminating
at the same point: the cross. These lovers desire to remain close to the Beloved
not only along the path of poverty but also in his suffering (Cf. 2EpAg 19),
desiring to fill up in their own flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of
Christ (cf. Col 1:24). It is not enough simply to listen to Jesus and be willing
to become a servant: it is necessary, above and beyond that, to embrace his
destiny by making his cross one's own (cf. Lk 9:23-24).
The logic of the Gospel constantly shocks us because it seems to put a premium
on non-efficiency, on being non-spectacular, on results which are non-apparent.
The disciples of Jesus couldn't fathom it and it remains a permanent
stumbling-block for believers. The 'world' rejects such logic out of hand. Our
society is a slave to the concept of efficiency, and this in turn generates a
whole cluster of neurotic compulsions towards frenetic activity, a fixation on
spectacular results, the cult of appearance, controlling the present and (vain
hope!) the future, and a tireless craving for success: in work, in sex, in
business, in prestige and in fame. It would be wonderful to be able to say that
we are untainted by these urges - but it wouldn't be true. Among us too the
person that counts is the one who is able to produce the most and deliver the
goods. There is no denying it.
What a contrast to the 'miracle' of Clare and Francis, faithful disciples of the
Gospel! Their 'success' lies in their complete abandonment of self to the One
who never ceases to have incredible confidence in us. They responded with
passionate love to the passionate love God has for us humans. They dared to risk
everything. They threw themselves with complete abandon into a life of total
poverty, knowing it would lead them straight to the cross, to powerlessness and
insignificance. Their logic was the Gospel logic of the seed that must die in
order to bear fruit - and this is the only logic to which every missionary
enterprise must be subjected.
Francis' "missionary" effectiveness reaches its zenith in the final stage of his
life, when he becomes completely one with Christ on La Verna: he lays the
treasure of his spiritual experience within the bosom of the Church, there
beside the Cross, and gives back to the Father the Gospel-inspired adventure of
his life, entrusting it at the same time as a "gift" to inspire and direct the
mission of the host of brothers and sisters who, down the centuries, would be
captivated by his example and decide to follow him. Francis recovers this
freedom precisely at the moment of his "great trial", when he is no longer clear
about what he should do. It is then he decides to return to the Lord the Gospel
project that has taken shape right through his life but which he now realizes is
not his. He gives back to the Lord the brothers who are not his and the life
which is also not his...
What should we say of Clare? - of those many years which, if one were to judge
by results, seem fruitless, but which in the eyes of God were surpassingly rich
and full of meaning. Suppose Clare had still been strong and healthy when
Francis was snatched away so prematurely from his friars and sisters! She could
have "done so much" to our way of thinking! for the early Franciscan Family;
she could have founded so many more monasteries and formed so many more
sisters... And yet the Lord "did so much" through her poverty, her sickness, her
very inactivity! And there were always other sisters who could be sent by Clare
and Francis to other regions during those early years of the life of the Order.
How difficult it is to absorb these values when the world around us speaks a
different language and allures us with its charms! Yet we know full well that
the success of what we do depends on God's fruitfulness, and that our
ministries, structures and apostolic work must be expressions of our call to be
a living memory of the Gospel of Jesus. That is the first service we owe to the
Church and the world and it comes before any activity whatsoever. It is the
quality of our lives that gives meaning to the quantity of our activities, and
these must be undertaken in the consciousness that we are in fact all
'missionaries', people who are 'sent' whether we live in a monastery or walk
the roads of the world, whether we pray or preach, whether we are healthy or
sick. I shall always cherish the memory of so many radiant faces of young and
old sisters I have met in the course of my visits, faces that immediately
radiated the presence of God dwelling in the sisters. I also recall the faces of
sick sisters who, purified like Clare by suffering, have become living icons,
like the crucifix of San Damiano, of humanity suffering yet already transfigured
and glorious. Their longing for the Bridegroom who is already on the threshold
has absorbed their entire existence and their bodies, reduced to a shining veil
of flesh, already reflect the radiance of the liberating presence of God. What a
wonderful mission this is!
I am reminded of a fifteenth century Poor Clare, Catherine of Bologna. When she
approached the end of her life and was racked with pain, Catherine was commanded
in a vision to play the viola. She hadn't played since, as an adolescent, she
had left the court of Bologna to enter the monastery, but in obedience to the
divine command she had a viola brought to her. Then she composed a little hymn
to words of the prophet Isaiah: "Gloria eius in te videbitur" (His glory shall
be seen in you). By means of this hymn she taught her sisters that the glory of
the Most High is revealed also in the weakness of an invalid. The viola, which
the nuns of the monastery of Corpus Domini in Bologna still treasure, is a
reminder that the life of each one of us, with all its weakness, can be an
instrument that makes music to praise the greatness of God.
Dear Sisters, I am confident that you can really help us to recapture the
deepest meaning of our mission and the "relative" value of all our activity by
helping us to realize that a person finds fulfillment only when she rediscovers
her true countenance by "mirroring" herself in Jesus of Nazareth, in his Gospel,
and in contemplation as her first priority. When we search for our identity we
tend to look back to the past, with the risk of becoming closed in on ourselves,
rather than to the future towards which our life is moving. Preoccupation with
survival can result in the annihilation of hope, creativity and openness to the
Spirit of the Lord.
Let's not regard old age as just a limitation, for it can also be a powerful
witness to a completed synthesis of spiritual values and rich relationships, to
the achieved harmony of values now serenely integrated. This stage of life must
also be evangelized and accompanied so as to become, just like every other kind
of poverty, a manifestation of God.
Even if we need to face up to the closing of our monastery, to accomplish it
serenely (after all, we're not eternal!) is also a witness to the maturity of
our faith and the liveliness of our hope.
Questions for reflection
1. Which basic Gospel values or aspirations are at the root of our inner unity
and of the choices the community makes? Are we ready to commit ourselves in a
really serious way? To change what? How? With whom?
2. Is there an awareness among you that the first "territory" to which the
Gospel must be proclaimed is yourselves, since you are called to be witnesses of
the Good News to one another in the concrete activities of every day?
3. The divine fruitfulness of our lives can shine out even in situations of
human powerlessness such as old age and infirmity, which make us a more
transparent sign of the hope that is in us. How can we best prepare ourselves
for this extremely important and decisive "missionary" stage in our lives?
4. You, sisters, are a fraternity-in-mission like us, but in the silence of
contemplation. At every stage of your lives you are in fact the proclamation of
a living Word, through your passion for the Gospel which configures you to
Christ. How can we, with the entire Franciscan Family, translate and proclaim
this experience in a practical way?
II.
Reciprocity and Complementarity
"Since
the Lord was very near and, as it were, already standing at the door, [Clare]
wished to have priests and holy friars by her bedside to read the Passion of the
Lord and other holy words to her. When Brother Juniper appeared among them, that
excellent jester of the Lord who often gave fervent voice to the burning words
of the Lord, she was filled with a new joy and asked if he had anything new
about the Lord. When he opened his mouth, he poured out from the furnace of his
burning heart a torrent of words like flaming sparks, and the virgin of the Lord
drew great comfort from his parables" (LegCl 45)
Theocentric Complementarity
"In fact the saint himself, almost immediately after his conversion, when he had
neither brothers nor helpers, while he was building the church of San Damiano in
which he had been visited by divine consolation and impelled to abandon the
world completely, in his great joy and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, made a
prophecy about us that the Lord later fulfilled" (TestCl 9-11)
This is a highly significant picture which expresses very well, right at the end
of Clare's life, the spiritual bond that unites the lesser brothers and the poor
ladies in the contemplation of God. The Gospel path and the personal histories
of Francis and Clare are interdependent. If on the one hand Clare considers
herself to be the "little plant" of Francis, tradition tells us that the latter,
at the most critical moments of his life, turns to her for advice and follows
her guidance. He shares his doubts and worries with her. Sometimes he sends
friars with problems to her (cf. Proc 2:15). Francis is instrumental in the
vocation of Clare and of her sisters; Clare seeks the assistance of the friars,
and protests when Gregory IX wants to forbid the friars to visit Poor Clare
monasteries without his permission (cf. LegCl 37).
Clare notes with satisfaction that the contemplative life of the Poor Ladies is
an original component of our charism, dating back to the time when Francis "had
neither brothers nor helpers" (TestCl 9). After the death of Francis it is Clare
who becomes for the friars the custodian of the original Gospel project, since
"one and the same spirit has led the brothers and those little poor ladies out
of this world" (2Cel 204). Francis constitutes the inspirational core of our
common vocation; Clare, by her fidelity, ensures that Francis' primitive project
of life will continue. She and her sisters, from the cloister of San Damiano,
support and animate all the followers of the Franciscan way of life.
In recent years, beginning with the renewal encouraged by the Second Vatican
Council, we have retrieved much of the richness of this relationship, which I
regard as an indispensable element in our charismatic identity.
The focus in this relationship is on the "holy words" of the Lord or to use
the wonderful expression of the Fioretti in describing the meal of Clare and
Francis at Saint Mary of the Angels "speaking about God" (cf. Fior 15). This
refers to an "ecstatic" communication that lifts us out of ourselves and directs
us upward, "on high". It is from "on high" that the complementarity and
reciprocity which give a human and divine richness to our vocation come. To
experience this level of communion is to go far beyond any mere "affective
compensation" strategies. When we get together it's not to organize "vocation
promotion" or because we need to "support" each other or to "feel good" by being
together. We get together to share "something new about the Lord" and to hasten
our steps towards him. Together we walk on holy ground, in awe yet with
confidence, as we seek the One whose mercy has called us and whose vision is our
goal. And so our words, far from expressing a banal desire to exchange
pleasantries, become a rain of "fiery sparks" issuing from hearts that have
become "a furnace" of the love of God. It is God who is uttering himself in us
and through us in order to forge our dialogue into a theophany, an ever more
immediate revelation of his presence and will.
This is a very high ideal, whose success is not always guaranteed. Francis warns
his brothers in the Rule about possible shortcomings - perhaps some were already
evident then (RegB 11:1-2). It may have been an over-rigid interpretation of
this passage that occasioned the protest of Clare, who wanted at all costs to
ensure that the complementarity of the Orders continued, to the Pope (LegCl 37).
It's always a challenge to live this kind of relationship: it demands solid
balance, human and spiritual wisdom and a sound formation on both sides. But the
risks shouldn't deter us from engaging in it: it is clearly what Clare and
Francis expect of us.
One of the witnesses interviewed in the course of Clare's canonization process
recounts the following episode: "A certain brother of the Order of Friars Minor,
Stephen by name, was mentally ill. Saint Francis sent him to the monastery of
San Damiano so that blessed Clare could make the sign of the cross over him.
After she had done this, the brother went to sleep for a short while in the
place where the holy mother usually prayed. Upon waking, he ate a little and
then departed cured" (Proc 2:15). This account, which is also referred to by
other sources (Canonization Bull 18; Proc 3:12; LegCl 32), indicates how vitally
important was the collaboration between the two saints and the two Orders.
Francis confidently sends his brothers to Clare when they are experiencing
difficulties which perhaps only she can heal - after all, he had himself
experienced her care in the darkest moments of his life. Here the spiritual need
takes precedence over the normal structures - just think of Brother Stephen's
healing nap in Clare's choir stall!
Tension is quite a frequent experience nowadays. Stress and depression are a
real threat to our spiritual health. It might well be that one appropriate form
of ministry for the daughters of Clare today could be helping us friars to
recover the harmony of our Franciscan-Clarian values and the openhanded
generosity and beauty our life reveals, without getting hung up on efficiency.
We so easily become prey to the needs and crises of the moment and lose sight of
the overall vision. After a time we can no longer discern what is urgent from
what is necessary, as we thrash about in the maelstrom of the thousand and one
projects we've undertaken or which have been foisted on us by the consumer world
we live in. The upshot is that we lose sight of our primary commitment - to
allow ourselves to become "God's project". I am convinced that it is a matter of
urgency for us today to renew and continue the collaboration of Francis and
Clare to try to forestall the various "insanities" and "schizophrenias" which
destroy religious life itself.
I personally thank the Lord for all the times, ever since I was a young friar,
that I have experienced healing while staying beside a Poor Clare monastery and
that I have been helped by the sisters to restore the harmony of the Gospel
values of my vocation and mission. I have often sought hospitality in their
monasteries in order to renew the spiritual tone of my life. I thank all of you,
my Poor Clare sisters, for this "therapeutic" function, which is so important
for the vocational journey of a religious.
Complementarity
grounded in the Word of God
"[Clare] provided for her children, through dedicated preachers, the nourishment
of the Word of God, and from this she did not take a poorer portion" (LegCl 37)
Francis was never "a deaf hearer of the Word" (2Cel 102), and for her part
"Clare delighted greatly in hearing the Word of God" (Proc 10:8). She lived it,
she "mirrored herself" in it, and she allowed herself to be transformed by it so
that she reflected its light on her sisters and on the world. This, she
realized, is the proper mission of the Poor Ladies (cf. TestCl 21).
The spirituality fashioned by Francis and Clare is based on attentively hearing
and immediately obeying the Word of God. They are open to being surprised and
disarmed by the Word. They allow themselves to be "destabilized" by it and to be
sent off in completely new directions without knowing, like Abraham, where these
may lead (cf. Heb 11:8). They are open to the "attraction" (ad-trahere) of the
Word, They are willing to be refashioned in order to respond better to its
demands, never permitting anything to distract (dis-trahere) them. Finally, they
themselves become a live and prophetic word to the world in which they live.
One of the most evident signs of these post-conciliar years is the centrality of
the Word of God in every experience that considers itself Christian. The Church
never tires of urging us to avail of this riches, inviting us to source all our
formation and renewal in this spring of living water. "Holiness and prayer
cannot possibly be accorded the primacy that is their due if we do not begin
from a renewed listening to the Word of God" (NMI 39). The laity, especially the
movements that involve young people and the new religious communities founded in
recent years, have chosen as the fundamental structure of their spiritual life a
process of listening to and evaluating themselves against the Word of God. For
us to do this would be nothing more than returning to our origins. If we were
really "nourished" by the Word our heart would become a "blazing furnace" like
that of Brother Juniper and our words would once again blaze with incendiary
force.
The Word of God, received in faith, always and inevitably forces one to
undertake a personal spiritual reordering: we cannot but review our familiar
patterns and uproot our safe reference points. The Word detonates an avalanche
in our lives, setting up a dynamic of seeking and discipleship which radically
realigns our lifestyle in the Spirit, as it did that of Francis and Clare.
Perhaps it's because we are afraid of this earthquake in our lives that there is
an evident resistance among us - we prefer to stay in the rut of routine, which
is the tomb of all enthusiasm. We're afraid that God may ask too much - may ask
everything! We're terrified of losing the familiar structures that offer
security - even when we admit that they are blocking any possibility of progress
in contemplation. The sad truth is that we are more in love with conservation
than with contemplation! And we trundle along, putting our faith in the
traditional means we find to hand, but never asking whether they need to be
infused with a new spirit. This is an area where mutual help between the
brothers and sisters could spark a new dynamism and enthusiasm for our life and
above all rekindle that desire to seek and cling to the Lord that only a deep
biblical spirituality can provide. To welcome, to conceive, to guard and to
bring forth the Word, as Mary did: these are indispensable elements of a
religious life lived authentically and in depth.
Questions for reflection
1. In 1991 the Ministers General sent a letter to the enclosed Franciscan
Sisters in preparation for the celebration of the eighth centenary of the birth
of Saint Clare (1993). They wrote: "There must be no paternalistic tutelage on
the part of the friars... but rather a reciprocal service of one another in
minority and fraternity capable of enriching both... Why not intensify the
relationships of information and formation which the sisters can offer the
friars, according to the practice of Francis himself right from the beginning of
his conversion?" (Clare of Assisi, the New Woman, 51). How far have we developed
this in recent years?
2. Is the Word, and especially the Gospel, the criterion of discernment and
response we use in handling the challenges, the new situations and the changes
in our community life today?
3. How do we succeed in harmonizing the tension between values and structures?
What are the means we use to evaluate our progress?
III. Strangers and pilgrims
God's
encounter with humankind in Jesus of Nazareth is presented to us as an exodus:
The Word leaves the bosom of the Father to come into the world, and after his
death and resurrection leaves the world to return to the Father.
We are witnesses of and participants in this pilgrimage to the Father's house
inaugurated by Jesus. Through the gift of the Spirit, the Risen One has placed
us within that dynamic. We will have entered fully into the challenge of being
"pilgrims and strangers" when we have been freed from all slavery to
possessiveness and are ready to restore everything to God, when our life has
ceased to be a consumer good and has become instead a gift to be offered: "And
let us return all good things to the Lord God most high and supreme, and
acknowledge that all good things are his, and give him thanks for all, from whom
all good things come" (RegNB 17:17).
If a religious has not experienced a radical expropriation, he or she forfeits
that prophetic dimension which is the very core of the consecrated life.
"Only in death will a person be known" (Sir 11:28)
"The witness also said that when the lady and holy Mother was near death, one
Friday night she began to speak. 'Go calmly in peace', she said, 'for you will
have a good escort: since the One who created you had already sanctified you,
and after he had created you he placed in you the Holy Spirit and has always
guarded you as a mother does her child whom she loves'. And then she added,
'Blessed be you, Lord, who have created me!' " (Proc 3:20; cf. LegCl 46)
The characteristic trinitarian shape of Clare's spirituality comes across
clearly from these final words of hers: the Lord Jesus, "our way", as her "good
escort"; her thanks to the One who created and sanctified her; the Spirit who
protected her with a mother's love. The invitation to set out quickly on the
journey is also a reflection of the decision to live "as pilgrims and strangers"
made by Francis and Clare right at the beginning of their conversion. They were
both animated by a desire for ever new beginnings, without fear and without
procrastination. Clare must have shared directly or indirectly in that
violent and symbolic scene in the public square of Assisi when Francis, standing
naked before his fellow citizens, the bishop and his family, began his journey
of freedom by entrusting himself to the one Father of all: "He was left naked
that he might follow his naked crucified Lord, whom he loved" (LegM 2:4). She
surely heard too of the last wish of Francis before he died, to be laid naked on
the naked earth of the Portiuncula. What we are seeing here is the symmetry of
the "exodus" of these two saints who made of their whole lives a complete
"handing back" to God who had come into their lives and whom they loved with
total abandon. Death always brings fear. We are terrified of it because it comes
to strip us of everything and of everyone. But for the mystics it is transformed
into the very summit of thanksgiving and beatitude, and this is how it was
experienced by Clare and Francis. We die as we live, and their whole life had
been a life of "restitution" (cf. RegNB 17:17-18), of a progressive liberation
which ensured that the dialogue with the Beloved would never be impeded or
overshadowed by the slightest hint of appropriation (cf. RegB 6:1-2; RegCl
8:1-2) or of preoccupation with self. Every time we are closed in on ourselves
or yield to the urge towards self-sufficiency we block relationships and thus
communion. The mystical life is primary, and it alone justifies and directs the
ascetic life with all its prescriptions. The vows themselves, the silence of the
mountain just as that of the cloister, our apostolic work and the hidden and
humble work of the house: all must find their center in the Word to be
assimilated, which leads us to union with God and fraternal love.
We constantly run the serious risk of treating as absolutes things that are
secondary and should be considered only in function of what is essential. As a
result we forfeit the true beauty and harmony of the edifice of our spiritual
life. In the case of the brothers, pastoral or charitable activity can never be
the ultimate justification for their consecrated life. In the enclosure of the
monastery the sisters' silence and hidden work must be enlivened and transformed
by an indwelling Presence and an interior dialogue which is the raison d'être of
everything. We must be aware of the real possibility that external silence and
the rigid observance of enclosure may be nothing more than the custodians of
fear, props used to tranquilize consciences that have abandoned any effort at
seeking, desiring, loving.
How sad and painful it is to meet communities whose progress is blocked by a
purely legalistic rigidity, light years away from the radical character of the
Gospel which bubbles over with joy, imagination and daring. To see whole
communities of sisters with long gloomy faces, resentful and soured because they
have allowed their dreams to die and incapable of even a residue of faith in the
joy that has been promised them!
The liberating spiritual experience of Clare and Francis invites us to create
"poor" spaces of interior silence throughout the day so that we can gradually be
transformed into that which we contemplate and so that we can give God a chance
to re-create us afresh every day. Then the Eucharist, the Liturgy of the Hours
and our various forms of prayer cease to be "obligatory" and become longed-for
moments of encounter in a relationship of love. Indeed, we ourselves will become
"eucharist", "liturgy" in every aspect of our lives.
The beauty of a vocation
"Blessed be you, Lord, who have created me" (cf. Proc 3:20)
When God gazes upon a creature who allows herself to be loved and responds with
complete openness, it is always a wonderful moment. Clare's exclamation of
praise at the end of her life is the very synthesis of her spiritual giftedness,
of an existence embraced in all its positive and negative aspects and restored
without regret to the Lord. In this, Francis is different from Clare: he feels
himself more unworthy before God when he comes to praise him. Of the two, Clare
is the more spontaneous: as she looks back on the whole panorama of her life she
affirms it at once as the creation of God, a sacred story, a beautiful and
positive story. "Communion invariably produces beauty". Clare is totally
reconciled to herself, to her past, to her limits, and she offers everything to
the Lord in serenity and freedom. All that has gone to make up her existence is
the fruit of God's tender love for her. She has always tried to be a mirror to
reflect this divine beauty to those around her; indeed she has become an icon
before the world, inviting everyone to contemplate how God patiently cares for
his creatures. "Love him totally who for your love has given himself totally"
(3EpAg 15) she writes to Agnes, echoing the exhortation of Francis who was
overcome and almost incredulous before the humility of God: "Keep nothing of
yourselves for yourselves, so that he may receive you wholly who gives himself
wholly to you" (EpOrd 29).
The whole life of Clare has become a canticle of praise and thanks to the One
who has created, guided and guarded her. She has been 'mirrored' in her Beloved
and seen herself transformed into the One she has contemplated, and already now
she tastes the delight of paradise. Unlike Francis, Clare feels no need to beg
forgiveness of brother body, because her body has always been united in her song
of praise: that body which has uncomplainingly borne the long years of illness
is also the object of praise, because it has been the object of the Father's
love: "Blessed be you, Lord, who have created me". Even the austere poverty she
has observed down the years has its own weight in the construction of this
beauty, because it has hollowed out the inner space in which to give hospitality
to the Beloved.
Michelangelo defined beauty as the purification of the superfluous. The life of
Clare was a proclamation of beauty: she followed a path of purification, of
constant chiseling until the image of God which each one of us carries within us
emerged in her with absolute luminosity. As our religious experience becomes
more and more an experience of encounter all is changed and everything becomes a
sacrament of beauty, the sign and vehicle of a relationship which now engages
soul and body: "When Brother Rainaldo, a kindly man, exhorted her to patience in
the long martyrdom of her many illnesses she answered in a clear voice: 'Ever
since I have come to know the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ through his servant
Francis, no suffering has been grievous to me, no penance heavy and no sickness,
beloved Brother, burdensome" (LegCl 44). "That which had seemed bitter to me was
changed into sweetness of soul and body" (Test 3). There is no longer any need
for contempt, but only for tender appreciation and humble love: "It's easier
than you might think to despise oneself. Grace means forgetting completely about
oneself. But if all pride were dead in us, the grace of all graces would be to
love oneself humbly, as one would any suffering member of the body of Christ"
(G. Bernanos).
How can we ensure that our life today becomes beautiful? By appreciating our
spaces: the narrow spaces of our enclosure can become places of festivity and
not of penance if they are illuminated and warmed by a Presence. How important
it is in the enclosed contemplative life to enhance our various spaces! There is
a stupendous beauty in Franciscan simplicity which can form and promote
relationships. There is a contemplative harmony in order, cleanliness and
adornment of the areas of a monastery. At the same time, when we are living in
communion we become more creative in preparing spaces and rooms in which to
encounter the Beloved and each other.
Speech is equally important. For a contemplative, silence becomes a living word
which invests and transforms the simple actions and gestures of every day. When
our words are conceived and formed in silence, they shape our heart and
transform our life.
In the same way, the time in which we dwell becomes an indispensable element in
building a harmonious life. Thanks to the Incarnation we already live in God's
time and we write our little story in this time which is "inhabited". We can't
take possession of it, we live it as a grace, discerning within it a Presence
and restoring it to the One from whom we have received it. To live in this
serene pace of time means to live according to the deep rhythms of God, without
haste or rushing, without lingering regrets or evasions into activism, without
"devouring" time hungrily or allowing it to overwhelm, exhaust or torment us.
When we succeed in living in God's time, open to the epiphany underlying every
little happening and every commonplace gesture, we are in fact engaging in a
truly contemplative exercise and making a declaration of freedom in the face of
a world that suffers from a self-centered understanding of time which pushes
people towards despair or mindless escapism. The contemplative is a witness to
the truth that time is not money but relationship.
How much people today need to experience of the grace and beauty of living in
God's time! This is not a utopia or a fantasy: it can be done. Holiness consists
not in an accumulation of "good deeds" but in the quality of a love daily
renewed. Contemplation is not so much an activity as a mode of placing ourselves
before God - in prayer and in life. It is an overall attitude that pervades our
daily life and within which we are enabled to know the primacy of God. Beauty
lies in allowing oneself to be looked at by God: "O God, if you look at me, then
I become beautiful" (Gabriela Mistral, SFO).
The beauty of our vocation derives from the harmony of our spiritual makeup, in
which everything finds its place because everything recalls and is linked to the
spousal relationship with the Lord: time, space, work, rest, silence, speech...
Contemplation is precisely that harmony which is constantly being created day by
day within us, where the One who indwells us awaits us. Saint Augustine used to
say: "noli foras ire": do not go outside, you will encounter God within
yourself. You can go to meet others and to encounter the world only with your
entire self - that self which is reconciled and accompanied by God. Then even
the tensions (for tensions will never entirely disappear) between "inner" and
"outer", charism and structure, soul and body, cloister and world, personal life
and fraternity life, will not upset the harmony and deep serenity of your life,
because a contemplative will always find the path which leads towards the
Absolute, a path of peace and not of disturbance, anxiety or worry.
Questions for reflection
1. The rich young man of the Gospel "went away sad, because he had many
possessions" (Mt 19:22). Have we learned how to "taste" the beauty of
Franciscan-Clarian simplicity which is the fruit of the process of letting go of
what is superfluous?
2. "And God was in the faint murmuring sound of the silence" (1 Kgs 19:12). How
successfully do we preserve, experience and inhabit our contemplative silence?
In our prayer and in our fraternal relations are we able to clothe our words in
deep and serene calm, so that they can become living and life-giving?
3. "Hail, his palace,
Hail, his tabernacle,
Hail, his dwelling!
Hail, his garment,
Hail, his handmaid,
Hail, his mother!" (SalBVM 4-5).
We too are his "palace, tabernacle, house, garment, handmaid, mother". How do we
live out this reality?
In what way do we bring the daily structures (timetable, places, times) into
harmony so that they converge on the "contemplative passion" that is in us?
4. Internal and external silence protect and promote our interior life. How do
we harmonize these values with "external" communication (telephone, newspapers,
internet, television, parlor)? Do we succeed in making use of these instruments
in such a way that our personal and community contemplation are not compromised?
IV.
"Heed the Counsel of the Minister General"
"Do not
believe anything or agree with anything that would dissuade you from this
resolution or would place a stumbling-block on your way... So that you may walk
more securely in the way of the commandments of the Lord, follow the counsel of
our venerable father Brother Elias, the Minister General. Prize it beyond the
advice of anyone else and cherish it as dearer to you than any gift" (2EpAg
14-16)
I would like in this part of our shared reflection to touch on some matters
regarding which I think it would be good to begin to explore together in a
dialogue between out two branches of the Franciscan Family. I'm thinking in
particular of two topics: 1) collaboration between individual monasteries and in
the Federation; 2) formation in the context of the special relationship Clare
and Francis desired should exist between the first and second Orders. I shall
simply outline some possible directions which can be developed and refined
later, in accordance with the directives of the Church and in continuity with
what has been already achieved. I hope that this may be the beginning of a
reflection on ways of opening up new forms of collaboration for the benefit of
all of us. We are aware of the many successful initiatives already in place:
formation programs for abbesses, formators, young professed sisters; common
novitiates in the Federations, etc. These initiatives have had good results in
the form of improvements in the human, Christian and Franciscan-Clarian
dimensions of our vocations, and there is no question but that they must
continue. To this we could add the formation of the friars of the first Order,
especially of the federal assistants, to provide them with a deeper knowledge of
the spiritual experience of Clare and of her sisters. Admittedly we haven't
achieved a lot in this area, and yet it is the indispensable preliminary to a
dialogue with the contemplative sisters free of superiority- or
inferiority-complexes and of paternalism, and conducive to an authentically
evangelical relationship of complementarity.
Autonomy and Relations in the Life of a Monastery
We have seen in the recent past, especially since the celebration of the
centenary of the birth of Saint Clare (1993), a flourishing growth in the field
of specialized studies on the Clarian writings and on the Franciscan sources,
These studies have led to a more objective knowledge of the figure of Clare and
the spirituality of the Poor Ladies. We are just beginning, of course, and will
undoubtedly increase our understanding through mutual help, and especially with
the contribution of the sisters themselves.
Nowadays none of us approaches Clare as a simple "copy" of Francis. She is
recognized to be a fascinating personality in her own right, and one who
maintains a constant interplay with Francis through their reciprocity and
charismatic complementarity. Francis was certainly the living Gospel word which
inspired and accompanied Clare all through her life, but Clare preserves her own
originality which is never reducible to that of Francis. It is this relationship
of "identification - differentiation" that underpins the identity of inspiration
of their charism.
After the Word of God, as Clare sees it, the word of Francis or of the one who
had succeeded him at the head of the Order is to be placed before all others. We
know just how strongly Clare insists on this in the second letter to Saint Agnes
of Prague and in her Testament. We know to whom she is referring when she speaks
of "anyone else" - just as we also know that Elias wasn't exactly a carbon copy
of Francis! But in spite of this, nothing is to be allowed to divide the two
Orders, even if it takes a hunger strike on the part of the Damianites to
prevent it (cf. LegCl 37).
The visits I've been privileged to pay to various Federations in recent years
and the contacts I've had with monasteries in many parts of the world have
reinforced my conviction that there is in reality a strong bond between our two
Orders. The shared belief that we belong to the same family provides a strong
basis for complementarity. I've noted everywhere a strong support for an
increase in mutual assistance. When this consciousness is not felt, there can be
a considerable risk: the brothers can tend to lose the contemplative dimension
of their lives, while the sisters can blur the focus of their specific charism
and spirituality.
We have made good progress in recent years. But there is a long way to go yet.
Granted, the Poor Clares do not have a defined juridical link with the first
Order as the other big religious families have (the Dominicans, for instance,
and the Carmelites); it is nevertheless true that we are living the same
evangelical adventure in minority, and we would lose so much if we ignored the
profound complementarity that binds us (without in any way infringing the
autonomy of each monastery). Legitimate autonomy should not be taken as a
justification for moving ahead in isolation, completely independent and to all
intents and purposes self-sufficient. And having a Franciscan carry out the
pastoral sacramental services is not a sufficient guarantee of a Franciscan-Clarian
spirituality. At the end of his life Francis promised to exercise "loving care
and solicitude" (RegCl 6:4; 2Cel 204) towards the sisters, which entails
something much broader. And Clare, for her part, underlines the following: "I
recommend and entrust my sisters, present and future, to the successor of our
blessed father Francis and to the entire Order so that they may help us always
to make progress in the service of God and especially in the more perfect
observance of holy poverty" (TestCl 50-51). It may sometimes happen that a
monastery considers that everything is rosy because it has become a
reference-point for one of the modern charismatic groups, and may even have
drawn some vocations from it. This may certainly result in a good atmosphere
within the monastery, but there is nevertheless the danger that its specific
charism may risk being totally diluted, or even substituted by another
spirituality that neither Francis nor Clare would recognize as their own (Cf.
LegPer 114; 2EpAg 16).
All institutes of consecrated life, whether contemplative or active, are
currently moving towards a reorganization which facilitates more intense
collaboration. This is demanded by the nature of the Church as a communion of
charisms. To hold back from this dialogue would be to deprive oneself of an
enrichment and to refuse to share a gift which is handed on to us for the
benefit of everyone. "Keep nothing of yourself for yourself..." (EpOrd 29).
In the not-too-distant future we will have to face a restructuring and a
reduction of the number of monasteries, at least in some countries. The same
will apply to other forms of Franciscan and Clarian presence. This prospect
makes collaboration between different monasteries and between the first and
second Orders all the more important at the present time. If we can achieve a
serene fraternal spirit it will be a great help in overcoming tensions that
could otherwise be destructive and in dissipating feelings of guilt because a
closure has been seen as a sign of failure. The Church's encouraging words
should be taken to heart: "The real defeat for consecrated life is not the
decline in numbers [also of monasteries!] but the abandonment of spiritual
commitment to the Lord and to one's personal vocation and mission" (Vita
Consecrata 63). Here we see the three basic areas to be evaluated in assessing
the progress of a fraternity or a monastery: closeness to the Lord, faithfulness
to our vocation and consistency in our mission. This is an area for which our
formation hasn't prepared us; our experience of Federations is still really in
its infancy. The grim determination to survive at all costs, without engaging in
an in-depth discernment process concerning our vocation, is a betrayal of our
spiritual mission. The criteria to be followed in such cases are different:
every monastery must be capable of facilitating the mature vocational growth of
its sisters, and not all monasteries are capable of this - indeed, some are in
no condition to receive new vocations. On the other hand, some monasteries that
have vocations and are economically comfortable can tend to become more and more
independent; they confuse autonomy with self-sufficiency and isolationism and
feel quite justified in ignoring the Federation and showing no interest in
developments in the Order. Such attitudes are in glaring contradiction with the
spirit of fraternity that should be the heart of our vocation.
Formation
"Clare had already fixed the most ardent gaze of her inner desire on the Light,
and having risen above the sphere of earthly concerns she opened her inmost
being to the flood of graces" (LegCl 19)
Every human being carries in the heart a mystery greater then themselves. By
"fixing my gaze" as Clare did on this mysterious gift I am enabled to encounter
the One whose presence enables me to live fully. When "fixing one's gaze" on the
Light becomes second nature a longing for God takes hold of one's heart and the
dominant impulse is the desire to make room for the Lord. By sweeping away every
impediment to union one grows day by day in deep relationship with God. This is
a process of formation: being formed and forming oneself in obedience to the
Spirit. Francis and Clare are convinced that "what they [friars and sisters]
must desire above all things is to have the Spirit of the Lord at work within
them" (RegB 10:8; RegCl 10:2). It is the Holy Spirit that calls to mind within
us the words of Jesus and imparts to us the knowledge of the universal
fatherhood of God that enables us to live as brothers and sisters. "The Spirit
of the Lord, dwelling in his faithful ones" (Adm 1:12), helps us every day to
discern the demands of our vocation and gives us the courage to live in radical
and reciprocal obedience. We cannot be satisfied with a formal deference to our
ministers or abbesses; our obedience means that all of us are subject to the
Spirit and all have an attitude of profound responsibility. Every relationship
with others, every event of our lives, if read in the light of the Spirit,
becomes for us an occasion for "obedience", of discerning the will of God and of
welcoming God's plans for us.
We must be formed to a radical expropriation. To observe the holy Gospel as
Francis and Clare understand it is to live "in obedience, without anything of
one's own and in chastity" (RegB1:1; RegCl 1:2). It is important to note that
the word "poverty" is not used: the expression used is 'sine proprio'. This
implies more than having a balanced attitude to things; a whole attitude of mind
which is to be a profound characteristic of the poor sisters and of the lesser
brothers is involved. To live 'sine proprio' is to renounce all claiming of
rights over people, over the offices entrusted to us, over God himself and over
God's Word... Everything we have has come from God, and we are invited to return
them to God, if we want to escape becoming 'thieves' of the good things
distributed freely to all by God. The attitude of radical expropriation, which
entails the gift of self without reserve and without regret, requires a constant
conversion, daily renewed, arising from our amazed contemplation of what God has
done for us: "My brothers, look at the humility of God... keep nothing of
yourselves for yourselves!" (EpOrd 28-29; cf. 4EpAg 15:19-23).
This must be the still center of the entire formation process. There will
inescapably be obstacles along the way, the most significant being
self-sufficiency, the conviction that one is already on the right road, fear of
engaging in evaluation with others, and sheer laziness in pursuing the quest.
Our tendency is to stick with the patterns handed down to us and deemed valid
for all time. Saint John of the Cross writes: "Welcome be every change, Lord
God, since it forces us to find our stability in you alone!" Change, in fact,
can be met in two ways: as a fear-inducing threat, or as an exodus and a hope
for a future which we must fashion in partnership with the Spirit.
We often shy away from the risk of setting out in new directions - especially
when we have had the experience of previous initiatives that didn't work out -
as if we were convinced in advance that such departures could never become
epiphanies of God or moments of stretching and growth for us. Then too we
neglect (conveniently) to ask ourselves the question: do our structures
facilitate contemplation? If we did, we would probably find that some structures
should be maintained as they stand, some would need to be altered quite
regularly, while others still would need to be created in order to enable us to
respond to the real requirements of our vocation. There's no denying that the
tension between structures and values will be with us as long as we live; the
important thing is to know how to manage and direct it wisely and patiently. To
give but one example: isn't is clear that we need to form ourselves continually
to a fraternal exercise of authority? "The structure of the Second Order is
similar to that of the First Order in this, that it is not conceived as a
pyramid and is not a copy of the Benedictine structure where the group is
centered on the abbot or abbess as on an alter Christus, but is centered only on
the Gospel. Everyone - abbess and sisters - must fix their attention only on the
Gospel and there direct their obedience".
This quotation comes from a Poor Clare, and I believe we can all agree with it.
But is this, in practice, the manner in which the ministry of authority is
experienced in many monasteries? What kind of attention do the abbesses give to
the formation in responsibility of their sisters? Without a genuine fraternal
dialogue any possibility of a serious formation process can be written off in
advance, whether in the monastery itself or between monasteries or in the
Federations. The fact is that it is not rare to find monasteries that are
convinced they need no assistance from anyone...
Collaboration in this area between our two Orders varies from region to region;
there are in fact significant differences. In practice, much is left to the
goodwill and enterprise of abbesses, provincial ministers and federal
presidents. The resulting initiatives are sometimes well thought out and of
excellent quality, sometimes less so. Our General Constitutions encourage
collaboration without spelling our anything in detail. I don't wish in the
slightest to infringe on the autonomy of the individual monastery or to create a
situation of dependence on the friars, but I think there is an urgent need to
define more clearly the important relationship between us as envisaged by Clare
and Francis, so that our Franciscan-Clarian identity can be safeguarded and
strengthened. For we are called to live out our common identity by means of a
sincere relationship of active complementarity for the sake of the coming of the
Kingdom.
Questions for reflection
1. "We are a contemplative fraternity with a specific mission in a changing
world". How can we express in a creatively faithful way our charism as
complementary Orders?
2. Ensuring an authentic Franciscan-Clarian spirituality will be the result of a
serious commitment, in mutual trust, by the brothers and the sisters. How might
we put flesh on this commitment in the country or region in which we live? In
what way can we obey, today, the plea of the crucified Christ of San Damiano:
'Go, repair my house'?
3. What help could be given to monasteries in difficulty and to monasteries that
are overly 'self-sufficient' in order to make them more attentive to the Spirit,
our true formator, and to the signs of the times?
4. In order to be authentic, formation must lead to a change in our manner of
living which is rooted in a theoretical and experiential searching for the face
of God. What have we achieved in this regard in recent years, and what is our
formation plan for the future? Towards what, exactly, are we forming our
members?
V.
Challenges
"Climbing on the wall of that church, [Francis] cried aloud in the French
language to some poor people who were standing nearby: 'Come and help me in this
work of the monastery of Saint Damian, because soon there will be ladies here
who by the fame of their lives and their holiness will give glory to our
heavenly Father throughout his entire holy Church" (TestCl 12-14)
Following the positive lead of Francis who confidently spoke of the future of
the Damianites we are encouraged to direct our sights beyond present horizons in
order to explore possibilities offered by the Gospel but not yet clearly
formulated and to take an active part in fashioning a contemplative dimension of
increasing depth and genuinely evangelical appeal for tomorrow. This is
something today's world ardently longs for, amid a superficial culture of
external appearances and in the wake of its experience of globalization. Men and
women of contemplation have an alternative to offer: that of a culture centered
on interiority and on the profound experience of an indwelt solitude which never
becomes isolation. We know the effectiveness of a contemplative stance rooted in
a relationship with the Trinity in providing a critique of the
pseudo-religiosity which has often got more in common with a religious
consumerism or a "do-it-yourself" Christianity than with a true search for God.
It would appear that people today are becoming more and more 'religious' and
less and less believers!
My listing of the challenges facing us, by which I mean the grave and urgent
tasks the Spirit is assigning us at this time, will inevitably be relative and
subjective. We have already highlighted themes of crucial importance such as the
Word of God, formation, the evangelical exercise of authority... In this final
section I'd like to pinpoint three other aspects which I would regard as
fundamental challenges. In a sense, they constitute a resumé of what I've said
until now.
Formation of the heart and Creativity
The risen Christ rebuked the disciples for their "hardness of heart" (cf. Mk
16:14; Lk 24). This is an attitude of self-preoccupation which makes us
prisoners of our own plans and projects: to us they seem well grounded, but in
fact they are incapable of opening our hearts to the newness God is offering us.
The greatest temptation besetting those who seek God is that of imprisoning him
within the limits of their own expectations - whereas God wishes to exceed all
our hopes and enlarge the horizons of our existence. God always surprises us
because God believes in us and invites us to ever greater openness. While our
instinct is to stick to the numbing treadmill of "what has always been done",
the Holy Spirit summons us to be creatively daring in discerning what "we must
do today" in the new situations life sets before us. The chief resistance to
conversion comes from the desire to uphold tradition for its own sake and to
maintain an equilibrium of mediocrity which frequently is the expression of a
determination to cling to our own ideas and reject renewal rather than
appreciation of what the Lord has given us. Fidelity to the Gospel, however, is
always a source of courageous creativity - but a creativity which is never
simply a rejection of the past or of the rich patrimony we have received from
our saints. Creativity can never mean the complete deconstruction of our
existence: it is impossible to live without structures and without having our
coordinates within a history. Creativity, to use the Gospel expression, means
putting "new wine in new wineskins" (Mk 2:22), adapting structures to the new
life which springs up daily within us in order to make them respond more
adequately to the signs of the times in which we live. This is a mission
entrusted to every generation in every age, so that the Gospel message will
remain alive and life-giving. In our own day we live in a culture that considers
identity in function of intellectual knowledge or of psychological and emotive
expression more than of that formation of the heart which the Bible defines as
the center of the new life of humankind - "the center of integration, openness
and sublimation of the entire human person". The hardened heart - "sklerokardia"
in Greek - is nothing other than the sclerosis of our capacity to entertain the
possibility of loving and of opening ourselves to trust in God. Conversely, the
newness of the Spirit surprises us and prevents us from turning inward in an
effort to deal only with what has always been done, so as not to lose the one
talent we have received, and thus being content to hide it in the ground (Mt
25:18). Resistance to change may be resistance to conversion, a refusal to allow
the Spirit to lead us on untried paths which can be discovered only by setting
out on the journey (cf. Heb 11:8).
From all of this we can see the need to review our daily round, our lifestyle,
our procedures and even our timetable - since if the timetable is too broken up
it can be an obstacle to the contemplative dimension which needs longer spaces
of time for our personal dialogue and silence in the Lord's company, and thus
enhances the quality of our community prayer also. To engage in a serious and
creative preparation of liturgical, community and recreational spaces
constitutes in itself an ongoing formation to relationship with God and with
others. When our gestures and words have been allowed to mature in silence over
an adequate period of time, a true, free, serene and hospitable personality is
being gradually formed. Such spiritual creativity need not cease when the body
becomes weak or ill: here too the example of Clare powerfully invites us to
remain alive in love and never lose heart - and above all never to seek refuge
in the dreary routine which inevitably anaesthetizes and stifles any spirit of
initiative.
A biblical, liturgical and charism-centered spirituality
It is scarcely necessary to enumerate all the documents of the Church and the
Order that have - for more than forty years - spoken of the importance of a
solid biblical and liturgical formation, in particular for religious and most
especially for contemplatives. But to what extent has this insistence impinged
on the LIFE of our communities? It is impossible to be in a deep and prolonged
relationship with the Word of God and yet fail to change certain "pious
practices" dating back centuries and still to be found in some (few)
monasteries. A liturgy that is alive, well prepared and with full participation
is not against the spirit of enclosure: on the contrary, it should 'form' the
presiding priest also - as I have had the opportunity to experience in some
monasteries. Could it be that we have confined ourselves to hearing "learned"
conferences on the bible or on the liturgy, and felt that in so doing we have
fulfilled all the Church asks? A truth, however, which does not inflame the
heart and alter our life is not real knowledge, nor is it genuine formation.
Let us never forget that every liturgy, as the word itself signifies, is a
service to the whole people of God. It is therefore necessary to examine the
kind of liturgical hospitality we extend to the lay faithful who wish to join
the prayer of our communities. Every Poor Clare monastery in the world willingly
responds to the requests for prayer they receive from men and women far and
near. Should we not make a greater effort to enable the faithful, especially
those close to the Franciscan Family, to be more profoundly one with the
liturgical prayer of our communities of Poor Clares and friars as something in
which they are intimately involved, instead of being spectators at something
which is not really their concern ?59
Accepting this challenge and engaging in this transformation (which many
monasteries are already doing) will be the real Copernican revolution that will
restore to contemplation its genuine and fruitful identity. "Our communities
must become authentic schools of prayer" (John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte
33).
The impression we often convey is that we regard our vocation as something given
and fixed once and for all. What we forget is that a charism isn't only an
inheritance we have received: it is above all a responsibility before God and
the world to continue a quest. How successful are we at adapting prayer forms or
creating new ones so that they can become "an example and a mirror" (TestCl 19),
an outreach for evangelization and mission in our milieu?
Our sense of belonging
"And I beg and counsel you, my ladies, that you live always in this most holy
life and poverty. And take great care never to depart from it in any way as a
result of the teaching or advice of anyone at all" (RegCl 6:8-9)
To whom do we belong? No doubt the answer (learned by rote) springs to our lips.
Try phrasing the question in another way: where do our desires and our concerns
converge? What causes us pain? Where are we investing - in down-to-earth terms -
our energies and our time? An honest answer may now be a little more difficult!
My guess is that quite frequently we fail to concentrate on what is essential
and get lost in a maze of secondary issues - such as preserving certain
structures, keeping our monastery open, hunting for vocations (even to the point
of importing them - unprepared - from other continents), territorial jealousies.
To whom do we really belong? To the Spirit of God who, with our collaboration,
'reinvents' us afresh every day? Or to somebody else? "In every season of life,
the Lord seeks a new response from us" (Paul VI). The dynamic process of making
room for the God within us demands that we accord first priority to the Gospel,
to the Franciscan-Clarian project and to our Franciscan Family rather than to
the monastery. Our mission has vast horizons. This is not fantasy! It is the
true dimension of our vocation, and it requires of us constant kenosis and
conversion. If we place ourselves within these sweeping perspectives the need
for working together, being converted together and walking together takes on
greater clarity. We will not become saints one by one, all alone; we will become
saints when, all together, we support one another.
Formation for relationships
"Always be lovers of God, of your souls and of the souls of all your sisters,
and may you be always be eager to observe what you have promised the Lord" (BCl
14)
An extremely important component of the formation program nowadays has to be the
capacity of each sister for good relationships: with herself, with her own
personal history, with her affectivity, with her failures, and with all her
gifts which she must return to the Lord... It is on this foundation that her
relationships with others and with God can take shape. Above all, the affective
dimension of our personality must be accepted and integrated without complexes,
since this alone can lead to that profound serenity from which an incredibly
rich vitality can blossom and nurture a harmonious balance of the whole person.
Sometimes we blithely think that it is enough to don the religious habit and the
rest will follow automatically. How often it is possible to read the traumas
etched on faces hidden under the veil! Unresolved struggles, which then become
recurring occasions of tension and can wreck the peace of a house for months and
years... What a "paradise", on the other hand, the atmosphere of the community
becomes when the members have learned how to get to know one another and to
engage in dialogue with themselves, with God and with the others. "By this shall
all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn
13:35). This responsibility is ours as Christians and as religious. We must
therefore invest all our talents in promoting a formation to fraternal relations
and to relations with God. No excuses are acceptable: neither age nor
temperament nor 'venerable' traditions can dispense us from this duty.
Questions for reflection
1. Only an intelligent and enlightened faith, fides quaerens intellectum, can
lay an adequate foundation for a choice to live according to the Gospel. How
serious are we about this? What means do we make use of to deepen our faith? Are
we ready to use the gifts and charisms of each sister, and in this case also her
intellectual gifts, for the good of the whole fraternity?
2. "Lectio divina draws from the biblical text the living word which questions,
directs and shapes our lives" (John Paul II, NMI 39). To what extent do we allow
our lives to be shaped by the Liturgy of the Hours, by other liturgical
celebrations, and by the prayerful reading of the Word of God?
3. How much do we 'invest' in ensuring that we receive a sound formation in the
Bible, in the liturgy and in our charism - a formation, that is, which involves
our life in its totality?
4. How much space is allotted to our human formation and to an appreciation of
the importance of our affectivity in daily community living?
Conclusion
"It was
not only in our regard that our most holy father Francis prophesied these
things, but also in regard to all the others who would come to the holy vocation
to which the Lord called us" (TestCl 17)
Dear sisters, as I end this fraternal and heartfelt message I want to express
once again in the name of all the brothers of the First Order and of the whole
Franciscan Family the deep gratitude we feel for your presence at our side. You
are for us a memorial and a stimulus, impelling us to internalize and to express
more compellingly what we are, what we have promised, and what has been promised
us and awaits us. In a very confused world that nevertheless still yearns for an
authentic spiritual experience, you are the 'jewel in the crown' of our
Franciscan charism for this generation!
"We want to see Jesus", some Greeks asked Philip (Jn 12:21). Many men and women
put the same question to us today. Please help us, following Clare's example, to
"mirror" and project towards the world that which we contemplate, to project
that living icon which the Lord is forming within each of us and which finds its
external expression in the unified harmony which marks our lives day by day.
"The only thing we can salvage in these times... is a little piece of You in
ourselves, my God. And it may be that we can also help to unseal the tomb in
devastated hearts that holds you prisoner, and open up a path for You..." (Etty
Hillesum). Yes, it is so important to save and liberate the image of God present
within us and offer it to others freed of self, of the egocentric and aggressive
'I' that loses itself in the whirl of a thousand concerns and forgets God's
presence. In such a fragmented, drifting world we must "protect God from
ourselves" and endeavor to sustain a credible witness of fraternal relationships
as a 'theophany', a loving manifestation of the presence of God. We must
proclaim to everyone with full conviction that it is still possible to love one
another and to rediscover our unity in Jesus Christ, who died and is risen from
the dead.
The words of the Risen One echo in my heart and I feel the urge to repeat to
you: "Go, tell my brothers to go to Galilee: they will see me there" (Mt
28:9-10). Go! Let us all go, courageously and without any fear: the Lord awaits
us. Say with conviction: "I have seen the Lord!" (Jn 20:18), show us the Lord by
your lives passionately lived for him, bear witness to the Lord by your
"evangelical exaggeration" rooted in your confidence in him, by the
superabundance of life which bursts forth from your kenosis, from that silence
which changes and "gives a fragrance" to the whole world - "and the house was
filled with the perfume of the ointment" (Jn 12:3). Our life today truly needs
to recover its daring, its "exaggeration", the unbounded generosity that flows
from the delight of having found the "treasure" and turns head over heels - but
in a wonderfully positive way - the 'take' we had on life. We need, in short,
the "hope that will not let us down" (Rom 5:5).
The Privilegium paupertatis that Clare defended at all costs is in fact the joy
of following and sharing the life of Jesus. It is the guarantee of fidelity to
our vocation. You must remind us that a brother or sister who is not poor and
free according to the Gospel will be doomed to remain sterile and sad (cf. Mk
10:22) - no matter how glittering their achievements or how venerable their
lineage.
"For this reason I bend my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so
that, by the merits of the glorious blessed Virgin Mary his mother, of our most
blessed father Francis and of all the saints, the same Lord who granted us a
good beginning may also give us grace to grow and persevere to the end. Amen!" (TestCl
77-78).
May the
Lord be always with you
and grant that you may always be with him.
Rome, August 11, 2002
Solemnity of Saint Clare
Fr. Giacomo Bini, ofm
your brother and Minister
__________
Sigla and abbreviations
Writings of Saint Francis
Adm Admonitions
2EpFid Letter to all the Faithful, second red.
EpOrd Letter to the entire Order
FormViv The 'Form of Life' (to Saint Clare)
RegB The Confirmed Rule (1223)
RegNB The Unconfirmed Rule (1221)
SalBMV Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Test Testament
Writings of Saint Clare
BCl Blessing of Saint Clare
2EpAg Second Letter to St. Agnes of Prague
3EpAg Third Letter to St. Agnes of Prague
4EpAg Fourth Letter to St. Agnes of Prague
RegCl Rule of St. Clare
TestCl Testament of St. Clare
Other Early Documents
1Cel First Life of St. Francis,
Thomas of Celano
2Cel Second Life of St. Francis,
Thomas of Celano
Fior Fioretti (Little Flowers of St. Francis)
LegCl Legend of St. Clare
LegM Major Life of St. Francis, St. Bonaventure
LegPer Legend of Perugia
Proc Canonization Process of St. Clare
SC Sacrum Commercium
Other Early Documents
NMI Novo Millennio Ineunte, John Paul II, 2001
RegSFO The Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order (1978)
VC Vita Consecrata, John Paul II, 1996
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