The Franciscan Genius: Integration of the Negative
Summary: Sunday, June 14-Friday, June 19, 2015
The integration of the negative still has the power to create people who are turning the whole world upside down. (Sunday)
We don’t come to God by eliminating our imperfection, but in fact by rejoicing in it because it makes us aware of our need for God’s mercy and love. (Monday)
In a spirituality of imperfection, we have a universal basis for how God “saves” humanity, and perhaps also a clear naming of what God saves us from—which is mainly from ourselves and our own feared and rejected “unworthiness.” (Tuesday)
Just as we grow by ultimately accepting and forgiving our own failures, conscious people, like Jesus and Pope Francis, are able to say about others, “Who am I to judge?” (Wednesday)
Franciscan poverty is when we recognize that myself—by itself—is powerless and ineffective. (Thursday)
Within the spirituality of imperfection, the quickest ticket to heaven, enlightenment, or salvation is calmly acknowledged littleness. Then you have nothing to prove, to protect, or to promote. (Friday)
Practice: Loving Your Enemy
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun to rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:43-45).
Your enemy always carries the dark side of your own self, the things you don’t like about yourself. You will never face your own dark side until you embrace those who threaten you (as Francis embraced the leper in his own conversion experience). The people who turn you off usually do so because they carry your own faults in a different form.
Jesus goes on to say, “If you love those who love you, what’s so great about that?” (Matthew 5:46). It’s simply magnified self-love. Love the stranger at the gate, the one outside of your comfort zone. Until you can enter into love with the not-me and the non-self, Jesus is saying, you really have not loved at all.
And what’s Jesus’ motivation for doing this? Some translations say, it’s to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). A more useful and accurate understanding of the word translated as “perfect” is “whole.” Jesus and Francis met a God who is One, who is whole, who is all-inclusive. Be all-inclusive as your heavenly Father is all-inclusive and all merciful. This is the heart of the Gospel. Jesus’ and Francis’ goal was imitation of a loving, forgiving God.
Think of one of your enemies, someone for whom you feel anger, resentment, or hurt. What about this person most offends or disturbs you? Is it possible this same characteristic is in you, perhaps hidden and unrecognized? When you are able to recognize your own darkness, bring it into God’s loving presence through prayer. As the sense of God’s compassion and acceptance for you grows in your heart and body, extend that warmth to your enemy, embracing them with the same grace you are receiving.
Gateway to Silence:
We must bear patiently not being good . . . and not being thought good. —Francis of Assisi
Reference:
Adapted from Sermon on the Mount, disc 6 (CD)
For further study:
Are You Eager to Love? St. Francis on the Edge of the Inside (CD, MP3 download)
Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi
In the Footsteps of St. Francis: Awakening to Creation (CD, MP3 download)
