Monthly Spiritual Message, September 2007
By Friar David M. Huebner OFM Conv.
In my previous spiritual message I tried to transmit the high priority and essentialness of deep inter-personal prayer with God. The type of prayer which Francis, indeed all Franciscan saints had recourse to as often as possible. How is your own inter-personal connection with God going?
With this letter I want to present what the fruit of this type of praying can lead to, by way of some insights viewed through the Icon of Francis’ Stigmata. St Francis, Christ’s Little Poverello, received his stigmata atop Mt La Verna on September 24th 1224. This sign of the first stigmata in recorded history confirms the Poverello’s total identification with Christ’s self denial.
Our problem in the modern world is that we can get caught up in the glories of St. Francis, or the stories of the Gospel in an external way, thereby missing out on the life and efficacy that they certainly do contain. Let me explain. The scars of Christ’s passion on Francis’ body indicate that Francis lost his life for Christ, and that he picked up and carried his cross of self denial every day.
The paradox of this genuine kind of self denial is that because Francis did loose his life for Christ’s sake, he actually found true life, real life! In other words he achieved life giving union. What about you, what about me?! Are we achieving life-giving union?
Well, we can also achieve what Francis achieved because God has no favorites and we have St. Francis as guide. One major insight is that Francis did not confine himself to reading the words of Sacred Scripture. In fact what Francis did was that through the expressions of the revealed text he set out to discover the One who is the Gospel itself. In other words by reading, listening to, reflecting upon Sacred Scripture, pre-eminently the Gospels, Francis sought to seek Christ by imitating him.
The message is clear enough, if we want true freedom, peace and joy we need to do the same. My dear sisters and brothers in Francis, this is impossible without the great personal ego de-flatter of self denial.
We are certainly all too aware that the world does not want to be crucified. Rather the world flees the cross. People run away from suffering, death, sickness and pain. People even run away from their necessary responsibilities, from commitments they have made, from difficult people, from the need to seek and give forgiveness. We can flee from the call to be cheerful and generous, from reaching out to others, from loving each other. All of these things are hallmarks of worldly living that rob us of life. Are you like this? Am I like this?
Many times when we are challenged in this way, our response can be all too worldly: “woe is me, I try and I fail, what can I do?” What this really does is set one up to do nothing! Pity about that, because the spiritual letters outline what can be done, in whole or in part. But we need to know this: “Love alone can prevent the failure of humanity.”
The world crucified in Christ is always revealed anew as the world loved. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (Jn 3.16). Francis bore witness to this boundless love and continues to do so today, through you, through me. Or does he?
The Cross rooted Francis, like Christ in human history. However if the Cross is to be rooted in a human heart then self-denial is not an option. It is indeed essential. Love alone can prevent the failure of humanity. And if this love is to be genuine it must be self-giving, after all, this is precisely what self-denial is grounded upon, rooted in, caught up with, on about.
In this month when we celebrate the Holy Stigmata received by Francis on La Verna, let us do so in sincerity and truth. Let us prepare through the self denial of true charity willingly exercised towards those others who cause us pain and suffering. Let us approach this wonderful feast empty, not just externally.
May the Lord grant you peace.
Friar David M. Huebner OFM Conv.
National Assistant SFO – Oceania.
