SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 5 - N. 3 - 1999 - January - III
From: CIOFS Secretariat
(Part I)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. In the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio adveniente , Pope John Paul II called upon Christians to consecrate 1999, the third and final year of preparation for the Jubilee of the year 2000, "to our Father in heaven, by whom Jesus was sent and to whom He returned" (1). This cycle of preparation began with an in-depth study of the mystery of Jesus Christ the Messiah and Son of God. Already the simple word "Son" turns our gaze toward the Father, who is origin and source. Thus, by the very fact of being Son, Jesus introduces us to the Father and "sees fit to reveal Him to us".(2) In order to ensure that this revelation of the Father is not something abstract or purely theoretical, we were invited, in the second year, to let the Holy Breath of the Lord, His Spirit, take hold of us and carry us along, for the Spirit gives us knowledge and experience both of the Father and the Son. This year, we have now reached the end of the journey: the Son and the Spirit have led us to "the Father, the Holy and Just one" ( Jn 1, 11-25), who has the Son close to his heart ( Jn 1, 18) and who is the source of the Spirit ( Jn 15, 26).
2. As in the two previous years, we wish to meditate with you, Brothers and Sisters, lay and religious members of the Franciscan Family, on the mystery of the Father, drawing from the experience and testimony of Francis. With our eyes and the understanding of our hearts, we shall ponder the inexhaustible wealth contained in the Father's name, which Jesus saw fit to make known to us when He prayed on our behalf.(3) We shall try to discover what practical consequences such a discovery has for our attitudes and conduct in everyday life.
Francis discovers the fatherhood of God
3. We all know the spectacular scene -- that great turning-point in Francis' life -- where he strips naked before his father and the bishop.(4) As naked as the day he was born, Francis declares to his earthly father: "From now on I can freely say ‘Our Father who art in heaven', not father Peter Bernardone". Breaking with his physical origin, in some sense repudiating his first birth, he refers to Him who is "the one Father" ( Mt 23,8)(5), from whom "all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is derived" ( Eph 3,15). In saying this, was Francis simply affirming a vague fatherhood of some supreme being, the "Father of the world" on whom all existence depends? Or did he already glimpse something of the depths of "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" ( Eph 1,3)? The account of his spiritual journey found in his writings shows that it really was an intuition that would subsequently grow.
Francis enters the experience of the only-begotten Son
4. The Christian has only one means available to discover the reality hidden behind the words "God the Father": namely, "the only Son, who is nearest to the Father's heart" ( Jn 1,18). This is precisely what Francis did. In the psalms which he collected and arranged to celebrate the various stages of salvation accomplished by Christ -- His birth, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, return in glory and judgement -- it is not Francis who speaks, but Christ. The Son stands in the presence of the one He tenderly calls "my Father", dialogues with Him, complains or rejoices, confides in Him, surrenders to Him, showing close familiarity mingled with filial respect and reverence. The only-begotten Son, alone, lives this primal experience of fatherhood and sonship together - the two terms are inseparable. Listening to this dialogue, by turns painful, confident, even joyful, and entering into it through faith, Francis learns from Jesus who the Father is, and what it means to be Son.
5. He does so again when, on three occasions in his writings(6), he quotes long passages from the admirable prayer of Jesus in chapter 17 of John's Gospel. There, in a brief but dense account, he describes the role of the Father in the sending of the Son and in the struggle of his agony.(7) The Father appears there as one with authority; He is the first, and all initiative rests with Him, but He is also above all gift and love, who sacrifices Himself with His Son.
6. The journey Francis undertook -- to enter into the experience of Jesus, Son of the Father -- led him into the very depths of the divine mystery revealed by the Son and believed by the Church. The one God is never solitary or closed in on Himself, since in his essence He is communion and relationship. He goes out of Himself, surrenders Himself, begets; He is the Father who gives Himself a Son whom He loves, as scripture says ( Col 1, 13). That love in turn, a burst of passion moving from Father to Son and vice versa, is a personal being, the Breath of life, the Holy Spirit. Lacking theological terminology or a systematic vision, Francis -- as a true Christian believer, one of those little ones to whom the Father reveals the deepest mysteries ( Mt 11, 25) - placed the mystery of Father, Son and Spirit at the heart of his spiritual vision.
7. This vision is a trinitarian one: the Father is always to be found at the center. The initiative is His in all things: creation, incarnation, redemption, return of the Son in glory: everything starts from Him and returns to Him.(8) The Son and the Spirit share in the work of the Father, but they are also heralds of His glory. Francis entreats them to give thanks to the Father, something which we, being unworthy to speak His name, are unable to do.(9) But this "primacy" of the Father in no way implies inferiority or subordination of the Son or the Spirit. It is a mutual gift on either side, an interdependence born of love, a self-emptying, a kind of mysterious divine poverty where none of the Persons has anything "of their own".
8. This explains, then, why practically all of Francis' prayers, like those of the Church, are addressed to the Father, and why it is that the Father is given so many lofty titles: all-powerful, most holy, sovereign, holy and just, king of heaven and earth.(10) It also explains why the "Our Father" is so important to him.(11) He mentions it eleven times in his writings, and wrote an admirable commentary on it.(12)
9. If the whole of Francis' perspective begins with the Father and His initiatives, the Christian's spiritual journey also ends with the Father. Indeed, the goal we must pursue in the footsteps of the beloved Son, Jesus Christ, once we have been purified, enlightened and set ablaze with the fire of the Holy Spirit, is none other than to share in the life of the Most High Father Himself, who reigns and is glorified in the perfect Trinity and simple unity. (13) This, in outline, is the vision of the Father that Francis drew from the Gospels, especially that of John, and which he made his own as a result of spiritual experience. This was the fruit of the one who is "Spirit and life" ( Jn 6,13)(14), which he hands on to us as a precious heritage.
(to be continued)
Notes:
1) Tertio Millennio adveniente, 49
2) Rnb 22, 41
3) Idem
4) Celano, Second Life, VII, 12
5) Cf. Rnb XXII, 34
6) First Letter to the Faithful, 14-19; Second Letter
to the Faithful, 56-60; Rnb XXII, 41-55.
7) Second Letter to the Faithful, 4-14.
8) Rnb XXIII, 1-6; Second Letter to the Faithful
, 4-14.
9) Rnb XXIII, 9.
10) Ibid., 1.
11) ibid., XXII, 29; Second Letter to the
Faithful, 21.
12) Prayer based on Our Father.
13) Letter to the Order, nn. 50-52.
14) cf. Rnb XXIII, 39; Test, 15; First Letter
to the Faithful, II, 21; Second Letter to the
Faithful, 3