The Evangelical Counsels and the Secular Franciscan Order

Introduction

Poverty

Introduction

The Gospels stories point out that Jesus touched people in ways that made them question the direction of their lives. Some refused to listen or turned away because his challenged seemed to be too hard. Many others were so moved by his mission and ministry that they were impelled to search for a more perfect way of living and being. This is exemplified in many Gospel passages like the one regarding the rich young man: “As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’” (Mk. 10:17) It is also manifested in the Beatitudes in which Jesus teaches that the poor, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the clean of heart, the peacemakers, and those persecuted for righteousness will inherit the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt. 5:3-10).

The longing for eternal life or the “kingdom of heaven” has often been described as a desire for perfection. This is one of the motivating factors for the so-called flight to the desert and the birth of religious life in the early Church. The early ascetics found models for how to live their lives in the examples of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist, and in the temptations that Jesus faced before and during his public ministry. The message that is conveyed by these Scriptural stories implies that any serious quest for God involves a separation from the world, the taming of one’s passions and human ambitions, and a constant struggle with the forces of evil. In their desire for spiritual perfection, the ascetics believed that the only sure avenue was an intensely close following of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience and a strict following of the example of Christ himself. They accepted the challenge of total surrender to the Master through the abandonment of all worldly goods, family relations and future plans.

From the first centuries of the development of religious life the evangelical counsels became one of its defining elements. The Rule of 1223, which stills serves as the foundational document for all the branches of the First Order, states that, “The Rule and Life of the Lesser Brothers is this: to observe the Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ by living in obedience, without anything of one’s own, and in chastity” (LR I:1). Similar statements can be found in the opening chapters of the Form of Life written by St. Clare as the rule for the Second Order, and the Rule and Life of the Brothers and Sisters of the Third Order Regular. The Secular Franciscan Order, as a public association of the faithful in the Church, [1] is not bound to the evangelical counsels in the same way that their religious brothers and sisters in the Franciscan family are. However, the rules and teachings that have guided the lives of secular Franciscans throughout its long history are replete with passages urging them to embrace a life that is poor, chaste, and obedient - lived, that is, according to the lay or secular state. This is particularly true in the Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order, approved by Pope Paul VI in 1978, and in the General Constitutions approved in 2000.

It is with this in mind that I would like to briefly explore how the evangelical counsels can be understood and lived within the Secular Franciscan Order.

Poverty

St. Francis’ embrace of poverty grew out of an all consuming love for Jesus and an ardent desire to live in conformity to the Gospel. It was not just an external imitation of Christ, or merely a renunciation of material possessions, or even an attempt for social action and witness. St. Francis embraced poverty because Christ embraced it as a driving force behind his ministry and mission.

Poverty, lived as St. Francis lived it, recognizes that one is not self-sufficient and that everything ultimately comes from God, even life itself. As Thaddeus Horgan, SA, points out in his reflections on the TOR Rule,

Francis stripped himself not so much to set aside the things of this earth, but to free himself of all that is not God. Like Christ, Francis perceived the world as God’s gift to help us on the way to life's fullness... As an interiorized value then, gospel poverty is an attitude of heart that proclaims hopefully and joyfully all people's need for God and that the Lord alone is God. [2]

Poverty allows all of creation to stand on its own merit. Instead of being seen with functional or avaricious intent people and things are seen and respected as sacraments of an encounter with God.

The ideal of Franciscan poverty is best expressed as simplicity. Guided by this virtue one becomes attuned to the presence of the Divine in all things. It in turn encourages a life lived in loving abandonment to the all good God. Every event, every person can then be seen as an epiphany of the Divine. This can be seen in a dramatic way in the life of St. Francis when he embraced the leper and was able to see him as a child of God and not simply a diseased and frightful creature.

The key element behind this kind of understanding of poverty is the challenge to see all things and all people as they truly are - as God sees them - and then relating to them accordingly. When one lets go of the self as the measure against which everything must find its worth the world is set free to be itself. Wise and respectful use of the things of this life is an inevitable result.

In a wonderful way, article 11 of the SFO Rule captures the heart of the Franciscan understanding of poverty:

Trusting in the Father, Christ chose for himself and his mother a poor and humble life, even though he valued created things attentively and lovingly. Let the Secular Franciscans seek a proper spirit of detachment from temporal goods by simplifying their own material needs. Let them be mindful that according to the gospel they are stewards of the goods received for the benefit of God’s children. Thus, in the spirit of “the Beatitudes,” and as pilgrims and strangers on their way to the home of the Father, they should strive to purify their hearts from every tendency and yearning for possession and power.

Article 15 of the General Constitutions presents some of the practical implications of the “proper spirit of detachment” that the Rule requires. It starts by stating that,

Secular Franciscans should pledge them-selves to live the spirit of the Beatitudes and, in a special way, the spirit of poverty. Evangelical poverty demonstrates confidence in the Father, creates interior freedom, and disposes them to promote a more just distribution of wealth. [3]

The following paragraphs of article 15 are extremely challenging. They call secular Franciscans to “provide for their own families and serve society by means of their work and material goods, have a particular manner of living evangelical poverty.” [4] To do this they are to “reduce their own personal needs so as to be better able to share spiritual and material goods with their brothers and sisters, especially those most in need.” [5] Further, “they should take a firm position against consumerism and against ideologies and practices which prefer riches over human and religious values and which permit the exploitation of the human person.” [6] In a word, secular Franciscans are challenged to “see” the world through the filter of the Gospel and to act accordingly.