Some Final Thoughts on my Sabbatical 2023 – and then let’s live some of this out! (Part Two)
The first three weeks of this pilgrimage had been a time of preparation – letting go, learning to pay attention to divine calling, sacred time, place and people, and to saunter with purpose. It was now time for JFOC-IPTOC.
Chris, Sue, and I put a lot of work into this time. It was as powerful for me as I hoped. I am so grateful
for the time of lectio divina each morning around our principles and how that
fed into the shape of those 9 days. Our time together was shaped around the three broad themes:
1. Listening to our Sources
2. Listening to the Cry of the World
3. Sharing our Good News.
Thank you to Paula who reminded us that prayer is at the heart of being Franciscan, immersing us in the scriptures that we might hear the whispers of the Spirit and be shaped into a people living humility and love, offering peace. This was Francis’s way, and we are invited to follow in his footsteps. And I was struck that these earliest Franciscans were not to bear arms or to take oaths of loyalty to their local lord within the feudal system.
In her second session on the re-writing of the OSF Rule Paula talked about the 3 elements of Francis’ biblical metanoia: acknowledging God (in creation, in God’s goodness and in the ministry of Jesus); adoring God with our whole life, prayerfully, in purity of heart, in poverty and obedience; serving God as Jesus taught. Considering this we are invited to not reduce metanoia to repentance built on guilt, and instead to have our minds blown by God's grace and goodness and responding to that goodness and grace in how we live our lives in community.
In Charlie’s first session he reminded us of the key concepts for early Franciscans:
- solitude,
- fraternity (he said it was hard to find another word that holds the tradition),
- simplicity,
- rhythm of the day,
- creation (noting our relationship with creation is the context of our prayer),
- ‘strive to be like him’ – offering Clare’s model of lectio – ‘be transformed into the image of the Godhead itself.
He also said that the Franciscan balance of contemplation, community, and missional action is a bubbling up of the same values from the 12th century and must be incorporated in some way into a Franciscan way of life.
In his second session Charlie explored our roots as Anglican/Episcopalian Franciscans in the Christa Seva Sangha ashram founded by Fr Jack Winslow. Winslow’s ashram was part of the Christian Bhakti movement. ‘Bhakti’ is a complex concept which includes a recognition of our love of God and God’s love for us. It is about a relationship deeper and broader than prayer. While prayer can be something we do, Bhakti is something we are, encompassing all that we do recognising everything that is around me has its source in the love of God. It is the base out of which everything else comes from. Prayer is something I do to open myself to Bhakti. Which takes me back to Paula’s session.
Charlie also talked about how the three ways of service: prayer, study, work; belong together like a 3-layer highway. We miss the boat when we make them into a box-ticking exercise or hold them against each other. They are not three separate ways, but part of the one way. Bhakti is the subbase of the road, wisdom or study is the base and work is the surface. There is no way without Bhakti – the seraphic burning divine love.
In our wrestling with whether we are a contemplative order or an active order, we often forget these roots. We are both and neither. So, we are invited into the Divine Compassion and invited to live out of that compassion, offering Divine Compassion to all creation.
Cathy Ross offered this great quote on lament which I try to hold onto. "To reach that fierce hope I need to lament – to allow that ancient practice to find expression and turn the debilitating fear and anxiety outwards into action." Frances Ward. Lament becomes the starting point and opens the way to hope. Not guilt. Not hopelessness. Not despair. They all hold us immobile. What we need to reclaim is the ancient and biblical practice of lament. I have held onto that over the last 18 months especially with what is happening in Aotearoa and around the world. Cathy then used Frances Ward ("Like There's No Tomorrow - Climate Crisis, Eco-Anxiety and God") and others to show us how to move into hope, and through hope to resistance and justice. She also offered this quote from Hannah Malcolm - ‘To lament, we must name the damage, express grief, act out restitution, and so access restoring forgiveness. Hope, like lament, becomes a way of being in the world.’ In this way lament is newness and hope.
Her second session was about hospitality explored through six themes: Welcome of Guest and Stranger and ubuntu – I am because we are; Seeing the Other; Nourishment – and her offering of Robin Wall Kimmerer's fabulous book "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants; Hospitality from or at the Edges with guests being a blessing; and Hospitality as Creating Space
The joy and urgency of hearing Jeff Golliher again. I am inspired by him and his knowledge and passion. His invitation to us as Franciscans to be like Francis, needing the Spirit to open our souls to the sacred in the whole fabric of life so that we might put our Franciscan principles into action. Jeff first session "Listening to Mother Earth", sought to change the focus of our talk and work from environmental care, where ‘environment’ as somewhere ‘out there’ to be exploited, to ‘sacred ecology’, which is about our relationship with creation. This is an invitation to live incarnationally listening to mother earth and to the indigenous voices saying, ‘The earth is exhausted. The earth is now trying to cleanse itself’. We need to help Mother Earth to heal. Jeff's second session explored Franciscan conversion of life around sacred ecology, taking into account everything he and Cathy had already talked about. He invited us to the Franciscan charism which he describes as about penitence and conversion of life – changing our relationships with mother earth and with each other. In that I heard him inviting me to simply live each day as part of God's gift of this world, part of the web of life, praying and living in ways that this web is healed and restored that we might all thrive. That is mine to do every day.
Paulo Ueti invitation to reflect on what Jesus am I following? One of the most memorable things was his use of Luke 24.13-35 (Road to Emmaus) to suggest begins by saying “I see you” and then asking, “how are you?” which we then did for 45 minutes. I had the most amazing conversation with Beverly and her grief over the sister who had died – which somehow was not announced. How do I live that - paying attention to someone that deeply? He reminded us that Jesus is a contested figure because our image of Jesus shapes our faith and our lives. Do we try to follow Jesus the suffering servant, or the king/ emperor? We need to be annoying; disruptive; passionate; transgressive; missioning; hopeful; in love; just; sharing; counter-cultural; conspiring; transformative; good cooking; careful; dialoguing; dreaming; always polite; make people embarrassed if they are not doing justice; challenging systems of privilege; engaging in dialogue; using imagination, re-imagination to see possibilities- adjust our vision to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Be joyful, and graceful in terms of theology – Jesus’ theology is one of grace, restoration; so, we need to change our retributive (punishment focussed) theology. Usual conversion process is: I repent and change and then God forgives me/ gives me gifts. Restorative theology says we are loved, and then because we are loved, we change.
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