Contemplating Today’s Culture through the Eyes of SS. Francis & Bonaventure
For God has ordered that every high mountain
and the everlasting hills be made low
and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God. Baruch 5:7
Advent repeats itself each year. Despite its hopeful message, tragically little has changed in the world since the time of Jesus. There are wars, murders, deceptions, thefts, exploitations, genocides, and world-wide starvation. What does Advent really mean in our world, when nothing appears to change?
The church has historically been able to handle the disparity between the Christ promised in Advent and what seems to be an “unfulfilled promise” in our world today. In other words, nothing seems to have changed in 2,000 years. Our focus has shifted away from a Savior who was promised to renew the entire world to one who acts solely as a personal Savior.
Advent is no longer a time of waiting-in-silence in order to see God working in our world. The global message has been forgotten. It is now focused on OUR OWN future. What is lifted up is an underlying premise that if you or I live a “good life” (and don’t mess up too much), we are offered an assured pathway into heaven. Afterall, Jesus paid the price. How can we lose? Such thinking undercuts the full message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The church has historically reinforced the concepts of focusing on the next life by emphasizing the Birth of Christ and the Resurrection. Those two celebratory events dominate the church year bracketing the life of Jesus. The period in between is often seen as a time filled with interesting parables and lessons that often have little to do with our lives except to emphasize that we need to be “a good person.” We are repeatedly reminded to not be like the arrogant Pharisees and Sadducees!
St. Francis and St. Bonaventure saw the life of Jesus differently. Bonaventure created what might be called an “alternative orthodoxy” or another way of looking at the world with a set of beliefs that has never been rejected by the church. They are simply a way of looking at Christ from an experiential or lived perspective.
For St. Bonaventure and St. Francis, the life of Jesus and the kingdom of which Jesus spoke was not about waiting for the next life, but about showing HOW TO LIVE IN THIS LIFE. It is about living honestly in the moment, and a willingness to express our "true self” (which is created by God), and not waiting for everything to be completed in heaven.
Jesus’ life was centered on being present and doing justice – a justice which changes this world into the kingdom of God. Heaven can be seen not simply as a future event, but more importantly on what begins right now. Visioning a kingdom where justice prevails expands much of the church’s traditional teachings about God, Jesus/Christ, and creation.
For St. Bonaventure, when thinking about God alone, God might be more accurately visualized as LOVE itself - an ongoing process that is expanding in all directions. God’s overflowing love created Christ. Christ was in the mind of God as God’s “first thought,” and that happened long before the world was created and Jesus was born. Christ’s purpose was to bring God’s love to humankind in an intimate way in human form through Jesus.
If formed in love, then the universe has no need for a sacrifice to appease an angry God who is threatening punishment for sin. (Those are concepts embedded in the Hebrew Scriptures.) Even without sin, God would still have sent Christ into the world. Christ’s being and purpose was to bring all unfinished pieces of creation together. Christ’s life showed us how to love in an unfolding, expanding, and mysterious universe. Love may experience sacrifice; however, that is not punishment.
As people of God, we are unfinished. Hence, we are “sinful” in that all of our deeds are not based in love. We forget that God should be the source of our every action. We think that we can figure things out by ourselves, and then we come up with empty excuses for how we act. We run away from doing the work of total love that Jesus demanded of us.
When forgetting that our purpose is to love, we slow down the process of God’s desire to move love into every corner of the universe. The consequences are being alone, isolated, and hopeless. Separation from God is its own unhappiness.
If our work is that of becoming the love of Christ, how do we refocus on that love in this Season of Advent? St. Bonaventure gives us some clarity:
- Love others as God made them. Let go of trying to change other people and their ideas.
- Be patiently attentive to the intimacy and presence of Christ throughout the day.
- Emphasize charity. Often a poor person can show the love of God more clearly than a learned person.
- Experience the fullness of love by spending time in direct communion with Christ. Think contemplative prayer! Book knowledge and reason are poor sources when attempting to communicate directly with God.
Remember: “Be still and know that I am God!”
Prayers and Blessings,
Fr. John
