Franciscan Fractal
Contemplating Today’s Culture through the Eyes of St. Francis & the Life of Christ
“Wrangling Over Thinking and Doing”
“Avoid wrangling over words, which does no good
but only ruins those who are listening.” 2 Timothy 2:14
St. Paul, in his Epistle to Timothy, tells him not to wrangle over words. Wrangling is an engagement in a long, complicated dispute or argument, especially in an angry manner. St. Paul instructs Timothy that he only needs to tell people what he himself has experienced. Timothy should teach by example, since his way of living would speak more clearly than his words.
St. Francis would adhere to the same way of living 1200 years later. Up until this time, the Church had been on a path of teaching salvation through worshipping the divinity of Christ. It was a theology based upon studying religious texts and interpreting them “correctly.” The approach was academic.
In contrast, St. Francis emphasized the love of Jesus Christ through action instead of intellectual learning. One of the earliest accounts of the life of St. Francis recounts him offering instruction to his first followers by saying, “You only know as much as you do.”1
St. Francis looked at human suffering and not human sinfulness. Jesus was an example of human suffering, and witnessed how to love in the midst of his suffering. Living the life of Jesus was the model that St. Francis chose to witness to the world.
Sadly, over the centuries, the Church continued to emphasize “correct” teaching as its primary focus in acquiring knowledge of salvation. Modeling the actions of Jesus became a secondary theology disconnected in many ways from the preachings of the Church. The implication of this secondary theological status is that the Church now viewed God as in heaven and disconnected from the world. This meant that God, in a tangible way, was separated from human beings, other life forms, and the rest of the cosmos.
St. Francis made the transition from thinking to doing when he decided to leave home, give up his job, strip himself of his clothes (literally), and began to beg for what he needed, trusting that God would take care of him. While these actions might not be realistic for us today, his endeavor points to a deeper level of commitment in a spiritual journey. His survival was based upon staying present in the moment and dealing with the real events of life that he saw directly in front of him.
Knowledge of the Gospel is simple. It’s all the other “stuff” that makes living out the Gospel complicated. In our chaotic world, we are assaulted with an increasing number of things that occupy our time. No longer are our lives just defined by hunting for food, cooking each meal from scratch, making our own clothes, or building our own homes. We have become interdependent with others to supply our needs, which “frees” us up to become preoccupied with other “stuff.”
The other “stuff” includes technocratic devices – devices that capture what someone else has said, and which has been repeated and often distorted through multiple and ever-changing venues. News spreads through numerous iterations that create confusion, and eventually end up with us being caught in a “thinking world” – one that steals time from our “doing.” You and I may know the Gospel. The question is, “How do we now live out and do the Gospel in such times?”
St. Francis found out how to do the Gospel by prioritizing a right relationship with God. That came first before anything else. He removed everything that became a distraction in his life. St. Francis then spent time in prayer (and in nature). The centeredness that he found with God allowed him to constantly grow as a witness to Christ’s love as he overcame challenge after challenge. No, we do not have to give up all the other “stuff,” but we too must prioritize.
Living out the Gospel is an experiential process (much like Centering Prayer). No one can “think” their way into “knowing” God. At the end of his life, St. Francis overcame the fear that he had of lepers by running up to a disfigured leper, touching, and embracing him. He even transformed his fear of death by seeing death as a wonderous transition, that even Jesus Christ experienced.
By yielding to God and giving up all of the things that he had held so dearly, St. Francis was able to focus on experiencing God and manifesting the embracing love that Jesus Christ has always given.
In our spiritual journey, may the faith of St. Francis be with us all. And, may that same faith allow us to move beyond simple “knowledge” of Christ into a constant “doing” of the work that Jesus Christ has shown us how to do.
Prayers and Blessings,
Fr. John
1The Assisi Compilation, 105, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, The Founder (New City Press, 2000), 210 (paraphrased).
