The Secular Franciscan Order is
an order in the Church, but is not, properly speaking, a religious
order because it does not have the public profession of the vows to
live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience nor a
requirement to live in community. The Secular Franciscan Order
is a public association of the faithful. (See Canon 298 - Canon
320, click here.).
At profession, a Secular
Franciscan makes promises to live "the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ in the Secular Franciscan Order by observing its rule of life."
A Secular Franciscan makes promises, not vows as do religious at their
profession; therefore, a Secular Franciscan is not bound to the
Evangelical Counsels the same way as religious. (Of interest,
"A Vow and an Oath," Canon 1191 - 1204, click here.)
The Evangelical
Counsels are essential to a Gospel-centered life, lived according to
one's state of life, and for all in the Church responding to the
universal call to holiness. They are present in spirit in the The
Rule of the Secular Franciscan Order and the General
Constitutions.
A deeper understanding of the
universal call to holiness, the Evangelical Counsels, the laity and
the religious may be obtained through a reading of Lumen Gentium.
See our page, Lumen
Gentium.
Saint Francis Renounces His Father
The following writing, "The
Evangelical Counsels and the Secular Franciscan Order," was
written by Fr. Michael J. Higgins, TOR. On May 27, 2007,
the feast of Pentecost, Fr. Michael Higgins was elected General
Minister of the Third Order Regular (TOR). Fr. Michael had previously
completed a six-year term as General Assistant to the Secular
Franciscan Order (SFO), during which time he had served as a member of
the International Presidency and ministered to Secular Franciscans
throughout the world.
The
Evangelical Counsels
and the Secular Franciscan Order
Fr. Michael J. Higgins, TOR
(Part I)
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.
2
Horgan, Thaddeus, Turned to the Lord, Pittsburgh: Franciscan
Federation, 1987: pp. 52-53.
6
CC.GG. 15: 3.
Source: http://www.ciofs.org/per/2005/lca5en20.htm
The
Evangelical Counsels
and the Secular Franciscan Order
Fr. Michael J. Higgins,
TOR
(Part II)
Chastity
Apart from the mention of the
vow in the first chapter of the Rule for the First Order, St.
Francis does not mention chastity in his other writings. Rather, he
focuses on the need for the brothers to seek for the kingdom of God
and to have a pure mind and spirit.
In several of his exhortations
he stresses that God seeks, or desires, people who, with pure heart
and mind, are willing to serve, love, honor, and adore him. In the Rule
of 1221 he writes:
I beg all my brothers, both
the ministers and the others, after overcoming every impediment
and putting aside every care and anxiety, to serve, love, honor
and adore the Lord God with a pure heart and a pure mind in
whatever they are best able to do, for that is what He wants above
all things… And let us adore Him with a pure heart. (ER XXII:
26, 29)
St. Francis repeats this
challenge in the Second Letter to
the Faithful,
a document addressed to the tertiaries and most likely written
during the time that the Saint was writing the Early Rule for
the friars. He states,
Let us love God, therefore,
and adore Him with a pure heart and a pure mind, because He Who
seeks this above all things has said: True adorers adore the
Father in Spirit and Truth. (2LtF: 19)
According to Francis, the only
appropriate response to God is adoration, love, and a focusing of
one’s attention on the Divine will.
In Admonition XVI, after
quoting from Mt 5: 8, “Blessed are the pure of heart for they
shall see God,” he writes:
The truly clean of heart are
those who look down upon earthly things, seek those of heaven,
and, with a clean heart and spirit, never cease adoring and seeing
the Lord God living and true. (Adm XVI: 2)
For St. Francis, every
relationship should be based on a love and adoration of God and
guided by a pure mind and spirit. This is basis for a life of
chastity, a life that should make one more loving.
Following the Saint’s lead,
the Rule of the SFO does not specifically deal with chastity.
It does, however, echo his exhortation to the friars and to
penitents to love and adore God and to allow that love to flow out
to others. Article 12 states,
Witnessing to the good yet
to come and obliged to acquire purity of heart because of the
vocation they have embraced, they should set themselves free to
love God and their brothers and sisters.
As Article 17 points out, the
first place this love should take root is in the family. It states
that,
In their family they should
cultivate the Franciscan spirit of peace, fidelity, and respect for
life, striving to make of it a sign of a world already renewed in
Christ. By living the grace of matrimony, husbands and wives in
particular should bear witness in the world to the love of Christ
for his Church. They should joyfully accompany their children on
their human and spiritual journey by providing a simple and open
Christian education and being attentive to the vocation of each
child.
The General Constitutions
are even more specific - it points out that secular Franciscans
“should love and practice purity of heart, the source of true
fraternity.” [1]
And, in their families they,
should concern themselves
with respect for all life in every situation from conception until
death. Married couples find in the Rule of the SFO an effective
aid in their own journey of Christian life, aware that, in the
sacrament of matrimony, their love shares in the love that Christ
has for his Church. The way spouses love each other and affirm the
value of fidelity is a profound witness for their own family, the
Church, and the world.
[2]
Both the Rule and the Constitutions
challenge secular Franciscans to love - love God, love their spouse
if they are married, love the brothers and sisters in their
fraternities, love the Church and its ministers, love all people,
and love all creation. This is basically a challenge to love as God
loves, with a pure heart and mind. What a tremendous challenge!
Of course, for the married
brothers and sisters of the Order, one of the distinguishing
characteristics of the secular embrace of the Franciscan vocation is
more properly called conjugal chastity. The Catechism of the
Catholic Church points that,
Conjugal love involves a
totality, in which all the elements of the person enter - appeal
of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity,
aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal
unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming
one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness in
definitive mutual giving; and it is open to fertility. In a word
it is a question of the normal characteristics of all natural
conjugal love, but with a new significance which not only purifies
and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making them
the expression of specifically Christian values. [3]
The Pontifical Council for the
Family put it this way:
Human sexuality is thus a
good, part of that created gift which God saw as being “very
good,” when he created the human person in his image and
likeness, and “male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27).
Insofar as it is a way of relating and being open to others,
sexuality has love as its intrinsic end, more precisely, love as
donation and acceptance, love as giving and receiving. The
relationship between a man and a woman is essentially a
relationship of love: “Sexuality, oriented, elevated and
integrated by love acquires a truly human quality.” When such
love exists in marriage, self-giving expresses, through the body,
the complementarity and totality of the gift. Married love thus
becomes a power which enriches persons and makes them grow and, at
the same time, it contributes to building up the civilization of
love. [4]
The document goes on to state
that without this love men and women become objects and children
become a hindrance. It is only through respectful love that human
sexuality can find its fulfillment. For this reason, an active and
mutually respectful sex life can be seen and embraced as an
essential element of conjugal chastity.
Obedience
Through an often difficult and
painful conversion experience, St. Francis discovered that life had
meaning only when he listened attentively to the voice of God and
followed his will. This attentive listening desire to follow the
will of God in concrete and practical ways is what Franciscan
obedience is all about.
In his Testament St.
Francis reflected on the effects this kind of obedience had in his
own life. It is clear that the Saint experienced God as an active
presence and guide that led him beyond his own narrow view of the
world to something newer and greater. He writes that, “The Lord
gave me, Brother Francis, thus to begin doing penance… the Lord
Himself led me among them (the lepers)… the Lord gave me faith in
churches… the Lord gave me, and gives me still, such faith in
priests… the Lord gave me some brothers… the Most High Himself
revealed to me that I should live according to the pattern of the
Holy Gospel… the Lord revealed a greeting to me… the Lord has
given me to speak and write the Rule…” St. Francis reports that
it was always the Lord who showed him what to do in the most
important and decisive moments of life. The Saint responded to this
Divine action with obedient collaboration.
St. Francis found in the life
Jesus the fundamental example of obedience to God. As the writer of
the Letter to the Hebrews points out so well, when Jesus came
into the world he said, “Sacrifice and offering you did not
desire, but a body you prepared for me; holocausts and sin offerings
you took no delight in. Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the
scroll, Behold, I come to do your will, O God” (Heb. 10: 5-7).
Every aspect of the life and ministry of Jesus was shaped by his
intense desire to follow the will of the Father. Even when he faced
a painful and humiliating death his obedience, his attentive
listening, to the Divine will gave him resolve and courage: “Abba,
Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me,
but not what I will but what you will” (Mk. 14: 36).
The foundation of Franciscan
obedience goes beyond adherence to our rules of life or to the
constitutions and statutes that guide our Orders. It flows from an
intimate and loving following of Jesus, is empowered by the Holy
Spirit, and leads to an intimate relationship with the Father. It is
only with this in mind that the practical dimensions of obedience
can be understood.
For St. Francis, one of the
primary places where obedience is lived out is in the fraternity.
The Franciscan fraternity is not just a group of people who have
agreed to live together or share life. It is a reality born out of
obedience to divine inspiration and an attentive listening to the
Gospel. It is only then that it can become the “privileged place
for developing a sense of Church and the Franciscan vocation and for
enlivening the apostolic life of its members.” [5]
It is important to emphasize
the profound evangelical character of Franciscan obedience. Both for
individual Franciscans and for the fraternity as a whole, it
requires a constant search for the will of God and a willingness to
embrace that will and follow it - even when it is difficult and
requires sacrifice. Obedience is nothing more than listening
attentively and devotedly to the will of God as it is mediated to us
through a variety of channels and a willingness to follow it.
Foremost among these are, of course, the Sacred Scriptures, the
tradition and Magisterium of the Church, the rules and constitutions
of our respective Orders, the ministers of our fraternities, the
brothers and sisters in our fraternities, and the spouses and
families for our married brothers and sisters.
Once again, the Rule of the
SFO captures the spirit of St. Francis in its presentation of
obedience.
Uniting themselves to the
redemptive obedience of Jesus, who placed his will into the
Father's hands, let them faithfully fulfill the duties proper to
their various circumstances of life. Let them also follow the poor
and crucified Christ, witness to him even in difficulties and
persecutions. [6]
This article of the Rule
is expanded in a wonderful way in the General Constitutions:
“Christ, poor and
crucified,” victor over death and risen, the greatest
manifestation of the love of God for humanity, is the “book”
in which the brothers and sisters, in imitation of Francis, learn
the purpose and the way of living, loving, and suffering. They
discover in Him the value of contradictions for the sake of
justice and the meaning of the difficulties and the crosses of
daily life. With Him they can accept the will of the Father even
under the most difficult circumstances and live the Franciscan
spirit of peace, rejecting every doctrine contrary to human
dignity. [7]
These documents are clear in
stating that Jesus, who was always attentive to the Father’s will,
is the exemplar of Franciscan obedience. He is the “book” that
directs and guides the lives of Franciscans, seculars and religious
alike.
Conclusion
The evangelical counsels
challenge Franciscans to live a life based on the Gospels and the
example of Jesus - who himself lived a poor, chaste, and obedient
life. What better way to go “from gospel to life and life to the
gospel”? [8]
With this in mind, and without
simplifying this essential foundation too much, we can say that
poverty, chastity, and obedience are constitutive elements of a
Gospel centered life. They help define our relationship to God and
the way we live our lives in the world.
Even though the way that they
are lived out by religious and seculars are different, the
understanding and spirit behind the evangelical counsels are the
same for all Franciscans. Flowing from an intimate relationship with
God they provide wonderful guidance for how to live our lives.
Poverty encourages us
to value the world - and every one and every thing in it - as God
does. It leads us to recognize the inherent dignity in all people
and to a loving and respectful use of the world’s goods.
Chastity encourages us
to love as God loves, with a purity of heart and mind, and
challenges us to express our sexuality in ways that are consonant
with our vocation and state in life. It leads to right loving.
Obedience encourages us
to listen attentively to the will of God and to have the courage to
allow that will to guide and inform every area of our lives. It
leads to right living.
3
Catechism of the Catholic Church, Section II, Chapter 3,
Article 7, Part 5, “The Goods and Requirements of Conjugal
Love.”
4
The Pontifical Council for the Family, “The Truth and Meaning of
Human Sexuality,” December 8, 1995, para. 11.
Source: http://www.ciofs.org/per/2005/lca5en21.htm
