Thursday, April 24, 2014

A Capuchin community woven together in Christ: Meek and Humble of heart

 I would like to share some thoughts with you on this occasion and lead you all to relive the founders charism in a more vibrant and active way in our lives. In Saint Bonaventure's first sermon on Saint Francis, he said "Learn from me, that is, be meek and humble after my example. A person is meek by loving his brethren, humble by loving lowliness or 'minority." To be meek is to be a brother to everybody; to be humble is to be less than everybody."  Jesus teaches us "Unless you turn and become children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Meekness is humility. To be humble is to have the mind of Christ. Humble people do not exalt themselves. They have a sane estimate of themselves. They know that their life is a gift.



Jesus promised that his life and message was for those who were carrying the heavy burden of always having to be right, to be number one, to be lifted up above others. Jesus knew that pride was at the very heart of a destructive life style and attitude. Therefore, he promised that the meek, the humble, would inherit the earth. A beatitude people form a community of humble servants. Our fallen world says it’s the powerful, the mighty, the invincible, the untouched, the arrogant and the self-satisfied, the perfect, the hard bodied, the divided, and the masters of conflict and warfare, who are able to impose their wills upon others, who will be the ultimate number one’s and winners in life. But we do not have to swim along the current but against the current and then the words of the Lord will come true: “beatitude people will not be liked by many. But do not be afraid.”  The VII PCO has thrown sufficient light on minority and shown us the way to build up our own fraternal lives.

There seems to be little understanding of meekness and humility on the part of most of us. We have forgotten the lessons and conferences that we had in the formation houses and as a result there is growing intolerance among the brothers. Meekness and humility is pushed to the wall and only a talk that is heard in reality. We are all afraid to be servants and friends of one another in our communities. We are afraid that by doing this we are allowing others to take advantage of us. But if we start reasoning that way, meekness and humility go right out the window. And it has begun to happen in our vice province and it is a dangerous sign that can lead us to destruction.
St. Bonaventure has another view on meekness: "Meekness is necessary for the inward and outward practice of virtue so that one may remain serene in conscience and be well pleasing in the judgment and minds of one's neighbors.... Meekness is necessary to attain eternal life. The Gospel tells us: Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth."  We know from the psalms that the meek shall possess the land and shall delight in abundance of peace.
Jesus’ disciples are so ordinary, so human. They were not saintly or meek or humble. They were a relatively ambitious group, struggling to see who would be considered the greatest and highest. You remember that the apostles James and John sent their mother to ask Jesus if they could sit on his left and his right when he came into his kingdom. So Jesus decides to teach them a lesson about humility. Jesus loved to tell stories as his way of teaching, but now he turns to drama and he acts out a parable for his disciples; the washing of feet. If the example and message of Jesus is not practiced then becoming meek and humble becomes a hard reality to achieve. Like the disciples we too will become ambitious group and fail to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves as Capuchin Franciscans. If the faith-filled path of the founder and father St. Francis of Assisi is not walked with fraternal love and charity, meekness and humility then weaving together in Jesus Christ will be difficult reality to achieve.


Then St. Bonaventure speaks about humility: "The fruits of humility are manifold. First, it calms the anger of God, while moving him to suspend judgment due to guilt."  The second fruit of humility: "it finds grace."  Third, "it brings righteousness to perfection."  And, the fourth fruit, "it leads to eternal glory."
If there were more friars who did their best to be meek and humble of heart, there would be less anger, and subsequently, less fights. The conflicts and misunderstanding can be resolved when everyone turns to God... in other words, when every friar involved, no matter what background, makes a personal interior conversion to loving God, to strive for meekness and humility. We don't have to tell anyone that we're striving to become meek and humble; it'll be very evident by your behavior and relationships with friars.
As I go around I notice that life for some friars is pretty tough and often what makes it tough is the difficult relationships friars have to deal with. Many friars’ relationships seem to be struggling. Friars seem to knowingly and unknowingly hurt each other all the time. Frankly I think all relationships should be stamped with a “Fragile: Handle with Care” stamp or “Handle with meekness”, for it seems to me that those that are handled roughly and carelessly soon become cracked and broken.  Healthy relationships on the other hand have the common traits of gentleness and acceptance and of openness to receiving from others. This comes from a spirit of meekness which we have said is an attitude of humility toward God and gentleness towards other people. The book of James 1: 19 – 21 paints a picture of a meek person: One who is slow to speak and quick to listen (19) one who recognizes the limitations of his knowledge and the fallibility of his thinking and so is eager to listen and learn anything valuable that he can. One who is slow to anger and has a teachable spirit. With such a description it is not difficult to understand why Jesus believes that such a person will inherit the earth.



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