J
JReducation
Guest
I’ve been visiting TC Forum for a while now and it is still one of the most somber parts of my day. It saddens me to see how we treat each other, how we speak about our Church, the liturgy, the clergy and religious and how many people miss the point. Am I going mad or do I just live in a bubble?
My transition from Judaism to Catholicism was through the Franciscan tradition. In that tradition, I saw only kindness toward people, acceptance of people as they struggle along their journey to God. Even the great Franciscan, Leonard of Port Maurice, whose sermons were often Fire and Brimstone, was the most kind and patient of men with everyone. His preaching was more like a revivalist Pentecostal, but his interactions with people was that of a gentle soul. Both, his confreres and his audience remembered him for his gentleness in conversation and his politeness in dealing with others. He once said that he had never met any of the sinners of whom he preached in his sermons. In other words, he did not see sin in people, he saw people in sin. He spent his life doing penance for those who do not do penance, instead of bashing them. Reading his sermons one would think that he was hothead. Yet, reading his life, we find that the man was very different from the preacher.
Bonaventure, the great Franciscan General Minister, theologian, philosopher, cardinal, university professor, taught his sons to be kind to all people and to speak only of the good things in the Church, because as he said, “we already know too much about the bad things.” This was the man who said that he did not have time to be a cardinal, because he had to finish washing the dishes, then preparing the community meal, then he had to teach a class. He was the bishop who rarely spent time in his diocese, because his brothers ordered him (while he was the General Superior) to go off to write the definitive biography on St. Francis . . . so he did. He spend five-years writing the biography and 26-sermons on Francis, while he ran a diocese (God only knows on what time) and ran an order.
Finally, there is the Patriarch of the Franciscan family, our Holy Father who refused to see the sin in the Church, because “God is not blind,” he would say. The key to becoming like Christ was to embrace the suffering caused by sin. He had a wonderful sense of humor in the face of adversity. He was known as a charming young man whose whit, eccentricities, and simple call to love the Beloved has inspired millions of Christians and non-Christians for 800 years on every continent.
These men and others like them embody Catholic Tradition without criticism, never embracing or even speaking about conspiracies to ruin the Church, and never questioning the orthodoxy, fidelity or leadership of those in authority. They were not dumb. They did not live with their heads in the sand, nor did they pretend that there were no problems around them. They had a secret that if you paid close attention to their behavior you could learn. They mastered inner silence. They spent their lives working on developing recollection. The most important thing for them was to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding them to the perfection of charity.
I’ve always been impressed by how they managed error. Francis was probably the best example of how to do this without losing one’s sense of peace or sense of humor. He simply shrugged his shoulders and answered the questions put before him. He did not make it a point to go out and find problems to solve. Instead, he always preached, but used words only when necessary, as Brother Illuminato would later write about him.
My transition from Judaism to Catholicism was through the Franciscan tradition. In that tradition, I saw only kindness toward people, acceptance of people as they struggle along their journey to God. Even the great Franciscan, Leonard of Port Maurice, whose sermons were often Fire and Brimstone, was the most kind and patient of men with everyone. His preaching was more like a revivalist Pentecostal, but his interactions with people was that of a gentle soul. Both, his confreres and his audience remembered him for his gentleness in conversation and his politeness in dealing with others. He once said that he had never met any of the sinners of whom he preached in his sermons. In other words, he did not see sin in people, he saw people in sin. He spent his life doing penance for those who do not do penance, instead of bashing them. Reading his sermons one would think that he was hothead. Yet, reading his life, we find that the man was very different from the preacher.
Bonaventure, the great Franciscan General Minister, theologian, philosopher, cardinal, university professor, taught his sons to be kind to all people and to speak only of the good things in the Church, because as he said, “we already know too much about the bad things.” This was the man who said that he did not have time to be a cardinal, because he had to finish washing the dishes, then preparing the community meal, then he had to teach a class. He was the bishop who rarely spent time in his diocese, because his brothers ordered him (while he was the General Superior) to go off to write the definitive biography on St. Francis . . . so he did. He spend five-years writing the biography and 26-sermons on Francis, while he ran a diocese (God only knows on what time) and ran an order.
Finally, there is the Patriarch of the Franciscan family, our Holy Father who refused to see the sin in the Church, because “God is not blind,” he would say. The key to becoming like Christ was to embrace the suffering caused by sin. He had a wonderful sense of humor in the face of adversity. He was known as a charming young man whose whit, eccentricities, and simple call to love the Beloved has inspired millions of Christians and non-Christians for 800 years on every continent.
These men and others like them embody Catholic Tradition without criticism, never embracing or even speaking about conspiracies to ruin the Church, and never questioning the orthodoxy, fidelity or leadership of those in authority. They were not dumb. They did not live with their heads in the sand, nor did they pretend that there were no problems around them. They had a secret that if you paid close attention to their behavior you could learn. They mastered inner silence. They spent their lives working on developing recollection. The most important thing for them was to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit guiding them to the perfection of charity.
I’ve always been impressed by how they managed error. Francis was probably the best example of how to do this without losing one’s sense of peace or sense of humor. He simply shrugged his shoulders and answered the questions put before him. He did not make it a point to go out and find problems to solve. Instead, he always preached, but used words only when necessary, as Brother Illuminato would later write about him.
Br., you really ought to read the Summa, book III, chapter 27 before you start spreading that evil rumour about his opinion on the Immaculate! 
The way you describe the focus on your brotherhood is very interesting, as it gives me the impression that priests are prevented from being focused upon not out of any anti-clerical ideal, but out of a love for humility, and keeping them humble up at the altar. This is very good: didactic as well as worshipful of God!