One of the most seemingly contradictory aspects of the Franciscan tradition is the focus on penance and how this can bring us perfect joy. Yet in the chapter from Fully Mature with the Fullness of Christ, "Through Penance," we are told that penance:
“is not ‘giving up something’ for
Lent. It is not what you say and do after going to confession. It is not
disciplining oneself or doing something hard to ‘toughen up’ one’s spirit, to
make atonement for having done something wrong, or to assuage the feelings of
guilt or shame.
Penance is the conscious choice to
respond to God’s immense love discovered…after a time of need and want… by
conforming to and committing oneself to… Jesus’ plan of healthy, growth-filled
living on an ongoing basis.”
This, to me, sounds revolutionary! In Care for Creation: A Franciscan
Spirituality of the Earth, the authors write that, "Eating locally is
good for our health and the health of the planet, it is good for local farmers,
it builds community, and it contributes significantly to curbing global
warming. It is the perfect penitent action.”
What if, instead of looking at eating locally as having to
give something up, for example, we looked at it from a different paradigm –
that of recognizing and celebrating the abundance that God has provided to
us? What if we looked at the world
through the lens of St. Francis of Assisi, who praised God for every element of
creation, and found joy in biodiversity and nature and the opportunity we have
been given to be alive?
Fully Mature with the Fullness of Christ goes on to say
that,
“With this primary choice [to
respond to God’s immense love] come the additional choices of removing
obstacles to healthy living…, of supporting healthy living with the eucharistic
community, and of authenticating healthy living with works of charity.”
And so, the question of penance then becomes, what are ways
that we can remove obstacles to healthy living – for ourselves and our
neighbors? Fr. Richard Rohr OFM and
others who we look to for spiritual enlightenment talk about “removing
obstacles” as eschewing the false self and finding the true self. Marianne Williamson says that the biggest
barriers to loving relationships are those which we put up ourselves, because
God is love, and relationships are merely a way for God to share love between
one element of God’s creation and another.
When the love cannot freely flow through relationships, it is because
we, as humans with egos and false selves, put up barriers to that love. When love cannot flow freely from God’s creation
in nature to human beings, or from one individual human being to another, it is
because human beings have put up obstacles to that love – obstacles that must
be removed. And so, to fully restore God’s love, it is our duty to identify and
remove those barriers. That is the joy of “penance” – restoring the ability of
God’s love to flow as originally intended.
Further on in Fully Mature with the Fullness of Christ, it
says:
“Penance is primarily a positive
experience: choosing spiritual health (whole soul), mental health (whole mind),
emotional health (whole heart), physical health (whole strength), and social
health (loving neighbor as self) as the way of returning the love
God has bestowed upon us. It is setting
oneself on a five-point program of daily living which fulfills God’s plan for a
healthy, productive, stimulating, creative love-life with God.”
What an encouraging message!
Isn’t it so liberating to know that penance is about finding our true
self so that we and others can flourish, as God intended? Furthermore,
“The first step of our response in
fulfilling a life of penance in the Franciscan tradition is to choose life:
to choose the health or the growth or the life-style that is the plan of our
loving God for us and thereby is the productive means for us to return the love
God has showered upon us.”
This, then, can help us have a more whole-of-life-approach
to our daily interactions. Choosing life is more than just about doing all we
can to support women in childbirth, stopping the death penalty, or even advocacy
to prevent further man-made climate change.
It is about finding the way of living that God has uniquely chosen for each
of us individually, so that we can let God’s love flow through us – so we can
be the vessel in whom and through whom Christ lives.
Fully Mature with the Fullness of Christ shares with us the
teachings of Sister Carol Przybilla, who dedicated her life to this theme of
choosing life, which she calls wellness. According to her, “wellness” is:
1)
A choice – a decision you make to move toward
optimal health;
2)
A way of life – a lifestyle you design to
achieve your highest potential for well-being;
3)
A process – a developing awareness that there is
no end point, but that health and happiness are possible in each moment, here
and now;
4)
An efficient channeling of energy – energy
received from the environment, transformed within you, and sent on to affect
the world outside;
5)
The integration of body, mind, and spirit – the
appreciation that everything you do, and think, and feel and believe has an
impact on your state of health;
6)
The loving acceptance of yourself.”
How much would it change our penitential and Lenten
practices if we were to think about penance as the path to wellness so that we
can become more of the vessel of Christ’s love that God has intended for us to
be?
Many people encounter obstacles to health that are caused by
policies that allow environmental pollution, an industrialized food supply with
high amounts of ultra-processed foods and high food insecurity rates,
insufficient support for regenerative agriculture, income inequalities, poor
quality housing, and systemic racism – to name a few of the injustices. So, as
we transform ourselves during Lent, may we find new ways to remove the
obstacles to healthy living for our fellow brothers and sisters. This will
allow us to build the Beloved Community that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., yearned
for so much.
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