The General Chapter turned out to be a great
experience: full of ups and downs, inspiring and frustrating, and not boring at
all – despite being five weeks long. There will be plenty to share as I slowly digest it all over the coming weeks. But in this post I would like to start with a reflection on just a
couple of incidents that gave me particular food for thought.
From
small beginnings
On my last full day in Italy we travelled back to
Rome from San Giovanni Rotondo – a long coach journey through varied terrain.
While passing among the mountains I spotted a ruined chapel in the woods, and
it occurred to me that if Francesco Bernadone has not answered his call, such
might have been the chapel of San Damiano or the Portiuncula. They would be
ruins in the forest, near to the small and unregarded town of Assisi.
Thanks be to God, St. Francis did obey the voice of
Christ speaking to him in San Damiano. So now that chapel stands as key place
of pilgrimage for the millions who visit Assisi. The Portiuncula, meanwhile,
not only remains to welcome pilgrims, but is housed in the middle of a huge
basilica. A wise woman, after her first trip to Assisi, remarked that the
situation of the Portiuncula – a small, simple chapel enclosed by a grand,
ornate basilica – is a parable of the Franciscan charism. And while that was
said with a certain amount of sorrow at the lost simplicity of Franciscan
beginnings, it helped me to understand some positive implications of the Chapter’s
visit to the Portiuncula.
A
worldwide brotherhood
The brothers gathered at the Basilica of Our Lady of
the Angels numbered a little less than two hundred; and yet, although we were
less than 2% of the whole Capuchin Order, we could not in any way fit into the
chapel of the Portiuncula. We had to gather in front of it for the liturgy
celebrated there. But at the key part of the liturgy we did enter the little
chapel, filing through only a few at a time, and then moving on out again into
the vast space of the basilica. And as we passed through that place where the
Order had its beginnings, the General presented each of us with a lighted
candle, exhorting us to “Relight the flame of our charism!” Slowly, therefore,
the church was filled with these little flames, each one coming from the little
chapel at its heart.
I found this ceremony deeply significant. For a
start, the very fact that we could not all fit into the Portiuncula was a
reminder that we could not, as a whole Order, go back to the lifestyle of St.
Francis and his first companions. We have grown beyond that – even in Francis’
lifetime we had grown beyond that. The huge diversity of Capuchin conditions
and ministries today, and the developments of the world, cannot be fitted into
that original manner of living the Gospel.
On the other hand, as the General’s gesture showed,
we not only can, but we must enter somehow into that original experience if we
are to renew our Franciscan life. The flame of our 21st-century
charism must be lit from the flame of the 13th-century. What is
needed is that desire for 'ressourcement',
for a return to the sources, which the Second Vatican Council asked of
religious orders, lest our life be completely detached from our founder and
drift more and more into worldly ways. And this return to the sources cannot be
merely an intellectual experience, but needs also to be a lived reality, a true
entering-into our beginnings.
Living
the dream
Just as the friars at the Chapter had to file
through the Portiuncula a few at a time, so we in the British Province have to
take turns to revisit the life of St. Francis and his brothers. As we are thus
renewed, we take our rekindled spirits back into the wider fraternity. In fact,
one such recurrent experience is already written into our Capuchin life. I refer
to the annual retreat, which is a chance to enter again the Portiuncula of
prayer, that prayer so foundational to Francis’ life and the life of the first
Capuchins. We light again the flame of our contemplative life, and bring it
back with us into our fraternities.
In our Province we have been blessed with more
extended and more communal visits to the Portiuncula. The friaries at
Penmaenmawr, Hollington, and Preston were returns – although only partial
returns, it is true – to the primitive manner of Franciscan life, each
fraternity developing a different take on that life. Those of us who lived in
or otherwise experienced those fraternities have been granted a fresh vision of
what is possible, and have carried this flame into the next stage of our Capuchin
life.
Many friars can name experiences which have
reconnected them to the primitive charism. Now, however, we will turn our minds
to other possibilities, to new ways in which friars can enter – a few at a time
– our humble beginnings. These ways may be quite similar to recent ventures, or
they may be more innovative. We might take a cue from Cantalamessa’s talk at
the 2009 Chapter of Mats and focus on experiences of prayer, poverty, and
preaching – which he identified as foundational elements of the Franciscan
charism. Or we might take our inspiration from other elements, such as Francis’
service to the lepers, which he desired to return to at the end of his life.
Our ongoing formation programme during these 3 years is an opportunity
to renew our basic understanding of our Franciscan life, as we reflect on the
first sentence of the Rule. We will also reflect on what lived responses that
understanding calls for, what ways we can revisit the Portiuncula and the flame
of our charism.
The
Lord is in charge
We often lack imagination to see the ways forward
and are slow to take up the challenges involved. So it may be that Lord in His
mercy will place us in the necessary situations, where our only choice will be
whether or not to embrace the experience. I am thinking particularly of an
inspiring anecdote in the General Minister’s report, with which I will
conclude:“A few days before Easter 2009, Abruzzo (Italy) and in particular the city of Aquila, was struck by a devastating earthquake which claimed many lives. Many parts of our own friary were badly damaged, and it would have been easy enough for our brothers to find hospitality in one of the other friaries of the province. But the friars of Abruzzo decided to stay put, sharing the same conditions as those who had nowhere else to go. I went to visit them! There they were, living in tents or in the compartment of a railway carriage, lining up to get food from the field kitchen, and never once did they cease to make the Lord present by celebrating Mass in the tent they had been assigned.”
