Francis: the Saint and the Pope

"Francis, rebuild my Church." Words that changed the world.

St Francis
Detail of an altarpiece from the
Walters Museum of Art
(used under Creative Commons License).

Today's feast of St. Francis is especially significant, since Pope Francis has chosen to spend this first "Name Day" with his eight Cardinal-collaborators in Assisi (a city he has never visited before). "This," he said about his associates, "is the beginning of a Church with an organization that is not just top-down, but also horizontal."

With the upcoming [today? this weekend?] release of his encyclical on poverty and the interview published earlier this week, the Holy Father is, as it were, setting up a classroom. We might find the key to his lesson in his words to the unbelieving journalist, Eugenio Scalfari about his patron:

St. "Francis wanted a mendicant [dependent on alms] order and a traveling one. Missionaries who wanted to meet, listen, talk, help, to spread faith and love. Especially love. And he dreamed of a poor Church that would take care of others, which would receive material aid and use it to support others, with no concern for itself. 800 years have passed and times have changed a lot, but the ideal of a missionary, poor Church is still more than valid. That is still the Church that Jesus and his disciples preached about."

Pope Francis: The Surprising Truth about Faith and Science

Since it's "TOB Tuesday" and we have been sampling Pope Francis' new encyclical, here is a related thought from the document. With the rise of "evangelical atheism" (as it has been called), we have seen a stronger critique of faith from the point of view of science--or at least in the name of science. Well, from Pope Francis, himself a scientist (Master's in chemistry), we have some words also on faith and science (#34). Far from limiting the scientist, Francis says, faith enhances the scientific enterprise!

Faith "illumines the material world, trusts its inherent order and knows that it calls us to an ever widening path of harmony and understanding. The gaze of science thus benefits from faith: faith encourages the scientist to remain constantly open to reality in all its inexhaustible richness. Faith awakens the critical sense by preventing research from being satisfied with its own formulae and helps it to realize that nature is always greater. By stimulating wonder before the profound mystery of creation, faith broadens the horizons of reason to shed greater light on the world which discloses itself to scientific investigation."




On a personal note, I am heading down to New Orleans today. It will be my first family visit since Mom died in April. Although I still have a vast network of family and friends, it is quite intimidating for me to enter in to the full experience of Mom's absence according to the flesh. Prayers, please.

Tidbits from "the Light of Faith"

Retreat silence continues, but I have prepared a week's worth of posts from the new encyclical while my technology and I rest in the Lord. (Full disclosure: my Kindle is not participating in this retreat, as it contains the text of Theology of the Body on which the retreat talks are based.)

Today's thought (from #27)  helps lift faith out of the realm of dry, sterile teachings where we can sometimes relegate it, and shows that faith has an intimate connection to love:

"Love and truth are inseparable. Without love, truth becomes cold, impersonal and oppressive for people's everyday lives.... One who loves realizes that love is an experience of truth, that it opens our eyes to see reality in a new way, in union with the beloved."

I recall that this experience of love revealing a greater truth was fundamental to Jennifer Fulwiler's conversion from atheism. What might this (and another passage I may use as tomorrow's tidbit) suggest to you about the most fruitful avenue for the New Evangelization ?

Faith according to Francis: Lumen fidei

I'm on retreat all week, but before entering into the Great Silence, I pulled out a few highlighted passages from Pope Francis' first encyclical, "Lumen fidei" (Light of Faith). Today's passage (from #29) focuses on the "who" of faith. The "what" we believe is secondary. Faith is primarily a matter of relationship. Yes, faith is a sort of "knowing," but what does that mean? Pope Francis comments on Paul's "faith comes from hearing":

"Knowledge linked to a word is always personal knowledge; it recognizes the voice of the one speaking, opens up to that person in freedom and follows him or her in obedience."

Faith comes from hearing, yes; that means that faith has its origin in a relationship. Isn't that a redemptive notion of faith?

Evangelization in "The Light of Faith"

Since I am on retreat this week, I have prepared a thought a day from Pope Francis' first encyclical, "Lumen fidei" (the "light of faith"). This passage (from #32) struck me as a wonderful description, even a definition, of evangelization:

"Christian faith, inasmuch as it proclaims the truth of God's total love and opens us to the power of that love, penetrates to the core of our human experience.... illumining all reality with the love of God made manifest in Jesus, and seeking to love others with that same love..."

Do you ever think of evangelization in terms like these?

TOB Tuesday and "The Light of Faith"

Mom with granddaughter #3, earlier this year.
I like the way that this photo lets you see the
"ray of light" from this relationship of love.

While I am on retreat, I have prepared a daily tidbit for you from Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen fidei ("Light of Faith"). Today's passage could have been taken right from Pope John Paul's Theology of the Body:

"The fact that our human loves contain that ray of light also helps us to see how all love is meant to share in the complete self-gift of the Son of God for our sake. In this circular movement, the light of faith illumines all our human relationships, which can then be lived in union with the gentle love of Christ" (N. 32).

Earlier, Pope Francis had written about faith as a communion with Christ that allows us to see with his vision. Here, that seeing with his vision leads to loving with his love.