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9/6/26 Franciscan Transcendental · Omnia Christus

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  SPEAKER_00: And as I was reflecting on these readings that we have today,
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  SPEAKER_00: I thought about an experience that I had some time ago,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I was in Assisi in Italy,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I went into a little church on the edge of town,
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  SPEAKER_00: and I felt more connected to St. Francis than in any other place in Assisi.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now some of you might have been to Assisi and Assisi is sort of like St.
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  SPEAKER_00: Francis land and there's all these massive basilicas and all these people trying
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: to sell you all this St. Francis stuff.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when you go over to the edge of town and you go into this little church that's
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  SPEAKER_00: a little bit sketchy,
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  SPEAKER_00: looks like it might have been built by somebody
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  SPEAKER_00: that didn't quite know what they were doing.
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  SPEAKER_00: Well, that church was where a young St.
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  SPEAKER_00: Francis,
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  SPEAKER_00: when he was just a rich kid,
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  SPEAKER_00: kind of disillusioned with his life,
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  SPEAKER_00: was praying and he heard God saying,
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  SPEAKER_00: rebuild my church before it's falling into ruin.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he was a kid and he's like,
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  SPEAKER_00: oh well, I guess this church isn't doing that great, it's kind of collapsing.
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  SPEAKER_00: So he started to rebuild that church and he rebuilt the church of San Damiano
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  SPEAKER_00: before he realized the larger significance of what Christ was asking of him.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I was thinking about that in the first reading where it talks about being
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  SPEAKER_00: a watchman because this gospel in particular,
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  SPEAKER_00: I think,
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  SPEAKER_00: could lead us to think that we should take Christ's words
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  SPEAKER_00: about correcting our brothers,
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  SPEAKER_00: we should take Christ's words about being a watchman,
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  SPEAKER_00: and we should go out and radically,
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  SPEAKER_00: zealously,
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  SPEAKER_00: Defend the church or defend ourselves or correct anyone who we perceive as different
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  SPEAKER_00: than us.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a very common temptation that we have, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: So Christ in this gospel says,
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  SPEAKER_00: if your brother has a fault against you,
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  SPEAKER_00: you know, go and correct him and on and so forth, which is very beautiful.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I think for most of us, we don't need that much encouragement to correct other people.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Christ was writing this a little bit before the invention of the internet.
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  SPEAKER_00: On the internet, for some reason, we feel very comfortable correcting other people.
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  SPEAKER_00: We feel very comfortable going and calling people out,
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  SPEAKER_00: defending the church or defending our own opinion or whatever.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's very important to pull back a little bit from that.
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  SPEAKER_00: St. Francis,
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  SPEAKER_00: when he had that experience in San Damiano of Christ asking him to rebuild
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  SPEAKER_00: the church, he didn't immediately think that he was called to do some crazy thing.
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  SPEAKER_00: He thought, I'm supposed to do something right here.
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  SPEAKER_00: And even after that, as he grew in his spiritual life, he didn't go to found a movement.
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  SPEAKER_00: He didn't go to found the Franciscans.
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  SPEAKER_00: He took the gospel and he tried to live it radically.
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  SPEAKER_00: He tried to put it into practice.
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  SPEAKER_00: He tried to live authentically and coherently in accord with what Christ was asking of him.
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  SPEAKER_00: I think that is a very important message for all of us.
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  SPEAKER_00: But I think that we need to perhaps rein in a little bit this tendency that we have
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  SPEAKER_00: to go out and fix everyone around us and focus on fixing ourselves.
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  SPEAKER_00: St. Francis did change the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: St. Francis had an amazing and massive impact in the church,
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  SPEAKER_00: but it was because he focused on knowing God himself.
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  SPEAKER_00: He focused on growing in his relationship with God.
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  SPEAKER_00: There was a beautiful quote that I read this week as I was sort of finishing up my retreat time.
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  SPEAKER_00: I just happened to run across it.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's from an author called George MacDonald,
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  SPEAKER_00: and he says,
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  SPEAKER_00: If you set yourselves to explain the theory of Christianity,
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  SPEAKER_00: had set yourselves instead to do the will of the Master,
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  SPEAKER_00: the one object for which the gospel was preached to you,
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  SPEAKER_00: how different would now be the condition of that portion of the world with
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  SPEAKER_00: which you come into contact?
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  SPEAKER_00: Had you given yourselves to the understanding of his word that you might do it,
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  SPEAKER_00: I just thought that was a beautiful quote and it spoke to me in particular
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  SPEAKER_00: because I tend to be kind of an idea guy.
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  SPEAKER_00: I tend to be kind of a theory guy, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: I like ideas, I like knowledge, I like theories.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what George MacDonald is saying is he's saying,
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  SPEAKER_00: don't take the gospel, don't take Christianity and use it to support your theories.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's not what it's for.
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  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, go and put it into practice and then maybe you'll make a difference.
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  SPEAKER_00: Each one of us has a particular calling.
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  SPEAKER_00: Each one of us has a particular spirituality.
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  SPEAKER_00: Theologians talk about three aspects or faces of God, which is truth, goodness, and beauty.
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  SPEAKER_00: Each one of us is called to a particular one of those.
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  SPEAKER_00: I myself feel by nature more called to that truth aspect.
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  SPEAKER_00: But if I focus so much on the truth that I forget about goodness and beauty,
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  SPEAKER_00: my truth isn't really going to be true.
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  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes some of us are focused more on beauty, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Those are artistic people, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: People are called to make beautiful things, to make music, to make art.
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  SPEAKER_00: But if that art and music doesn't have truth and beauty in it,
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  SPEAKER_00: well then it's empty and it could even be bad.
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  SPEAKER_00: And those who are focused on doing good in the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: those who are focused on serving others,
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  SPEAKER_00: on helping others,
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  SPEAKER_00: well if they do that but they forget about beauty and truth,
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  SPEAKER_00: ultimately their service isn't really going to go to the proper place
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  SPEAKER_00: and they can end up doing things that aren't even correct out of compassion.
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  SPEAKER_00: All that to say,
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  SPEAKER_00: Each one of us is called to a particular thing,
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  SPEAKER_00: but we need to have truth, goodness, and beauty united.
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  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at someone like St.
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  SPEAKER_00: Francis,
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  SPEAKER_00: you see that this movement gathered around him that was focused,
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  SPEAKER_00: yes, largely on goodness.
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  SPEAKER_00: We think about Franciscans helping others, doing good.
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  SPEAKER_00: That was what Francis did.
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  SPEAKER_00: He lived in radical solidarity with the poor.
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  SPEAKER_00: He helped those in need.
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  SPEAKER_00: But the Franciscans also became...
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  SPEAKER_00: The sort of founders of the first universities,
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  SPEAKER_00: what became today the university system, that grew out of St. Francis' experience.
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  SPEAKER_00: And then what we think about today as Western art,
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  SPEAKER_00: that largely grew out as well from Franciscan painters.
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  SPEAKER_00: From this experience of Francis and from his radical dedication to putting
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  SPEAKER_00: the gospel into practice, grew out a movement of truth, goodness, and beauty.
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  SPEAKER_00: If we ourselves put the gospel into practice,
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  SPEAKER_00: if we listen to Christ's invitation,
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  SPEAKER_00: if we accept it into our hearts,
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  SPEAKER_00: and if we follow our path,
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  SPEAKER_00: whatever it might be,
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  SPEAKER_00: goodness, truth, beauty,
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  SPEAKER_00: but we unite together all of those aspects,
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  SPEAKER_00: then only in that way will we like Francis be able to show forth into the world
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  SPEAKER_00: the truth and goodness and beauty of God.