A Franciscan Life Reflected

Corcovado jesus (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

It is unique, as I have written before we Franciscans get a short shift as not being academic enough…why? Francis was more concerned with ensuring those that lived out his rule to live the Gospel Life of Jesus Christ were more pragmatic.   But it wasn’t an anti-intellect drive, rather it is an internalization of the gospel teaching and shaping one’s life and learnings around a deeper understanding of this teaching.

This has been my life, attempting to fully internalize one Gospel Teaching of Jesus:

Matthew 22:36-40

New King James Version (NKJV)

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’^{[a] 38} This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’^{[b] 40} On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 22:37 Deuteronomy 6:5
2. Matthew 22:39

This is the passage that brought me back into the institutional church, and it is the passage that has me continually wrestling with the institutional church.  How is it that we are to love like this in community, as community, yet we do such harm to one another.

This is the lesson that my life has centered on.

So how far have I come? That is always a good question, but I think I am closer the further I move from the institutional church setting, as Francis did.

 

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