Thursday, October 27, 2016

Do not seek the honors of the World

Lately I have been re-reading the early writings of St Francis of Assisi and the Little Flowers of St Francis with the idea that other people need to be more familiar with these writings.  I however know all that they say and love them and at least thought I was living them.

Wrong, each one has been an indictment on my soul.  In every paragraph I see where I fall oh so short.  I read today about Br. Bernard and how he and the other brothers sought out not the approval and love of the world but it's scorn.  They were scorned not for anything bad but for how they dressed and how poor they were.  They were loving and pious me my thought has been that I should be attractive to the world so they will be attracted to God, silly me.

I show them instead a face and a life that is not a challenge to them.  It looks like them, talks like them, smells like them.  When I am scorned by people for my beliefs I find it very hard, I don't rejoice like St Francis and the brothers did.  Am I trying to fit in for them or for me?  I backed away from those who scorned me because of my social justice beliefs.  I didn't change what I was doing just didn't interact with those people anymore.  That is not what Br. Bernard would have done.  He would have rejoiced in the scorn and bore with it as a blessing from God to keep him humble.

No comments: