Franciscan Youth in the World
The Conference of General Spiritual Assistants, (CAS) of the OFS and YouFra has recently published the last number of the bulletine Koinonia for the year 2017 on the CIOFS website www.ciofs.org. The article is entitled: "Go with the Gospel in the heart and in the hand: Franciscan Youth in the world". This article closes the cycle of articles for the year 2017 whose general theme was: LIVING THE FRANCISCAN CHARISM
IN TODAY'S WORLD 40 Year after the Seraphicus Patriarcha comemorating 40 years of the present OFS Rule signed by Pope Paul VI on June 24th 1978. Find the Article below in English and for other languages, visit www.ciof.org.
Fr. Pedro Zitha, OFM
INTRODUCTION
By looking at what is happening in today's world it
is easy to understand that people need courageous believers who seriously take
up their identity as followers of Christ who lives and is present in the life
of everyone. Even the emergence of so many Christian movements is a
confirmation that many are thirsty for the Word of God. And it is true that people
alone and without the help of God are unable to quench this thirst. But people must
cooperate effectively and this happens through the contemplation of the Word of
God in the Gospel.
THE GOSPEL HEART AND HELP OF OUR FAITH
The Franciscan family continues to grow in many parts of the world thanks to the experience of the evangelical life whose testimony is rendered daily by both the friars of the First Order and the TOR, and more generally by the entire Franciscan family. Of course, while we rejoice over this growth, we also need to ask what the Franciscan family would be without the Gospel. The Gospel is a rule of life. It is the heart and the help of Christians. The Gospel is the living Word that nourishes us and guides us in this earthly pilgrimage. Thus “The secular Franciscan, committed to following the example and the teachings of Christ, must personally and assiduously study the Gospel and Sacred Scripture” (Cfr. CC.GG. OFS Art.9,2).The secular Franciscan must also be available to allow “the Word come to dwell among us” (Jn 1: 1-18). So all believers are called to be the bearers of the Gospel, that is, bearers of the good news-which is Christ Himself. This implies the cooperation of all because
“While helping the world and receiving many benefits from it, the Church has a single intention: that God's kingdom may come, and that the salvation of the whole human race may come to pass…For God's Word, by whom all things were made, was Himself made flesh so that as perfect man He might save all men ...”.[2]
A Christian who does not place the Gospel
at the center of his life is a Christian without direction, and also, a
lifeless Christian. The fact that we are baptized implies that we should be
bearers of the Gospel. In fact, Christ himself sent his disciples to the world
saying “Go and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). Thus
every baptized to be a witness to the Gospel must die to himself and let Christ
live in him, for “They have been made living members of the
Church by being buried and raised with Christ in baptism; they have been united
more intimately with the Church by profession. Therefore, they should go forth
as witnesses and instruments of her mission among all people, proclaiming
Christ by their life and words”.[3]
Sacred Scripture as a guide means to be in communion with God and to bear witness to one’s faith. The secret of a united family lies in the fact that its members come together to pray together. And if this is true for the nuclear/parental family (father, mother, and children) it is equally true for the spiritual family (Franciscan). Prayer can really change life because it directs our attention away from ourselves by directing our minds and hearts toward the Lord. If we stoponly to look at ourselves, with our limits and our sins, we immediately leave room for sadness and discouragement. But if we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord, then our hearts will be filled with hope, our minds will be washed in the light of truth. We then experience the fullness of the Gospel: it is for all, promise and life, as Pope John Paul II reminded us. All good works are the result of both individual and family prayer. Thisis the challenge that the Franciscan family facestoday, to let us be led by the spirit of prayer and devotion which are the guarantee of our Franciscan identity.
FranciscanYouth must always understand that they do not belong to a pious association, but rather to an Order in the Church, the Secular Franciscan Order, and their task, simple and at the same time profound, is to “make the wisdom of the Gospels and its values come to life, and become a source of transformation for themselves”[4]and, consequently, for the world in which they live. This is possible when they are able to bring the Word of God into their hearts.
THE EFFECT OF THE GOSPEL IN THE LIFE OF FRANCIS
It was exactly in 1208, while Francis listened to the reading of the Gospel, which he began to understand that God was calling him to His service and from that moment on, he made a radical change in his lifestyle.He began to follow God by finding the courage to renounce the kind of life he was leading to welcome God in his heart. After this initiation, Francis, to “get to know the will of God for him, had to go through many pathways and trials to be able to discover the life according to the Gospel as his way and life program and during this period he experienced several and subsequent «conversions»”[5]. Francis chose to respond with ayes to the call to take a new direction in his life and this was the result of a deep listening to the voice of God, both before the cross of San Damian and in the reading of the Gospel.
Like Francis, the young men of today have to open their hearts to hear the voice of God who often speaks to them in a subtle and tender voice both in everyday life and in the Gospel. So it is not enough to go to Holy Mass just because on Sunday everyone goes to church. Young people must cultivate willingnessto understand the Sacred Scripture in order to rediscover the way to the truth-Christ. However, we must keep in mind that today many young people have become bitter because of the lack of work. Others often feel abandoned: their life is hopeless and without purpose and this often leads them to think that nobody listens to them or understands them. But God, the true Father, waits for them with open arms.
So we can say that the situation of young people
today resembles the situation that the first disciples of Jesus lived after he
announced his departure from world. But Jesus, seeing them distressed and
bitter, reassured them and invited them not to lose their minds and to trust in
him, for he would not abandon them (cf. Jn 14). This episode is one of the
reasons why we talk about the effectiveness of the Gospel. The Word of God
refreshes the soul, “the very life of Francis had
developed in immediate contact with the Scripture which he wanted to interpret
and live literally”[6]. Inthe
Scripture he had found the way - Jesus himself - to follow; the way of love for
lepers. It is from listening to Scripture that Francis succeededin
understanding that the “Son of God, who is“love”,
came to this earth for love, lived for love, radiating love, giving love,
bringing the law of love, and he died for love”[7].
So Francis could follow this way of love when he succeeded in drawing closer to
the lepers, thus opening up new perspectives and a different approach to a
society that marginalized and abandoned the lepers. As he approached them,
Francis heard the voice of Jesus saying, “I
was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I
was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you dressed me, I was sick
and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Mt 25:
35-36). Even today the world expects to see and find in us Franciscans these
effects of the Gospel that for us is the form of life. In this crisis of
vocations, both to the consecrated life and to the marital life, people expect
the Franciscan family in general to go to the world, as Pope Francis says, with
the Gospel in the heart and in the hands. This can only come from the “courage and audacity to return to the
essential of our experience of faith and our spirituality to nourish, through
the liberating gift of the Gospel, our divided world, unequal and hungry for meaning”[8].
THE FRANCISCAN YOUTH IN A MATERIALISTIC WORLD
If we compare the time in which the young Francis of
Assisi lived before his conversion and the time in which the young Franciscans
of today live, we can find many similarities, both with regard to the concept
of materialism and the interpretation of the consumerism that derives from it.
However, in both cases, that of Francis’ day and today, God continues to be
revealed as the Father who always meets those who seek him with sincere heart.
Francis was totally immersed in that world, but then he let himself be enlightened
and led by Jesus, humble and poor. Francis denuded himself in front of everyone
and started a new chapter in his life, abandoning the richness of this world
for the kingdom of God. He entrusted himself to the providence of God, not to the
things of this world, and slowly began to understand well that there is a great
difference between the richness of this world and the richness of having God in
oneself. “If then you were raised
together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated
on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on
the things that are upon the earth”(Col
3:1-2).
Many young Franciscans today are open to imitating
Francis and this is seen in their enthusiasm to find time for God.Intheir
encounters it is perceived that the same Holy Spirit who prompted the young
Francis to listen to God and follow His command to repair His house that was
going to ruin still blows in today's world. Listening to the testimony of the
members of YouFra in their various meetings, local, national and international,
it is often seen that they are not totally lost in the materialistic world.They
have a great need for a spiritual guide to better understand the importance of
prayer, the value of the assiduous commitment to contemplate the Word of God in
everyday life in order to free themselves from the slavery of materialism and
to begin to rediscover the joy that the Gospel gives them. The OFS and the CAS
must never forget that young people can regain the joy of contemplating the
Gospel only with spiritual accompaniment and that they will thus enhance the
meaning of the discovery of Christ in everyday life and understand the phrase “If
we liberate the Gospel, the Gospel will liberate us”[9].
All this is possible only when we are available to listen to and meditate upon the
Word of God. No doubt, Franciscan young people, although surrounded by
consumerism, are able to find the courage to live their loyalty to the Gospel
and to the Franciscan charism. Faithfulness demands a choice of life.
Faithfulness is sustained by the courage and hope that Christ always comes to
us to save us. Franciscan young people will always have the intelligence to
understand that “The Scripture is not
only the product of a past history, but it is also, at the same time, a
declaration or prediction of the future, which in part has already taken place and,
in part, is still yet to come”[10].
To go with the Gospel in the heart and in the hands is exactly this: “motivated by the faith in Christ and live that
faith in today's world and this is the faith that moves the mountains of
materialism”[11].
CONCLUSIONS
[1] (Cfr. Pope Francis to the youth, Pastoral
visit to Assisi,04/10/2014)
[2] Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes, n° 45.
[3] Rule OFS, 6.
[4]The Nature of the secular Franciscan
Order, Adapted by Bob Fitzsimmons, SFO, p. 3
[5]creta.altervista.org/joomla/images/stories/francesco/Acausadellaguerra.pdf
[6]Cfr. Testamentum, nr. 4 (BOHMER, Analekten, pag. 37)
[8]Cfr. The Lord give you peace, Final
Document of the General Chapter OFM, Rome 1995, 2.
[9]Cfr. With lucidity and audacity: in
times of refoundation; report of the Minister general Fr. José R. Carballo,
OFM, Extraordinary General Chapter, Verna-Assisi 2006, p.11
[10]Cfr. For this proposal the
historical themes of Hex, XV-XVI, reproduced in Cap. I, par. 5
[11]Cfr. With lucidity and audacity: in
times of refoundation, Fr. José R.
Carballo, OFM, p.17
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