Being A Lesser Brother

A new class is underway and once again we are like Kindergarten students starting fresh. A new prof, with a new style, with new insights and new interpretations on our beloved St. Francis. This class will be interesting, intense and maybe even infuriating but we will indeed walk away with a great sense of the social and spiritual side of our founder.

 

 

Something that struck me today was the reality of friars minor. The order of Friars that I am joining is the Order of Friars Minor (OFM). Being a friar minor or lesser brother is what is at the core of being a Franciscan and that was at the heart of St. Francis. To be minor or a minor brother means that we identify with those in the minority (and there are many faces of minority). In identifying with them we can then come to serve them and care for them.

Jesus himself identified as a minority in that in his humility was to build the kingdom of God where the dignity of each person and all of creation was established and respected. St. Francis embraced this as the poverty of Jesus and formed his beliefs and actions around this call of poverty and humility. We as Franciscans embrace this ideal by living simply so others may simply live.

It doesn’t mean we are poor and have nothing, it does however mean that we choose carefully how much stuff we acquire and use.

It doesn’t mean we remove ourselves from the world, it does however mean that we enter into the world with humility in service to others.

It doesn’t mean we only preach to those in the pews, it does however mean that our lives preach a message of dignity to all people no matter where we encounter them.

 

 

When St. Francis encountered the leper, it was his encounter of the reality of the minors or lesser in society, it was an encounter of Christ incarnate. It was a reality of what it means to enter into the Gospel Life.

 

Today Friars the world over try to walk with St. Francis in Gospel Living and embracing the life of Christ. We are challenged to be a herald for the dignity of each person, to express that we are brothers and sisters, and to proclaim that we are all children of God. We are also to be caretakers of creation (as all people are challenged to) and to move beyond the sin of selfishness and pride.

It’s not easy to follow Jesus, it’s not any easier to do so in the footprints of St. Francis, but with a deepening prayer life, a trust in God and through the workings of the Holy Spirit; all is possible.

For me I know this: My core is Christ, my shell is Francis and my tools are hope, courage, faith, love and joy. I pray that my life may continually be transformed into being a humble witness as minor brother.