Vulnerability

We are in the Franciscan Jubilee year. What a blessing for us to be living through these days of the eighth centenary of the transitus of St. Francis.

Year before last, our Midwest Province's annual retreat was preached by a layman - a renowned writer Jon M. Sweeney. He has authored more than two dozen books, five of which are on St. Francis of Assisi. The main theme of the retreat he gave us was on "vulnerability".

According to him, we would be missing the point if we don't understand the "vulnerability" in the life of St. Francis. Vulnerability is the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, physically, emotionally, socially or in any other way. If we examine all the aspects of Francis' choices we can't miss this point.

In one of the most Franciscan-relatable hymns of the early Church which we come across in the Letter of Paul to the Philippians, chapter 2, we read: "he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave ... he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross." Here, the emptying of oneself, humbling oneself, becoming obedient to death, even to the point of dying upon a cross- can clearly be translated to embracing vulnerability. Francis' spirituality had much resonance of this hymn. In most of the things that he did we come across this embracing of vulnerability. There were other Religious Orders already existing at the time of Francis. He didn't want to join any of them. One of the reasons I believe was that they lacked the element of physical vulnerability. The form of life which he initiated was different. They chose to embrace vulnerability by taking up radical poverty. Opting to choose to depend on the Providence of God and that alone, was certainly an instance of embracing vulnerability.

They say that there are certain moments of encounter in Francis' life. First was his encountering a vulnerable Christ in a vulnerably dilapidated San Damiano Church. This prompted him to slowly accepting the vulnerability of the peripheries outside the City of Assisi and staying out of the safety of the rich Benardone house: repairing and taking care of the dilapidated churches in the peripheries.

Then he encountered a begger-leper. In him he saw the vulnerability of the poor. From then on he opted to embrace this vulnerability of the poor and began to take care of lepers at a place named Rivo Torto.

Social life was a very segregated on account of classes during his time. There were the Nobles who enjoyed honor and respect. Aside from the Nobles, the rest of the society was divided into Majors and Minors. The Majors were the rich. The Minors consisted of the working and poor class, who had vulnerability built into their lives. Before his conversion Francis had earnestly desired to become a Knight, which would push his social class from a Major to that of a Noble. But, after his conversion when he had followers, he named the group "Minor Friars", associating themselves with the Minors, the vulnerable underclass.

While living at Portiuncola, during a hot summer night Francis was woken up by a cricket that was sitting on a fig tree right outside their door. Francis came out and intrigued by the chirping cricket, wanted to pray with it. He invited the cricket to praise God with him and it came right to his palm and sang for an hour. This incident brought him closer to the world of the creatures. Then we find him taking up vulnerability by living in the wilderness and on mountain tops. After a while we would see him making himself vulnerable by encountering the wolf of Gubbio.

When Francis had sent out Brothers on mission to different countries, five of the Brothers had gone on a mission to Morocco and soon were martyrd. He was happy that his brothers had taken up the vulnerability of losing their lives for Christ. But, upon learning the details, he was pained at their ineptness and lack of respect for Muslims. This incident probably may have led him to take up the vulnerability of going to Damietta to meet Sultan Malik al Kamil. Later on when he wrote the Rule, he would encourage friars to go and live among the "sarasans". (a term commonly referring to Muslims with no pejorativeness involved).

Middle ages were times that saw a heightened level of patriarchy. Perhaps Francis saw it right in his house- in his family itself- in the relationship between Peter Bernardone, his father and Pica de Bourlemont, his mother. In those days women's lives involved vulnerability. Francis would take-in this vulnerability and nurture femininity in the life of the Friars by insisting upon the virtues of gentleness and humility. Later on he would come up with the idea of 'Eremetical life' as a temporary mode of being friars. According to his vision, while three or four Friars lived eremetically, one has to take the role of the 'mother', providing and cooking for her 'children'. The 'children' would live a contemplative life. After a while it would be a turn of one of the 'children' to take the role of the 'mother'. This exercise would make them contemplatives and to embrace the vulnerability of "mothers".

No one wants to be a lamb. Everyone wants to be a wolf or a lion. Jesus said that he has sent us out 'like lambs among wolves'. He has sent his disciples to a hostile world with all the vulnerability they can have.

Jesus also said that 'there is no greater love for one than to lay down one's life for one's friends'. Love is to make oneself vulnerable. Love is letting go of power.

For love of Christ Francis embraced every form of vulnerability. For, the Christ made himself vulnerable, even to the point of death - yes, death on a Cross!

It can be argued that it was the 'vulnerability' that made the Friars so very different and so very attractive. There is huge countercultural potential in being vulnerable. Maybe it is good to deliberate in those lines.