Monday December 01 2008 10:57:17 CST
An occasional letter from the office of the chaplain
of the Order of Ecumenical Franciscans
Click here for previous editions of The Three Knots
Christmas Letter from the Chaplain 2007
“Be kind. For everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” Philo of Alexandria
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Our time of anticipation and waiting has come to an end and here we are! Celebrating the birth of the Christ, the Light that has come into the world, we rejoice for that Light is found in darkness, and the sweet voice is heard in the silence where we wait.
We are now traveling through the twelve days of Christmas and entering into the season of Epiphany. It is a time when the messages we have heard and the hope we have expressed becomes a realization that Christ is here, in the Universe, in all of Creation, down to the minutest cells of our body--that he dwells there. In everyone you meet there is a reflection of God, no matter how small, no matter how shadowy, no matter how concealed, and that reflection is Christ is looking back at you.
How much more is that so in our little virtual friary of the OEF? Francis praised God in the fire and the water, the wind and the earth, in everything and in everyone, he saw God. He saw the same living Christ reflected back to him in the eyes of the Sultan and loved him. Do we realize that Christ is present in each one of our brothers and sisters, and how to do we respond to the most annoying one? With the realization that he or she bears the imprint of the Most High and is as precious to us as our beloved Francis and Clare, and even Jesus the Christ? Or do we fail to listen well enough or look into each others eyes to see the Divine Spark looking back?
Francis and Clare are perhaps two of the greatest saints we have had the privilege to know. According to authors of Joy In All Things, A Franciscan Companion, what distinguished them from the other saints was “that [they] lived after the manner of the Gospel; [they] did not just know the Gospel, [they] did it” (pg. 51). It is in the OEF, and in any community, that the romantic, warm-fuzzy notions of “loving your neighbor as yourself” meet the reality of personality types, gender differences, the wisdom of the young and the old, and varying levels of passion and calm. It is hard work, this business of loving one another, but we are called to it. As one of our brothers reminded us, “We still have to kiss the leper.” There is no getting out of it if you truly desire to love as Christ loved.
So, maybe there is an Epiphany for each of us as we reflect on our profession in the OEF. We all reach a stage where the enchantment has gone and the brothers and sisters are sometimes more irritating than sage-like, and we want a little romance back in our vows. Well, there’s nothing that will bring it back better than a good kiss!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Sr. Magdalena, Chaplain
TX and UK
Previous editions of The Three Knots
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