"The First Franciscan Community"

"The First Franciscan Community"

(Recorded at the Portiuncula) There are many romantic pictures of Franciscans loving one another, praying together and lifting their hands to God. But I’m sure in this place, around this little chapel where their huts first stood, there were many days of complete doubt and disillusionment; feelings of dislike – maybe even of hatred – toward one another; doubt of the vocation in the Lord; feelings of anger; temptations of desire, lust, passion and fear – all the temptations that human beings experience. The first Franciscans were no different from any of us. But somehow, they remembered the one commandment that the Lord gave us, which is to love one another. How can we more deeply love one another? The first Franciscans put their lives together, and they remained together. They said we’re gonna stick with it until we become one. We’re gonna remain together until we can walk through these barriers to love. That will come up in every marriage, in every attempt at union and every attempt at community. We begin to see the dark parts of one another, those parts that we do not like. The way we learn to love is by walking through those: not around by avoidance, not underneath by spiritualizing, not over by denial – but though by incarnation.

from On Pilgrimage With Father Richard Rohr