Kathy Taormina, SFO
kltsfo@frontiernet.net 952-997-2243
To Live the Gospel in Life Giving Union with All
| “St. Francis is one of the few saints who would feel completely at home in our modern world.” Catherine de Hueck Doherty, 1965 |
How do we live the Gospel life? How do we live it within ourselves, our families, our fraternities, our Order and our world? Who are we to judge what is Gospel living? How are we to know that by trying to live a “Gospel life” that we are not only in union, but “life-giving” union with all?
The simple answer to these questions would be that we don’t truly know! We are humans, and because of this, we judge ourselves and others harshly sometimes. We miss the true gifts of our living the Gospel in all the aspects, small and large, of our daily living. We overlook the “small sacraments” that Gospel living brings us in union with our world.
The one way that we can see and believe that gospel living is life-giving to all, is in the fruits of the things we do. Looking at the fruits of our labors on earth can be an indicator of how the Gospel affects our lives. Are we loyal friends? Are we respectful children? Are we loving parents? Are we committed to our Rule as Franciscans? Do we participate fully within the life of the Church and revel in all the many gifts she has bestowed upon us? Do we share what we have and what we have learned with others, especially with a generation that is yearning and searching for a better way to live?
I have learned over the years as I have worked with youth that sharing is the number one way that they learn, and experiencing is the number one way that they take things to heart and make the message their own.
As I have been sharing for over a year now, there are various ways that we can share this life-giving Gospel with the youth around us. We share with our own children and relatives when we volunteer for outings with them. We share with our Church youth when we offer to teach faith formation, whether one time or many. We share with our fraternity when we lovingly tolerate children at our gatherings, or better yet, share our charism with them through stories, plays or media. We share with our Order when we accept and support a young adult as they journey through formation towards profession, and on through their young Franciscan lives.
As we share the gifts we have as Franciscans with the youth, to be truly "in life-giving union with all,” we must remember that the message goes far beyond our own boundaries. We must be willing to shoulder the hardships of youths in developing countries through teachings from the Peace and Justice Commission. We must discuss and remedy the attacks on animals and our ecological environment through lessons from the Ecology Commission. We must search for means of fair pay and steady jobs for all through learning from our Work Commission. We must open our hearts and share our lives through the realization that we are all family in the resources from the Family Commission. And last but not least, we must learn the ways to share our radical charism with the youth of today by learning more from the Youth/Young Adult Commission.
We do not have to travel this road alone; we are on a journey together, a pilgrimage, to change the world. Our Formation is our armor and our Profession is our Gospel life. Let the world know that we are in life-giving union with it, now and forever, by how we live the things we profess!
As Fr. Masud Syudallah, TSSF, said at our NAFRA- 2003, meeting, “We must be ready to be reckless for the love of God!” AMEN.
Questions for discussion:
- Answer the questions within this article.
- Discuss how the Commissions can, and do, work together.
- Are we, as Franciscans, “reckless for God?”