Prophetic Living
It has struck me in a recurring way over my lifetime that Francis’ universal social justice agenda was to live a simple life. Otherwise, we’re always a part of the system, pleasing somebody to get some advantage or make more money.
—Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs (podcast)
Richard Rohr considers how the prophetic lives of Francis and Clare shaped others through their witness:
Francis and Clare were not so much prophets by what they said as in the radical, system-critiquing way that they lived their lives. They found both their inner and outer freedom by structurally living on the edge of the inside of church and society. Too often people seek either inner freedom or mere outer freedom, but seldom—in my opinion—do people seek and find both. Francis and Clare did.
Their agenda for justice was the most foundational and undercutting of all others: a very simple lifestyle outside the system of production and consumption (the real meaning of the vow of poverty), plus a conscious identification with the marginalized of society (the communion of saints pushed to its outer edge). In this position, we do not “do” acts of peace and justice as much as our lives themselves become peace and justice. We take our small and sufficient place in the great and grand scheme of God.
By “living on the edge of the inside” I mean building on the solid Tradition (“from the inside”) from a new and creative stance (“on the edge”) where we cannot be co-opted for purposes of security, possessions, or the illusions of power. Francis and Clare placed themselves outside the social and ecclesiastical systems. Francis was not a priest, nor were Franciscan men to pursue priesthood in the early years of the order. Theirs was not a spirituality of earning or seeking worthiness, career, church status, moral one-upmanship, or divine favor (which they knew they already had). Within their chosen structural freedom, Francis and Clare also found personal, mental, and emotional freedom. They were free from negativity and ego. Such liberation is full gospel freedom.
Today, most of us try to find personal and individual freedom even as we remain inside of structural boxes and a system of consumption that we are then unable or unwilling to critique. Our mortgages, luxuries, and privileged lifestyles control our whole future. Whoever is paying our bills and giving us security and status determines what we can and cannot say or even think.
When Jesus and John’s Gospel used the term “the world,” they did not mean the earth, creation, or civilization, which Jesus clearly came to love and save (see John 12:47). They were referring to idolatrous systems and institutions that are invariably self-referential and “always passing away” (see 1 Corinthians 7:31). Francis and Clare showed us it is possible to change the system not by negative attacks (which tend to inflate the ego), but simply by quietly moving to the side and doing it better!
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| Shusaku Endo: Jesus Doesn’t Need Your Defense |
 As a college student, I often participated in events on campus called Open Forums. They were question-and-answer sessions held in a dorm or fraternity house, where I fielded questions about faith and philosophy. Sometimes they were organized as more formal debates between me and an atheist or skeptic. Early on, I viewed myself as a defender of the faith, a next-generation apologist following in the steps of Lewis and Schaeffer.By my senior year, however, I had grown disillusioned with the Open Forums for two reasons. First, I never saw anyone argued into the kingdom of God. Of course, some people had very legitimate intellectual struggles with belief and the claims of Christianity—I had been one of them. While apologetics could lower barriers to faith, I learned that it’s only a genuine attraction to Jesus himself that lures a person in. Second, it occurred to me that my righteous attempts to defend Christ were more often a self-righteous attempt to defend myself. I came to this second realization through reading the novel Silence by Shusaku Endo. The story follows two Portuguese priests who secretly enter Japan in the seventeenth century to search for their lost mentor. Japanese Christians were severely persecuted at the time, and many were martyred. The novel explores the journey of the two young priests who were proud defenders of the faith but became broken men tempted to publicly deny Jesus. It is a beautiful and haunting novel that explores facets of faith never addressed or even acknowledged in many Christian communities today.More than anything, Endo helped me realize that Jesus is not relying upon my defense. His vindication was accomplished when the Father raised him from the dead, and it will be evident to all on a day still to come. Until then, our Lord is quite familiar with being mocked and scorned. Isaiah prophesied that he would be despised and disrespected, and the most enduring image of our faith, the cross, is a symbol of shame and rejection. Jesus was very willing to accept both, but I am not. Through Endo’s novel, I came to recognize that my spirited defense of Jesus through rhetoric and argument was, in fact, an attempt to defend my own honor and reputation on a campus where the Christian faith was largely dismissed and disrespected. There is a place for Christians to speak intelligently about their beliefs, and it is appropriate to answer critics of faith in an often hostile public square, but these efforts should never be divorced from a large dose of self-reflection. As our culture becomes increasingly post-Christian, and we seek to defend our faith, we ought to ask ourselves this essential question—Are we really seeking to defend Jesus’ honor or just our own?DAILY SCRIPTURE ISAIAH 53:1–6 1 PETER 2:19–25 JOHN 15:18-25 WEEKLY PRAYERJohn Stott (1921 – 2011) Our heavenly Father, we commend to your mercy those for whom life does not spell freedom: prisoners of conscience, the homeless and the handicapped, the sick in body and mind, the elderly who are confined to their homes, those who are enslaved by their passions, and those who are addicted to drugs. Grant that, whatever their outward circumstances, they may find inward freedom, through him who proclaimed release of captives, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen. |
