vivere sine proprio

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vivere sine proprio

• Living without Grasping

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Giotto, Allegory of Poverty, Basilica of St.
Francis
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Sine proprio and contemplation

• Contemplative view of person, world.
• Exhortation to Praise of God
• Praises to be said at All Hours
• ability to look at creation, world as good
  without having to use it
• it is good as itself, even without usefulness to
  me
• the person is good, without having to use people
  for my ends
• the self is good, without having any use for
  other purposes

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Contemplation Market

• Act of contemplation is a critique of
  consumption, market
• need experience of seeing ourselves as God sees
  us, as good
• regardless of our usefulness
• world of gratuity, gift

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Our history in regard to poverty

• MP 33, 38
• Rule VI
• nemo dat quod non habet
• need to claim gifts before able to give to
  others
• grace not claimed is grace lost
• acknowledge gifts we have, so we can give them
  to others
• hermeneutic of depreciation in capitalism (I
  have what you need)
• you are never measuring up

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Franciscan Tradition

• Distinctive Franciscan tradition
• different from monastic tradition
• (Acts 2, Olivi interpretation)
• In private and in common
• difference from monastic tradition
• continuity with renunciation (Cassian)

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Alms Christological perspective

• (ER IX) (Lk 1230 little ones,)
• Mt 24 Happy is the servant
• example of Jesus disciples reading of Gospel
• right and inheritance of kingdom in alms for
  poor
• source of dispute with John XXII
• rooted in Incarnation
• expressed in Passion
• confirmed in Glorification
• (Phil 2) (2Cor 68)
• Ltr to Entire Order give yourselves
  completely to Him who gives Himself completely to
  you) Mt 819

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Gospel Dynamic

• Go!
• Sell!
• Give!
• Come Follow!
• you will have riches in heaven
• heaven is not just future
• kingdom of heaven is present

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Mission witness (Rule chap. VI)

• in common sine proprio
• solidarity with poor
• solidarity with each other
• distinction
• voluntary poverty and involuntary poverty
• critique of market commercial economy
• economy of communion

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vivere sine proprio a journey

• sine proprio as itinerarium
• constantly undertaken anew
• Exemplars
• who have been examples for us of living sine
  proprio?
• approach their lives with faith
• different experience at different times of life
  (old age, sickness)
• Changing Social reality in Society
• typewriters? radios? credit cards?
• continual acts of discernment, new technology,
  human will
• way to get into our own life, reflect on it.
• work, service, mission

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Admonitions of Francis

• Frequent mention of vivere sine proprio
• living without anything of ones own
• living without possessing, holding onto
• And its opposite appropriare, thesaurizare
• holding onto
• storing up a treasure
• possessing
• Texts in Robert J. Karris, O.F.M., The
  Admonitions of St. Francis Sources and Meaning
  (The Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure
  University, St. Bonaventure New York 1999)

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Adm. II makes his will his own

• The Lord said to Adam Eat of every tree, but of
  the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you
  may not eat (Gn 216-17). From every tree of
  paradise he could eat, because, as long as he
  does not go against obedience, he did not sin.
  For the person who eats of the tree of the
  knowledge of good is the one who appropriates to
  himself his own will and exalts himself
  concerning the good things which the Lord says
  and works in him. And thus through the
  suggestions of the devil and the transgression of
  the command came about (the eating of) the fruit
  of the knowledge of evil. Whence it was
  necessary that he incur punishment.

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Adm.III leaves all he possesses

• The Lord says in the Gospel Whoever does not
  renounce all that he possesses cannot be my
  disciple and Whoever wishes to save his life
  must lose it. That person who offers himself
  totally to obedience in the hands of his prelate
  leaves all that he possesses and loses his body.
  

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Adm. III, obedience

• And whatever he does and says which he knows is
  not contrary to his will is true obedience,
  provided that what he does is good. And should a
  subject see that some things might be better and
  more useful for his soul than what a prelate
  commands, let him willingly offer such things to
  God as a sacrifice and, instead, let him
  earnestly strive to fulfill the prelates wishes.
  For this is loving obedience because it pleases
  God and neighbor. If the prelate, however,
  commands something contrary to his conscience,
  even though he may not obey him, let him not,
  however, abandon him. And if he then suffers
  persecution from others, let him love them all
  the more for the sake of God. For whoever
  chooses to suffer persecution rather than wish to
  be separated from his brothers truly remains in
  perfect obedience because he lays down his life
  for his brothers.

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Adm.IV store up a money bag

• I have come not to be served, but to serve (Mt
  2028). Those who have been constituted in a
  position over others should only glory in that
  superiorship in the same way as they would glory
  if they were deputed to assume the office of
  washing the feet of the brothers (Jn 131-20).
  And the more they are perturbed about their
  superiorship being taken away from them than they
  would be over the loss of the office of washing
  feet, so much the more do they collect for
  themselves a money bag (Jn 126 1339) to the
  peril of their souls.

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Adm V nothing belongs to you

• Pay attention, O human being, to the great
  excellence in which the Lord God established you,
  for he created and formed you in the image of his
  beloved Son according to the body and in the
  likeness according to the spirit. And all
  creatures that are under heaven, according to
  their constitutions serve, acknowledge, and obey
  their creator better than you. And even the
  demons did not crucify him, but you with them
  crucified him and still are crucifying (him) as
  you delight in vices and sins.

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Adm V (cont.)

• Therefore, whence can you glory? For even if you
  were so clever and were so wise that you had all
  knowledge and knew how to interpret every kind of
  tongue and subtly investigate heavenly matters,
  in all these things you should not glory.
  Because one demon knew about heavenly matters and
  now knows about earthly matters more than all
  people, although there might be someone who has
  received a special knowledge of the highest
  wisdom from the Lord.

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these do not belong to you

• Similarly even if you were more handsome and
  richer than all people and even if you performed
  miracles, so that you made demons flee, all these
  things are against you and do not belong to you
  and in these you can have no glory. But in this
  we may glory in our infirmities and to shoulder
  daily the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Adm VII acquire great riches

• The Apostle says, The letter kills, but the
  Spirit gives life (2Cor 36). Those are dead by
  the letter, who only desire to know mere words,
  so that they may be considered among others as
  wiser and might accumulate great riches to give
  to their relatives and friends. And those
  religious are dead by the letter, who dont want
  to follow the spirit of the divine letter, but
  only want to know the words and to interpret
  (them) to others. And those are given life by
  the spirit of the divine letter, who do not
  attribute to the body every letter which they
  know or desire to know, but in word and example
  render them to the highest Lord God, to whom all
  good pertains.

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Adm XI stores up blame

• Nothing but sin must displease the servant of
  God. And in whatever way any person may sin, and
  on account of this the servant of God
  uncharitably is disturbed and angered, he stores
  up blame for himself (Rom 25). That servant of
  God, who is not angered nor troubles himself
  about anything, lives in right relationship with
  others and does so without calling anything his
  own. And blessed is he, who does not keep
  anything for himself, rendering those things
  which are Caesars to Caesar and those things
  that are Gods to God.

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Adm XIV truly poor in spirit

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
  the kingdom of the heavens (Mt 53). There are
  many who are caught up in private prayers and
  devotions and afflict their bodies with many
  abstinences and punishments. But at one mere
  word that seems injurious to their persons or
  concerning some thing that is taken away from
  them they take offense and are disturbed. These
  are not poor in spirit. Because the person who
  is truly poor in spirit is the one who hates
  himself and loves those who strike him on the
  cheek.

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Adm XVIII holds onto something for himself

• Blessed is the person who supports his neighbor
  in his weakness in the manner that he would wish
  to be supported by him if he were in a similar
  situation (Lk 631). Blessed is the servant who
  renders all good to the Lord God, because whoever
  retains anything for himself hides in himself the
  money of his Lord God (Mt 2518) and what he
  thought to have will be taken away from him (Lk
  818)

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Adm XXI guise of a reward

• Blessed is the servant, who when he speaks does
  not reveal his entire person for the sake of a
  reward and is not quick to speak, but wisely
  considers what he must say and how he must
  respond. Woe to that religious, who does not
  retain in his heart the good things that the Lord
  shows him and does not show them to others by his
  actions, but for the sake of a reward would
  rather show them to people by his words. That
  person receives his reward and those hearing him
  reap little fruit.

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Adm XXVIII stores up in heaven the good things

• Blessed is the servant, who stores up in heaven
  as treasure (Mt 620) the good things that the
  Lord shows him and does not want to manifest them
  to people for the sake of a reward, because the
  Most High himself will manifest his works to
  whomsoever he pleases. Blessed is the servant
  who keeps the secrets of the Lord in his heart
  (Lk 815).