I am what I am as a gift. I have nothing of mine to give up. What I have given up, I never had. I do not even belong to myself. Knowing this, I am free and I am in Love with Love - everyone is, some have just not awakened to this yet. And, some days, I do not feel it, for this Beauty and Truth is not a feeling. This Grace is a knowing - a knowing of the Heart. I am remembering who I am and am grateful for all I have appeared to lose to grow in this Understanding and Joy.
*Arem Nahariim-Samadhi
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So the people were upset with Jesus. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is honored everywhere except in his hometown and in his own home." So he did not do many miracles there because they had no faith.
*St. Matthew 13.57-58 (NCV)
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After St. Francis of Assisi adopted a life of poverty, his appearance appalled the citizens of his hometown. He dressed in rags, and he begged for his meals. His well-to-do family, furthermore, was ashamed of him.
His father was furious over money Francis had gotten secretly from the family "bank" to repair a church. And the father was upset about his son's odd, "disreputable" behavior. So, he took Francis home, shackled his feet, and locked him up, until his mother freed her son. The young man quickly returned to the church to begin repairs of it.
The father, enraged, brought public charges against his son. He insisted that Francis return the money or renounce his patrimony and return home.
April 10, 1206, the bishop had summoned Francis to account for his behaviors. Francis stood before a crowd in the square of his hometown, not far from his family's home. The bishop told Francis to return the money and trust God. The latter did what he was told. Francis, also, said that the clothes he wore belonged to his father, and that he would give these back. Francis disrobed himself. He laid them at his father's feet. He stood naked in the square, giving himself to Christ, the church, and the world.
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James Martin, in My Life with the Saints, continues the story, with interpretation:
The gesture would be just as shocking today. The bishop wept, stunned by the force of Francis's actions, and wrapped the young man in his cope. The symbolism was thus complete: Francis had stripped himself of his allegiance to his father (and, incidentally, to his father's business as a cloth merchant) and was wrapped in the protection of the church. He had thrown himself entirely on God's providence. He had abandoned the pride of his youth. He had embraced a life of radical poverty, in imitation of Christ. "Sister Poverty," would be "the fairest bride in the whole world, in imitation of Christ." And he had engaged in what would have been seen at the time as an act of public penance.
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Quietly Responding
1) Recall a time when you were graced to renounce something to live a more complete devotion of yourself to Grace?
2) Have you ever felt a Calling that led you to make a commitment you felt unready for, and you followed the Divine Leading anyway?
3)What does it mean for you to renounce for your devotion to Grace? Do you sense a progressive renouncing that has grown over time and with deepening devotion to Grace?
4) What is the difference between a renunciation that is inner and one that is outer? Which is most important to you?
