I was a lover of this Roman Catholic Saint for a long time in my days, always remembering certain statement's of his, in love with his almost romantic approach to how his life was one which glorified Jesus Christ and his attempt at revisionism within the Roman Catholic Church. He was a small hero to me; someone I was admiring without knowing the full details of his life but admiring what I have witnessed as an outsider to Roman Catholicism.
Recently I was watching EWTN as I always do when I am suffering from insomnia and/or my wife is having difficulty sleeping and is tossing and turning and I wish to give her more space on our little queen-sized bed. Sure enough, one of the programs went ovr the life of St,. Francis of Assisi. I was excited to delve deeper into the life of this hermit. The lives of Saints are exciting to see as they are examples as well as brothers in the Lord who also teach us from their lives and show us insight to God. And so I sat down, opened a bottle of Leinenkugels and relaxed to a show about a little hero of mine.
At the end of the show I was amazed at how much he was not the man I orignally had painted out to me for all these years. In fact he went against the tenets of Orthodox Asceticism and created a newfound approach which almost glorified himself as a new Pope out to reform Christianity itself! EWTN did not attempt to paint this out, as they praised Francis' zeal and fervor but I shall explain one major difference between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholicism throughout history has held dearly that their authority granted to them by the seat of Peter has given claim that they themselves in some romanticized form can actually see themselves enlightened enough that they can sin no more. Orthodox ascetic tradition states otherwise that no man cannot see himself as a sinner no more, as we live in humility to Jesus Christ daily, asking for His forgiveness until the very last second. No authority outside of Jesus Christ can make that claim that they themselves are finally found sinless unless they are glorified into heaven!
So with this in mind I was saddened to see my little hero of St. Francis making statements like: "During my prayer two great lights appeared before me —one in which I recognized the Creator, and another in which I recognized myself." As he also made the claims that on his deathbed he was absolving sins of his own will, as he himself having been glorified as Christ and therefore perfected.
One other example of this attitude was with the stigmata he suffered while asking for insight. He wished for a miracle and supposedly got it with this stigmata. Now a stigmata has never been documented in the East. The stigmata is strictly a Western anomaly as the Eastern focus is not on the sufferings of Christ but on His resurrection and conquering of Death which bridges us to God.
Once Francis witnessed himself transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, not only spiritually but now physically through the gift of the stigmata, he changed. it is as if vainglory stepped in and he was no longer in humility but now a stalwart religious leader with a calling to reform the Church. His actions sadly showed what the Greek word plani means: Francis saw himself from what his internal mental showed him to be, Jesus Christ in all facets, including authority. Francis literally felt he was no longer able to sin and thus became empowered on a cause which sadly we see in many modern day denominational preachers as untouchable and a sense that they can do no wrong by the Authority of the Holy Spirit.
Please, all three of you who read this here tiny blog of mine take this advice from the Eastern Brother here in the Lord: The truly righteous always consider themselves unworthy of God. We are nothing in the presence of the Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. Yet He loves us enough to not find pleasure in the sacrifice of His Son but in the fruit it bore after His own Son conquered death. We are here to serve him and to love him and to grow closer to him daily. Theosis does not grant authority and make one God; Theosis is the desire to become a Son of God, to know Him as His own, never gaining deification.
So in the end of all this I find that my little Roman Catholic hero was not such a great guy when it came to doctrine I was sad. But I tell you what- St. Seraphim of Sarov is an incredible guy with as much zeal and love for the Lord, with humility. He is a great hero of the faith!
3 comments:
Interesting. But that's not what the little ceramic Frank of Assisi that lives in my flower garden told me. He said, "I can talk to animals much like Snow White". But then a little garden gnome told me that apples are bad for you so I don't know what to believe.
But in reality. The middle/dark ages are called that for a reason. It's a wonder they had any chance at any good theology. Thank God for the printing press.
You gotta cut him a little slack.
It was a bad 3-400 years all the way around.
Actually I am going to have to disagree with that statement that Dark Ages and the Middle Ages were as bad on Theology as the West has made it out to be. Most non-Christian historians like to point out individual attempts from minute locations across Papal provinces that the Church was attempting to keep the poor uneducated. SImply this was not the case, except in a few instances where some bishps were not in favor with Rome. Also to note, the Eastern portion of the Empire was more than educated. In fact most of the writings in ascetic and monastic literature came from the East during these times as well as literature on prayer and education, spiritual and secular. It was pretty much required in Byzantium that children were in a school of education and trade, required to read and write in the vernacular, which mostly was Greek, be able to recite spiritual text and have a firm grasp of their faith.
Sadly many of the Protestants during the Reformation had a horrible view on the past 1500 years prior to their time, thinking it was a time of spiritual devastation and starvation.
And St. Francis of Assisi? He was quite educated for a Monastic in the West. Its just his approached made it quite clear he was corrupted into thinking he was able to stand on earth blameless and not able to error. This in itself is blasphemous, which disappointed me. But I am happy that others were able to move from this in the Latin Churches, though some still do this to this day.
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