Contemplating Our Crucified Earth And excerpt from Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth by Ilia Delio, OSF, Keith Warner, OFM, and Pamela Wood
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ontemplation is essential to understanding how to follow in the footprints of Francis and lead a life of reflective action. Contemplation in the Franciscan tradition is an essential part of an engaged spirituality; it asks us to really look at the world with seeing eyes. It involves withdrawing from the world in reflection, yes, but not to escape from the world or its problems. Rather, this stepping back offers a chance to take a penetrating look at the world as it truly is, in all its beauty and gift as well as its pain and injustice. Contemplation involves looking critically at the underlying structures of injustice and finding a way to be part of their transformation; it is anything that helps us to “unveil the illusions that
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masquerade as reality and reveal the reality behind the masks.” Yet contemplation also nurtures our spirit, and out of this inner fullness our actions become like a sacrament in this world—cocreating with God and making the spirit visible in our hurting world. Contemplation ignited Francis’ heart, which led to his profound conversion and his commitment to living a penitent life. His kinship with all of creation was an occasion for joy, but it also brought with it grief and pain at the injustices suffered by that which he loved. This familial love for all of life ultimately compelled him to act with compassion and to promote peacemaking and justice in ways that often challenged the power structures of his time. Looking at contemplation from this perspective, what does it mean for us as followers of Francis to take a contemplative approach to our modern-day ecological crises? If we dare to look and really see, we encounter Creation crucified—at our hands. This is truly a heartbreaking and terrifying reality, almost impossible to bear without the strong spiritual grounding that contemplation offers. If Francis were to walk our earth today, he would encounter for the first time his Sister
