Becoming a Prayerful Activist

Francis of Assisi was an activist, pacifi st, and prophet. In our own ways, we can mirror his revolutionary spirit.

Rev. Dr. Bruce G. Epperly

Francis of Assisi lived in a God-fi lled world. For him, the heavens declared the glory of God—and so did sparrows, wolves, and worms. Our cells and souls refl ect divine wisdom and are constantly being energized and replenished by God.

In a God-saturated world, synchronous events populate our days, if our spirits and senses are open. Around each corner is a burning bush or a ladder of angels for pilgrims of the spirit. But more than that, God wants us to move from mysticism to activism, midwifi ng and giving birth to God’s vision in our personal lives and public responsibilities. Synchronicities abound for those who live prayerfully, asking for guidance and then listening to God’s wisdom moving through their lives.

Francis believed in divine synchronicity and saw it as essential. Surely it was synchronous that Francis showed up at the church of San Damiano and then listened to the guidance he received from God. No doubt it was synchronous for Francis to notice a leper as he traveled the roads of Umbria. Mortifi ed and disgusted by leprosy, Francis may have wished to pass by on the other side of the road. But God’s still, small voice told him to stop, to reach out, and to embrace the man with leprosy. Both the man and Francis were transformed in that moment. But, when Francis looked back as he continued the journey, the leper had disappeared. Francis wondered if the man was Christ in disguise; as he embraced the leper, was he embracing Jesus?

Saints and mystics train their senses to be open to God’s presence. In my spiritual companionship with Francis, whether I’m walking Assisi’s roads or Cape Cod’s beaches, I have made a commitment to see God in all things and all things in God. I have exclaimed with Francis and his followers, “My God and all things.” I felt God’s call to pay attention to intuitions, insights, dreams, and encounters, knowing that I may be entertaining angels without knowing it.

MYSTICS HERE AND NOW

Sainthood can be a blessing and a curse. Servant of God Dorothy Day, the social activist, spiritual guide, and one of the founders of the Catholic Worker Movement, protested against those who admired her generous and saintly spirit: “Don’t call me a saint,” she once said. “I don’t want to be dismissed that easily.”

Day recognized that saints could be categorized as so heavenly minded that they are perceived to be of no earthly good. Untouched by domestic life, saints can be discarded as irrelevant to the challenges most of us face daily: raising a family, working, and political involvement.

Beneath her protestation, though, Day believed that God called everyone to spiritual greatness through embodying our faith in daily life. “We are Dorothy Day’s devotion to the poor and marginalized through the Catholic all called to be saints,” she once Worker Movement won her praise, but she chafed at being labeled a saint. affirmed. “We might as well get over our bourgeois fear of the name. We might also get used to recognizing the fact there is some of the saint in all of us. Inasmuch as we are growing, putting off the old man and putting on Christ, there is some of the saint, the holy, right here.”

Francis would have agreed with Day’s vision of activistsainthood. Francis always turned people to Christ, challenging them to follow Jesus’ path of service, sacrifice, and hospitality. Like John the Baptist, his vocation was to live the message of Jesus and point others to the pathway of discipleship, whether as monks or householders.

Another activist-mystic, Simone Weil, boldly challenges us to claim our own saintly and mystical activism: “Today it is not merely enough to be a saint, but we must have the saintliness demanded by the present moment, a new saintliness without precedent . . . a new revelation of the universe and of human destiny.”

God calls us to mystical activism, a deep-rooted spirituality inspired by our encounters with God and commitment to our spiritual practices, to bring beauty and healing to the world. Walking in the footsteps of Francis and Clare, we are called to be mystics of the here and now, not some distant

age. When we look in the mirror, we may exclaim in disbelief: “Me, a saint? Are you kidding?”

BE THE CHANGE

Within the limitations of life, our gifts are lived out and expand as we devote ourselves to prayerful activism. Still, we ask, recognizing our fallibility and limitations: Who am I to be a saint or a mystic? Who am I with my temptations, impatience, and intolerance to be in God’s presence and claim my role as God’s companion in healing the earth? What can I do? The challenges are so great, and I am so small! Saints and mystics often feel unprepared for their calling. Isaiah shrank as he encountered God, whose glory fills all creation, “Woe is me! I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people We need saints and mystics for our time, and we need to claim our unique of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Cleansed by an mysticism and sainthood as we confront angelic touch, but still filled the crises of the 21st century. with a sense of inadequacy, Isaiah hears the voice of God saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” With full cognizance of his imperfections and limitations, Isaiah claims his vocation as God’s prophet, a mystical activist sent to heal his nation, “Here am I . . . send me!” (Is 6:8). Isaiah wasn’t the only one who questioned his calling. Jeremiah protested his youth and inexperience. Paul struggled with his past. Peter wrestled with God’s call to welcome strangers and foreigners. Francis constantly struggled with the temptations of the flesh and later his desire to mold and maintain the religious order he founded in his image. Saints and mystics are not perfect. Their primary qualification is that they have—in fear and trembling and doubt and wonder—said yes to encountering the living God and to following God’s path in their lives. Francis followed suit. He told his followers to walk on the good earth, forsaking the privilege and comfort of horseback riding. He didn’t want his followers to be separated and

St. Francis of Assisi encouraged his brothers to forsake comfort for a higher calling. For all of their needs, he taught, God would provide.

superior to ordinary working-class people. To be a saint is to plunge into the intricate and wondrous interdependence of life. It is about knowing our utter dependence on God and the bounty of creation for every breath and for the energy to share in God’s vision. Saints rejoice in their common humanity, knowing that God’s word becomes fl esh in fallible and ambivalent persons like ourselves.

We need saints and mystics for our time, and we need to claim our unique mysticism and sainthood as we confront the apparently insurmountable crises of the 21st century: climate change and species destruction, starvation and poverty, political unrest, pluralism, the growing gap between the wealthy and poor, the identifi cation of materialistic success with self-worth, and the threat of pandemics challenging the rugged individualism of persons and nations.

We need to recognize that we can be the change we want to see in the world through joining mystical moments with acts of activism and kindness.

Rev. Dr. Bruce G. Epperly has served as a congregational pastor, university chaplain, professor, and seminary administrator for over 40 years. He is currently the senior pastor of South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Centerville, Massachusetts. He lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, with his wife, Rev. Dr. Katherine Gould Epperly, his son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren.

is article was adapted from Walking with Francis of Assisi: From Privilege to Activism (Franciscan Media).

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Breathing in the Peace Prayer

Though not written by him, this prayer attributed to St. Francis refl ects the spirit of the 13th-century saint.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved, as to love; For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Take a few minutes each morning to breathe deeply, opening to God’s spirit energizing, enlivening, and inspiring you. Experience God’s spirit giving life to your cells as well as your soul. After a few moments, read the prayer slowly and meditatively.

Let the prayer soak in, permeating your spirit and guiding your steps throughout the day. You may choose to carry the prayer with you or post it where you can see it during the day. When you fi nd yourself straying from your sense of God’s vision for your life, return gently to the prayer without judgment, opening again to its guidance for your spiritual path.