A community that challenges
“St. Francis and the Novices” by Kelly Latimore
Last Sunday, October 4, was the feast day of Saint Francis. Each year it inspires me to revisit some aspect or influence that Francis still has on the world today. This year, I’d like to share something from a fictional work from Ian Morgan Cron, Chasing Francis. The main character is a minister, Chase, who has lost his faith and goes on a pilgrimage of sorts through Tuscany to look for it. While on his pilgrimage, he keeps a journal that is essentially a one-sided conversation with Saint Francis that describes his struggles and the reawakening of his faith. During his time in Italy, Chase builds a relationship with Brother James, a friar at San Rufino. Brother James gives him a small book called Francis and the Foolishness of God. There’s a quote in that book that moved Chase (and me, too):
It is clear that today, just as in the time of Francis, the Spirit is raising up countercultural Christian communities at a time when God’s people most need the support and challenge such gatherings can provide. [It] strives to live as if the priorities of modern society did not hold sway; as if the values of God’s Reign were already operative in modern society…The experience of Francis, though distant in history, provides a ray of hope for this new movement. Today, too, there is a need to ‘rebuild' my church,’ and the rebuilding promises to take place in and through this movement of communities…In communities we join with scores of faith-filled men and women to live the great political and theological ‘as ifs.’ Politically we live as if our nation were still true to its foundational documents of liberty and justice for all; as if people mattered in themselves and not for their economic and social status; as if consumerism and the shopping mall did not determine the meaning of our lives; as if we were facing squarely the epidemic called AIDS and mobilizing against it; as if we were a sister nation among all other countries of the world; as if right made might and not the other way around. Living these ‘as ifs’ in the midst of community creates a prophetic possibility at the local level, the space for modeling how things could be, ought to be, and will be one day.
My hope is that this excerpt here would be descriptive of the community we’ve created at Interyear. Each of the Fellows here has made a statement just by their presence that is indeed countercultural. They are taking this year of their lives and dedicating it to these ‘as ifs’ - doing their best to cultivate a life that models how things could be, ought to be, and will be one day.
These young adults are the future of the church, but right now they’re doing the hard work of looking at how the world is (in the middle of our own pandemic) and trying to imagine and live out a different reality. Our culture doesn’t have to be so polarized. There are always more options than this way or that way. Be creative. Be prophetic. Use your holy imagination to create a third way. We’ll all be better for it.
Join me in supporting our Fellows as they continue to cultivate their prophetic imagination. Please consider giving financially to continue making it possible for them to do this meaningful work. Donate here.