Merry Christmas!
Setting up the Nativity is a treasured part of our family Christmas tradition. The Nativity scene was the creative idea of St. Francis of Assisi. Preparing for Christmas in 1223, St. Francis was given permission from Pope Honorius III to set up a manger scene, with an ox and donkey and plenty of hay. He invited the villagers of Grecio, Italy to join him in front of the scene as he preached about the “babe of Bethlehem.” As the story goes, when Francis was preaching during this first ever ‘live’ nativity commemoration, he was overcome by the imagery of Jesus present at the scene. The idea of God becoming man, emptying Himself for love of humanity, moved the heart of Francis.
This type of “letting go” or “self-emptying,” is called kenosis. It is clearly the way of Jesus. St Francis of Assisi and Franciscans worldwide still practice a spirituality of letting go. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) let go of his life in the social upper class and joyfully lived in solidarity with the sick and the poor. He let go of his status and all material trappings to live freely in the radical Gospel choice of voluntary poverty. He wanted to imitate the example of God in a manger, choosing a lifestyle of radical voluntary poverty – Francis was totally dependent on the goodwill of others and the grace of God for his survival.
Emptying oneself, or letting go is not really promoted in our culture or society. These days, the idea of “more for me” dominates. Western culture admires and promotes the self-made, self-sufficient, autonomous individual who often makes these values their goal of life. We see that some will sacrifice anything to achieve these self focused ideals. Individualism permeates almost everything we do. It has become a basic social assumption. In this modern individualistic and consumer culture, even religion and spirituality have very often become a matter of addition: ‘earning points’ with God, ‘attaining’ enlightenment, and ‘producing’ moral behavior. Yet according to Catholic tradition, authentic spirituality is not about getting, attaining, achieving, performing, or succeeding—all of which tend to pander to the ego. Catholic spirituality is much more about letting go—letting go of what we don’t need anyway, although we don’t always know that ahead of time.
We try to teach our Ledgers this. True spiritual wisdom reveals that less is more. Jesus taught this, and the holy ones always discover it in one way or another. Think of the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Day, and the generations of nuns, friars, and monks who intentionally took a “vow of poverty.” The great Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart (1260‒1328) said, “God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.”
Like St. Francis and so many others have discovered, when we “let go” of unnecessary things and worldly distractions, we can find Jesus in the most humble of places – like the three Kings did 2000 years ago. This Christmas, I wish all in our Springs community sacred moments of kenosis. May you be moved by the beautiful truth of our faith – that God is alive, and lives among us. What more do we need? Alleluia!
Our Lady of the Ledge, pray for us!
Eamonn O’Keeffe
Principal, High School