10. BIBLICAL THEMES AND SYMBOLS

  

    I am endlessly fascinated by biblical themes.  Thus, the Exodus- and Covenant-themes lend coherence to the Scriptural text stitched together from stories written over the course of four centuries by Hebrew scribes in Babylon.  Structurally, these themes delineate the journey into the unknown for those who believe that an incomprehensible God is involved in intensely personal ways in their everyday lives.  In this context, the Cross-Resurrection theme reminds us that, when we find ourselves at cross-purposes with loved ones, letting go of our efforts to change ourselves or our loved ones and letting the love of the indwelling Spirit work in our tangled depths can transform us in life-giving ways.  But I am especially intrigued by the themes that gave form and direction to Francis of Assisi's response to the gospel message.

    Francis' love-affair with Jesus revolved around three symbols, the Crib, the Cross and the Eucharist.  In a culture which centered Jesus' saving presence in the Crucifixion, Francis was the first to re-construct the Christmas scene as the stage for a devotional practice.  In so doing, he grasped the import of the words of the angel to the shepherds in Luke's Gospel:  "And this will be a sign for you:  You will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."  That import:  Jesus is fully human as well as fully God.

    This celebration of the import of the Crib informed Francis' understanding of the Cross.  As his reception of the Stigmata shows, the Cross functioned as a powerful symbol in his spiritual life.  But his understanding of the Cross was inseparable from his understanding of the Crib.

    Two biblical passages illuminate this understanding.  One is the passage in which Jesus insists that whatever we do to one another, we do to him, since he is as intimately involved with them as with us.  The incident involving the leper reveals that Francis understood that, if we turn away from persons we encounter on our journey into the unknown, we shut Jesus out of that encounter also.  In effect, it reveals that Francis understood that God's love is both all-inclusive and ever-faithful.  The other biblical passage records Jesus' very human longing for the compassionate presence of his disciples when he underwent the excruciating agony that provoked a bloody sweat.  Francis' longing for deepening intimacy with Jesus constantly urged him to offer Jesus his compassionate presence in his suffering.

    Clearly, Francis loved the Eucharist as a ritual which assures us that the Risen Christ longs to be intimately involved with us, despite the way that we so often treat him in our interactions with one another.  After all, even the excruciating pain Jesus experienced in the Agony in the Garden and in the cruel and humiliating crucifixion could not diminish or distort his ever-faithful love.  The Eucharist, then, is a ritual re-enactment of the Crib, the Cross and the Resurrection in which our reception of the Body and Blood of the risen Lord in communion calls us to take Jesus forth with us in all that we say and do.