Laetitia

When I had just moved to New York in pursuit of a publishing career, Gourmet magazine helped direct me to Rosa Mexicano near Lincoln Center. At first taste of that perfect tangy saltiness of their pomegranate margarita, I knew I had to take my Franciscan friend, El Cheapo, there for his birthday.  

At the tail end of a debilitating cold and after fighting my way through the very wet streets in Manhattan on a stormy May evening, I entered Rosa Mexicano to find El Cheapo sitting in table near the bar, copious notes and a few books strewn across the table. He had been a chaplain over at Columbia then, working on Asian Studies with Wm. Theodore deBary. Pouring over Buddhist thought, he had been sitting there for over an hour in anticipation without even so much as a glass of water: “I asked if they would let me sit here, and the hostess let me.”  He said this with a bit of glee, like the cat that ate the canary, because he had been allowed to sit there without spending a dime. 

I sought to remedy the drink situation and ordered us both Rosa Mexicano’s famous Pomegranate Margarita. I expected he would like the contrast of flavors, but had not anticipated that he had never tasted tequila. I will never forget that look on his face when he first tasted the margarita, a mixture of surprise, delight and a profound realization of its potency. It deceptively looks puny as a red-violet, frozen concoction, but it packs a mighty punch. We finished half of it before we walked up their beautiful long staircase with its cascading waterfall on the wall.  

The one margarita was enough for me with the cold, and one margarita was most definitely enough for El Cheapo as he devoured his mole enchilada. I remember him commenting on how good the black beans were and could not help but wonder if indeed the tequila was now taking full effect. My suspicions were confirmed while were walking down the long stairs and I mentioned how the pomegranate has often been used in Madonna and Child paintings: 

“The pomegranate margarita was great, wasn’t it? The pomegranate has often been used in Madonna and Child paintings, so in a way we’re celebrating Mary. Here’s to Our Lady…” 

“Now you sound like my grandfather who would have crazy reasons like that for drinking. Our Lady of the Avocado…” 

“Uh, do you mean pomegranate?” 

“Yeah, what did I say?” 

“Avocado.” 

“Oh right. How funny, Our Lady of the Avocado…” 

The memory of the pomegranate margarita will stay with me. I maintain the importance of the pomegranate in Christian art, however. Above you will see Botticelli’s Madonna of the Pomegranate. The pomegranate here has been interpreted by art historians as representing the fullness of suffering of Christ’s passion. We see Mary holding it firmly, representing in my view the Church holding forth his Passion. This of course works well with the pomegranate’s dual meaning of representing the universality of the Church because of its many seeds. 

The pomegranate then has an interesting dual meaning: Christ’s passion and the universality of the Church. At first glance it seems rather divergent in meaning. We tend to think of universality or catholic (in the strictest sense of catholic meaning universal) in positive terms and see Christ’s passion in negative terms. However, Franciscan thought takes a different view. It is precisely through Christ’s passion and suffering that we see the God of humble love. We see what Bonaventure would call God bent low in love. In conforming our life to the sufferings of Christ’s passion, we embrace God bent low in love for us. This embrace is not only universal, but also evident in the many branches or seeds of the Church. In this way, Franciscan thought helps us see the dual meaning of the pomegranate actually flowing quite consistently. 

Because I enjoyed that pomegranate margarita immensely, I will share the recipe for it here: 

Rosa Mexicano’s Pomegranate MargaritaRecipe from: Roberto Santibanez, Culinary Director, Rosa Mexicano restaurants Servings: 1  

2 ounces white tequila

½ ounce Triple Sec

1 ounce fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon fresh pomegranate juice (can substitute bottled pomegranate juice)

6 ounces ice, or more

Garnish with lime wheel or wedge Directions: Mix all the ingredients in a blender until smooth and frothy. Serve in a chilled glass and garnish with lime.

As you enjoy the pomegranate margarita, may you also nod toward the Madonna of the Pomegranate.

I have a Franciscan priest friend who is a scholar and professor of theology and particularly interested in the 19th century priest and theologian John Henry Cardinal Newman.  I emailed him that he should leave behind the idea of a gentleman and bring out the inner punk. He will not understand what I mean by punk and you do not either, do you? 

Punk rock started in the 1970s in the UK and US, that though anti-establishment they wanted to react against the sentimentality of the 1960s flower-power movement. They rejected the idea of dropping out of society and favored a more aggressive and confrontational reaction. Much of the punk rock movement can be summed up as minimalist, concerned with speed, and anti-establishment. However the term punk was a deliberate choice of terms as they realized that “punk” was what the cops on the cop shows called the young kid who got into trouble.  

I bet you want to know how punk rock really my friend is. The truth is not at all, especially since he is especially faithful to all the teachings of the Magisterium and fiercely loyal to the writings of the Councils including the Second Vatican Council. Though tall, he sits very compactly crossing one leg gently over the other. He talks earnestly about John Henry Cardinal Newman inspiring sincere seekers of truth, one hand strategically held in mid-air for a touch of drama when appropriate.  Though in the States, I picture him sipping tea while sitting in an English garden somewhere in Oxford, where an ivy covered tower peeks out into the distance. He muses over Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Duns Scotus’Oxford”, smiles gently, and ponders how he will use it in the next homily he will write after his daily constitutional along a favorite meandering path he has found.   

How far from punk can you get? And yet, he is my favorite punk. It would be perhaps too easy to dig no further than the superficial, as my Oxford picture does, but that would miss how his work is a force to be reckoned with. He breathes Newman, but he is more concerned with applying Newman’s thought for the modern Church. Applying any work is much more difficult than remaining wrapped up within the work itself, because to apply means making that work relevant and useful for others. My friend would have it no other way. But this only proves that he is an excellent scholar and teacher. How is he punk? 

He teaches Newman and sometimes he has young seminarians in his class. He encountered a particularly difficult young seminarian interested in neo-scholasticism. More concerned with remaining within neo-scholasticism, he commented to my friend that he had no interest whatsoever in seeing how Newman speaks to the world today. The sense I got was that this seminarian had neither an interest in the world we live in nor the church as we have it. This was evident when my friend told me that these seminarians were eager to say the Latin Mass. While both he and I would never criticize anyone of sincere faith who participates in a Latin Mass, I think the concern here are those who have other more worrisome motivations for wanting to “bring back” the Latin Mass. My friend tells me with arms crossed and a twinkle in his eye he said to them, “I have no interest whatsoever in ever saying a Latin Mass.” And to put a fine point on this, he not only can speak Slovak, Italian and German fluently, he is able to say Mass in any number of other languages. This comment of his was pure punk. 

He is reacting to motivations that are a far cry from pastoral: the preference for theatre, smoke and mirrors, than the actual sacrament itself; the stance that wishes to create an insular, “pure” church, to the exclusion of anyone who does not neatly fit; the re-creation of God who is bent low in love into a Gnostic alternative; the privileging of the power and glory of Institution and Hierarchy over love, mercy and justice for all persons. Let me be clear: those who prefer the Latin Mass do not necessarily subscribe to any of these attitudes. But it seems my friend was reacting to these anti-pastoral sentiments when he said he would not say a Latin Mass.  And by being minimal with his words and concerned with bringing down that kind of an idea of hierarchy, he was punk all over. In a single brief comment, he kicked over the motivations dripping with the trappings of authority and power so that others could participate in the Eucharist with love in order to to re-build and repair the world.  I imagine in my mind that when my friend said what he did, John Henry Newman and Francis of Assisi gave each other a high five saying, “Now that was punk!”

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…”
MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions
John Donne

Relationships are important and indeed one of the most revered throughout the years has been that of friendship. The Greeks revered philia, a love between friends that in their view was a dispassionate virtuous love. We love friends because we choose to love them and that choice is based upon sound judgment, reason. Christ took this concept further, referring to agape between friends: no greater love than this than a man laying down his life for a friend. Even the Beatles of our time have taken to emphasizing friendship in their song “With a Little Help From My Friends”:

What do I do when my love is away
(Does it worry you to be alone?)
How do
I feel by the end of the day,
(Are you sad because you’re on your
own?)No, I get by with a little help from my friends

Realizing the importance of friendship, Benet Fonck describes fraternity as an extended friendship. To understand the profound nature of this remark, it worth pausing to reflect upon what we mean by friendship.

If we look at the nature of the Trinity, we can get a glimpse perhaps. Although the trinity is mystery and nearly impenetrable, we can perhaps at the very least say that the trinity is relational. Acting relationally, we might be able to say that it has perfect unity, is co-responsible for one another, and has a common will. We learn from this several things. One is that relationships are important. We learn too that it is important that relationships have a unity, or a wholeness about them. We learn that mutual responsibility ensures the success of the relationship as does its common purpose.

Reflecting on these key characteristics of relationship are valuable, but for this reflection even more so if understood through the Franciscan framework. Francis actually begun alone. He had every intention of remaining as such as a penitent hermit. The encounter with the San Damiano cross, to rebuild the Church, was something he intended to be a new mission that he was do alone in perhaps the model of the Order of Penitents. But, as Francis points out, the Lord gave him brothers.

Once Francis had brothers, he realized the importance of rebuilding together with the help of companions. He also realized that they had to develop a way of life. The call to rebuild required him to preach the Gospel to the world, so the rule of St. Benedict for monks would not work. And while he realized the importance of community, the Augustinian rule would not work because his concept of poverty was radically different. The Augustinian rule held that all goods be held in common for the good of the community, while Francis held that the brothers not own anything of their own. The difference? Collectively the Augustinian rule had a collection of goods owned by the group, whereas the brothers collectively owned nothing. As such, Francis developed a new way of life. Fr. Dominic Monti holds four values that he think differentiates the Franciscan charism:

1. minority (lesser brothers)
2. fraternity
3. eremitical prayer
4. mission

All of these characteristics shed light on the whole of the Franciscan family, which will help us to understand how the Secular Franciscan branch relates.

Indeed the brief remarks on trinity and also on the development of the Franciscan origins help us to understand fraternity as Secular Franciscans. Part of the issue in translation for us is that most, even the friars, are confused as to how we fit into the family. How do we? As baptized Catholics we all should strive for humility, a sense of community within the Church (i.e. parish), constant prayer, and evangelization. The friars and Poor Clares are removed from the world it thus makes sense that there should be a need for them. As baptized Catholics, why do Secular Franciscans need each other? Such a question either misses the value of the Secular Franciscan fraternity or of the value the general Franciscan mission.

Starting with the latter, it would seem that the question betrays a lack of understanding how the three branches work together. Like the trinity, the three are of one mind and heart, co-responsible, and with the common mission of rebuilding the Church. Indeed the friars rebuild by going from the outside into the world, preaching the Gospel and bringing Christ to the the world. The Poor Clares rebuild by surrounding the Franciscan family with the prayer relationship they have built with Christ through their privilege of poverty. The Secular Franciscans, however, rebuild from within by going outward in prudent witness to the truth of the Gospel. All the branches need each other if any of us are to be successful.

The former part of the question can be answered through examining the mission of the Secular Franciscan Order. The essential ingredient for the success of Secular Franciscans in rebuilding from within is fraternity. We remain in the world in part because we love Christ who is in it. But how do we know love? We know love as we experience love, first from God whose love is gratuitous and then from the relationships around us. Certainly anyone who has had the fortune of having a true friend knows the importance of that kind of love. That kind of love becomes useful for us, as realizing the importance of it (or of any important relationship) we are better able to see Christ in others. Even more important is that encounter with Christ we are in relationship. We in a sense participate in the relationship of the Trinity. Indeed, Secular Franciscan fraternity meetings take on a sacramental quality as Christ is present among us. We can then say that our relationship in fraternity is sacramental. We are then brought back to Benet Fonck’s remark that fraternity is an extended friendship — we extend even the strongest bonds of friendship because together we take on a uniquely Franciscan sacramental quality. Moreover, as we rebuild each other we encounter Christ. And this gives us tremendous credibility with the world. If we cannot love each other, how can they trust us? As the hymn goes, they will know we our Christians by our love. Indeed, they will know we are Secular Franciscans by the way we love in rebuilding the world around us.