EVANGELICAL LIFE TODAY: LIVING IN THE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST Introduction
The term "evangelical life" is one used frequently today in Franciscan
circles, especially among third order groups trying to define their way
of life. It basically refers to a Gospel way of life or, rather, a way of
living the Gospel that makes Christ a living presence in the world. Its
development in the Middle Ages signified a literal understanding of
the Gospels and a renewed emphasis on living the Gospel in the
world, following the example of the poor and humble Christ. The path
of Francis of Assisi was one of evangelical life, and he used the
metaphor of "footprint" to describe the following of Christ. He
encouraged his followers to see the footprints of Christ through the
light of the Spirit and make their way to the Most High, the source of
all creation and the fountain of overflowing goodness.
Although Francis emphasized the centrality of Christ in his patb
to God, he did not focus on the humanity of Christ in his writings but
on the humility of God. It is the humility of God, I believe, that
undergirds evangelical life for Francis. The theologian, Bonaventure,
highlighted the importance of divine humility in the life of Francis by
describing Francis's life as a growth in the mystery of Christ. In the
Incarnation, God bends low in love, Bonaventure indicated, and the
more Francis was conformed to Christ, the more he carne to see God
present in the created world. From the Christ on the cross to the
Christ at the heart of creation, Francis contemplated the humility of
God incarnate as one continuous thread binding together the whole
creation in love. It is in view of Francis's cosmic Christ mysticism, as
Bonaventure describes it, that I use the term "ecological Christ" to
speak of the mystery of God's humble love in creation. Ecology is the
study of the rules governing the relationships in the household (oikos)
475
Franciscan Studies 64 (2006)
476
ILIA DELIO
of creation. I While it generally refers to relationships in the natural
world, it also includes, on a broader level, relationships between
humans, between humans and nature, as well as within nature itself.
To speak of God's love in creation is to consider the Christ mystery in
view of ecology or the household of creation. The term "ecological
Christ" helps us consider the meaning of Christ today in a world that
is interrelated on every level. As a unitive term that points to God
incarnate in creation, it impels us to consider the meaning of
evangelical life as following the interrelated fuotprints of Christ.
Those who desire to live evangelical life today must ask, who exactly is
the Christ we follow, what are the footprints of Christ, and what does
it mean to make Christ alive, as witnesses to the Gospel?
The purpose of this paper is to explore Franciscan evangelical life
as one rooted in the humility of God and committed to the following of
the "ecological Christ." My thesis is that evangelical life today must
move beyond separation between Christ and/creation or Christ and
world religions. Rather, the "ecological Christ," who is the risen
Word Incarnate, includes all of creation, indeed, the diversity of its
members. To follow Christ in the twenty-first century is to live in
relationships of love as brother and sister, to recognize that
includes the whole of creation and not particular parts or people,
make Christ alive by seeing God's humble presence in the other,
to know God through relationship with the other. Following the
of Francis himself, Gospel life in the present age is to make
God's goodness in fragile reality, recognizing the sacredness of all
exists. The basis of this idea is not simply a postmodern "nr...n~I,..1
Franciscan evangelical life but emerges out of Francis's "nrlplrQTllnr
of the humility of God and Bonaventure's reflections on Francis's
especially his life in Christ.
To examine this thesis, I will briefly describe evangelical
developed in the Middle Ages. Then I will look at the
lIn his book, At H(llne in the Comws, David Toolan writes, "the use of
'ecology'" is a recent event. The German Darwinian biologist Ernst Haeckel
term "ecology" (from the Greek oikos, meaning household) in 1866. "By
"we mean the body of knowledge concerning the economy of nature - the
the total relations of the animal both to its organic and inorganic ""VHV"""~'
word, ecology is the study of all the complex interrelations referred to by
conditions of the struggle for existence.» See David Toolan, At H(llnc in
(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001), 70.
LWING INlliE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
477
Francis and his emphasis on the humility of God as the basis of his
Gospel way of life. I will then turn to Bonaventure's Major Legend of
Saint Francis in which Bonaventure integrates the humility of God and
Francis's following of Christ, and develops these into a cosmic Christ
mysticism or what we may call an "ecological Christology." Finally, I
will explore the meaning of following Christ today, as evangelical life
enters into an age of global consciousness and community. I will
conclude by highlighting some points of direction for the growth of
Franciscan evangelical life.
Roots of Evangelical Life
When we hear the word "evangelical" today, we might conjure up
images of bible thumping preachers or mission revivalists but these
have little to do with the fact that Franciscan life is characterized as
"evangelical life." The word evangelium means "good news," and
refers to the good news of God revealed to us in the person of Jesus
Christ. Evangelical life is a life centered on following Jesus Christ,
and making Christ alive in the world. In a seminal article on
Franciscan evangelical life, Joseph Chinnici wrote that the purpose of
evangelical life centers not on how we pray or what we do but on how
we experience the presence of God through Christ. 2 The primary
locus of the life, therefore, is not work or prayer but the human
person. Evangelical life is attentiveness to the human person as the
revelation of God; thus, Incarnation defines the life.
The development of evangelical life can be traced back to the
Middle Ages. Beginning in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries,
there occurred a recognizable shift of religious emphasis. While
withdrawal from world was the way Christians had achieved a holy and
spiritual life, now stress was placed on evangelical entry into world.
The life of Christ and his apostles was the example, with the Church
influencing the world, organizing it and leading it to salvation. The
shift was so widespread that it was termed the "religious crisis of the
12th century." The program of reform, initiated by Pope Gregory VII,
aimed to return to an idealized view of early Church, the ecclesia
primativa, marked by the vita apostolica or the life of the apostles. This
'Joseph P. Chinnici, "Evangelical and Apostolic Tensions," in Our Franciscan
Charism Today (New Jersey: Fame, 1987),7.
478
ILIA DELIO
renewed life style based on return to the example of Christ and the
apostles took place and corresponded to a rise in pilgrimages to Holy
Land. The return to the Gospel meant a new encounter between the
Gospel and the world and was to be expressed by a witness to faith,
fraternal love, poverty and the example of beatitudes. The two
principle Scriptural texts that governed this new focus on Gospel life
were: Acts 4:32 which described the communal life of the first
Jerusalem community where the apostles lived fraternally and held all
things in common, and Luke 10: 1-12 where Christ ordered his
followers to observe poverty as they went out two by two on their
mission. Based on these texts the two main aspects of the vita apostolica
were communal living and voluntary poverty.} The new followers of
the Gospel were to imitate Christ and his apostles through practicing a
common life of evangelical poverty, manual work and receiving of
alms, and by love of God and neighbor through a literal observance of
the commandments.
Although evangelical life was not entirely new, what marked its
development in the Middle Ages was the merger between the Gospels
and the secular world, signifying a break with the monastic tradition.
The Christian was to return to the Gospel while remaining in world,
thus bringing the Gospel to the world through greater awareness
Christ and a deeper appreciation of one's brothers and sisters.
McGinn describes the type of spirituality that emerged in this
as a "new mysticism.'>4 This tenu refers to the new rh·.r",""",,,,,,"''''
spirituality that emerged at this time, including a new attitude
between the world and the cloister, new relations between women
men in the mystical path, and new fonus of language and
mystical consciousness whereby it was now possible for all
to attain mystical consciousness. 5 The birth of evangelical life
secularization of spirituality because God could now be found in
of everyday experience.
lFor a discussion on the vita aposto/iea in the twelfth and thirteenth
D. Chenu, Nature, Man, and Society in the Twelfth Century (Chicago: University
Press, 1968), 202,69; Herbert Gmndmann, ReligioUJ Movements in the Middle
Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995), chapters 1 and 2.
4See Bernard McGinn's introduction to The Fluwering ofMysticism: Men
the New Mysticism - 120()"1350, vol. 3 in the series The Presmce of God: A
Christian Mysticism (New York: Crossroad, 1998), 12,30.
5McGinn, 12-13.
LIVING IN TIlE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
479
The birth of lay spirituality in the Middle Ages, centered on a
new awareness of Gospel life, was related to a new emphasis on the
humanity of Christ. Whereas the patristic period emphasized the risen
Christ, the Middle Ages, especially from the twelfth century to the
end of the Middle Ages, emphasized the humanity of Christ,
especially his poverty and humility. It is not surprising therefore to
find at this time a new concern for affectivity, suffering, and
penitential asceticism together with an emphasis on inspiration of the
Holy Spirit, personalism and individualism. The identification of
Christ as brother, friend, lover and mother connoted intimate personal
relationships between the believer and Christ, as one sought to live
the values of the Gospel. 6 Many of the lay groups that formed around
the Gospel, such as the Waldensians and Humiliati, followed a more
individual approach to the following of Christ, thus bypassing clerical
authority and eventually leading to dissent from the institutional
Church. The practice of itinerant preaching, especially in the
vernacular, sprang from the desire to give personal witness to one's
faith and the way it should be lived. This new spiritual temper of quiet
evangelical piety and simplicity led to a growth of individualism that,
according to Eudes Bamberger, had its roots in Bernard of Clairvaux
and its culmination in Descartes and Kant. 7
Within this new vibrant milieu of evangelical life emerged the
figure of Francis of Assisi. Born into a rising merchant class family,
Francis was not too religious as a child. However, as a young adult he
had a conversion experience that made a deep and lasting impression
on his souL The way of the Gospel that unfolded in his life was
centered on following Christ, especially the footprints of the crucified
Christ. This path led him to a new awareness of people, of nature, and
to the profound insight of the mystery of God in our world. Francis
achieved a synthesis of devotion to Christ in his humanity, his cross
6Caroline \'\Talker Bynum, Jesus as Mother: Studies in the Spirituality ofthe High Middle
Ages (Berkeley: University of Califurnia Press, 1982), llO-67.
7John Ewes Bamberger, "The Influence of St. Bernard," Cistercian Studies 25 (1990):
110-11. Bamberger writes: "My own view is that there is a basis for maintaining that
Bernard does bring about a shift in the model of man, based on feeling and also on acting
which he gives greater prominence to than to the more abstract "being" .... It is here,
then, I propose that we find the first, distant origins of that division in the human person
that led to Descartes, Kant and the further developments that resulted in a model of the
human person that is individualistic and subjectivist in his values and policies."
480
ILIA DELIO
and passion, while expressing a profound sense of GDd's Goodness in
creation. He expressed a longing for purification and humility, and a
sacramental view of creation which impelled him to counter the
dualism practiced by the Cathari of his time. 8 Perhaps what
distinguished him from other like-minded figures of his age was his
fidelity to the Church. He was able to unite an apostolic thrust and
radical asceticism, love of poverty and a spirit of obedience. McGinn
notes that "Francis's originality rests in the totally uncompromising
way in which he tried to fulfill what it meant to follow the crucified
Christ by witnessing to the gospel in the world."9 His devotion to
Jesus of Nazareth, the individual/person, opened up a new perspective
on the unique particularity of the person. 10 Francis's path of evangelical
life, led him to discover the dignity of the human person and the
goodness of GDd in creation. According to Thomas of Celano,
Francis's emphasis on the humanity of Christ, the dignity of the
human person, and the goodness of GDd In creation, formed a
particular world view. II
Bonaventure synthesized Francis's view of GDd, humanity and
creation into a cosmic Christology in which evangelical life is the
means of discovering Christ in creation. Francis's own writings testifY:.·
to what Bonaventure describes, namely, that the humility of God is
.
basis of evangelical life, and evangelical life is lived best in
diversity of creation where Christ is center. The integral
between cosmic Christology and evangelical life, as
explores it through the lens of Francis, gives rise to, what I will
an "ecological Christology" that is, a Christology which includes
natural world and the diversity of humanity in the Body of Christ.
understand .this relationship we will begin with Francis's own
in which he emphasizes the centrality of Christ and the Hw,un,~;
GDd.
SIlia Delio, A Frtmcisctm View ofCreatil)Tl: Learning to Live in a Sacramental
Franciscan Heritage Series, vol. 2, ed. Joseph P. Chinnici (St. Bonaventure,
can Institute Publications, 2003), 8.
~McGinn, 43.
10 Louis Dupre, PtlSSage to Modernity: An Essay in the Hermeneutics of Nature
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 34.
II Michael Blastic, "'It Pleases Me That You ShouJd Teach Sacred
Franciscans Doing Theology," Franciscan Studies 55 (1998): 5-8.
!
LIVING IN THE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
481
Francis of Assisi and the Mystery of God
While Francis was a man of his times, he was unique in his
understanding of God, an understanding that was archaic, biblical and
closer to the patristic fathers than to the writers of his age. 12 Whereas
the path of evangelical life pursued by others such as Peter Waldo was
on the poor and humble Christ, Francis turned his gaze to the
crucified and glorified Christ in whom he encountered the humility of
God. To ask about the Incarnation for Francis is to ask who was God
fur Francis, for he did not separate the Incarnation of God from the
source of life in creation.
Francis's emphasis on the humility of God is rooted in his
understanding of the Trinity. In his "Prayer of Thanksgiving" he
indicates that the relationship between the Father and Son is the basis
of all other relationships. He writes: "All-powerful, most holy, most
high and supreme God, Holy and just Father, Lord, King of heaven
and earth, we thank you for Yourself for through Your holy will and
through Your only Son with the Holy Spirit, You have created all
things spiritual and corporal.,,13 Francis directed his focus towards the
Father, who is the source of all life, the life of the Trinity and the life
of creation. It is the Father who created the universe and humanity
and who, through the birth of the Son, redeems us by his death,
enabling us to return in glory. Like the patristic fathers, Francis saw
the fatherhood of God as directly connected with the Trinity and only
indirectly with humanity: "And because all of us wretches and sinners
are not worthy to pronounce Your name, we humbly ask that our Lord
Jesus Christ Your beloved Son ... give You thanks as it pleases You
and Him for everything.,,'4 It is almost surprising to find Francis
speaking of the ineffability and incomprehensibility of God, as if
espousing a negative approach to the mystery of God. However, he
was also convinced that this ineffable God is made known to us in the
person ofJesus Christ. Through Christ we know that God is "Father,"
'2-flladdee Matura, Francis of Assisi: The Message in His Writings, trans. Paul Barrett
(St. Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2004), 8-22; McGinn, FlllWering of
Mysticism, 5l.
Il Francis of Assisi, "Earlier Rule" 23.1 in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vo!' 1,
Regis J. Annstrong, J. A Wayne Hellmann, William Short, eds. (New York: New City
Press, 1999),81 [hereafter referred to as FAED followed by volume and page number].
"See Francis of Assisi, "Earlier Rule," 23.1 inFAED 1, 81.
482
ILIA DELIO
since the Father is never separated from the Son nor is the Son
anything other than the Son of the Father to whom he directs his
gaze. Incarnation is the movement of the Father out towards the world
"through his only Son with the Holy Spirit."l> This integral and
intimate relationship between the Father and Son united by the Son
means that God is personal; the mystery of God is rooted in the
person of the Father whose presence is manifested in creation through
the Son and Spirit. As McGinn notes, Francis's theological vision is
deeply Trinitarian and Christological. He did not speculate on the
mystery of the Trinity but concentrated on the presence of the Trinity
in the three great acts of the history of salvation: creation, redemption,
and final consummation. 16
Francis's emphasis on the primacy of the Father is the foundation
of his world view. The Father is the source of the Most High good
and thus the source of the Son and Spirit. When he calls God "Father"
he does not associate the title primarily with us but with God "the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," that is, the Father of the Son.
Francis contemplates the fatherhood of God at its very source, the
Son's relationship with the Father. Scripture played a significant role
in his understanding of God and the two passages that spoke to him of
the Father's relation to the Son were the priestly prayer of John 17
and the garden scene in Matthew's Gospel (Mt 26:36-46). In both
places, the Son glorifies Father, conforms his will to the Father, and
abandons himself to the Father. The relationship between the Father
and Son cannot be over emphasized for Francis. It is the basis of all
other relationships. On one hand he indicates that there is no direct
contact with the Father other than through the Son, and on the otheli.
hand, he says that only through the Son is the Father revealed. In h~
"Admonition One" on the Body of Christ he shows us how to amnoilcb
the mystery of God. Borrowing from the Gospel of John he states
IlFrancis of Assisi, "Earlier Rule." 23.1 in FAED 1, 82. Norbert
The Teacher
0/ His Heart: Jesus Christ in
the Th()Ught Ilnd Writing;
0/ St.
Francis,
Hagman; Louise Hembrecht and Bernard R. Creighton, eds. (St. Bonaventure,
Franciscan ·Institute, 1994), 71, writes, "For Francis, Christ became man in
manifest the Father, not his own divinity."
\6 McGinn, Fltnoering 0/ Mysticism, 51. It is interesting that Francis uses
language to describe the mystery of God, as he indicates in his "Earlier
FAED 1, 86. The indescribable nature of God supports the centrality of
doctrine, in whom the fullness of God is revealed.
LIVING TN TIlE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
483
the Father lives in inaCcessible light. No one comes to the Father
I
except through the Son; thus, knowledge of the Son leads to
knowledge of the Father. I7 In his view, we are to belong to the Father
by becoming brothers and sisters of the Son which can only take place
through the Holy Spirit.
Incarnation and the Humility of God
Although popular piety christened Francis as the perfect imitator of
Christ, he himself rarely spoke of Christ in his writings and never in
a personal manner. Indeed, the image of Christ that predominated for
/ Francis was the obedient Christ who wished to be submissive in all
things to the will of the Father. This image predominated over that'of
the poor Christ. IS Francis placed Christ in a theological and trinitarian
His strong Johannine understanding of the mystery of Christ
context.
.....
rendered Christ the center through which God creates and redeems:
"for as through your Son you created us, so through your holy love
with which you loved us you brought about his birth as true God and
true man.,,19 The originality of Francis, as Norbert Van Khanh states,
is his note of exclusiveness. 2o Christ alone is the One in whom the
Father takes delight, as he often wrote: "Your beloved Son." The Son
satisfies the Father in everything. Thus, the Father has no need of
anyone's love save the Son's, nor the worship of any sinful human. If
he does accept our act of thanksgiving, it is only in and through the
Son. The Son, therefore, is the sufficiency of the Father. The reason
fur Christ, according to Francis, is to make known to us the Father.
Christ reveals the Father not only through his words and life but also
in that he leads us to the Father. As Van Khanh notes, the deepest
reason to cling to Jesus is that he reveals the Father.21 The principle
reason for Christ is to manifest the Father to us and the glory of his
kingdom: the glory of the Father is present in the Son.
The integral relationship between the Father and Son [united by
the Spirit] underscores one of the most important if not essential
17 Francis of Assisi, Admonition One, 1-4 in FAED 1, 128.
"See Van-Khanh, 141.
19Francis of Assisi, "Earlier Rule," 23.1-3 in FAED 1, 81-82.
2°Van-Khanh, 140.
21 Van-Khanh, 149.
484
lLIADELIO
aspects of Francis's thought, namely, the humility of God. The Father
is turned towards us because the Father is turned towards the Son in
an eternal act of love. In his "Later Admonition and Exhortation" he
describes the Incarnation in this way: "The most high Father in
heaven announced this Word of the Father - so worthy, so holy and
glorious in the womb of the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, from
which he received the flesh of humanity and our frailty."n The
descent of the Word into humanity underscores the humility of God.
What strikes one immediately in this passage is the intimate
relationship between the Father and Son the Father "announces" the
Word made flesh. His understanding of the Incarnation is like a poem.
God is a poet and the beauty of the poetry is expressed in the word[s]
that are spoken. When the Word becomes flesh, the Word does not
separate from the Father. Rather, God who is the Trinity of Father,
Son, and Spirit, becomes flesh in the person of Jesus. The Father
expresses himself in the Son who is Word of the Father, and the
relationship between them is manifested in the Spirit. Where the
SonlWord is, so too is the Father and Spirit. The entire Trinity
therefore is expressed in the person of Jesus Christ. Humility is not
designated by the poverty of the earthly life of Jesus; rather, it is
simply another name for the divine love for humankind, a love which.
always has its source in the Father Most High. This love is called!
humility because Francis perceives the love of the Father in
descent of the Son to humankind, that is, in the Incarnation.
Although traditional Catholic teaching held that God could
humble in his divine nature, Francis insisted that humility,
predicated of God. Humility does not refer to the state of
the earthly life of Christ. Rather humility is another name for
love for us, the love that always has its source in the Most.
Father. In his "Praises of God" Francis wrote: "You are the
Father ... three and one. You are most high; You are charity,
wisdom, You are humility.,,23 He called humility "love"
perceived the love of the Father in the descent of the Son,
Incarnation. Humility, therefore, is not an attitude or virtue.
act of God, an act of the Father by which he gives his very self
the incarnation of his Son. Incarnation is love bending
of Assisi, "Later Admonition and Exhortation" 4 in FAED I, 40d Francis of Assisi, "Praises of God" in FAED 1, 109. 11 Francis
1l
LlVINGINTIlEECOLOGlCAL CHRIST
./ movement of the Father toward us in Christ is the true meaning of the
incarnation and the continuous object of Francis's contemplation. The
.• incarnation reveals something that was already present in Goa before
. the Word became flesh.
For Francis, God's innermost being appeared in the life of Jesus,
and he focused on the three great aspects his life: his birth, death and
presence in the Eucharist. Thomas of Celano wrote: "The humility of
the incarnation and the charity of the passion occupied his memory
particularly, to the extent that he wanted to think of hardly anything
else.,,24 In several passages on the Body and Blood of Christ, Francis
spoke of the humility of God. The One who is incomprehensible,
ineffable and Most High, he indicated, "descends" to take on our
fragile human nature and hides in the form of bread. In his first
Admonition he says: "Behold, each day He humbles Himself as when
He came from the royal throne into the Virgin's womb; each day He
Himself comes to us, appearing humbly; each day He comes down from
the bosom of the Pother upon the altar in the hands of a priest" (Adm
1:16-18). The Body and Blood of Christ is a means of contemplation
for Francis by which we come to see that which is hidden through a
penetrating gaze on reality. He tells his brothers "Look at the
Humility of God and pour your hearts out before him,,,25 indicating that
the One who is the source of creation, the incomprehensible Most
High, is present to us in humble form, the form of bread. By "seeing"
the hidden presence of God in humble form, we are to give ourselves
over to (,:y{)d wholly in love. Humility on our part is the gift of
ourselves in response to divine love. Following Christ means
accepting the divine kenotic movement of love as the path of
incorporation into (,:JOd. In this way, we give witness to the revelation
of God and thus make God known by the way we go about in the
world.
Francis Through the Lens of Bonaventure
The humility of God, as the descent of God into humanity, is the
basis of evangelical life for Francis since, in Christ, God has become
our brother. Christ is the Word of (,:JOd embodied in space and time.
24Thomas of Celano, "Life of Saint Francis" 84 in FAED 1, 254.
2lFrancis of Assisi, "A Letter to the Entire Order" 29 in FAED 1,118.
486
ILIA DELIO
Taking on our human nature, he makes his own flesh and blood the
language through which the Father's total love for his brothers and
sisters is expressed. The humility of God, as the basis of evangelical
life, makes the word "brother" by which Francis identified himself, an
important facet of his experience of Christ. Francis realized his need to
accept the other as brother, since in that person God lives. His
acceptance of others impelled him to realize that creation is a fumily
bound by a solidarity of goodness and compassion. Nowhere do we see
the relation between the humility of God and evangelical life more
clearly than in Bonaventure's writings.
For Bonaventure, Incarnation signifies a God who humbly bends
down to lift us up into the embrace of divine love. In his "Sermon on
the Nativity of the Lord" Bonaventure captured the core of the
humility of God when he wrote: "The Word was made flesh Un 1: 14].
These words give expression to that heavenly mystery ... that the
eternal God has humbly bent down and lifted the dust of our nature into
unity with his own person."Z6 Humility means that God is turned
towards us just as the Father is turned toward the Son in love. As
finite creatures, God bends over in love to be where we are so that we
might be where he is. This humility of God, for Bonaventure, is the
central mystery of the Incarnation, especially as he reflects on this
mystery in his Major Legend ofSaint Francis.
Bonaventure viewed the life of Francis as a growth in awareness of
divine goodness at the heart of the world in and through the mystery
of Christ. His story of Francis's life is framed by Francis's encounter
with the crucified Christ where he highlights Christ's appearance to
Francis in the visible form of the cross. In encountering Christ
crucified Francis met the God of humble love. This meeting became
the basis of encountering God in the particularity of every other
person or creature where the humility of God was expressed. This
encounter with Christ crucified changed Francis in the very core of
his being. "From then on," Bonaventure wrote, "he dothed himseIf
with a spirit of poverty, a sense of humility, an eagerness for intimate
16This is how Bonaventure begins his "Sermon IT on the Nativity of the Lord." See
Bonaventure, "Sermon IT on the Nativity of the Lord,» in What Manner ofMan? SermtJI'/$
on Christ by St. B01IIJventure, trans. Zachary Hayes (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press,
1989),57.
LIVING INlliE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
/
487
piety."27 The expression of God's love in the self-emptying of the
cross impressed Francis in such a way that those who had been
loathsome to him in his youth, namely, the lepers, became the object
of his love. In his Major Legend of Saint Francis Bonaventure says that
"after Francis was impressed with the passion of Christ he ... showed
deeds of humility and humanity to lepers with a gentle piety ... with a
great drive of compassion [he] kissed their hands and mouth."Z8
Bonaventure uses the symbol of the kiss to indicate that Francis
discovered the sweetness of God hidden in the bitter flesh of the
leper. Just as God reached out to embrace Francis in the compassionate
love of the cross, so too that same God was now present in the
disfigured flesh of the leper. Touched by grace, Francis became open
to the otherness of the leper as the experience of self-transcendence,
that is, as the experience of God. The leper became a source of God's
loving embrace and thus someone Francis realized he was intimately
related to. He therefore began to identify with the leper as brother.
The experience of God's compassionate love in the crucified Christ
meant that Francis could no longer remain alone in his search for God.
Rather, he found God in relation to the other. The encounter with
Christ as other, therefore, imparted to Francis a new openness and
freedom. Embraced by the compassionate love of God, Francis was
liberated within and went out to embrace the other in love. By
experiencing God's love in the visible figure of the Crucified Francis
became a man of true relationship.
According to Bonaventure, Francis discovered himself in union
with the Crucified. He found himself not to be a self-isolated subject
but a self that is essentially related to God and neighbor. Through his
encounter with Christ, Francis came to accept all others as truly
worthy of his love. Bonaventure indicates that Francis found his
identity first in relation to Christ, and then in the poor and sick. 29
27Bonaventure, "Major Legend of Saint Francis" 1.6 inFAED 2,534.
Bonaventure, "Major Legend of Saint Francis" 1.6 in FAED 2, 534. The editors of
this volutue indicate that Bonaventure uses the word compassio five times in the text
suggesting more than miseraho (an act of kindness) or misericordia (a heart sensitive to
suffering). Compassion (com-passie) has the sense of suffering with another.
19Bonaventure provides many examples of Francis's transformation into that which
he disdained, namely the poor and disfigured lepers. He writes, for example, "coming to a
certain neighboring monastery, he asked for alms like a beggar and received it like
someone unknown and despised" (see "Major Legend of Saint Francis" 2.6 in FAED 2,
539).
28
488
ILIA DELIO
Francis "saw" Christ in the irreproducible uniqueness of each person
and creature so that all things, each in its own way, led him to embrace
Christ. He came to an awareness of, what we might call, his
"ecological self," as one interrelated to the cosmic family through his
experience of God. Although I use the term "ecological self" to
describe a medieval saint, it is really the postmodern understanding of
self as it is inserted into the web of life. Whereas modernity affirmed
the self as an autonomous "self-thinking subject," postmodernity (at
least in its constructive form) recognizes the need for community and
interrelatedness. The human person, embedded in the web of life, is a
pattern of relationships that influences the whole and is influenced by
the whole, as relationships change. The "true self" therefore is not so
much a precious unchanging core as a pulsating organic center. 30
Although Francis of Assisi lived in the Middle Ages, he developed a
level of personhood that corresponds to the postmodern idea of the
integrated self. He came to accept himself as the dwelling place of
God's humble presence, despite his weaknesses and sins and, in doing
so, came to see that God dwells in the fragile humanity of others as
well. Naming the truth of his own person before God allowed Francis
to become free to make the journey to the other and back again.31 Only
in relation to the other did his weaknesses become strengths; for it
was in naming his weaknesses that Francis matured in authentic
human love.
Because of the mystery of Christ, Francis's personhood developed,
from a self-centered "I" to a relational self, a self in need of a "Thou."
The deeper he grew in relationship with Christ, the deeper he grew
in relationship with others. Bonaventure describes the growth of
Francis in relation to Christ as a growth in union with the crucified
Christ. His Major Legend of Saint Francis, structured according to
seven visions of the cross, points to a deepening of compassionate love
in Francis, in conformity to the crucified Christ. As Francis grew in
relationship with Christ, the other became less outside Francis as
object and more related to him as brother. Bonaventure highlights the
idea that the one who dwells in Christ dwells in the other, because
lOJane Kopas, Sacred Identity: Exploring a Theology of the Person (Mahwah: Paulist
Press, 1994), 103.
1I Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration afldentity, Oth~ .
and Reconciliation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), 272-73.
.
LWING IN1HE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
489
the fullness of who we are in Christ can only be found in the other.
Thomas Merton wrote that only in union with Christ, who is the fully
integrated Person, can one become trans-personal, trans-cultural, and
trans-social. l2 Only in union with Christ, the One, can a person be
united to the many since, as Word and center of the Trinity, Christ is
both the One and the Many. Francis came to realize that people are
not obstacles on the path to God; rather, in the human person God is
humbly revealed. Francis found his identity in God, and he found God
in the ordinary, fragile human flesh of the other.
Christ and Creation
19
as
;is
ily
it
tic
ew
of
ed
to
,ve
in
as
:he
lse
t1ist
IICSS,
Francis's insight to the humility of God as the bond of relatedness
in creation was not limited to humans alone but included the tiny
creatures of creation. As his life deepened in the life of Christ, he
came to recognize that the meaning of Christ extended beyond human
persons to include non-human creation. His nature mysticism arose
out of his Christ mysticism. In his life of Francis, Bonaventure uses
the word piety (pietas) which means "blood-related" or "family-related,"
to describe Francis's relationship to nature. ll Bonaventure highlights
the idea that through his relationship with Christ, Francis Canle to
realize his "family" relatedness to everything, including the tiny
creatures of creation. "True piety," Bonaventure writes, "had so filled
Francis's heart and penetrated its depths that it seemed to have claimed
the man of God completely into its dominion. This is what, through
devotion, lifted him up to God; through compassion, transformed him
into Christ; through self-emptying, turned him to his neighbor;
through universal reconciliation with each thing, refashioned him to
the state of innocence.,,34 Francis's piety was the fruit of his ongoing
conversion. Growing in union with Christ through the Spirit gave
nWilliam Thompson-Uberuaga, Jesus, lhrd I11'Id SlWior (New York: Paulist Press,
1980), 250-71; William Thompson-Uberuaga, "The Risen Christ, Transcultural
Consciousness, and the Encounter of the World Religions," Theological Studies 37 (1976):
399-405.
lJ According to the Oxford Latin Dictionary, the word pietas is defined as an attitude of
respect toward those to whom one is bound by ties of religion, consanguinity; of
relationships between human beings: a. of children to parents, b. of parents to children, c.
between husband and wife, d. of other relationships. See Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed.
P.G.W. Glare (Oxford: Oarendon Press, 1982, repro 1983), 1378.
"Bonaventure, "Major Legend of Saint Francis," in FAED 2,531.
490
ILlADELIO
Francis a new relationship to new nature, one in which grace and
innocence prevailed, not sin and conflict. His piety was the source of
his reverence for animals and he recognized them as fellow creatures
and signs of Christ. As Thomas of Celano wrote: "That the bees not
perish of hunger in the icy winter, he commands that honey and the
finest wine should be set out for them. He calls all animals by a
fraternal name, although, among all kinds of beasts, he especially loves
the meek."lS The notion of cartesia or deferential behavior character­
ized Francis's respect for creation, including the natural elements such
as fire. He made use of chivalric values to express his unique ideas of
spiritual honor and deference between all the .levels of creation. 36
While we might find this deference toward nature exaggerated,
Francis's respect for creation was not a duty or obligation but arose out
of an inner love by which creation and the source of creation, namely
God, were intimately united. All of creation was a means to
contemplate the power, wisdom and goodness of the Creator.
The life of Francis gave new meaning to the divine command of
dominion found in the book of Genesis (Gen 1:28). He did not
consider himself at the top of a hierarchy of being nor did he declare
himself superior to the non-human creation. Rather, Francis saw
himself as a brother, one related to the family of creation. His
spirituality overturned the spirituality of hierarchical ascent and
replaced it with a spirituality of descending solidarity between
humanity and creation. H That is, instead of using creatures to ascend to
God (in a transcending manner), he found God in all creatures and
identified with them as brother and sister. Bonaventure writes "he
would call creatures, no matter how small by the name of "brother"
"sister" because he knew they shared with him the same "'-15''''''''5'
By surrendering himself and daring everything for love's sake,
earth became his home and all creatures his brothers and sisters.
led him to love and respect the world around him and in him and
him a truly humble person. Francis realized that the source of his
Thomas of Celano, "Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul," in FAED 2, 354.
Roger D. Sorrell, St. Francis of Asrisi and Nature: Tradition and
Western Christian Attitudes t(flJ)ard the Enviromnent (New York: Oxford University
1988),69-75.
37Timothy Vining, "A Theology of Creation Based on the Life of Francis of
1he Cord 40 (1990): 105.
J8Bonaventure, "Major Legend of Saint Francis," inFAED 2,590.
;S
16 See
LIvING IN THE ECOLOGICAL CHRlST
491
life was the very source of all created things and all that exists. He
discovered, therefore, that the truth of his identity could not be found
apart from the things 'of creation. Francis came to realize that the
entire creation is holy in and through his relationship with Jesus
Christ. Celano highlights this idea in his account of Greccio where
Francis celebrated the Christmas scene. It is at Greccio that the
intimate link between creation and Incarnation became "visible.» Here
Francis wanted to show how God has entered into our everyday world
of creation through the Incarnation. At Greccio he set up a manger
scene with hay and animals, and had a small altar built over the manger
to celebrate the Mass. As he stood in ecstatic prayer over the manger
weeping tears of joy at the scene of the Incarnation, the whole
creation responded in celebration. Celano writes: "The night is lit up
like day, delighting both man and beast....The forest amplifies the
cries and the boulders echo back the joyful crowd ... the whole night
abounds with jubiliation.,,39 As Greccio became a new Bethlehem,
Francis embraced the good things of creation, as a brother embraces
the members of his family.
Bonaventure claims that everything in creation "spoke" to Francis
of God. He came to "see" God's goodness in every aspect of creation,
so that everything ultimately led him to Christ, the Word of God.
Francis's contemplation of God in creation was a penetrating gaze of
reality. He came to "see" the truth of things by following the
footprints of Jesus Christ. Bonaventure describes the contemplative
vision of Francis as "contuition," that is, seeing things for what they
truly are in God. In his Major Legend of Francis he writes: "In beautiful
things he contuited Beauty itself and through the footprints impressed
in things he followed his Beloved everywhere. ,,40 These footprints of
God, impressed on the things of creation, enabled Francis to find God
wherever he went in the world, and finding God in the things of
creation led him to the embrace of Jesus Christ, for Christ is the
Word of God made visible in the world.
19Thomas of Celano, "Life of Saint Francis," FAED 1, 255.
"'Bonaventure, "The Major Legend of Saint Francis," FAED 2,596-97.
ILIA DELIO
492
Creation as F arnily
The sense of family that Francis attained with creation was not
merely superficial but rather reflected a new vision of reality. The
words "brother" and "sister" were words of mystery for Francis so
graphically did they disclose to him the structure of reality. Nowhere
is this more evident than in his Canticle of the Creatures. The Canticle
is a hymn of praise that, we might say, recapitulates Francis's journey
to God in and through the beautiful things of creation. Composed one
year before he died while lying ill in a small dark hut near San
Damiano, Francis sang of the human family (brother-sister-mother) as
the model for all relationships. The Canticle of the Creatures is the
capstone of his theological vision. In this hymn which celebrates the
cosmic Christ, Francis addresses the "Most High," the ineffable God
who has become flesh. 41 He highlights the mystery of Jesus Christ
through the metaphor of "Brother Sun." Francis composed the Canticle
while experiencing great physical and mental suffering. Kathy Warren
suggests that "his daily struggle to embrace the way of Christ in this
suffering was consistent with his lifelong pursuit of walking with
Christ.»41 The Canticle represents Francis's vision of brotherhood and
sisterhood rooted in Christ. His praises of God are notes of joy
resounding throughout the universe, the Body of Christ, symbolized
by the center of "Brother Sun":
Praised be You, my Lord, with all Your creatures, especially
Sir Brother Sun, Who is the day and through whom You
give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendor; and bears
a likeness of You, Most High One.
41 Although there is no specific mention of Jesus Christ in this hymn, the brother­
sister relationships tha t Francis describes echo his sense of family relationships in his Later
Verntm ofthe Letter to the Faithful where he writes: "We are spouses when the faithful soul
is joined to Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. We are brothers when we do the will of his
Father who is in heaven. We are mothers when we carry Him in our heart and bQdy
through love and a pure and sincere conscience; we give birth to Him through His holy
manner of working, which should shine before others as an example." See FAED 1, 49.
Family rela tionships fur Francis are grounded in the Trinity (Father Son Spirit) and
.
integral relationship berween the Trinity and Christ.
42 Kathleen A. Warren, Daring to Cross the Threshold: Francis ifAssisi Encounters
Malek al-Kmnil (Rochester, MN: Sisters of St. Francis, 2003), 98.
LIVING IN THE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
493
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
in heaven You formed them clear and precious and beautiful.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Wind, and through
the air, cloudy and serene, and every kind of weather,
through whom You give sustenance to Your creatures.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, who is very
useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brother Fire, through
whom You light the night, and he is beautiful and playful
and robust and strong.
Praised be you my Lord through our sister, mother Earth,
who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit
with colored flowers and herbs. 4l
Like the three youths in the fiery furnace (Dan 3:57-90) Francis
praises God "through" (per) the elements of creation, for the Canticle
discloses Francis's view of nature as a sacramental expression of God's
generous love. This love binds us together in a family of relationships
that are rightly termed "brother" and "sister."
Although it is not apparent to the reader, the Canticle is a hymn of
cosmic Incarnation. The song is enclosed by the mystery of God
humbly bent over in love for creation, signified by the beginning and
ending words: "Most High - humility." The words "Most High" and
"humility" which begin and end the Canticle symbolically enclose the
whole universe in a cosmic Incarnation. 44 It is "Brother Sun" who is
"the day and through whom (God] gives us light" who is at center of
the cosmos, that light which is the splendor and glory of the Father.
We might say that the Most High humbly bends down to embrace
each and every element of creation in and through the Word
incarnate. Everything in creation radiates the goodness of God. 45 The
one who lives in Christ begins to see the world as it truly is,
permeated with the divine presence. God shines through every aspect
Francis of Assisi, "'The Canticle of Creatures," in FAED I, 113-14.
Peters Coy, "The Problem of 'Per' in the Cantico di /rate sole of Saint
Francis," Modern Language Notes 91 (1976): 1-11.
45 For a longer discussion on the Christ mysticism of the Canticle see Ilia Delio, "'The
Canticle of Brother Sun: A Song of Christ Mysticism" Franciscan Studies 52 (1992): 1-22;
and Delio, A Franciscan View ufCreatian, 17-20.
43
44 Susanna
494
ILIA DELIO
of creation. The whole world, as Angela of Foligno exclaimed, is
"pregnant with God!,>4{)
Francis developed a deep sense of universal community because
Christ became the center of his very being through the power of love.
He discovered his interrelatedness to the cosmos through
compassionate love by which he came to experience a unity of all
things in Christ. In the Canticle of Creatures Francis's interior life is
expressed outwardly in union with the cosmos. It is a hymn that
proclaims the humanity of God as the "knot of cosmic interlacement"
by which God is with all creatures in a deep sense of being intimately
related to all things in creation which are taken into his Incarnation
and transformed in his glory.47 Warren describes the sense of creation
in the Canticle as "reconciled space." "Creation," she writes, "is in
relation as brotherlsister.''>48 She points out that humans do not appear
in the first nine verses of the Canticle because they do not enjoy this
harmony. They live in division. When they do appear, it is in the
context of pardon and reconciliation. Humans are part of the harmony
of creation only when they "pardon and bear their sufferings,» since
humans are weak, limited and vulnerable. To be part of the song of
creation as human is to accept the human condition with its limitations
and therefore to pardon, forgive and accept the suffering that is part of
being human. Those who follow this path of reconciliation are freed
from their blindness and can see the presence of the Most High in
the simple things of creation. 49 The Franciscan scholar Eloi Leclerc:
points out in the Canticle that Francis's movement toward the Mosti',
High and toward community are in perfect harmony. He writes: "[It
by celebrating creatures and entering into fraternal communion
them that he [Francis] rises up to the Most High and relates
the One whom no human words can express. »50 Everything that
bears an excess of goodness, a trace of the divine, so
encountering the other as brother or sister, one encounters the
of goodness itself, the Most High God.
HLtJl. .' ' ' ' ' ' '
'1<1 Angela ofFoligno: Complete Works, trans. Paul Lachance (New York:
1993), 170.
47 Eutirnio Da Angma, Cristo nel Cantico (Milan: V. LePiave, 1966), 73.
48 Warren, 99.
""Warren, 100.
50 Eloi Leclerc, The Canticle ofCreatures: Symbols of Unum, trans. Matthew
(Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1977),208.
I
Francis acquired a "vision" of cosmic interdependency in and
his relation to Christ. Through his love of Christ crucified he
to see the truth of reality, namely, that not:l:).ing exists
Ito'nolmoiUsJly and independently; rather everything is rel~ted to each
The Canticle expresses Francis's interior life transformed in
and projects that interior life onto the cosmos where Christ is
center of reality.51 The Canticle is like a cosmic liturgy in which
Christ is the high Priest. Through him, with him, and in him, every­
thing is offered up in praise to the glory of the Father, in the love of
the Holy Spirit. 52 Thus, just as Christ became the center bf Francis's
own life, so too Francis realized that Christ is the center of creation.
All things are related to Christ as their "brother." And because all
things are united in Christ, one who lives in Christ finds oneself
united to all things.
As the final song of his life, the Canticle reveals to us Francis's
deep reflection on the mystery of the Incarnation. It is the
Incarnation, for Francis, that gives insight to the goodness of the
created world as the sacrament of God. Creation and Incarnation are
intimately united in such a way that we cannot truly grasp our
relationship to creation apart from understanding our relationship to
Jesus Christ. Francis's relationship to Christ did not follow a narrow
path but grew to the widest possible horizon. The deeper he grew in
relationship with Christ, the more he found himself intimately related
to the things of creation as brother. We might say that his relationship
with Christ changed his internal focus. He developed a deeper
consciousness of "relatedness" and came to realize he was related to all
things, no matter how small, because everything shared in the
primordial goodness of God which was the source of his own life.
Francis discovered that he was part of the cosmic family of creation.
Christ, Our Brother
Francis's Canticle of Creatures signifies that the whole creation is a
sacrament of God, the Body of Christ; that is, the body of the Word
incarnate who is Jesus, the risen and glorified One. Bonaventure
" Leclerc, 222.
Leonard Lehmann, Tieft und Weite: Der Universale Grtmdzug in den Gebeten des
Franziskus vonAssisi 0Nerl: Dietrich-Coelde-Verlag, 1984),312.
52
496
ILIA DELIO
indicates that Francis deepened his life in this Body through
conformity to Christ. The more Francis entered into the mystery of
Christ in his own life, the more he recognized Christ in the people
and creatures around him. Bonaventure penetrates this mystery of
Christ in the world of Francis by exploring it through the lens of the
overflowing goodness of God. Goodness poured out into the concrete
otherness of creation is God's revelation of himself as love; thus, all of
creation bears an intimate relationship with God. God was not an
abstract concept for Francis but a living reality of love, and it is this
love which he discovered at the heart of the Incarnation. In
Bonaventure's view, one who knows Christ knows this love, and one
who knows this love knows each thing of creation as the expression of
this love. What Francis came to perceive in the persons he met and in
the things of creation is that each personlthing expresses the love of
God and as such expresses Christ, for Christ is the love of God made
visible in creation.
Although Francis's world with Christ as center attained a unity
and harmony, it was not a totalizing unity of sameness but rather a
unity of difference. For Bonaventure, Christ the center does not mean
totalizing sameness but unified diversity, indeed, the celebration of
diversity in the manifold beauty of creation. What Francis realized is
that everything in creation is a "little word" of the "Word of God" and
therefore bears Christ within it. The Spirit sent by Christ is· the
"luminous web" of love that binds together all things in the universei
While it is Christ who enabled Francis to see the truth of reali~
namely, that everything is imbued with the goodness of God, it is
he lived in Christ that sharpened his spiritual vision in
Penance, poverty, humility and compassion were the values that
Francis into a "cosmic brother," one who was related to all
and the elements of creation. Through penance he recognized
sinfulness and need for conversion. Through poverty he became
of the human tendency to possess as he realized his radical
on a11 things; through humility, he realized his solidarity
creatures; and through compassion he came to "feel" for the
the earth, including the tiniest of creatures. Francis came
that the world is the cloister, the place to find God, the
both present in every detail of the universe and, yet,
transcendent and ineffable. Creation became a ladder by
LWING IN1HE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
497
could ascend to God, not by transcending creation but by erhbracing it
as brother, for he saw in each person and creature the humility of
God's ultimate goodness. As his life indicates, the other is where we
encounter God and the truth of ourselves in God.
Francis's world became a family of brothers and sisters because of
Christ the center. His desire to follow Christ eventually led him to
encounter the Sultan, Malek al-Kamil, to whom he desired to preach
the Gospel. Traveling to Egypt during the time of the crusades,
Francis was ready to accept the call of martyrdom if that meant bearing
wimess to Christ. Although he was caught up in the turmoil of
<;:rusades during his sojourn, he did not expect to find the Muslims so
Heeply God-centered with their profound reverence and respect for
Allah. When Francis fmally met the Sultan, he did not meet a
religious adversary but a brother, for he and al-Kamil shared common
ground: the centrality of God in their lives, the primacy of prayer, and
the conscious choice to remain "in the world" and live simple lives for
the sake of God. 53 Francis discovered that, as a Christian, he was not
in opposition to the Muslim leader but related to him as brother
because they were united in the ultimate goodness and mercy of God.
The life of Francis indicates to us that living in the Christ mystery
does not divide but unites. Where there is Christ there can be no
hatred or jealousy or anger or bitterness. There can only be love, the
love that unites not by clinging to things for themselves, but by giving
itself away, by suffering and death for the sake of greater union.
Evangelical Life Today: Living in The Ecological Christ
In 1967 the historian Lynn White dubbed Francis the "patron
saint of ecology," a title later affirmed by Pope John Paul II in 1979.
Although White blamed Christians for the present ecological crisis
saying "the roots of our trouble are largely religious," he saw in
Francis one who had attained peaceful and just relationships with the
world of nature. 54 It is possible that White was influenced by
Bonaventure's portrait of Francis, since it is Bonaventure who shaped
Francis's life into an ecological world view with Christ as center. In
SlWarren, 48-49.
l4Lynn White, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis," Science 155 (March
10, 1967): 1207.
498
ILIA DELIO
Bonaventure's view, it is the Word incarnate who fonns the
"household of creation," since the Word is center of the Trinity and
center of creation; thus, in the Word incarnate all of creation finds its
place in God. To speak of Christ as "ecological" is to identify Christ as
the center of unifying relationships in creation. Christ is the risen and
glorified One, whose Body includes all the members of creation, held
together by the Spirit of God's luminous love.
Bonaventure's theology of the centrality of Christ complements
our search for a renewal of Gospel life today, especially in an age of
global consciousness marked by multiculturalism and religious
pluralism. Bonaventure indicates that the fullness of the mystery of
Christ IS the fullness of otherness and difference. 55 Each
personlcreature expresses Christ by its own unique existence because
each person/creature is grounded in the Word of God who is center of
God and center of creation. As he wrote, "the center is everywhere
and the circumference is nowhere," that is, Christ the center is
everywhere because each center is Christ. 56 The unity of all centers in
love is the fullness of the Body of Christ. The "decentered­
centeredness" of Bonaventure's Christie vision with its openness to
plurality and diversity, celebrates the gift of creation as the gift of
God's self-communicative love. It is "ecological" because what holds
creation together is the centrality of Christ. For Bonaventure, the
logic of creation is the logic of love. Christ is the complete center of
creation, indeed, the entire universe, because Christ is the perfect
expression of God as love.
Bonaventure's emphasis on Incarnation in the life of Franci$:
underscores the idea that, in Christ, God is turned toward us in love.
God is not a remote, self-sufficient Being but rather God is
55 Ilia Delio, «Revisiting the Primacy of Christ" Theological Studies 64 (2003):
Ian A. MacFadand, Dijforence and Identity: a theological anthropology (Oeveland;
Press, 2001), 57. Describing the body of Christ as the basis of difference and
MacFarland writes: " ... the upshot of the New Testament language of the body
is that the human being Jesus, though a person in himself, is not a person
other words, while the fact of his personhood is independent of his rel:Hiolnstlip
beings, its form is not. On the contrary, because he lives out his personhood as
body that incorporates an indeterminate number of human persons, his
human person is inseparable from his relationship with all these other persons."
56Bonaventnre, lti1leranum 5.8 (y, 310). Engl. trans. Ewert Cousins,
Soul's Journey into .God, The Tree ofLife, The Major Lift QfSaint Francis (New
Press, 1978), 100.
LIVING IN mE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
499
fecundity of goodness and the humility of love that seeks to share
himself with another. This idea is consistent with the postmodern
understanding of God. The philosopher Jean Luc Marion claims that
the name "God" does not mean Being but "Being as given." He writes:
"the donation of God par excellence implies an ecstasy outside itself in
which the self remains all the more itself for being in ecstasy ... God
acts only to the extent that he does not remain in himself.,,57 We see,
in Bonaventure's life of Francis, the depth of the Incarnation in the
richness of its diversity, as Francis discovers Christ in the poor, the
sick, the lepers and the tiny creatures of creation. Not only did Francis
"see" God reflected in the particularity of the other, according to
Bonaventure, but the other revealed to him something of the truth of
God. Francis came to know God in relationship to the other.
Francis's path of evangelical life, as a life rooted in the ecological
Christ, holds significance for us today. First, it reminds us that the
good news of the Incarnation is good news. God bends down in love,
humility, to be where we are so that we might be where he is. All of
creation, with its rich diversity of peoples, lands, languages and
religions, mountains and valleys, deserts and seas is embraced by God.
All of creation is incarnated by the Word of God and bears within it
the presence of the risen Christ. Thus, we should not talk about
Christ and creation, as if these are two separate entities, or about
Christ and world religions, as if these two realities have nothing in
common. Rather, following the lead of Francis, we are to see that
every person and creature is an icon of Christ and reveals to us the
truth of God. We are to reverence the entire creation as the Body of
Christ. Incarnation is the revelation of God, and Incarnation takes
place in creation; thus, God is revealed in our midst. The reason for
the Incarnation, according to Bonaventure, is not sin but simply the
excess love and mercy of God. 58 The word "God" denotes inexhaustible
love, the fecundity of love which is poured out into the concrete
existence of created reality and expressed in the human person and
"Jean-Luc Marion, "Metaphysics and Phenomenology: A Summary for Theo­
logians," in The Post:modern God: A Theology Reader, Graham Ward, ed. (Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishers, 1997), 292.
s8ZacharyHayes, "Incarnation and Creation in the Theology of St. Bonaventure," in
Studies in Horwr of Ignatius Brady, Friar Minor, Romano Stephen Almagno and Conrad L.
Harkins, eds. (St. Bonaventure, NY: The Franciscan Institute, 1976), 328.
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creature. Jesus Christ is the complete revelation of God as love, a love
that continues to be incarnated into our world.
Bonaventure's theology impels us to consider evangelical life anew
in a multicultural and pluralistic world. His emphasis on the humility
of God means that, as God is hidden in the distinct goodness of each
person, so too each person images God precisely in the expression of
goodness. To follow the footprints of the ecological Christ, therefore,
is not simply to go about doing good, but to know God as love
incarnated in the persons we meet, in the world of nature, in those
who profess belief in God by different names, and those who do not
know God. Each person or creature is a little "word" of the Word of
God and as such expresses the goodness of God. Bonaventure's Christ
mysticism points to the mystery of the fullness of God in creation,and
this fullness of God is the mystery of Christ, the ecological Christ.
Each person or creature is a brother or sister to whom we are related
by the bonds of God's humble love, as that love shines through created
reality.
We cannot see the footprints of Christ in creation, however,
(precisely because they are humble), unless we can first identifY the
humility of God in us. This is the path of Franciscan conversion which
means openness to poverty, humility and the indwelling Word of God.
We are to make room in our crowded lives for the Word of God to
dwell in us. Christ is to come alive in us so that we may help
"christifY" the world. 59 In an article on cosmic Christology, Zachary
Hayes wrote, "we are not to become carbon copies of this historical
Jesus nor of Francis nor of anyone else. We are to fill the Christ-form
with the elements of our own personal life and thus embody
something of the Word in ourselves in a distinctive and personal
way.,,60 The humility of God must shine through our lives if the
universe is to progress towards its completion in Christ. We are to
give witness to the humility of God because without our witness
59The idea of t:l;1e Christian vocation as "Christifying matter" was Teilhard's
Only in this way, he realized, can the new heaven and earth that we long for be
He also realized, however, that traditional theology prevents the Christian from
passionately involved in the world. See Christopher F. Mooney, "Teilhard de
Christian Spirituality," in Process Theology: Basic Writings, Ewert H. Cousins, ed.
Yorlc Newman Press, 1971),308-15.
6()Zachary Hayes, "Christ, the Word of God and Exemplar of Humanity,"
46.1 (1996): 15.
LWlNG IN THE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
501
God's humble love, Christ remains an abstract principle - a thought or
an idea but not the living presence of God in creation. Franciscan
evangelical life means bearing witness to the living Christ, the Christ
that includes all peoples, all cultures, all religions and the entire earth.
We are to bear witness to God concealed in ordinary reality, to make
Christ alive through a spirit of selfless, compassionate love.
Christianity is a religion of the future, as Teilhard de Chardin
proclaimed, and Christians must lead the universe into the future by
seeking the unity of all things in the luminous web of love that is the
Body of Christ. Each of us has a distinct role in the Christ mystery
and the fullness of the mystery of Christ is either enhanced or
diminished by the degree of our participation.
To live in the ecological Christ is to believe in the centrality of
Christ as the web of relationships, the primacy of compassionate love,
and the celebration of difference. To profess that Christ is the center
is to believe that the "center is everywhere," fIrst within the human
soul, then in every person and creature, and then in every element of
the universe; every center is a Christ center. It is the Spirit of love
that binds together all the centers into the one Body of Christ. Living
in the ecological Christ means that we must see the world with
contemplative vision and fInd a space within us to embrace the
stranger, the widow, the flower, the river, the ocean and wind.
Contemplation is a penetrating gaze that gets to the heart of reality. 61
It is looking into the depths of things with the eyes of the heart and
seeing them in their true relation to God. Francis of Assisi was a
"contuitive person" who contemplated God in all of creation by
"seeing" God hidden in ordinary reality. Perhaps we can interpret this
"depth-seeing" of all reality by saying that we must take this world
seriously, we must look deeply at each person and everything we
encounter, as the in-dwelling of GodY Duns Scotus called us to be
aware of essential "thisness" (haecceitas), what makes something "this"
61 Michael W. Blastic, «Contemplation and Compassion: A Franciscan Ministerial
Spirituality" in Franciscan Leadership in Ministry, Anthony Carrozzo, KeIU1eth Himes and
Vmcent Cushing, eds., Spirit and Life: A Journal of Contemporaty Franciscanism, vol. 6
(St. Bonaventure, 1'>.TY: The Franciscan Institute, 1997), 168.
62 For an understanding of gazing in this context see llia Delio, Franciscan Prayer
(ClnciIU1ati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2004), 77-88.
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and "not that."6> We must see things for what they truly are in their
individual creation, each uniquely loved into being by the humble love
of God. Only in this way can we recognize that each human person
reflects God's human face. Spiritual vision creates brotherhood and
sisterhood because as we see, so we love. What we see and the way we
see must cause us to act in a new way. We are to recognize that we are
integrally related to one another because we are integrally related to
Christ. Contemplative vision leads us to see the goodness of God in
the other and to bind ourselves to the other in compassionate love.
If we reduce Christ merely to a personal Savior and confine
Christ to an institutional church we can be sure that the meaning of
Christ will become increasingly irrelevant in a complex world of
cultural and religious diversity. Neither Christianity nor salvation
itself is a private, individual matter. Salvation, Thomas Merton wrote,
means rescuing the person from the individual or, we might say, it is
bringing the individual into personhood through an experience of
10ve. 64 To be a human person alive in God is based not on what we are
or what we do but who we are in relation to God, self, others and
world. It means to be in relationship with another by which the other
sounds through in one's life. Living in the ecological Christ is to
rescue us from the gravity of our individual isolated egos and transform
us into relational beings, in the image of God. Francis of Assisi became
a relational person, a brother, because he allowed the God of humble
love to breathe through his life and in the lives of others he met along
the way. We who claim to be followers of Francis must cast wide the
nets of mer<:y, compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.
Evangelical life today, the proclamation of the good news of God
among us, is the celebration of diversity in creation. We must come to
see that all are one in Christ Jesus, who is the One in the Many. The
Christian today who lives in Christ does not try to make the other
iJ!to another Christ. Rather, the one who lives in Christ realizes
in the uniqueness of the individual or creature, Christ is that other.
63 Mary Beth Ingham, Scotu.s for Dtmces: An Introduction to the Subtle Doctor
Bonaventure, NY: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2003), 52-55.
64Thomas Merton, New Seeds II{ContempJation (New York: New Directions,
38.
LIVING IN TIlE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
503
Conclusion
Since the close of Vatican II, we have witnessed a greater desire to
return to the Gospels as the source of Christian life. The renewal of
Franciscan life today complements the broader awakening of Christian
life that is taking place both in the Catholic Church and in Protestant
denominations as well. While the desire for Gospel life is evident, the
ability to change our culturally-conditioned lives to follow Christ more
closely is not so evident. What I have tried to show here is that
Franciscan evangelical life, grounded in the humility of God, is a way
of being in the world. It is not a matter of works or action but how
relationship with others allows the goodness of God to shine out in
created reality. The center of evangelical life is the Incarnation where,
in the Word made flesh, divine humility is expressed. Francis
understood the Incarnation as the movement of the Father to poverty,
the descent of the Word of the Father into our flesh and frailty. In his
view, evangelical life is less a following of the poor and humble Jesus
than imitation of the humility of God.
Bonaventure focused on divine humility as the root of the
Incarnation in his Major Legend of Saint Francis, where he integrated
the humility of God into a cosmic Christ mysticism. While Francis
began his path of conversion tending to the poor and sick, the path
eventually widened to include his brothers, beggars, rabbits, birds, the
nobility and Muslims. As Francis's life matured in relation to Christ,
he began to contemplate God's humble presence in creation.
Contemplation enabled Francis to recognize the humble love of God,
first in the Crucified Christ, then in the poor and sick and those
around him, and finally in the elements of creation. As Francis came to
"see" Christ in creation, he came to love more deeply by way of
compassion, as a brother to all things.
The key to Francis's path of evangelical life, rooted in the
humility of God, was poverty. By coming to kuow God's love for him
in his own weak fragile life, he learned to let go of material things, of
attitudes and behaviors that prevented him from accepting others and
loving them in their weaknesses. It is poverty, I believe, the sister of
humility, that opened up for Francis the depth of the Christ mystery
in creation. The more he came to "see" Christ in the diversity of
creation, the more he came to recognize the fountain fullness of God's
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overflowing goodness in creation. Following Christ did not instill in
Francis an other-worldliness; rather, he came to contuit God's
presence in creation as rivulets of goodness, looking down upon the
things of earth while seeking the things of heaven.
The humility of God, as the foundation to Francis's way of Gospel
life, underscores the belief that Incarnation is the revelation of God.
To pursue a Gospel life is not to imitate the works ofJesus but to "see"
God's presence incarnate among us, and to respond to what we see by
way of love. It is sometimes easier to lift up our heads to worship God
above than to follow the footprints of Christ in the person next to us.
We who claim to be followers of Christ often fail to see the
hiddenness of God in our midst. We go about in the world as if the
kingdom is still to come and we alone are saved. I believe this failure
of vision is not a matter of will or desire but the external pressures of a
selfish culture. As products of a consumer culture, we live consumer
Christian lives. Although we speak often of conversion, we do not
allow the Word of God to disrupt our comfortable lives. Rather, we
"purchase" the Word of God that makes us feel good and reject the
Word of God that places demands on our lives. We relate to the 'Vord
of God in the same way that we relate to material things. Yet, Francis's
path of evangelical life is a life of disruption, of allowing the Word of
God to enter into our lives and change them. A change of heart means
of change of vision. The way we see the world should change our way
of being in the world.
If Franciscan evangelical life is to help bring the Gospel to a world
in need, then we must bear the message of the Gospel in a way that is
not only authentic but self-evident. It is not enough to say we are
followers of Christ. We are called to make Christ alive in the world by
allowing Christ to live in us and in others. As Van Khanh writes, "we
cause Christ to be born when our actions make it possible for others to
encounter him."65 Franciscan evangelical life means kenotic self­
involvement in the mystery of God's humble presence in creation.
Only in this way can the ecological Christ, the Christ who is the
mediating Word between diverse peoples, and between humans and
nature, come to life in a world in need of healing and wholeness.
65Van-Khanh,130.
LIVING IN mE ECOLOGICAL CHRIST
Some focal points for reflection may help us deepen our lives
Christ, as we look toward a more authentic life of the Gospel:
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III
De-consumerize. We are immersed in a consumer culture.
The first step towards seeing God's humble presence in
creation is to undo the clutter of our lives by putting an end to
accumulation of extraneous things.
Wasting Time. We live in a pragmatic culture that thrives on
work as the source of personal identity. We need to slow
down our feverish activity and learn to waste time. Prayer
time, time with nature and other people can help us reorient
ourselves to God's humble presence.
A new asceticism. The life of Gospel demands a primacy of
the spirit. How do we attend to the spirit in a culture that
yields to the body's demands? We need to find new ways of
discipline, of drawing boundaries around those things that
provide immediate gratification and expediency. We need to
find ways of drawing attention away from ourselves and
towards others, learning attentiveness to others.
Openness. Living in the ecological Christ means being open
to all that creation offers, including cultures, languages, and
religious traditions. Exiting our private worlds and entering
into dialogue with others can only enrich our awareness of
God's humble presence in creation and help us see the Body
of Christ in its diversity.
Authentic poverty. The key to Franciscan evangelical life is
poverty. In a culture that thrives on personal possessions,
privatism and individualism, poverty is the counter-cultural
virtue that can make the ecological Christ alive. Franciscan
poverty is more than material dispossession; rather, it is
sharing life with others in a way that interdependency
becomes a form of life. Learning to be a Gospel person in a
materially saturated and privatized culture is to become poor
and vulnerable in love.
Evangelical life is a life of making Christ alive wherever we are
and in every age. The good news of God among us must take root in
our lives if it is to be good news at all. We who claim to be followers of
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i,
1
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Christ must learn to look down upon the things of this earth while
seeking the things of heaven. We must discover the footprints of
Christ in the living and not among the dead. We are to bring Christ
to life not by word but by an act of being, not by what we do but by
what we are. We are called to mediators in creation, co-creators in
Christ, helping creation move towards the fullness of life in God. The
life of Francis helps us discern the values of evangelical life, although
we live in an age radically different from Francis's rime. Just as Francis
had to discover Christ in his own life, so too we must discover Christ
in our own time; for every age must discover Christ anew. I propose
that we strive to live in the ecological Christ who connects the
diversity of creation into a unity of love. This is the Christ in our
midst, the Christ of creation. To follow the ecological Christ is to
recognize the sacredness of our earth, the dignity of human persons
and the holiness of life. It is to recognize that God bends down in love
to be where we are so that we might be where he is. We are joined to
the earth and to one another because we are joined to Christ. It is
time to stop looking up to the sky to find God or to worship an alien
Christ; for in the face of our neighbor, the beauty of nature and in our
own lives, the good news of God is revealed.
Washington Theological Union
ILIA DELIO, OSF