There is much to praise in that recent A1 feature in the Washington Post about the Franciscan friars who decided, as a spiritual discipline, to go for a very long walk. If you want to get into the mood to read it, click through this nice slide show of photos that ran with the online version of reporter William Wan’s story.
The double-decker headline was particularly nice:
Just a Closer Walk With Thee — Friars Trudge 300 Miles and Find Kindred Souls on the Way
And here’s the nicely detailed top of the feature:
They’ve been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They’ve been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks.
After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington … having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God.
For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them. The sight of six men in flowing habits, trudging single file on the side of the road, prompted many to pull over and talk, even confess. People on their way to work described their loneliness. College students wanted help figuring out what to do with their lives. Children, mistaking them for the Shaolin monks in movies, ran up to ask the friars if they knew how to beat up bullies.
“Dressed like we are in our habits, it’s like a walking sign that says, ‘Tell us your life’s problems,’ ” explained Cliff Hennings, the youngest of the friars at 23.
Later, we are told that the friars were trying to “emulate the wanderings of their founder, Saint Francis of Assisi” by taking this journey.
Which raises an interesting question: Is it really accurate to say that these friars were engaged in a “modern-day quest for God”? Would it be better to say that they had already found God — taken vows to serve Him, in fact — and making a kind of symbolic pilgrimage to share that with others or to seek the face of God in other people along the way?
Just asking.
After all, almost everything about the friars is symbolic — from the tops of their heads to the details of those famous brown robes and the triple-knots on the chords that bind their waists. There is much to explore here. Trust me.
It’s also clear that the journey fit into lives of these young men in another way. This is part of their initiation rites into their new lives in this order.
Joined by two older friars supervising their training, they picked as their destination a friary in Washington, D.C., called the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land — a symbolic gesture, because the actual Holy Land was too far away. …
They tried to live by the ascetic rules Jesus laid out for his 12 disciples: “Take nothing for the journey — no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic.” The less they brought, they reasoned, the more room they could leave for God. The friars did make a few modifications, carrying a toothbrush, a wool blanket, water and a change of underwear (“a summer essential,” one explained), as well as one cellphone in case of emergency.
Some rules, however, had to be made on the fly. They had agreed not to carry any money, but just minutes into their first day, strangers were pressing dollar bills into their hands. So they made a pact to spend what they received each day on food, often high-protein Clif bars, and to give the rest to the needy.
That’s wonderful, detailed material. I simple wanted to know about their calling and their ministry — in the same kind of detail. Some readers wrote GetReligion, for example, asking what kind of Franciscans are these? What order? What specific missionary calling?
Good questions.
So in the end, we know where they are heading and a little bit about who these men are. On one level, we know why they are walking from point A to point B. We have lots of details of the walk. What we don’t know is the bigger WHY of the story, the ultimate question what this short walk has to do with the much bigger — even eternal — walk that is ahead of them.
In other words, this is a story about a religious calling. There is more to walking this walk than, well, the walk itself.
Just a closer walk with Thee. OK, who is this “Thee”? Are they searching for Him or have they already found Him? Both, you say? Both parts of that equation need to be in the story.
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Comments (11) |
August 4, 2009, at 10:38 am
It’s like St. Francis and his brethern, who themselves were gawked at for looking unordinary for their day.
August 4, 2009, at 2:11 pm
That’s a very interesting and very profound question that harkens back to Saint Francis’ life. If I had read a real discussion of that deep question in the story, my jaw would have dropped to my knees.
August 4, 2009, at 4:06 pm
Nicholas Cabasilas says:
For Christ gives men life and growth and nourishment and breath, and opened their eyes and gave them light and the power to see. He gives men the bread of life, and this bread is nothing else than Himself: he is life for those who are living and perfumes for those who breathe; He clothes those who desire to be clothed; He upholds the wayfarer;, and He is the Way; He is at once the inn upon the road and the end of the journey. When we fight, He fights by our side. When we dispute , he is the arbiter. And when we win the victory, He is the prize.
August 4, 2009, at 4:50 pm
[…] priesthood) Fr. Ricardas Repsys died while trying to save his nephew from drowing; these young men are walking as the aspotles walk and and Cardinal Bertone tells his vocation […]
August 4, 2009, at 6:47 pm
Most of St. Francis life & ministry was amidst Christendom, so his own life was the paradoxical journey of searching for the God they already knew.
I can assure you that the monks in this story could answer your questions with much more detail. Alas, faith columnists/reporters tend to stick to the human interest aspect of things.
Peace,
Jamie
August 4, 2009, at 7:49 pm
I think that in Orthodox and Catholic spirituality there is a strong tendency to give the answer “Both.” Some of the greatest saints have gone through very long “dry” periods in which God’s seeming absence was their major spiritual experience—and even when a powerful experience of his presence returns::the search goes on. Saints we have termed “mystics” seem to relate to God this way. One part of Evangelical Christianity that puts off many Orthodox-East and West is the seeming smug certitude some there seem to have that their searching is over—they have arrived as long as they accept Jesus as their “personal saviour.” This is really a deep topic that would be hard to handle in the pop media (or here)—-though it is nice to see a story like the above and it would be good to see more stories in the news media along the same lines.
August 4, 2009, at 10:05 pm
The dusty road to Washington is a model in miniature of our pilgrimage through life in which we struggle to surrender our personal idols, i.e. pride, arrogance, anger, gluttony, sloth… so that we can enter more deeply into Christ’s love and mercy.
August 4, 2009, at 10:24 pm
These friars are of the Order of Friars Minor. Four of them are novitiates, and they initiated the whole pilgrimage. I met them, and broke bread with them and gave them shelter, and heard their story. I was so moved by it all that I wanted to share the inspiration with as many people as possible, which is why I contacted the Washington Post. Their reporter spent 2 days with them, talking to them, working with them, and walking with them. When it came out on the first page, above the fold, that was more than I could have hoped for. I enjoy reading all the feedback from others on the article on all the various blogs, and seeing others feel the same way about the friars.
August 4, 2009, at 11:16 pm
I agree - the note the story ended on (the quote from their mentor) tied their actions together and helped move things in the right direction. I would have liked to have seen more of the spiritual side of things, but this was a great read anyway.
August 5, 2009, at 12:04 pm
The Brothers have already found Christ or they would not be walking.
They walk because Christ walked.
August 6, 2009, at 3:40 am
I agree - the note the story ended on (the quote from their mentor) tied their actions together and helped move things in the right direction. I would have liked to have seen more of the spiritual side of things, but this was a great read anyway.
Most of St. Francis life & ministry was amidst Christendom, so his own life was the paradoxical journey of searching for the God they already knew.
They walk because Christ walked!!