11 August 2016 - a little clare-ification

Readings from the Franciscan Lectionary

2 Corinthians 4:6-10, 16-18
Psalms 45:11-12, 14-16
John 15:4-10

Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison

Today Clare wants to help us to worry less about our outer nature.  She wants to teach us to look to the things that are unseen instead of the things that are seen.  The things that are seen are transient.  The afflictions we face are momentary.  They waste away our outer nature.

Our inner nature is a different story.  If we look to things that are unseen, things that are eternal, we see God shining in our hearts "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."  This is the glory of Christ risen from the grave.  This is the vision which changes us from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18).  Jesus gives new color to the temporary circumstances we face. His paschal mystery gives them new context.  Now, though afflicted, we can be "always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."  Now we are invincible.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;

Now, far from wasting us away, our afflictions prepare us for the coming kingdom.

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison 

Everything is put in its proper perspective.  It is seen in its proper proportion.  All this as long as we look to the things that are unseen rather than the things that are seen.  All this because we fix our gaze on Jesus.

Clare can help us with this because she embodies it.  She is very literally like the woman in the psalm who forgets her people and her father's house for the sake of the king who desires her.  She knows that she is an earthen vessel and doesn't worry about what she will eat or what she will wear (cf. Mat. 6:25).  Instead of earthly clothing she is clothed with the "many colored robes" of righteousness that prepare her to come before the king "with her virgin companions", the women of her order.  She does so with "joy and gladness".

We are called to abide in Jesus as branches on the vine.  This means being rooted in the eternal and unseen.  Yet the fruit we bear is not hidden.  It is amidst the world transient and temporary that we bear much fruit.  And by "this my Father is glorified".  We fix our gaze on Jesus.  We stay connected to the vine.  When we do his Spirit fills us, gives us his risen life, and makes us bear fruit for kingdom.

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you (cf. Rom. 8:11).