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Chapter 3 The Basic Experience The presentation of the five-point program is like a panorama or overview of the basic principles of Saint Francis. But we cannot stop with them. No matter how keen the eyesight of the eagle or the airman as they fly over the landscape, they still enjoy only a superficial view. They cannot penetrate beneath surface appearances . We must therefore ask what is the depth dimension of the five-point program and what are the life experiences that underlie it. We must also speak of mysticism. Francis had many moments when he was totally aware of God, and himself, moments in which all his senses were immersed in the divine presence. There were also accompanying phenomena. We frequently hear of his raptures, his dissociation from time and space, his unconsciousness of his surroundings. He used to repeat a prayer which even on earth anticipated the bliss of eternity: "May the fiery and honey-sweet power of your love detach my soul from all things under heaven, so that I may love for love of Your love, for You have condescended to die for love of my love." But we must not attach too much weight to these ecstatic states. More important for Francis were certain other mystical signs. When he was overwhelmed with God's presence he usually spoke a different language, the French of the troubadours, or the poetic speech of one who is suffused with enthusiasm and wonder. Also significant is what Francis calls "sweetness," a word he uses in the above-mentioned prayer and also in his account of meeting the leper. The word is hardly common in modern English but we must take into account its origins in the romance languages. It stems from French romantic poetry. Douceur connotes gentleness, amiability, tenderness. Such feelings were stirred up when God entered Francis's life, when he met the lepers, beggars, and also when he heard the words "God" or "Bethlehem" (L3S 10, 23-24, 33; Test 3; EpFidII 56; RegNB 23, 9; 2Cel 196). 86 86 Kajetan Esser, Studien zu den Opuscula des hl. Franziskus von Assisi (Rome, 1973) 282; A. Holl, Der letzte Christ (Stuttgart, 1979) 60-62. Cf. Prayer "Absorbeat 116 / Anton Rotzetter, OFM Cap. When we characterize this experience as mystical, we must be careful not to overlook the differences between Francis's mysticism and other mystical traditions in Christendom. For Francis the mystical experience was inseparable from the Incarnation. We might therefore denominate the faith experience which underlay Francis' life as mystical and sacramental. What this means should become clearer in the following pages. Franciscan Mysticism Francis lived a salvation mysticism that was not divorced from visible and tangible reality—creation history, Jesus Christ, the sacraments, the Church. The word mysticism, in itself, does not necessarily include the above. There is a Christian mysticism very different from the Franciscan type. It is represented in the "Cloud of Unknowing," a classic work on mysticism written in the fourteenth century. "Do not occupy yourself either in your thoughts or your desires with any of God's creatures, or anything associated with them either in a general or particular way. One might think such occupation correct. But I tell you: free yourself interiorly from all creatures, and pay no heed to them." I believe that Francis would have forcefully rejected this view. He gave utterance to the marvelous prayer: "My God and all things!" This is probably the right translation—not "My God and my all." When one gives oneself to God, all creation is drawn along. Through faith in God every single thing takes on an essential relationship with all other things. All things become part of that all that was created by God. Francis cannot brush them aside, as the author of the "Cloud" does. If he did, he would not be standing before God, but before nothingness. Only such a viewpoint makes the Canticle of the Sun possible. God comes to humankind because God desires human salvation. Therefore, Francis must include the salvation of humankind in his contemplative prayer (CantSol). 87 "It is certainly not wrong to contemplate the goodness of God, to love God and praise God for it. But it is far better to immerse oneself in contemplating God and to love and praise God quaeso, Domine, mentem meam ab omnibus quae sub coelo sunt, ignita et melliflua vis amoris tui, ut amore amoris tui moriar, qui amore amoris mei dignatus es mori." 87 The Cloud...

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