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As a sister, as a listener, and as a human, I hear how each person carries a deep despair. When united to Christ, it\u2019s not only easier to bear but it becomes meaningful. When God became human and took on flesh he lifted up suffering, infusing it with his love and the face of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
St. Francis suffered deeply in a way that bound him uniquely to Christ. Eight hundred years ago, while praying at La Verna, he was visited with a vision of the Crucified Christ that would mark his very flesh with five wounds which stayed with him for the rest of his life. This September, the Franciscan Family remembers the stigmata<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the words of St. Bonaventure, one of Francis\u2019 early biographers, in the Life of St. Francis<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHis unquenchable fire of love for the good Jesus, was fanned into such a blaze of flames that so many waters; could not quench so powerful a love\u2026When Francis saw [a vision of a fiery angel and Christ crucified], he was overwhelmed and his heart was flooded with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He rejoiced because of the gracious way Christ looked upon him under the form of a Seraph, but the fact that he was fastened to a cross pierced his soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow.\u201d (Bonaventure, Life of St. Francis) <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n A couple of things speak to my heart from this passage. First, even though Francis\u2019 body was marked with painful wounds, this was an experience of love. He overflowed with a powerful unquenchable love that manifested in a vision of the Crucified one. Second, his heart was filled with a mixture of joy and sorrow. Joy, to be gazed upon by his Beloved. Sorrow, because of the reality of the cross. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, I return to the joy of Christ\u2019s face, the love of the good Jesus, while experiencing at the same time the compassionate sorrow of the pierced and bleeding Jesus.\u00a0 When I hear about the suffering children in Gaza, or see the unsheltered on our streets, I am filled with this same compassionate sorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n We do not suffer alone. Right now, in the world, all of our suffering is intermingled. A child\u2019s cry in Sudan, an unemployed factory worker in Detroit, and the very trees themselves in the Amazon are all marked with the stigmata today. Creation and humanity alike are united to Christ\u2019s suffering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently, two unexpected voices encouraged me to expand my image of what the stigmata really means. Compassionate suffering today is not just being in solidarity with others that suffer, but realizing that as we work toward our desired future together, suffering profoundly changes us, like the marks on Francis\u2019 body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of these voices is Cassidy Hall<\/a> who I heard speak and who has just published, Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n In her I heard a way forward. Both the act of \u201cqueering,\u201d or looking at something differently than expected, and of contemplation, help us find an inner stance that invites new possibilities. Here she describes a profound experience: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, I was attending my first conference with the International Thomas Merton Society at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky. There I heard psychotherapist Dr. Jim Finley speak from the heart about his experience being a novice (a new monk) under the direction of Thomas Merton, and some of the many life lessons he\u2019s experienced since then. It was here that I first heard Jim describe the mystical experience of unity in love-making: a creative unfolding, encounter, and interconnection. \u201cThe poet cannot make the poem happen, but the poet can assume the inner stance that offers the least resistance to be overtaken by the gift of poetry,\u201d he said. \u201cThose committed to healing cannot make healing happen, but they can assume the inner stance that offers the least resistance to the gift of healing. Lovers cannot make their moments of oceanic oneness happen, but together they can assume the stance that offers the least resistance to be overtaken one more time by the gift of oceanic oneness.\u201d What might it mean for us to assume the particular inner stance that each moment invites us into? How might we queer the moment, queer our inner stance, by opening ourselves up to the countless possibilities of continual transcendence? How might it feel to meet the mystical in ourselves, nature, our beloved, and the Divine through this oceanic oneness? (p. 59)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In this sense queering is a mystical act which opens us to union with the Divine in our daily lives. What is required for us to \u201cassume the particular inner stance that each moment invites us into\u201d? In both joy and sorrow, in a mode of unitive love, we can melt resistance to a hopeful future, and continually assume that inner stance that invites hope and love and resurrection. Hall, I believe, is showing the way through the now into our desired future, one which will honor both joy and sorrow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other voice came from an unlikely source, the Olympics. Jemima Montag, an athlete from Australia, speaks of the difference between wanting and needing a medal. What is the difference between wanting and needing our desired future, the resurrection that comes through our stigmata? <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/LaVerna-frescoe-closeup-774x1024.png\")