The small group of four parishioners had come together on a recent evening to open their meeting with a collation of coffee, soft drinks or water, plus cookies, over pleasant conversation.

This was followed by a discussion on the last few chapters of Albert Nolan’s splendid book, Jesus Before Christianity. The simplicity and honesty of Nolan’s message reflects his personal journey with the truth-telling, truth-living Jesus Christ.

What came through, as the group studied chapter after chapter, was that Jesus’ way of life had won their trust in a more defined way than ever before, for his integrity was seen anew as of a piece, as whole as the garment Mary had woven for Him, bartered away with the throw of the dice at the foot of the Cross.

Neither expediency nor bid for power was a part of Jesus’ shepherding style. He placed Himself in the midst of His flock, excluding no one, not even those short of stature, who found the best seats in the tree tops.

Our people’s hunger for true leaders in the Church is spreading like a slow-burning fire through the nation, and finding expression in the voices of those in small faith groups, a phenomenon treated at length in the September 28th issue of “National Catholic Reporter,” in the article titled, “Getting deeper, getting smaller.”

Emilie Lemmons reports that two Friday nights a month, Tim and Trina Wurst meet with four other young Indianapolis couples in one of their homes to read scripture, pray, share their faith journeys and plan service projects.

Trina Wurst said, “We’ve been doing it since before we had kids...The idea of not staying together is harder to imagine than figuring out a way to stay together.”

Lemmons tells us that small Christian communities, according to a Lilly Endowment, from the late 1990's, number at least 37,000. Mary Ann Jesselson, 68, a member for 13 years, posed the question: “If you’re not in a small faith community, how do you get to know what people are feeling with regard to their faith? It doesn’t come out in other ways that I know of., such as the workplace or a cocktail party.”

Along the same movement of small faith groups, we are seeing a proliferation of new, formal, vowed communities springing up, as reported in the book by Scott A. Bessenecker, The New Friars.

The writer introduces his book with a series of questions:

Is God really stirring up another movement of preaching orders to serve the world ’s most destitute residents?
Is it really fair to call these slum-dwelling missionaries “friars”?
Do they truly compare favorably with the likes of Franciscan, Jesuit and Celtic orders? ”

As a high school student, Bessenecker and his brother, Chris, decided to visit a Franciscan monastery in Davenport, Iowa. They were curious about the gathering of men who would pledge themselves to poverty in order to stand alongside the poor – not so much by lifting them up from above, but by placing themselves underneath the poor so as to push them up from below.

The brothers asked themselves: “Was this a calling we could endure, to be single all our lives, poor and devoted to the authority of the Church?”

They were intrigued with the idea of rejecting the materialistic life and serving the poor, turning one’s back on the American Dream.

The boys weren’t sure what they would find at the Franciscan monastery, certainly not what they observed: a well-groomed dining room, where some of the brothers had gathered for a meal and a smoke. They seemed to be living differently from the homeless men who first followed Francis. The brothers swore like sailors, smoked like chimneys, and lived like kings, so far as Christ and Scott could tell.

Scott explained: “The swearing and the smoking, which so offended my religious sensibilities at the time, I have since come to peace with. But what troubles me to this day was the relative wealth of this order of brothers in comparison to my middle class family.”

They asked the brother tour guide about the cable TV in every room. This was in 1970 , when cable was still somewhat of a luxury, out of the reach for the boys’ family.

The brothers told them: “The brothers take a vow of personal poverty. These things are actually owned by the monastery, not the brothers.”

“Apparently, “ Scott commented, “As long as it was communal wealth, at this monastery, a Franciscan could live in luxury.”

This sad comment followed: “The things I thought were noble and righteous about the Church seemed like a facade. Underneath the austere Franciscan robe, tied with the simplicity of a rope belt, was a rich kid who simply got around the vow of poverty by enjoying someone else’s wealth.”

Of course, if Francis had accompanied the boys to that particular monastery, I am sure he would have agreed with them, and understood their crushed idealism. Yet, he and we could have told them a multitude of stories of holy Franciscans who live their Rule faithfully day by day.

Since we celebrated Francis’ feast day this past week, we can be excused for seeking inspiration from the eighth chapter of Johannes Jorgensen’s biography, “St. Francis of Assisi,” revealing the saint’s concern to be seen by his followers as one of them. Even during the early days of the order’s foundation, some cardinals requested that St. Francis live with them to give them edification. Francis was assigned to Cardinal Hugolin’s residence, though he continued to go out and beg for his bread as was the custom for the Friars Minor.

It wasn’t long, however, before Francis began to worry about how the acceptance of the cardinal’s invitation was registering with the Friars far from Rome.

He said, “Even if I can accept it (the cardinal’s hospitality), then my Brothers will hear of it, who wander in foreign lands and suffer hunger and many troubles, and my other Brothers who live in hermitages and in poor little huts will hear of it, too, and then they will complain about me, perhaps and say, ‘We have to suffer while he is in comfort!’ For I am given to the Brothers for a good example, and it is of more edification to them if I am with them in their poor little houses, and they will bear their lot more patiently when they see that I have no better lot then theirs.”

Lord, help us to remember that our youth are watching us, looking for leadership in the ordinary tasks of the day, for they see so much duplicity, greed for money and power, and sheer laziness, making a mockery of promises shouted in the light of day, and discarded in the secrecy of the night.

Amen.

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