Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090612.cfm

A courtyard at Saint Meinrad Seminary

So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you,
Paul or Apollos or Cephas,
or the world or life or death,
or the present or the future:
all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.

Saint Francis of Assisi owned Saint Paul’s sense of ownership. Owning nothing and claiming nothing, he knew ownership of all things in Jesus Christ.

Greed, on the other hand, claims ownership, and works very hard at driving away anything and anyone else who might try to own it. I think of the animal, perhaps a hyena, that stands over a carcass and snarls at every bird or beast that comes near. Even in defense of its treasure it must finally lose it because enemies will draw him away from the carcass as others close in.

Francis, in imitation of Christ and in the spirit of Saint Paul, never needed to defend anything. If God wanted him to have something it was given to him; and when the spirit impelled him to give something away – as it often did – he immediately handed it over. No one needed to ask him for anything because it was theirs before they asked.

In this passage from I Corinthians Saint Paul has tried to shake his disciples free of their fractious quarrels. They have divided themselves into parties within the church; they claimed to belong to Apollos, Cephas, Paul or Christ. The Saint was flabbergasted; can the Body of Christ be dismembered?

He saw the problem in terms of ownership, which relates to greed. Saint Francis understood the teaching and took a vow to live sine proprio. The phrase can be translated “without property” but the meaning goes well beyond that. It means if I do you a favor, you do not owe me one in return. If I am appointed to authority or office I will perform my duties responsibly but will surrender them the instant they are taken from me. Sine proprio means living without claiming anything. Obedience impels me to act, not pride of office. If I have been favored by a superior or patron, I cannot claim that person as my own – as the Corinthians were claiming Apollos, Cephas, Paul or Christ.

In the spirit of Jesus, Paul and Francis everything is gift; there is no need for ownership. But the one who owns nothing in Christ owns everything because “all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.” The response to gift is never greed, it is gratitude – and generosity, because there’s plenty more where that came from.