Friars in the Church

Throughout this Easter Season, we have been reading about the beginning of the New Testament Church in the Acts of the Apostles. We read about how the believers came to know the Lord, once dead and now risen from the dead. A large part of the Acts of the Apostles is how the community's life was shaped and how they committed themselves to the preaching of the gospel. The life and preaching within the community gave shape to how the early Church came to be and reached out in mission to the world.

We read in the Acts of how the believers committed themselves to "the teaching of the Apostles, to the common life, to the breaking of the bread, and to the prayers." (Acts 2:42) In describing this Apostolic life, the Acts puts forward a model of expressing the reality and experience of Christian life in the Church. While appearing idyllic, we read about the tensions and controversies as the community grew in astounding numbers.

Before the Easter Season is over, the Friars of the Atonement will have an experience similar to the New Testament Church. As they do each five years, the Friars will gather for their General Chapter. This year they will meet at Gratmoor, their headquarters in New York, from May 18th through June 1st. Since its convocation about a year and a half ago, representatives have been chosen, proposals submitted for the agenda, and a format for the meeting has been designed.

A Church Lifestyle

The life and governance of the Friars, like most religious communities, is patterned after the life in the early Church. It, of course, has been adapted and modified through the centuries and according to various cultural expressions. The General Chapter meets for two reasons, both connected to the life and mission of the Friars, as an expression of gospel life. Hopefully, the Frairs will meet to rededicate themselves to the "teaching of the Apostles, to the common life, to the breaking of the bread, and to prayers."

Founded on the Third Order Rule of St. Francis, which is shared with numerous communities of men and women in the Church, the Friars will gather to discuss their life and mission together. In very specific ways, they will look to how they are hearing God's Word, living their life together, preaching and sharing the Word in Eucharist and in their prayer life together. In a second part of the Chapter, the Friars will elect their Minister General and his council to serve the community over the next five years.

Since the days of the Second Vatican Council, religious communities were told to engage in continued renewal and reformof their life together. This discernment of their communal life was to be based on the Scriptures, the so-called founding charism, and modified for expression to "the signs of the times." The Church invited religious men and women to shape their gospel life for the good of the Church and for the world.

Renewal and Reform

Over the last forty years, the experience of reform and renewal has been visible within religious communities and within the Church at large. Religious communities took the risk to reshape and redo their way of living and preaching the gospel. Some things were more obvious, like the modification -- or sometimes disappearance -- of religious habits. Other things were more interior and intimate to the members within the communities. What was traditionally called the "common life" was radically effected. Friars prayed dofferently, they shared common goods differently, they perceived themselves and those they served in a different way.

At the heart of the renewal was the discernment of the founding charism. In the case of the Friars, it was to reexamine the original inspiration of the Founders, Father Paul and Mother Luranna, in founding the community. What was the specific call and mission of the community? The very name "Atonement" is a rooted place to seek understanding. The Friars were founded, in the words of the original Constitutions, for the "unity of the Church and for the missions." The challenge for today's Friars is how to live out that gift and call within our world.

Within the call to mission, the Friars still work in the field of ecumenism and interreligious life. Through their slightly more than one hundred years, their work has come to embrace a healing and reconciling mission. They are called to make all men and women "at-one" in Christ. The challenge is to continually adjust and modify these purposes in their lifestyle and ministries.

Fraternity

The renewal among Franciscan communities has focused on fraternity as basis of their renewal. The very name "friar" means brother, and fraternity is really about how the brothers live together. Their life is to be supportive of one another in their quest of the gospel and in their service of the Church and the world.

The challenge of fraternity is to live as mendicants preaching and living in the world, rather than monasteries. It is no secret that communities these days have less men. They have older men and less financial resources at their disposal. Vocations are slow, at best, in coming, or nonexistent at worst.

Risking the Gospel

The gospel at its best moments has involved a risk. Whether the risk of the disciples leaving all to follow, the risk of the Christian community to venture out into the Gentile world, or today's call to follow the Lord, the work of preaching the gospel and of up-building the Church is the work of God's Spirit, which we celebrate at Pentecost. The Church and the gospel go on.

CDH