‘Sine Proprio’

Sermon at St John The Baptist Felixstowe 

The Stigmata of St Francis of Assisi – 17th September 2023

Text:  ²²⁴ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it (from Luke 9 v 23-26)

God give you peace my sisters and brothers.

The challenge early Franciscans faced was not that they were enclosed in monasteries nor that they were active missionaries and preachers, as other religious orders were.  The challenge that Francis and his Order of Little Brothers (and later sisters) brought to the Church was that they had nothing to bring to the Church!

Francis stood before the Pope, asking for his blessing, ‘Sine Proprio’ without possessions

Living in poverty, of itself, is not a great challenge.  After all about 25%, every fourth person, of the world lives below the Poverty Line.  Poverty, especially enforced poverty, is an evil that we must work to eradicate.  Poverty, in and of itself, does not indicate any particular form of righteousness. It is mostly about circumstance, the wiles of nature, and the greed of others.

Why would choosing to live in poverty – selling all we have, giving our goods to the poor and then following Jesus – be such a challenge to the Church?  Surely this radical commitment to following the words of Jesus could never be a challenge to the Church he founded?

But it was.  

Total poverty, living without possessions or provisions on the edges of society threatened the established ways of life.

If everyone gave everything up who would milk the cows and farm the fields?  This was a problem in the early days of the Franciscan movement as so many people wanted to follow Francis that fields were left unharvested and cows un-milked.  (For this reason, amongst others, Francis called into being the Third Order in which people live in the spirit of poverty but continue in ‘the ordinary professions of life).

The true Spirt of Poverty is not only about ‘go sell all you have, then come and follow’ but goes deeper and is more about ‘denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily and following.’

Gordon Plumb part of the Franciscan community some of us belong to, (in an article in the Third Order Chronicle Summer 2003), remarked that the words ‘Sine Proprio’ refer rather to a way of living without grasping and as such are far more about attitudes and values than about intrinsic wealth or the lack thereof.

To live a life ‘without grasping’ is a challenge for the poor as much as the wealthy – ask anyone who has ever stood in a queue at a Food Bank and they will tell you the truth of that.

To live a life ‘without grasping’ is a challenge for those who see worth in the use of things as much as their market value – the deeply saddening and heart-breaking ways different denominations argue over how to be true to the Gospel reminds us that all too often we fail in our care for our fellow sisters and brothers in Christ.

To live a life ‘without grasping’ is a challenge for each and every one of us.  When Francis calls us to live life Sine Proprio he reminds us that we are to imitate Jesus who;

‘In the example of his own sacrifice, [revealed] the secret of bearing fruit.  In surrendering himself to death, he becomes the source of new life.  Lifted from the earth on the cross, he draws all people to himself.  Clinging to life causes life to decay; the life that is freely given is eternal.’^[1]

To live ‘Sine Proprio’ is a deep challenge to our worldly selves and calls us to remember that it is only when we die – when we let go of that which we hold on to, that we finally bear fruit.  The Rule of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis has this to say;

Jesus the Master speaks, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour.’ (John 12.24-26)

And…

Jesus calls those who would serve him to follow his example and choose for themselves the same path of renunciation and sacrifice. To those who hear and obey, he promises union with God.

Forget about the Canticle of the Creatures or even the misnamed Prayer of St Francis.  For our hymns this morning we should have been belting out ‘Let it Go!’ from the Disney movie Frozen!

(Mind you for Anglicans Princess Elsa’s refrain, especially on winter Sundays, of ‘the cold never bothered me anyway’ may already be our theme tune!)

Francis, following in the footsteps of Jesus, calls us to not only give up what is around us but to ‘Let it Go!’ to ‘stop grasping’.  Or as I often counsel people battling with fierce emotions and situations ‘don’t fight it, feel it.’

These words of Francis remind us to learn to ‘Let Go and Let God’;

‘Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received, only what you have given.’

Or, if you prefer your aphorisms about the afterlife to come from the homespun wisdom of housewives the world over.

         ‘A shroud has no pockets.’

How do we learn to ‘let it Go’?

Last month I spoke both about Francis’ lesson to his companion Brother Leo about finding Perfect Joy by ‘Letting Go’ as well as mentioning the passage from the Screwtape Letters about ‘ownership’ – who really owns us, even while we think we ‘own’ things and titles, power and even people.  

We need to hear again and again the words of the Apostle Paul in the First Letter to the Corinthians;

‘Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.’ (1 Corinthians 16v19-20)

Giving ourselves away, learning to live lives ‘Sine Proprio’ and without grasping is hard work and it will hurt.  Ask Francis of Assisi ‘who bore the marks of the Lord Jesus’ about the price of letting everything go.  

But then, as our Gospel reading reminds us:  ‘What does it profit us if we gain the whole world, but lose ourselves?’ 

So where do we go from here?

A few suggestions:

That one possession that we might have been holding on to Gollum-like that has become too precious – let it go.

That grudge that we have cherished and nurtured and even fanned into flame – let it go.

That desire to always have the last word, the final answer, the snappy rejoinder – let it go.

And finally, that presumption that we might perhaps just possibly be God’s gift to the church and are over-proud of all that we do in the service of God and God’s people – let it go.

And as we learn to ‘stop grasping’ may we look forward to the peace that passes all understanding and the joy that comes with knowing that we are held safe for all eternity in the comfort of the Everlasting Arms.

This blog ‘Sine Proprio’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2023.  It may be reproduced free of charge on condition that the source is acknowledged.

Luke 9.23-26 – Giving to Gain

Jesus said, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. ²⁵ What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves? ²⁶ Those who are ashamed of me and of my words, of them the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

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^[1] From the Principles of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis.  The full text may be found here.