Making Transitus with a Crucified Creation

As we celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the Transitus, the death and passage of St. Francis to eternal life, I am reminded of the 2015 people’s pastoral written by the Catholic Committee of Appalachia, The Telling Takes Us Home: Taking Our Place in the Stories that Shape Us. In one section titled “Practicing Resurrection in Crucified Places”, the writers of the document put it quite bluntly, “We crucify Earth and each other in many ways.”¹ The writers express the woes and crucified places of Appalachia, and the damage to the land the fossil fuel industry has inflicted through coal mining and natural gas extraction. Yet, the writer reminds the readers the Christian call as people of the Resurrection. The writers then say,

“However, belief in the possibility of resurrection in particular places requires concrete actions. Practicing resurrection means taking our place in locations, locations with faces, communities, and stories of struggle…Once we find our place, resurrection begins to be possible when we, like Thomas, touch the wounds there.”²

St. Francis’ life shows an embrace of the wounded and all of creation, clearly recognizing them as mother, brother and sister, so clearly sung out in his Canticle of the Creatures. It is from this example that we too may lean into the embrace of the wounded and hurt, including the crucified creation we experience around us. In a number of places in the writings of St. Francis, he calls the brothers to care for the sick brothers and care for them as a mother would. Perhaps it is in this that we understand to care for creation as our brother and sister, to care as a mother would, to nourish and bring back to health, not to destroy.

Practicing resurrection today in crucified places is a journey that remains a long road ahead because it requires first the action of taking creation off the cross of human exploitation and greed. We must move together to take our mother, brother, and sister off the cross, tend to its wounds, and continue to actively live in the hope of resurrection. The Gospel narratives all tell of Mary Magdalene returning to the tomb, carrying ointment and spices with her, in duty for burial rites. Unlike Mary, who was met with the empty tomb and the resurrected Christ, we will need to use our ointments and spices, namely our gifts, talents, and resources to touch the wounds of creation and allow them to be brought to new life.

God will be with us in this journey but are we also not Christ’s hands and feet to collaborate in this work of resurrection?³ As followers of Christ, the Creator, we too must play a role in stewardship and healing of our common home. The action of hope is that this work will bring us into this new resurrection that is possible, as we make our passage, our transitus, from the continuous crucifixion of our mother, brothers and sisters, into new life. In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis calls us to this very ‘ecological conversion,’ where our encounter with Jesus Christ mends our experience of the divine to our call to care for God’s handiwork.⁴ Let us renew our hearts, and make our transitus journey to bringing forth new life in creation.

Br. Jimmy Kernan, OFM, is a PhD student at Arizona State University studying sustainable energy. Before beginning studies, Br. Jimmy served as the Assistant Director of the Laudato Si’ Center for Integral Ecology at Siena University.

This reflection was originally published on FranciscanMonth.org and is republished here with permission. Franciscan Month is a collaborative project among members of the Franciscan Family that offers reflections, events, prayers and other devotional content throughout the month of October. The Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe helped curate this year's resources.