Undivided Wholeness

Last week, our Franciscan Province sent an article written by Ilia Delio, OSF, a well-known theologian and author among Franciscan academics, to all friars. I would like to share part of her article. Thank you! – Fr. Lalo

The Franciscan Charism and Undivided Wholeness

“You truly exist where you love, not merely where you live.” This profound insight from Bonaventure’s Sunday sermon captures the essence of St. Francis of Assisi’s spiritual vision. Francis concentrated his entire being into a single-hearted love of God. Through this love, Francis discovered abundance in all the manifestations of life. Rather than pursuing material wealth or possessions, he immersed himself in the overflow of divine love, recognizing God’s goodness in every leaf, tree, and human person. Francis’s revolutionary discovery was simple yet transformational: Only love heals and makes whole.

Our contemporary world bears little resemblance to Francis’. While we’ve amassed unprecedented knowledge and material goods, we’ve become perhaps the loneliest species on Earth. We experience division both between ourselves and within ourselves. Love has been degraded to mere sentiment, stripped of genuine meaning in our cultural lexicon. This diminishment has grave consequences—without love, life withers.

How did we become so disconnected from each other, from ourselves, and the natural world? How did we lose our enchantment with creation? We now inhabit a planet whose resources are facing depletion due to excessive consumption and global indifference.

Bonaventure’s wisdom resonates across centuries: “Lack of self-knowledge makes for faulty knowledge in all other matters.” This insight speaks profoundly to our contemporary condition, not merely on an individual level, but through the interconnected dimensions of biological and cosmic existence. As Bonaventure observed: “In beautiful things, Francis contemplated Beauty itself and from each and every thing he made a ladder by which he could climb up and embrace his Beloved.”

Our vocation is to continue building the earth in harmony with life’s evolutionary journey spanning billions of years. God seeks to emerge in greater light and thought through this magnificent process of interdependent existence. As Teilhard de Chardin reminds us, we do not approach God directly; rather, we encounter the divine through and with the earth. As Angela of Foligno profoundly observed, “The whole creation is pregnant with God.”

I conclude with Bonaventure’s compelling words: Therefore, any person who is not illumined by such great splendor in created things is blind. Anyone who is not awakened by such great outcries is deaf. Anyone who is not led by such effects to give praise to God is mute. Anyone who does not turn to the First Principle as a result of such signs is a fool. Therefore, open your eyes; alert your spiritual ears; unlock your lips, and apply your heart, so that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love, and adore, magnify, and honor your God lest the entire world rise up against you. —Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum, 1.15

By Ilia Delio, OSF Franciscan Wisdom Series