30th Sunday: Humility and the Anima Sola

This past week I led the Kino Mission Tour down to the missions founded by Fr. Eusebio Francisco Kino, S.J. between 1690 and 1711. [i] Amazingly, most of the missions he founded have all transitioned to parish churches. San Xavier del Bac is the only Kino mission that, 300 years after his death, is still serving the native people that he served. I think many people agree that travelling, even locally, can help us understand the present in a new way.
 
The Kino Missions
I think one of the most interesting aspects of the Kino Missions is the art. I think many people comment on the baroque explosion of saints and angels on the walls of San Xavier. There are almost 100 angels and probably almost as many saints. Our mission is a time capsule of the late Eighteenth Century when the mission was built by the Franciscans on top of the Jesuit foundations laid by Fr. Kino. Further south, in Sonora, the Kino Missions reflect the changing architecture and art from the Eighteenth to the early Nineteenth Centuries. The difference between the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth Centuries is the difference between Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig Van Beethoven. The difference is long powdered wigs, silk men’s suits instead of woolen frockcoats and Charles Dickens. George Washington, the French Revolution and the American Civil War.
 
What hasn’t changed is the need to have our feet firmly on the ground. Six years after San Xavier was built French Revolutionaries changed the days of the week from seven to ten days, renamed each day and month and ordered Parisians to worship the goddess [ii] of reason they enshrined on the main altar of Notre Dame Cathedral. For me, one of the great reasons to see the Kino Missions or think about history is to understand how the past continues to influence us; what we have lost and what we have gained. The native people and Franciscans who built San Xavier lived in the same material world we inhabit, but saw it in a very different light. Who understands the world the way it really is? [iii]
 
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector
In Jesus’ parable today, ask yourself, who is the good guy and who is the bad guy. Pharisees are supposed to be the good guys. They tithe, pray and study Torah. In Jesus’ time they were respected members of the community. You have to see them through Jewish eyes, not through the Gospel. Our understanding of Pharisees has given these devout people a bad reputation, according to Jesus, deservedly so in some cases. On the other hand, tax collectors are supposed to be the bad guys. They collaborate with the Romans, working on commission extorting money for the emperor. That system must have led to abuses by tax collectors earning them a bad reputation among the same first century Jewish population who paid the bills. Jesus did not see them as all bad. Who see reality as it is?
 
Jesus tells us the point of his parable.

“… for whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Lk. 18:14

 The Pharisee is standing close to the altar and already sees himself as already righteous. While praying he is focusing on others and their failings instead of God. In fact, Jesus said he was praying to himself. Pride is when the person sets himself in God’s place. On the other hand, the tax collector stands far off from the altar, beating his breast, reminding himself that he is no one’s judge and praying to God for forgiveness. Why do we start mass with a confession of sin? Why do we pray and beat our breast like the tax collector?

“I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore, I ask blessed Mary Ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”

 Humility is recognizing that only God is God and that each human is dust in the wind
 
San Pedro y Pablo in Tubutama, Son. Mx. and the Anima Sola
Anima sola literally means ‘the lonely soul’ and was a style of art popular in the Hispanic world in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. At the Mission of San Pedro y Pablo in Tubutama, Son., Mx. that was first constructed in prior to 1695 by the Jesuits, then destroyed by the Opata. It was reconstructed and probably destroyed in 1751 and, after some other starts, the present structure was dedicated by the Franciscans in 1783, a few years before San Xavier del Bac. ( 1783-97) The Jesuits were not there as they had been expelled in 1767 by order of the Spanish Emperor.


The anima sola hangs in the nave of the church. Probably, it came from a church further down in Mexico because it doesn’t fit in the church space in which it is hung. Mission churches receive cast offs from other churches, although by now it is probably valuable due to its antiquity. In this particular painting, in the top half, center is the crucified Jesus. ( see illustration at the top) To his right is his mother holding the infant Jesus and she is lowering a rosary to some poor souls in the flames of Purgatory. To the Lord's right is St. Francis ( Tubatama is a Franciscan built church) lowering the end of the knotted cord he tied around his waist to another poor sinner. The Franciscan belt has three knots tied in it; each knot stands for poverty, chastity and obedience. As Fr. Greg Adolph reminds everyone, the three knots stand for ‘ain’t got no money, ain’t got no honey and don’t get around much anymore!’
 
Humility, the Rosary and the Evangelical counsels
The rosary and the evangelical counsels are a great aid to humility.

• Praying[iv] the rosary is a meditation on the life of Christ. The mysteries of the rosary remind us of the savior of the world born in a stable, preaching the kingdom, suffering, dying and calling us all to the mystery of eternal life The French Revolutionaries made up a story about reality pleasing to themselves. It hasn’t lasted The rosary invites to enter the story that God tells us.
• The evangelical counsels invite us to live poverty by living simply. Every Christian has the responsibility of living chastely whether single, married or vowed celibate. The obligations and blessings of chastity are experienced according to our way of life. Obedience is to hear the word of God and keep it whether in the single, celibate or married life.

 
The anima sola painting that depicted Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mother and St. Francis at the top of the painting, helping the poor souls in Purgatory also had pictures of those same poor souls in Purgatory. A man, a woman, a priest, a bishop, a cardinal, a king and a pope were all sizzling away in the cleansing fires of Purgatory. The biggest difference between the people who built those missions, created that art and the people of our time, is that the Franciscans and their patrons knew a story greater than their limited vision could offer. It continues to be a vision where human beings are not at the center of the story. The ancients knew they weren’t God. The heirs of the French and American Revolutions, need to learn that lesson, I fear, the hard way.