Passion or Obsession – What is the Difference?
A Pilgrimage to Eternity
Timothy Egan
Sermon 08-21-22 by Beth Henricks
Our scripture reading this morning is Matthew 23:13-15 NRSV – from the teachings of Jesus
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
I looked up the word passion in the Merriam dictionary this week as I have always had a strong attachment to this word and how it plays out in our lives. There are a few definitions –
A strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object or concept, an object of desire or deep interest, ardent affection, sexual desire, emotional, an outbreak of anger (like a crime of passion) the state or capacity of being acted on by external agents or forces and when capitalized means the sufferings of Christ between the night of the Last Supper and his death. Wow, I never thought about the diversity of how this word has come to be used in our culture.
I’ve always thought of passion as an energy force that gets one excited, gets one motivated to do something and comes from the heart. When I was younger, I thought more about passion between two people that were falling in love. It seems like everything the other person does is wonderful, and our passion feels intense and deep. As couples age together the intensity of that passion might dwindle a bit but in the best of relationships the passion might manifest itself more in acts of service and devotion to the other person.
The passion that Jesus had for humanity connects with many of these definitions. Jesus desire for each of us to be whole and healthy, loving ourselves and our neighbors and enemies. He was willing to sacrifice his life out his passion for us and showing us a different way to respond to oppression and violence. I think Jesus was the ultimate passionate person in his devotion, his ardent affection, his deep and abiding love for us.
I started thinking about the difference between passion and obsession as I have been reading the book by Tim Egan, A Pilgrimage to Eternity ( a borrowed and recommended book by Phil Goodchild). It’s been a fascinating journey that Tim recorded over a number of months on his physical and spiritual pilgrimage along the Via Francigena, (Fransigena) once the major medieval trail leading the devout from Canterbury England through small towns in France, Switzerland and Italy to finally make it to Rome. Many have walked this path or a part of this path for the last 800 years.
Egan shares a chapter as he enters the monastery that St Francis founded above San Miniato in Italy about eight hundred years ago. Most of us have heard something about St Francis and are familiar with his prayer –
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.
We might know a bit of his story and it is quite a story. Francis was born into a well to do family in 1182 in Italy. He would have a comfortable life to follow in the footsteps of his successful merchant father. Francis in his 20’s was quite the wild man and would party all-night, sleep-in till noon, and wanted to be a knight. Probably typical of most 20 something young people back in the 13th century. To prove himself, he goes to war against his neighboring town of Perugia. He was not successful and was beaten, captured and sent to a dungeon and was only released because his father had the money to pay his ransom. When he returns home, he still wants to be a warrior, but this experience has changed him. He becomes depressed and yet joins other Christians traveling to the Holy Land as the Pope promised absolution for any participation in war. On his first night on the trip Francis had a dramatic dream that he can’t dismiss. The next day he meets a leper on the road that is a person living in the shadows. He gets off his horse and grabs the man’s hand and kisses him because he is so moved. This encounter changes his life. He is incredibly taken by the encounter and begins to fast and pray. He heard Christ SAY TO HIM, ‘”repair my church, it’s broken, corrupt, run by charlatans and hypocrites.” Francis goes home to tell his father of his mystical experience and his desire to shed himself of all outward trappings of wealth and privilege and to serve the poor and oppressed. His father is not happy and in fact tries to force him to remain at home, but Francis knows his calling and takes off with no possessions, no status, no home and yet this is when his depression lifted. Townspeople thought he was crazy, he lived in a cave, begged for his food, sang with the birds, and had a joyous spirit. He once said, “It is not fitting, when one is in God’s service, to have a gloomy face or a chilling look.” Francis began attracting followers to this way of life and he and other travelers traveled to the Pope to ask if they could establish a new religious order. The Pope informally granted them approval and established the Franciscan order in Italy. These converts lived simply, had no possessions, offered help to the poor and oppressed and shared the message of Jesus. Francis became more well known throughout Italy as time went on.
During these times, the Pope and the Church were persecuting heretics, Jews and looking for new war with Islam. Francis goes to visit the Pope and convinces him over a 7-year period to allow him to travel to meet with the Sultan of Egypt offering an alternative to killing each other. They listen to each other and learn about their respective religions, their shared religious history, and each offers admiration of certain things about the others religion. The experience had Francis urging his followers to open their hearts to those that his pope wants to hate and kill.
Francis attracted more and more followers and within 10 years of his death at age 45 there were 5,000 Franciscans. While the Franciscans wanted reform of their church, they never left the church but tried to influence it from within. Today, we all know St Francis, the Franciscan religious order is the largest one in the Catholic church and St Francis is embraced by people of faith trying to live by his words, “preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use woods.”
As our author continued his travels along the Via Francigena, he came upon the town of Florence. Some of you have been to Florence to see the statute of David, many other beautiful statutes, frescos, paintings, and all sorts of art. It has come to be known as the city of art. But in 1482 a devout man of God by the name of Girolamo Savonarola came to Florence. His background was very similar to St Francis. He came from a privileged home and denounced his wealth and position and entered a life of self-denial and devotion to the Catholic Church. Like Francis, his family denounced him, and he slept on a hard surface in a cold room. Both of them saw the excesses of the Catholic church and wanted reform. But when Savonarola became the abbot at the San Marco monastery outside of Florence, he became obsessed with the literature and art that Florence was enjoying. He thought it was pagan, evil, sensual, and exuberant. He focused on the darkest parts of the book of Revelation and thought the people wicked and God would soon punish them. He said, “I am the hailstorm that shall smash the head of those who do not take cover.” He was hell bent on rooting out corruption and punishing those that did not follow God including leaders in the Catholic church. During his time, the Church remained very corrupt, and Savonarola became angry and obsessed with destroying anyone who opposed him. He denounced the wealthiest family in Europe the Medici family and when they had to flee the country Savonarola became the de facto ruler of Florence. He had a youthful mob of people in service to theocracy, carrying out his vicious acts. They went home to home confiscated art, literature, perfume, playing cards, musical instruments, fine clothes etc. and lit the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497 in the main plaza of Florence. He wanted Florence to become a “City of God” Many were tortured and killed as heretics.
The next winter, crops were in short supply, money disappeared because there was no free trade and people grew hungry. Another mob of the people turned on Savonarola, not understanding why God would do this to them when they had become the city of God. They now went after Savonarola and his disciples, and had them arrested, tortured, and killed.
Two men with similar backgrounds, devoted to the Gospel of Christ yet one allowed passion to turn into obsession and the other let his passion flourish and fly towards the Light. How did Savonarola start out with such good intentions, searching for the divine end up a violent man that was swollen with his own sense of pride and power. He just could not see God in poetry, art, music, and laughter. It wasn’t about the Spirit for him it was about sin, punishment and believing the right thing.
So here we have a man, St Francis that is as beloved today as 800 years ago. His legacy is large and the path he showed us is one to follow into God’s love and light. Then there is Girolamo Savonarola, who no one has ever heard of, has no legacy or following and gave us an example of how devotion and self-denial to God can turn into an obsession with destructive consequences. Egan makes this comparison in his book, “The dichotomy of these two men is the dichotomy of the Christian faith, one side struggling against the other, an open heart against a fist.”
We can see this play out today in our churches and denominations. Adherence to right belief can go from passion to obsession. Holding on to anything too tightly can turn something with energy, with purpose and with passion into something that is small minded, ugly, and not full of God’s light and love. One of Francis’s core beliefs with his followers is that they were inferior to all and superior to none. This is the staying power to Francis’s message – humility. May we embrace this attitude of St Francis and live by this phrase from him “Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” That is where passion should live.
As we enter our time of unprogrammed worship, I offer a few queries for contemplation -
Have any of my passions become obsessions?
Do I live in humility and not hold my passions too tightly?
How do I more passionately follow the path of St Francis?