Hi Blath...
You know Occam’s Razor says the simplest explanation is overwhelmingly right.
‘if you do not put yourself on the margins, if you don’t feel what it is to be an outcast, you will not obtain salvation.’”
The most self-centered, self-directed, self-congratulating people on earth are Americans and specifically American children.
How can one possible attain salvation being the center of things - only God is the center of things.
When God is at the center of your life - He must be the whole center - that would mean you are definitely at the margin - because you cannot be two places at one.
I believe Francis says was he means and he means what he says (of course prior to the media twisting it like a pretzel.)
AMDG
We're called to spiritual union with God, not banishment to some nebulous spiritual margin.
From "The Interior Life" by Very Rev. Father Joseph Tissot:
"The intelligible essence of things - I am therefore called to the dignity of being a child of God, living by His life; He has intended my union with Himself."
We are called to practice spiritual and corporal works of mercy (in accordance with our particular state of life, e.g. a father with a family to support isn't expected to give away all his worldly possessions in imitation of St. Francis).
The statement that if you do not put yourself on the margins, if you don't feel what it is to be an outcast, you will not obtain salvation" is odd. Since when did experience of a particular feeling become a prerequisite to sanctity? Did something once again get lost in the translation? On the face of it, this statement does seem to carry the odor of liberation theology.