Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever. 
So we're continuing our series in Franciscan spirituality today, and we'll begin a new segment today.
Today we'll begin looking at the dogmatic foundations of what we call Franciscan Christocentrism.
We talk about dogmatic foundations, that means we're looking at which doctrines or which truths form the basis of our spirituality, in this case, our Christocentric spirituality, which means our spirituality which has Jesus Christ as its center.
A Franciscan school holds to what we call the absolute primacy of Christ, it's the belief that the incarnation was willed by God as the masterpiece of his creation, sin or no sin.
The Dominican school tends to teach what's called the relative primacy of Christ, that Christ is first among creatures because of the sin of Adam.
So no sin, no incarnation, Christ there has primacy, he has first place in all creation, but it's because of sin, the Dominicans and others would say.
You don't have to hold to the Franciscan teaching about Christ's absolute predestination in order to be saved.
It's a theological question that the church hasn't defined definitively, but we're going to begin today looking at why the Franciscan school believes this, what are the reasons why we believe that Jesus Christ would have become incarnate, sin or no sin.
Again, that's essentially what the absolute predestination or absolute primacy of Christ teaches.
Some of these reflections might be a bit theological, but we try to explain them in the clearest way we can, and as we like to say, with these kinds of reflections, don't worry so much if something goes over your head, it might hit the person behind you, right, we like to say that.
But if you're in the last row, you might want to move up a little bit, just a warning.
Theology teaches that God in the blessed Trinity is one, he's perfectly simple, he's eternal, he's infinite love, that's God in himself.
The divine plan carried out by God in creation and in the incarnation, redemption, and glorification of Christ and of man, that divine plan is also one, it's perfectly simple and eternal.
With one single act, God sees everything and wills everything, but in that single act, which is one and perfectly simple, there's an order, there's a distinction, and a dependence of things among themselves.
Only God can and does perform the perfect work, and he works, his work perfectly and flawlessly responds to the eternal idea that he has of that work.
So what he does actually corresponds perfectly to what he thinks of it.
In God's plan, it's impossible for there to be mistakes or errors of calculation or improvisations, he doesn't add remedies after the fact in order to get around some problems or obstacles.
So question, what's the motive for God to create something, for God creating everything, what's the motive?
In truth, you can't find a motive for what God does outside of God himself.
God's not motivated by anything outside of himself.
The reasons for his operations are found in himself, in his divine essence.
Proverbs 16:4 says, the Lord hath made all things for himself, as the Douay Rheims translates it.
So when you think about it in that way, you really can't speak of a motive for the incarnation in a proper sense, and as the Franciscan school teaches, for this reason, we should reject a priori, we should reject right off the bat any theory which makes the incarnation dependent on original sin, because then the incarnation would be dependent on a motive which is extrinsic to, which is outside of the nature and essence of God himself.
I hope that makes sense, I think that makes some sense.
Just as the work of creation is for the glory of God, so too the work of the incarnation is, first and foremost, for the glory of God.
It's only secondarily a great good for us.
Remember, we exist for God, God doesn't exist for us.
It's not the other way around, we exist for him.
Franciscan theologians first consider God in himself, God as the supreme good, and with that perspective, they see Christ in the design of God and for God.
Christ, God's masterpiece of love, comes about through the hypostatic union, through the union of the divine person of the word with the sacred humanity of Christ, that's what it means.
And then, from these basic truths, the Franciscans interpret the universe itself as a work of love.
So we Franciscans say that the universe has Christ as its center and at its center, and all of creation is oriented towards him and has him as its proper end or goal, against sin or no sin.
You, the universe, every created thing, it all exists for Jesus Christ.
In our next reflection, we'll look at God as the summum bonum, as the greatest good, and see how that ties into the Franciscan thesis, as it's called, our teaching of the absolute primacy of Christ.
For now, let's just ask Our Lady for the grace to do the right thing, the right thing being to put Christ at the center of our lives, the center of our minds, the center of our hearts, because that's actually where he really belongs in God's plan.
Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.

If you would like to grow in love and knowledge of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, consider a subscription to the Missio Immacalatae magazine.
The Missio is a bi-monthly magazine published by the Franciscans of the Immaculate for over 15 years.
Every issue of the Missio features articles about Our Lady's privileges and her mission in the Church and world for the sanctification and conversion of souls.
The Missio takes to heart the ancient saying of the Church, De Maria Numquam Satis, of Mary, you can never say enough.
You can subscribe online at missiomagazine.com, that's m-i-s-s-i-o-magazine.com, or go to the homepage of airmaria.com.
Back issues of the Missio are also available upon request.
The Missio is a practical way to behold your mother and take her into your home.
Ave Maria.