St.Francis of Assisi was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by
taking the gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but
by actually following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without
limit and without a mite of self-importance.
Serious
illness brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking
life as leader of Assisi's youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led
him to a self-emptying like that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a
leper he met on the road. It symbolized his complete obedience to what
he had heard in prayer: "Francis! Everything you have loved and
desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise and hate, if you wish to
know my will. And when you have begun this, all that now seems sweet and
lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all that you used
to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy."
From the
cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him,
"Francis, go out and build up my house, for it is nearly falling
down." Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.
He must
have suspected a deeper meaning to "build up my house." But he
would have been content to be for the rest of his life the poor
"nothing" man actually putting brick on brick in abandoned
chapels. He gave up every material thing he had, piling even his clothes
before his earthly father (who was demanding restitution for Francis'
"gifts" to the poor) so that he would be totally free to say,
"Our Father in heaven." He was, for a time, considered to be a
religious "nut," begging from door to door when he could not
get money for his work, bringing sadness or disgust to the hearts of his
former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.
But
genuineness will tell. A few people began to realize that this man was
actually trying to be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said:
"Announce the kingdom! Possess no gold or silver or copper in your
purses, no traveling bag, no sandals, no staff" (see Luke 9:1-3).
Francis'
first rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels.
He had no idea of founding an order, but once it began he protected it
and accepted all the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion
and loyalty to the Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time
when various movements of reform tended to break the Church's unity.
He was
torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active
preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but
always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary
in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in
both cases. He did try to convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth
Crusade.
During the
last years of his relatively short life (he died at 44) he was half
blind and seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the
stigmata, the real and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and
side.
On his
deathbed, he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle
of the Sun, "Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death." He
sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior to have his clothes
removed when the last hour came and for permission to expire lying naked
on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.
