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Franciscan Spirituality

Parts 25 to 36 of a 52 part series

25. Admonition XX. The good and vain person

Francis contrasts the person who finds his or her pleasure and delight in the words and deeds of the Lord and the person whose delight is in idle and empty words. At first these words of Francis seem to be severe. Can a person find delight only in the words and deeds of the Lord and, on the other hand, don't we all need to relax now and then with idle talk and gossip. Francis' words have to be understood as an echo of the Gospels. Our Lord said that unless we hate our father and mother, our brothers and sisters and even life itself we cannot be his disciples [Lk 14:26]. This is more severe language than the words of Francis. Our Lord meant by these words the same thing as he had said a little earlier in Luke's Gospel: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be as well [Lk 12:34]. If the Lord is truly our treasure, the pearl of great price for which we sell everything else in order to buy it, then our heart will be centred on the words and deeds of the Lord. Francis adds other reasons for his statement. He says that if our delight is in the words and deeds of the Lord, then 'with these we lead people to the love of God with gladness and joy'. But if we put our treasure, our heart, into idle and empty words, then we 'lead people to laughter with them'. It is good to make people laugh but this good thing is not to become our treasure, our goal, the thing on which we set our hearts.

26. Admonition XXI: The frivolous and talkative person

Everybody finds it irksome to listen to advice when it is clear that the one giving advice has no knowledge of the matter under discussion. This was never true of Francis. In this Admonition he says: 'Blessed is the servant who, when he speaks, does not disclose everything about himself'. If anyone could have disclosed something about himself, it was Francis whose gifts included the wonder of the stigmata. Yet we are told he kept the stigmata secret for as long as possible. His biographer says of him: 'He hid those marks carefully from strangers, and concealed them cautiously from people close to him, so that even the brothers at his side for a long time did not know about them'. In this also Francis had in mind a warning our Lord gave. The Lord spoke strongly against people who displayed heir good deeds when he said they have already received their reward. In the same way Francis chides those who do not hold in their hearts the good things the Lord reveals to them, but under the guise of a reward wish to reveal them with their words. Like our Lord, Francis says that they have received their reward and that the listeners carry away little fruit. No one could say that Francis had not put this into practice. As has been noted several times already Francis was conscious of his sins rather than wanting to boast of graces he had received.

27. Admonition XXII: Correction

'Blessed is the servant who endures discipline, accusation, and reprimand from another as patiently as he would from himself. Blessed is the servant who, after being reprimanded, agrees courteously, submits respectfully, admits humbly, and makes amends willingly. Blessed is the servant who is not quick to excuse himself, and endures with humility, shame, and reprimand for a sin, when he did not commit the fault.' Francis gave advice similar to this to Brother Leo in a form that has become widely known. Once while Brother Leo and Francis were walking from Perugia to Assisi in wintertime, Leo asked Francis to tell him in what does perfect joy consist? Francis' reply was in the form of a story. Imagine, Brother Leo, Francis said, that on this cold day we arrive eventually at our house and ring the bell. When the door is opened by one of our brothers he does not recognize us but drives us away with curses and blows. We are turned back into the wintry night. Desperate, we ring the bell again but the result is the same. Francis then said to Leo: 'O Brother Leo, write that here and in this is perfect joy.' Why would Francis call this perfect joy? The reason he gave to Brother Leo was that we cannot rejoice in our gifts since they are not ours but God's. But what we have to do is glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus as the Apostle says: May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ [Gal 6:14].

28. Admonition XXIII: Humility

It is related by Thomas of Celano, his biographer, that Francis 'in order to preserve the virtue of holy humility, a few years after his conversion, at a chapter, resigned the office of prelate before all the brothers of the religion, saying: "From now on, I am dead to you. But here you have Brother Peter of Catanio, let us all, you and I, obey him"'. That Francis did this is quite extraordinary. Francis was well aware that the Order he began was something new in the Church. The Church authorities were reluctant to approve his rule of life and even some of his companions tried to change his mind. In such circumstances one would have expected him to want to keep control of the Order so as to ensure that it developed according to the way he believed it had been shown to him by the Lord. But Francis had his mind on other things. In speaking of humility in this Admonition Francis shows on what his mind was centred. For Francis it was far more important 'not to delay in punishing himself for all his offences' than to be in charge of the Order and guide it as its superior. He said that he punished himself 'inwardly through contrition and outwardly through confession and penance'. We then are blessed servants if we are humble as Francis was humble.

29. Admonition XXIV: True love

There is a deep tendency in all of us to relate to people with whom we feel comfortable. No doubt Francis shared this same human inclination and so he wrote in this Admonition: 'Blessed is the servant who loves his brother as much when he is sick and cannot repay him as when he is well and can repay him'. It was emphasized in the first of these articles that a shaping experience in the life of Francis was his meeting with the leper. When he met the leper he had many friends among the people and youth of Assisi. These were his relatives, fellow citizens and his companions. He and they were healthy and could return friendship to one another. But when he met the leper he stood before a person who was gravely ill, who could not return any act of friendship or hospitality because he did not belong to the society in which Francis lived. The leper was an outcast. When he kissed the leper he was showing love to a person who was sick and could not repay him and yet in that love Francis found that what before had seemed bitter to him was turned into sweetness of soul and body. This simple Admonition is challenging and expresses basic truths of the Gospel. Our Lord loved all of us even though we gave Him nothing in return other than death on Calvary. But even so our Lord invited us to walk to Calvary with him assuring us that the yoke of our cross would be easy and light.

30. Admonition XXV: True love

This Admonition deals with the same topic as the preceding Admonition, namely, how to love one another, but Francis applies it to a different aspect of what love demands. Francis had an ability to pick out basic human weaknesses and warn us about them. In this Admonition he warns us of how easy it is to speak of others behind their backs and to say things we would never say in their presence. Francis at times spoke strongly to his brothers when he felt they were betraying Lady Poverty. Once when he was absent from Assisi the people and authorities in Assisi built a large house for the needs of the brothers. When Francis returned to Assisi and saw the building he was so annoyed that he got on the roof and started to throw down the tiles off the roof as he felt the building betrayed his ideal of poverty. He only stopped destroying the building when the authorities in Assisi assured him that the house belonged to the commune of Assisi and not to the brothers. But one searches in vain in all the early writings about Francis to find any instance when he spoke against brothers who were absent. So Francis' advice to us is: 'Blessed is the servant who loves and respects his brother as much when he is away from him as when he is with him, and who would not say anything behind his back that he would not say with charity in his presence'.

31. Admonition XXVI: Let servants of God honour the clergy

The vision given to Saint Paul on the Damascus Road has many similarities to the meeting of Francis with the leper. Saint Paul realized from the vision that the Lord identifies with every Christian for whom Christ is the head and they the members of the body. Francis experienced the Lord in the leper and so was made to realize that Christ identifies with the poor and the disadvantaged. From then on, when Francis left the world his concern was to seek the Lord. He found the Lord in a special way in the Eucharist because he saw nothing bodily of the Most High Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist. As Francis stated in his Testament this fact made him consider his attitude to priests and especially to priests who sin. Francis did not shut his eyes to sin in priests because he says in this Admonition: 'even though priests be sinners, no one should judge them because the Lord alone reserves judgment on them to Himself'. It would seem that the reason why Francis could say this is because of his overwhelming sense of wonder at priests being instruments through whom we have the presence of the Lord among us. For Francis the important thing is to have faith in what the priests do a t the altar provided they follow the rites of the Church. So he says: 'Blessed is he servant who has faith in the clergy who live uprightly according to the rite of the Roman Church'.

32. Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (1)

In this Admonition Francis lists eleven virtues each of which drives out an opposing vice. The virtues and vices are listed in six paragraphs, each paragraph having two lines. Since it is informative to ask why Francis chose these particular virtues the comments on this Admonition will cover more than one article. The first paragraph reads: 'Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance'. What experiences in Francis' life stand behind this choice of charity and wisdom as opposites of fear and ignorance? Francis never presented himself as a wise person even though he was noted for his charity. But one area where Francis showed wisdom was in knowing what God was asking him to do and how his Rule should be written. He held to what he was convinced was true in spite of opposition from Church authorities and from the advice of learned people both within and outside the Order. At a General chapter held at Assisi with five thousand brothers present, many learned brothers tried to persuade Francis to adopt the Rule of Augustine, or of Benedict, or of Bernard. Francis replied to them: 'My brothers, my brothers, God has called me by the way of simplicity and showed me the way of simplicity. And the Lord told me what He wanted: He wanted me to be a new fool in the world'. In Francis, charity and wisdom drove out fear and ignorance.

33. Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (2)

The second pair of lines in this Admonition read: 'Where here is patience and humility, there is neither anger nor disturbance.' In his biography of Francis, Saint Bonaventure said that Francis 'would rather hear himself blamed than praised, knowing that the former would lead him to change his life, while the latter would push him to a fall'. To want to be blamed was possible for Francis for he always regarded himself as a sinner and remembered how he felt when he stood before the Lord in the person of the leper. But he showed his humility in a more dramatic and painful way when 'in order to make himself looked down up by others, he did not spare himself the shame of bringing up his own faults in his preaching before all the people'. Such patience and humility in Francis drove out anger and disturbance. Rather than getting angry when he was mocked, he had one of the brothers mock him whenever people praised him. He experienced truth more in insults than in praise. This is remarkable. When the brother had mocked and insulted him, albeit unwillingly, Francis said to him: 'May the Lord bless you, my beloved brother, for it is you who are really telling the very truth and what the son of Peter Bernadone needs to hear'. Indeed, patience and humility in Francis drove out anger and disturbance.

34. Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (3)

'Where there is poverty with joy, there is neither greed nor avarice.' As already noted in these articles, when Francis kissed the leper he found that what had seemed bitter to him was changed into sweetness of body and soul. From reflecting on this experience he was led to choose a life of poverty. Francis followed the ideal of poverty so faithfully that he is still called the Poverello, the Poor Man of Assisi. His pursuit of poverty became a love story that prompted after his death a Franciscan work with the title The Sacred Agreement of Francis and Lady Poverty. St Bonaventure records a marvellous incident that occurred during Francis' life. Bonaventure writes that once, as Francis with some companions was approaching the city of Siena, three poor women, 'exactly alike in health, age and appearance met him and said: "Welcome, Lady Poverty"'. The women disappeared at once but, as Bonaventure says, the brothers continued to reflect on what the vision might mean. Their conclusion was that the vision showed that Francis 'had chosen to glory above all in the privilege of poverty which he was accustomed to call his mother, his bride, and his lady'. While for Francis poverty seemed to be bitter, he found that, when he embraced it, poverty became a source of joy as much as in finding one's partner in marriage. Having found the partner of his life he wanted nothing more and so for Francis it was the joy of poverty that drove out greed and avarice.

35. Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (4)

It is said of Francis that he never rested from doing good, either by spending time with God or by going to people. Bonaventure assures us that Francis divided the time given him by spending some of the time working for his neighbour's good, and he dedicated the remaining time 'to the tranquil excesses of contemplation'. Francis did far more than spend some part of each day in prayer. Now and then he also went away to a mountain retreat to pray for days on end. Still today the places where he went to pray are well-known shrines and sacred sites in Franciscan history. He prayed at the Carceri above Assisi, at Fonte Colombo, at Narni and above all on the mountain La Verna. When Francis found that he was exhausted from his preaching, he would look for the secrets of solitude and a place of quiet. It was in such a setting that he received the stigmata on La Verna. Time spent in prayer is private time between the person and God but we can say of Francis that in going away regularly to fast and pray he was still pursuing the Lord he had experienced in the leper. That experience outside Assisi inspired him to follow the Lord with total devotion. In his search for the Lord, his most intense encounters with this Lord would have taken place in the private days of rest and meditation. One can well imagine that when he received the stigmata, the marks identifying him with the crucified Christ, the intensity of that union with the Lord drove out any anxiety and restlessness.

36. Admonition XXVII: Virtue puts vice to flight (5)

'Where there is fear of the Lord to guard an entrance there the enemy cannot find place to enter.' To fear the Lord means to stand in awe before God. Fear of the Lord implies reverence, an acknowledgment that God is other than us, our Creator, the Person on whom we depend for everything. The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom [Job 28:28]. The enemy driven out by fear of the Lord is the enemy or temptation that would make us self centred, proud with a sense of self-sufficiency. Francis retained a sense of reverence, of fear of the Lord during his whole life because it was this experience of a fear of God that he felt when meeting the leper. It is informative then to see how Francis began his prayers. For example, he wrote Praises of God that begin: 'You are holy Lord God Who does wonderful things. You are strong. You are great. You are the most high. You are the almighty king. You holy Father, King of heaven and earth'. This reverence for and awe of God led Francis to reverence everything on earth that spoke to him of God. It lies behind his ability to have wild animals sense in him a union with their Creator, it made him reach out to all people and even go to the court of the Sultan who was at war with the Christian armies. It led him to reverence even a scrap of parchment on which no words had been written, and above all, it led him to a wonderful reverence for the Eucharist and the presence of the Lord among us in this Eucharist.

Fr Campion Murray ofm is a conventual Franciscan Friar and a distinguished theologian. He lives and works in the Franciscan community at Campbelltown NSW Australia

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