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 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.
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