Francis had learnt from the Gospel that holding one's life in one's hands causes one to lose it, but whoever is prepared to lose it for Christ and with Christ actually gains it.

When he encountered the lepers, the Minim was at a crossroads: hold his own life or give it?

To embrace the marginalised or to continue thinking about his own existence?

The Sources attest to what choice Francis made in the matter.

The Lord had told him something very precise:

"Francis," God said to him in spirit, "you prefer

bitter things to sweet things, despise yourself, if you want to know me" (FF 591).

And again: "Among all the horrors of human misery, Francis felt an instinctive repugnance for lepers. But, lo and behold, one day he encountered precisely one, while he was on horseback near Assisi.

He felt great annoyance and revulsion, but not to fail in his fidelity, as if transgressing an order he had received, he leapt from his horse and ran to kiss him.

And the leper, who had stretched out a hand to him, as if to receive something, received both money and a kiss. Immediately he got back on his horse, looked here and there - the countryside was all open and free of obstacles all around - but he no longer saw the leper.

Full of joy and admiration, a short time later he wanted to repeat that gesture: he went to the leper colony and, after giving each sick person some money, kissed their hand and mouth.

In this way he preferred bitter things to sweet things, and was manly in keeping his other intentions" (FF 592).

In this way, the Poor Man of Assisi made loving and caring for lepers the discriminating factor in losing one's life in order to find it again.

"He who seeks to keep his life will lose it; but he who loses it will keep it alive" (Lk 17:33).

Friday, 32nd wk. in O.T. (Lk 17:26-37)

The Lord calls to pay attention to happenings. Not to waste opportunities for life.

Francis of Assisi was a singular prophet capable of reading the signs encountered on the journey of faith.

But the grave error could have been that of not having understood that Francis was a sign of the times, and what a sign!

Given by Heaven to win souls to God, knowing that time was short.

The Sources, Teachers of Franciscanism, tell why the Saint was chosen as a sign of the times.

In this sense, the Major Legend of St Bonaventure becomes a revelation:

"On him truly poor and contrite of heart, God rested his gaze with great condescension and goodness; not only did he lift him beggarly from the dust of worldly life, but he made him champion, guide and herald of evangelical perfection and chose him as a light for believers, so that, having become a witness to the light, he might prepare for the Lord the way of light and peace in the hearts of the faithful" (FF 1020).

St Bonaventure continues:

"Like the morning star appearing in the midst of the clouds, with the radiant rays of his life and teaching he drew to the light those who lay in the shadow of death; like a rainbow, shining among the bright clouds, bearing in himself the sign of the covenant with the Lord, he proclaimed to men the Gospel of peace and salvation.

Angel of true peace, he too, in imitation of the Forerunner, was predestined by God to prepare the way in the desert of the highest poverty and to preach penance by example and word [...].

He was filled with the spirit of prophecy and, deputed to the office of the angels, was filled with the ardent love of the seraphim, until, having become similar to the angelic hierarchies, he was taken up to heaven by a chariot of fire.

It is thus rationally demonstrated that he was sent among us with the spirit and power of Elijah" (FF 1021).

"And therefore, it is rightly affirmed that he is symbolised in the figure of the angel who ascends from the east and bears within himself the seal of the living God" (FF 1022).

"He had from Heaven the mission to call men to weep, to mourn, to shave their heads and gird their loins, and to impress, with the sign of the penitential cross and with a garment made in the form of a cross; the Tau, on the foreheads of those who weep and mourn" (FF 1022).

"For as the thunderbolt, shining from one end of the sky, shines to the other end of the sky, so shall the Son of Man be [on his day]" (Lk 17:24).

Thursday, 32nd wk. in O.T. (Lk 17:20-25)

Today's liturgy visits us with Jesus' encounter with the ten lepers. They are all healed, but only one returns to Him to thank Him, mindful of what he had received, and above all to 'give glory to God' [recognising Christ, Lord].

The Poor Man of Assisi, after his conversion, saw in the encounter with the lepers the way to become incarnate Word.

He felt grateful remembrance towards the Lord for the experience he had had among them.

And Jesus, in response, used him to heal the lepers as well. In the Sources we read:

"At San Severino in the province of Ancona, there lived a young man named Atto. He was so covered with ulcers that the doctors judged him to be a true leper. His limbs were all swollen and swollen, due to the swelling of his veins, everything appeared deformed. It was impossible for him to walk, and he had to lie in the bed of his sorrow, to the desperate distress of his parents. His father especially, torn apart by that excessive pain, no longer knew what to do. But at last it came into his mind to recommend and vow him to the blessed Francis, and he made him this proposal:

 'My son, do you want to make a vow to the glorious Francis, who shines through many miracles, that he may deliver you from your evil?' He answered: 'Yes father!'.

The father immediately had a sheet of papyrus brought to him, took the measurements of his son's height and thickness, and then said to him:

'Get up, make a vow to blessed Francis that if you get well, every year and for the rest of your life, you will go as a pilgrim to his tomb, carrying a candle as tall as you'.

The young man obeyed his father's request; he stood up as best he could, and with joined hands, began to invoke the mercy of Blessed Francis.

Having taken the measure of the papyrus, he got up as soon as he had finished his prayer, and was completely cured of his leprosy. He began to walk, giving praise to God and Blessed Francis" (FF 563).

The grateful memory of what has been received bears witness to the fact that it pleases God that his creatures are not forgetful.

"Have not the ten been washed? But where [are] the nine? Were they not found to give glory to God, except this stranger?" (Lk 17:17-18).

Wednesday, 32nd wk. in O.T. (Lk 17:11-19)

In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples about humility and the greatness of serving: simply doing what we are commanded.

Thanks to the light received from the Spirit, Francis and Clare had learnt to incarnate the Word of God on a daily basis.

The target of their action was Christ to be recognised and served in the brothers or sisters, but also to be helped in those who knocked on the door or met along the way.

The children of the kingdom of heaven do not dominate, but humbly serve their neighbour.

Jesus' disciples do not aspire to prestigious positions, but to conform to the identikit outlined in the Beatitudes.

Hence the active understanding of what the Sources propose.

"They [the brothers] occupied the day in prayer and working with their hands, so as to resolutely avoid idleness, the enemy of the soul [...].

They loved each other with a deep affection, and served and provided for each other as a mother would do with her only tenderly loved child.

Such was the affection that burned in their hearts, that they were ready to give themselves up to death without hesitation, not only for the love of Christ, but also to save the souls or bodies of their brethren" (FF 1446).

"When you have done all that you have been commanded, say:

"We are servants of no account. We have done what we had to do" (Lk 17:10).

And Clare herself, enclosed within the Damianite walls, offered in simplicity to her sisters the testimony of all-round service.

"From then on she no longer refused any servile duties, to the point that she was the one who poured water over the sisters' hands, stood to assist them while they sat and served them at table while they ate.

She barely gave any orders: but she did them spontaneously, preferring to carry them out herself rather than command her sisters" (FF 3180).

The Minim and the Poor Woman of San Damiano had received as a gift a pure heart, inflamed by Charity, at the service of the Kingdom.

Looking upon Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of the Law, they had acquired His physiognomy as fraternal servants, to redeem the multitudes.

Tuesday, 32nd wk. in O.T. (Lk 17:7-10)

Jesus emphasises the necessary forgiveness to be offered to the brother who has done wrong.

Francis had many special qualities, but excelled in one: the stable and solid memory of divine Mercy bending over him, to the point of condoning all the errors of his past life.

He had experienced the fatherhood and motherhood of God, absorbed in those bowels of mercy that had visited and healed him inwardly.

For him, pity and forgiveness - as well as taking back, where necessary - were basic attitudes in the fraternal journey.

By now he carried carved in his heart Jesus' answer to Peter's question: how often to grant forgiveness.

The Lord answered him: "I say to you not seven times, but seventy times seven" (Mt 18:22). As if to say: "always".

Francis of Assisi, in a passage from his Letter to a Minister, explains well the continuous readiness to forgive, and to begin again without tiring. The accents are moving.

"I tell you [...] that those things that are an impediment to you in loving the Lord God, and every person who will be an obstacle to you [...] all this you must hold as a grace [...] And love those who act with you in this way [...]" (FF 234).

Again: "And in this I want to know if you love the Lord and love me his servant and yours, if you will act in this way, namely: that there be no brother in the world, who has sinned, as much as it is possible to sin, who, after he has seen your eyes, does not go away without your forgiveness, if he asks for it; and if he does not ask forgiveness, you ask him if he wants to be forgiven. And if, afterwards, he sins a thousand times before your eyes, love him more than me for this: that you may draw him to the Lord; and always have mercy on such brothers" (FF 235).

The letter, a true jewel among those written by the Poverello, continues:

"If any of the brothers, at the instigation of the enemy, has mortally sinned, he is bound by obedience to have recourse to his guardian. And all the brothers who know of his sin, let them not shame him nor speak ill of him, but have great mercy on him and keep their brother's sin a great secret, because not the healthy need a doctor, but the sick" (FF 237).

"If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him" (Lk 17:3).

Monday 32nd wk. in O.T. (Lk 17,1-6)

Francis, the Minor of Assisi, detested appearances and was convinced that to give all one has to live is to give back to the Lord what is his.

In the Sources we read:

"He was once asked how he could, in such light clothing, defend himself from the rigours of winter.

Full of spiritual fervour, he replied:

"If our hearts burned for the desire of the heavenly homeland, we would easily endure this external cold".

He had a horror of soft clothes, preferred rough ones, and claimed that, precisely because of his rough clothes, John the Baptist had been praised by the very mouth of God.

If by chance they gave him a cassock, which seemed soft to him, he would weave it inside with ropes, saying: soft garments, according to the Word of Truth, are to be sought not in the huts of the poor, but in the palaces of princes.

He had learnt from certain experience that demons are frightened by harshness, while from softness and delicacy they take courage to try more boldly (FF 1088).

And Clare, little plant of the seraphic father, in a letter to his beloved spiritual daughter, Agnes of Prague, we hear her say:

"Surely you know [...] that the Lord promises the Kingdom of heaven and gives it only to the poor, because when one loves temporal things one loses the fruit of charity; and that it is not possible to serve God and Mammon, because one either loves the one and hates the other or serves the latter and despises the former [...] Therefore you have thrown away superfluous garments, that is, earthly riches" (FF 2867).

Clare, following the example of Francis, had thrown into the common treasure the trifles of her earthly existence in the service of her neighbour.

"And when a poor widow came, she threw in two pennies [...] her entire livelihood" (Mk 12:42, 44).

32nd Sunday B (Mk 12:38-44)

Jesus drove the sellers out of the temple and emphasised not to make his Father's house a market place.

Francis was as zealous for the Lord and his will as he was for all the churches around the world.

He wanted them respected for what they are and represent; he did not want to know about turning them into what God is not.

This even though Jesus had made it clear to him that his zeal was for the Church, the assembly of believers, the living temple of Christ.

In the Sources:

"He had no blush to ask the small things of those smaller than himself; he the true lesser, who had learned from the Supreme Master the greater things.

He used to seek with singular zeal the way and manner of serving God more perfectly, as it pleased Him best' (FF 1205).

Moreover: "Truly with joyful devotion he wandered among the heavenly abodes, and in complete self-abasement, he dwelt as if hidden in the wounds of the Saviour [...].

His safe haven was prayer, not of a few minutes, or empty, or pretentious, but deeply devout, humble and prolonged as much as possible" (FF 445).

But with regard to the reparation of S. Damiano:

"It is this place where St Francis, guided by divine revelation, began the Order of Friars Minor.

Precisely by the disposition of divine Providence, which directed him in all things, the servant of Christ had materially restored three churches before founding the Order and devoting himself to preaching the Gospel [...].

For just as three buildings were repaired, so, under the guidance of this holy man, the Church was to be renewed in three ways: according to the form of life, according to the Rule and according to the doctrine of Christ which he proposed" (FF 1050).

He had taught his brothers to recite this prayer near every church they encountered, adoring the Almighty:

"We adore you, O Christ, in all your churches [...]" (FF 401).

The zeal for the house of God devoured him.

"Take these things away from here, and do not make my Father's house a marketplace" (Jn 2:16b).

Dedication of the Lateran Basilica (Jn 2:13-22)

In today's Gospel Jesus speaks to His own with the parable of the dishonest steward who shrewdly secures friends with the wealth of others in order to be welcomed by them into his uncertain future.

Francis of Assisi, in reality, is the one who was able to make friends in Heaven with dishonest wealth.

He did not love it, in fact he returned everything to his father, marrying Lady Poverty.

But his merit was that he knew how to make use of earthly goods in a wise, evangelical way.

The Franciscan Sources, a place of spiritual wealth, highlight this:

"Even on major feasts, when there was an opportunity, he used to go for alms. Because, he said, in the poor of God the word of the prophet is fulfilled: man has eaten the bread of Angels. The bread of the Angels is that which holy poverty gathers from door to door and which, asked for the love of God, for the love of God is given out, at the suggestion of the holy Angels" (FF 1129).

And in Clare's Rule we see how she speaks of poverty addressed to her sisters:

"Let this be your portion of inheritance, which introduces you into the land of the living. Adhering totally to it, never, beloved sisters, have anything else under heaven, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ and his most holy Mother" (FF 2795).

They knew, in fact, that goods given to those in need constitute the cornerstone of following Jesus and his Holy Word.

"The sons of this age are more astute than the sons of light towards their own kind" (Lk 16:8b).

Friday, 31st wk. in O.T. (Lk 16:1-8)