Jesus told the crowd and his disciples: «If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me [...]» (Mk 8:34).

Francis, after his profound conversion, had grasped by Grace the fuller meaning of self-denial.

Scanning the Sources, the episodes contained therein highlight this well.

At the beginning of the Franciscan parable, the Poverello encouraged his brothers to persevere, renouncing all that was contrary to the Word of God.

"At the same time, another worthy person entered the Religion, and so the blessed sons of the man of God reached the number of seven.

Then the pious father gathered all his children around him and spoke at length with them about the Kingdom of God, about the contempt of the world, about the necessity of denying one's own will and mortifying one's own body, and he revealed his intention of sending them to the four parts of the world.

By now the holy father, like the barren, simple and poor woman of the Bible, had given birth seven times, and wished to give birth to Christ to all the people of the faithful, calling them to weeping and penance" (FF 1058).

Francis had a watchful eye on the ability to deny those who wanted to enter into that evangelical fraternity.

In fact, in the Franciscan documents, we find a very significant episode.

The Minim of Assisi, travelling through the province of the Marches to preach, met a man who asked him to join his community.

The father addressed him thus:

"Brother, if you want to enter our family, it is necessary first that you distribute all your goods to the poor, according to the perfection advised by the holy Gospel, and then that you renounce your will completely" (FF 1567).

At these words the man inspired by carnal and not spiritual love, gave all his goods to his kinsmen.

Then he went to Francis reporting that he had deprived himself of all he had.

But the father asked him how he had done it.

He replied: "Brother, I have given all mine to some relatives who were in need" (FF 1567).

The passage continues: 'Francis knew, through the Holy Spirit, that this was a carnal man, and immediately took him away:

"Go your way, brother Fly, for you have given yours to your kinsmen, and now you would like to live on alms among the brethren".

And he went his way, refusing to distribute his possessions to other poor people (FF 1567).

Friday, 6th wk. in O.T.  (Mk 8,34-9,1)

Jesus asks his disciples a precise question:

«Who do men say that I am?» (Mk 8:27b).

He then explains that the Son of Man will have no worldly triumphs. He then reproaches Peter - who represents us all - for his banal way of thinking, not according to God.

But those who approached Francis immediately understood that he was a man who thought according to God and not according to men.

In fact, his words, his gestures were so different from the commonplace thinking and acting of people, that they aroused astonishment.

The Sources, precious testimonies of the time, confirm this.

"Truly, Francis always carried in his heart that little bundle of myrrh*, always gazed upon the face of his Christ, always remained in contact with the Man of sorrows, who knows all suffering" (FF 672).

In the sufferings of the poor she saw those of the Poor One par excellence: Christ; working to alleviate them in every way.

"Once, while returning from Siena, he met a poor man. It happened that Francis, because of illness, was wearing a cloak over his habit.

Observing the man's misery with merciful eyes, he said to his companion:

"We must return the cloak to this poor man: for it is his. For we have received it on loan, until we should happen to find someone poorer than ourselves'.

The companion, however, considering the state in which the pitiful father found himself, opposed a clear refusal: he had no right to forget himself, in order to provide for another.

But the saint:

"I believe that the Great Elector will accuse me of theft if I do not give what I wear to those most in need" (FF 1143).

Example of thinking according to God and according to men.

Two distant logics: love that gives itself to the end, regardless of the suffering to be borne to the point of exhaustion - and self-love that flees or wants to flee from all that is trial, suffering, discomfort, inconvenience.

Francis had chosen Christ and loved: he thought like Jesus, according to the measure of the Gospel.

The Herald of the Great King, in truth, repeated to the Son of God, with his bare existence and continually:

«You are the Christ».

In what he did, one could always hear its echo.

Myrrh, enclosed in special bags or purses, was worn around the neck by the elegant women of the time. Here the bunch of myrrh symbolises the suffering Christ, always lovingly present in Francis' heart.

«But who do you say that I am?» (Mk 8:29)

Thursday, 6th wk. in O.T.  (Mk 8:27-33)

Mk narrates the healing of the blind man of Bethsaida. Jesus heals him outside the village, and asks him not to enter it.

Francis, the Poor Man of Assisi, healed many blind in body and spirit, by the gift of the Most High.

In the "Treatise of Miracles" numerous episodes of eye healings are narrated, cases of people who, thanks to the Minim, regained their sight. The Sources inform us in this regard.

"To a blind girl from Bevagna he restored her desired sight by smearing her eyes with spit three times, in the name of the Trinity.

A woman from Narni, struck blind, recovered her sight as soon as he blessed her.

A child from Bologna had one eye completely covered by a spot and could see absolutely nothing. No remedy could be found to help him. But after the Lord's servant had made the sign of the cross to him, from head to toe, he regained crystal-clear sight. He later entered the Order of Friars Minor and said he could see much clearer from his healed eye than from the eye that had always remained healthy' (FF 1218).

But also St Mary of the Portiuncula, a place so dear to Francis, was the scene of salvation for many souls suffering from inner blindness.

"Concerning this place, a friar, devoted to God, before his conversion, had a vision worthy of being reported.

It seemed to him that he saw innumerable men, suffering from blindness, standing around this church, on their knees and with their faces turned towards heaven.

They all stretched out their hands upwards and, weeping, they invoked mercy and light from God.

And behold, there came from heaven an immense splendour, which, penetrating into them all, brought to each one the desired light and salvation" (FF 1049).

Francis, the Poverello, Herald of Christ, was concerned not only with material sight, but also with interior sight - to lead so many souls to the Lord.

This is why the Portiuncula was considered a place of salvation: those who frequented it saw more clearly, because it was the seat of celestial and humanising radiance.

«Then again he laid his hands on his eyes and was restored and saw everything distinctly at a distance» (Mk 8:25)

Wednesday 6th wk. in O.T. (Mk 8,22-26)

Even Francis, when he was still in the world and faced with the unravelling of his specific call from the Lord [and subsequent conversion] had to struggle against Herod's leaven: lust for power and glory.

It was God, then, who enlightened him and made him distance himself from what was leading him astray.

"A nobleman from Assisi, eager for money and glory, took up arms to go and fight in Apulia. On hearing of this, Francis was seized with a thirst for adventure. So, in order to be created a knight by a certain Count Gentile, he prepares a trousseau of precious cloths; for if he was less rich than his fellow citizen, he was, however, more generous than him in spending [...]" (FF 1399).

But the Lord, knowing him to be so eager for glory and power, visited him with a vision.

While he was sleeping, a man appeared to him who, calling him by name, led him to a beautiful palace where weapons and objects of warfare were seen hanging on the wall.

Francis asked to whom all these things and the palace belonged. He was answered that it all belonged to him and his knights.

He woke up, all happy, interpreting the dream according to worldly criteria. Having not yet fully tasted the spirit of God, he imagined he would become a prince.

So, interpreting it as an omen of good fortune, he wanted to leave for Apulia, to be created a knight by that Count.

When he arrived in Spoleto, he began to feel unwell and in his sleep he heard a voice asking him where he was going. Francis told him of his ambitious project.

"He said, «Who can be of more use to you: the master or the servant?» He answered: "The master”.

The One resumed: «Why then do you abandon the master to follow the servant, and the prince for the subject?»

Then Francis asked, "Lord, what do you want me to do?"

Concluded the voice: «Return to your city and there you will be told what you must do; for the vision that has appeared to you must be interpreted in a different sense».

[...] The morning dawned and in great haste he diverted his horse to Assisi, happy and exultant" (FF 1401).

Thus Francis abandoned the leaven of Herod to adhere to Christ, becoming its great Herald, courageous and tenacious.

Tuesday 6th wk. in O.T. (Mk 8,14-21)

In the verses from Mark's Gospel, Jesus is disgusted by the hypocritical Pharisees, who start arguing with Him asking for a sign from heaven to test Him, after the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

All this causes a deep disappointment in Christ.

Francis of Assisi followed Jesus not because of the wonders that the Lord performed but by Faith; won over by his Gospel, by the Beatitudes enunciated on the Mount, by his having died and risen again - for him.

This had attracted him and made him fall in love with the bare Gospel parable, without 'ifs' and 'buts'.

The Sources, the jewel of the Franciscan path, help us to understand.

"Therefore all those who saw the Lord Jesus according to humanity, but did not see or believe, according to the spirit and divinity, that he is the true Son of God, are condemned.

And so now all those who see the sacrament, which is sanctified through the words of the Lord above the altar in the hands of the priest, under the species of bread and wine, and do not see nor believe, according to the spirit and divinity, that he is truly the most holy body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, are condemned, for it is The Most High Himself who bears witness to this, when He says:

"This is my body and blood of the new covenant [which will be shed for many], and again:

'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life'" (FF 142).

If the Presence of the Son of God is not enough to make one believe, what other sign can be given to this generation?

Francis' faith is the best response to worldly insipience.

"And the Lord gave me so much faith in the churches, that I simply prayed and said:

"We adore you, Lord Jesus Christ, even in all your churches which are throughout the whole world, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world" (FF 111 - Testament of St Francis).

This is the only Sign!

«And He groaning in His spirit says: "Why does this generation seek a sign?» (Mk 8:12a)

Monday, 6th wk. in O.T.  (Mk 8,11-13)

For Francis and Clare of Assisi, humility of heart, interior and exterior poverty was the keystone of all the other beatitudes, the identikit of Jesus and of every disciple who wants to walk in his footsteps.

Enchanting is a passage from the 'Sacrum Commercium' (an allegorical operetta by an unknown author) contained in the Sources and which we quote here, regarding poverty.

"Thus, enamoured of thy beauty, the Son of the Most High Father to thee alone united himself closely in the world and knew thee by most faithful proof in all things.

Even before He came to earth from the splendour of His homeland, Thou didst prepare for Him a worthy habitation, a throne on which to sit, and a throne in which to rest, namely, the most poor Virgin, from whom He was born to shine upon this world.

To him as soon as he was born with solicitude you ran to meet him, so that he might find in you, and not in softness, a place that would be pleasing to him.

He was laid, says the evangelist, in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.

In the same way, never parting from him, you always accompanied him, so that throughout his life, when he appeared on earth and lived among men, while the foxes had their dens and the birds of the air their nests, he had nowhere to lay his head.

And later when he, who had once opened the mouth of the prophets, opened his mouth to teach, he first wanted to praise you, he first exalted you with the words: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (FF 1977).

Francis then, in his Admonitions, among other things exalts the pure heart, precisely the poor, when he says:

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Truly pure in heart are those who disdain earthly things and seek heavenly things, and never cease to adore and see the Lord God, living and true, with a pure heart and soul" (FF 165).

Clare echoes him in her Testament:

"If we live according to the aforementioned form of life, we will leave others a noble example and, through a very short effort, we will earn the prize of eternal beatitude" (FF 2830).

«Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God»

6th Sunday in O.T. year C (Lk 6,17.20-26)

In the second distribution of the loaves and fishes, Mk highlights Jesus' compassion for the exhausted and hungry crowd, who follow him, to whom he gives food.

The Poor Man of Assisi had received as a gift a tender heart, with compassionate innards for every creature.

A wonderful passage from the Sources tells us:

"True piety, which, as the Apostle says, is useful for everything, had filled Francis' heart, penetrating it so intimately that it seemed to totally dominate the personality of that man of God.

Piety elevated him to God by means of devotion, transformed him into Christ by means of compassion, made him turn towards his neighbour by means of condescension and, reconciling him to all creatures, brought him back to the state of primitive innocence.

By it he felt great attraction towards creatures, but in a special way towards souls, redeemed by the blood of Christ Jesus; and, when he saw them polluted by the ugliness of sin, he pitied them with such tender compassion, that every day he bore them, like a mother, in Christ" (FF 1134).

It was the same compassion that flooded him and made him tremble before the Bread of the Word and the Eucharist.

We read:

"We know that there can be no body if it is not first sanctified by the word.

For we possess and see bodily nothing in this world of the Most High Himself except the body and blood, the names and words by which we were created and redeemed 'from death to life'" (FF 207).

And in the paraphrase of the Our Father:

"Our daily bread, your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, give us this day: in remembrance, understanding and reverence of the love he had for us and of all that for us he said, did and suffered" (FF 271).

Wondrous Tenderness!

«I have compassion on the crowd, for [it is] already three days that they remain with me and have nothing to eat, and if I dismiss them fasting at their house, they will fail in the way; and some of them have come from afar» (Mk 8:2-3)

Saturday 5th wk. in O.T. (Mk 8,1-10)

«And he sent two by two before him into every city and place where he was about to go» (Lk 10:1).

This passage from the Gospel of Luke was well impressed in the memory of Francis of Assisi and, preparing his brothers for the mission, he expressed it thus:

"In the name of the Lord, go two by two through the streets, with dignity, keeping silence from morning until after the third hour, praying in your hearts to the Lord.

No frivolous and vacuous talk among yourselves, for although you are on the way, your behaviour must be as collected as if you were in a hermitage or in a cell.

Wherever we are or move, we take our cell with us: brother body; the soul is the hermit who dwells in it to pray to God and meditate.

And if the soul does not live serenely and solitarily in its cell, very little use is served to the religious by a cell erected by the hand of man" (FF 1636).

Thus prepared, the brothers went out to announce the Good News.

In the Sources we read again:

"He insisted that the brothers should not judge anyone, nor look down on those who live in luxury [...] for God is our Lord and theirs, and he has the power to call them to himself and to make them righteous [...].

And he added: 'Such must be the behaviour of the brothers in the midst of the people, that whoever hears and sees them, may be led to glorify and praise the heavenly Father'.

It was his fervent wish that both he and the brothers should abound in good works, by which the Lord is praised. And he said:

"The peace you proclaim with your mouth, have it even more abundantly in your hearts.

Do not provoke anyone to anger or scandal, but let all be drawn to peace, goodness, concord by your meekness.

This is our vocation: to heal the wounds, to bind up the broken, to call back the lost.

Many, who seem to us members of the devil, may one day become disciples of Christ" (FF 1469).

The Poor Man of Assisi, before communicating the Word of God to the people, wished for peace, saying:

"May the Lord give you Peace" (FF 359).

This he always announced with great devotion to those who came to him.

And it often happened that, with God's grace, the enemies of Peace and of their own salvation became children of Peace.

Preaching and healing the sick he met, he would say:

«The kingdom of God is at hand» (Lk 10:9).

Many were thus urged to repent and follow Christ and disciple Him.

St Cyril and Methodius, 14 February (Lk 10:1-9)

In the passage from Mark, the sincere and indomitable faith of a Syro-Phoenician woman is narrated, who asks and obtains from Jesus - precisely by Faith - the deliverance of her little daughter.

The Holy Spirit has a way of bestowing charisms on the small and simple; thus He gave Francis the healing power from many evils and the power of deliverance from the evil one, the tyrant of so many creatures.

Wisdom, which is nobler than all motion and penetrates everywhere by its purity, communicates itself to holy souls and forms friends of God and prophets. Thus in the soul of the Poor Man.

The Sources illustrate numerous healings and deliverances of the possessed by Francis, and describe the growing faith in those who had received the saving gift.

Yes, because the evangelical consequence of these healings is the extensive manifestation of people's active belief, in a sincere and humble manner.

We read in the Sources:

"Once the Saint appeared to a woman from Narni, who was furious and so out of her mind that she did and said frightful and filthy things, and said to her:

"Make a sign of the cross".

She replied that she was prevented from doing so.

Then Francis himself impressed it on her forehead, and instantly she was freed from madness and all demonic influence.

Countless have been the unhappy men and women who, tormented in various ways and by manifold deceptions by demons, were delivered by virtue of the merits of the glorious father" (FF 555).

Francis was very attentive to the ills of the people he met.

He was often seized with great compassion when he saw a creature asking for help in an exasperated and insistent manner.

The documentation of the Sources is permeated by this tenacious and humble logic of the Saint, who, even before the concrete fact, perceived in his innermost being the profound need for the complete salvation of the other.

He believed, in fact, that when a man takes pity on another man, there, God is resurrected, and the Good News is proclaimed.

«For this word of yours, go; the devil has gone out from your daughter» (Mk 7:29)

Thursday, 5th wk. in O.T. (Mk 7,24-30)