Today's Gospel highlights the hardness of heart of the Pharisees who were ready to accuse Jesus for healing a paralysed hand.
For them, observance comes before the person. And that is terrifying!
Francis, on the other hand, in the footsteps of Christ, put human health, both physical and inner, at the centre.
After his conversion, the Little One of Assisi lived always doing good, without letting himself be conditioned by the current mentality; and he taught his brothers to do the same, in the freedom of the sons of God.
In the Sources - specifically in the Regola non bollata (1221) - we find what he recommended to his brothers:
"And even if they are branded as hypocrites, nevertheless let them not cease to do good" (FF 8).
And again:
"Let us bear fruits worthy of penance. And let us love our neighbour as ourselves" (FF 189).
So Francis does not miss an opportunity to do good, he who, invested by Grace, was filled with gifts in the service of others.
In fact, the Lord, through the Poverello, worked many healings at all times:
"In Gubbio, a paralytic woman repeated the name of blessed Francis three times, and was immediately healed.
A certain Boniface, struck in the hands and feet by excruciating pains, cannot move or walk, and loses all sleep and appetite. One day a woman comes to him and advises and exhorts him to vow himself to the blessed Francis if he wants to be set free immediately.
The man, at first almost maddened by the spasms, refused, saying: 'I do not believe him to be a saint'.
Then yielding to the woman's insistence, he made a vow like this: 'I entrust myself to the intercession of Francis and I consider him a saint if, within three days, he will deliver me from my illness'. And he is immediately fulfilled, recovering the ability to walk, appetite and sleep and giving glory to Almighty God' (FF 559).
But the Saint, as mentioned above, was struck by the hardness of heart shown by some Romans when faced with the preaching of the Word.
In the Testimonies following the death of Francis we read:
"But the Roman people [...] covered him with contempt, to such an extent that they not only did not want to listen to him, but also deserted his sermons. And for many days they continued to mock his preaching. Then Francis rebuked them for the hardness of their hearts, saying:
"I greatly pity you for your misery, because not only do you hold me, the Lord's servant, in contempt, but in me you bring shame on that Redeemer whose good news I proclaim to you [...].
I will go and proclaim Christ to the brute animals and to the birds of the air; they will hear these words of salvation and obey God with all their hearts" (FF 2288).
"I ask you whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to cause it to perish?" (Lk 6:6-11).
* It was a fairly widespread devotional form in the Middle Ages, that of offering, as an ex-voto, to extract a grace, figures of wax, bread, metal, of the same weight or size as the supplicant.
Monday of the 23rd wk. in O.T. (Lk 6,6-11)
