Jesus in the Gospel offers the identikit of the faithful servant, who in the absence and while awaiting the return of the master, serves his subordinates, in the sign of God's will.
And this is what we find in Francis and Clare of Assisi: they faithfully served the Lord in the brothers and sisters entrusted to them, with diligence and compassion.
The Franciscan Sources, Teachers of lived life, document this for us.
In the Admonitions written by the Minim we find an eloquent pedagogy:
"Blessed is the servant who is found as humble among his subjects as when he was among his masters.
Blessed is the servant who always keeps himself under the rod of correction.
Faithful and prudent servant is he who does not delay in punishing himself for all his sins, inwardly through contrition and outwardly through confession and works of reparation" (FF 173).
"And blessed is that servant, who is not placed on high of his own accord and always desires to put himself under the feet of others" (FF 169).
A friar once asked Francis to pray for him because he was afflicted by a temptation.
The Saint replied thus:
"Believe me, son [...] for this very reason I consider you even more a servant of God, and know that the more you are tempted, the more you are dear to me".
He added:
"I tell you truly that no one should consider himself a servant of God until he has passed through trials and tribulations.
The temptation overcome is, in a sense, the ring with which the Lord marries the soul of his servant.
Many flatter themselves about the merits accumulated over long years, and rejoice that they have never sustained trials.
But we know that the Lord has taken their weakness of spirit into account because even before the clash, terror alone would have crushed them.
For difficult combats are reserved only for those with exemplary courage' (FF 704).
And Clare, in her Rule states:
"The abbess then, use towards them [the sisters] such familiarity that they may speak to her and deal with her as mistresses use with their servants, since this is how it must be, that the abbess be the servant of all the sisters" (FF 2808).
And again in the Legend:
"She herself washed the seats of the infirm, she cleansed them herself, with that noble spirit of hers, without shunning filthiness or loathing stench" (FF 3181).
"You also be ready, for in the hour you do not believe the Son of Man is coming" (Lk 12:40).
Wednesday 29th wk. in O.T. (Lk 12,39-48)
