In this passage from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus casts out a demon from a mute man who, freed, begins to speak. Immediately some accuse him of doing this in the name of the prince of demons. But Jesus testifies that he acts through the Finger of God, by God.
Like Jesus, Francis had temptations and was greatly tried by the devil.
But the Finger of God, the Holy Spirit, won every battle in him, extending the Kingdom of Heaven into hearts.
Like Francis, Clare also encountered such trials from which, by the Grace of God, she always emerged unscathed, because she was not divided, but totally united with Christ.
The Sources are eloquent bearers of great existential truth. Let us look at what they tell us in this regard.
"In those places he had to fight hand to hand with the devil, who confronted him in order to frighten him not only with interior temptations, but also exteriorly with clashes and ruin.
But Francis, as a very strong soldier of Christ, knowing full well that his Lord could do everything everywhere, did not let himself be frightened at all, but repeated in his heart:
"You cannot, O evil one, unleash the weapons of your malice against me in these places any more than you would do to me if we were in the crowd" (FF 446).
And a friar, who had long been harassed by the assaults of the devil and wept at the feet of Francis, was delivered by him:
"The Father felt pity for him, and realised that he was tormented by malignant instigations:
"I command you, O demons," he exclaimed, "by the virtue of God, do not torment my brother any more from now on, as you have dared so far.
Immediately that gloomy darkness dissipated, the friar rose free and felt no more torment, as if he had always been free of it" (FF 697).
Clare was also attacked several times by the enemy.
"While she was once weeping, in the middle of the night, the angel of darkness appeared to her in the form of a black child, and thus admonished her: Do not weep so much, for you will go blind!
But, she answered him at once: 'He shall not be blind who will see God,' and he turned away in confusion" (FF 3198).
And in her first letter to her spiritual daughter, Agnes of Bohemia, Clare herself expresses it this way:
"The man covered with clothes cannot pretend to wrestle with an unclothed man, for he who offers a grapple to his adversary is sooner thrown to the ground" (FF 1867).
The servants of God, in their simplicity, have clear ideas, because they are guided by the Finger of God - and they do not give up the authentic Vocation.
«But if by the Finger of God I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come for you» (Lk 11:20)
Thursday 3rd wk. in Lent (Lk 11:14-23)
