Sep 22, 2026 Written by 

Free to follow Him

In these verses from chapter nine, the Gospel of Luke highlights the conditions necessary to follow Jesus and His bare, poor and wandering life.

«Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head» (Lk 9:58).

Francis, a true lover and imitator of Him, followed in His footsteps, living his life of faith in poverty and precariousness, because he understood clearly that following Him in His call meant abandoning everything else.

The Sources recount that the Minims, in their Letter to the whole Order, expressed themselves thus:

«Brother Francis, a man of little account and frailty, your little servant, wishes you health in Him who redeemed us and washed us in His most precious blood.

Hearing his name, adore him with fear and reverence, prostrate on the ground: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Most High is his name, blessed for ever and ever» (FF 215).

The Poverello always presented Jesus as the One who had nowhere to settle; in fact, the Son of God showed the precarious nature of his life in every circumstance.

Enamoured with poverty, Francis addressed his friars with the words of Luke 9:58:

"[Thus] he taught the friars to build poor little houses [...] to live in them not as their own homes, but as in the homes of others, as pilgrims and strangers.

He said that the code of pilgrims is this:

«Gather under the roof of others, feel thirst for your homeland, pass away in peace»" (FF1120).

And since he repeated that those who do his works are children of God, the Poor Man of Assisi distinguished himself as a child, and in the Spirit he performed many healings.

"People of all ages and both sexes ran to see and listen to this new man, given by heaven to the world.

He travelled through various regions, fervently proclaiming the Gospel, and the Lord cooperated, confirming the Word with the miracles that accompanied him.

In fact, in the name of the Lord, Francis, preacher of the truth, cast out demons, healed the sick, and, even more amazingly, with the power of his words, he softened and moved the stubborn to repentance and, at the same time, restored health to bodies and hearts" (FF 1212).

Clare herself, in her Letters to Blessed Agnes of Prague, takes up the theme of the precarious dimension of Christ and therefore of discipleship.

«O blessed poverty! To those who love and embrace you, you procure eternal riches...

O pious poverty! The Lord Jesus Christ, in whose power were and are heaven and earth, since a mere nod of his word was enough and all things were created, deigned to embrace you in preference to all other things. For he said:

Foxes have their dens, birds of the sky have their nests, but the Son of Man, that is, Christ, has nowhere to lay his head, and when he laid it on his chest, it was to breathe his last» (FF 2864 - First Letter).

 

In their radical following of Christ, the two champions of poverty had acquired the freedom to be influenced by nothing but Christ.

 

 

Wednesday, 26th wk. in Ordinary Time  (Lk 9:57-62)

174 Last modified on Tuesday, 22 September 2026 06:17
Teresa Girolami

Teresa Girolami è laureata in Materie letterarie e Teologia. Ha pubblicato vari testi, fra cui: "Pellegrinaggio del cuore" (Ed. Piemme); "I Fiammiferi di Maria - La Madre di Dio in prosa e poesia"; "Tenerezza Scalza - Natura di donna"; co-autrice di "Dialogo e Solstizio".

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Those who open to Him will be blessed, because they will have a great reward: indeed, the Lord will make himself a servant to his servants — it is a beautiful reward — in the great banquet of his Kingdom He himself will serve them [Pope Francis]
E sarà beato chi gli aprirà, perché avrà una grande ricompensa: infatti il Signore stesso si farà servo dei suoi servi - è una bella ricompensa - nel grande banchetto del suo Regno passerà Lui stesso a servirli [Papa Francesco]
The fool in the Bible, the one who does not want to learn from the experience of visible things, that nothing lasts for ever but that all things pass away, youth and physical strength, amenities and important roles. Making one's life depend on such an ephemeral reality is therefore foolishness (Pope Benedict)
L’uomo stolto nella Bibbia è colui che non vuole rendersi conto, dall’esperienza delle cose visibili, che nulla dura per sempre, ma tutto passa: la giovinezza come la forza fisica, le comodità come i ruoli di potere. Far dipendere la propria vita da realtà così passeggere è, dunque, stoltezza (Papa Benedetto)
As sometimes happens in the Gospel, faced with the trap set by his enemies, Jesus, with his response, rises above the contingent controversy and goes far beyond the particular and mutually divergent positions (Pope John Paul II)
Come talora accade nel Vangelo, di fronte al tranello mossogli dai suoi nemici, Gesù, con la sua risposta, s’innalza al di sopra della polemica contingente e va ben oltre le posizioni particolari e tra loro divergenti (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
And blasphemy, the sin against the Holy Spirit, is the one unforgivable sin — as Jesus said — because it comes from closing the heart to God’s mercy which acts in Jesus (Pope Francis)
E la bestemmia, il peccato contro lo Spirito Santo, è l’unico peccato imperdonabile – così dice Gesù –, perché parte da una chiusura del cuore alla misericordia di Dio che agisce in Gesù (Papa Francesco)
The great thinker Romano Guardini wrote that the Lord “is always close, being at the root of our being. Yet we must experience our relationship with God between the poles of distance and closeness. By closeness we are strengthened, by distance we are put to the test” (Pope Benedict)
Il grande pensatore Romano Guardini scrive che il Signore “è sempre vicino, essendo alla radice del nostro essere. Tuttavia, dobbiamo sperimentare il nostro rapporto con Dio tra i poli della lontananza e della vicinanza. Dalla vicinanza siamo fortificati, dalla lontananza messi alla prova” (Papa Benedetto)
The present-day mentality, more perhaps than that of people in the past, seems opposed to a God of mercy, and in fact tends to exclude from life and to remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy (Pope John Paul II)
La mentalità contemporanea, forse più di quella dell'uomo del passato, sembra opporsi al Dio di misericordia e tende altresì ad emarginare dalla vita e a distogliere dal cuore umano l'idea stessa della misericordia (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)
«Religion of appearance» or «road of humility»? (Pope Francis)
«Religione dell’apparire» o «strada dell’umiltà»? (Papa Francesco)
In the crucified Jesus a kind of transformation and concentration of the signs occurs: he himself is the “sign of God”, especially in the mystery of his Death and Resurrection (Pope John Paul II)
In Gesù crocifisso avviene come una trasformazione e concentrazione dei segni: è Lui stesso il "segno di Dio", soprattutto nel mistero della sua morte e resurrezione (Papa Giovanni Paolo II)

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