Chapter eleven of Luke continues by highlighting how confident and persevering prayer not only obtains what is asked for, but even more: the great gift of the Holy Spirit.
In the Sources, Francis is a magnificent example.
Poor in worldly goods but rich in the Spirit of God, the Poverello considered the Lord as the Great Almsgiver who gives generously to those who trust in Him.
In the Sources we find a telling episode:
"The servant of God, who had become very ill, was brought back to Assisi from Nocera by an escort of ambassadors sent by the devout people of Assisi.
The escorts, together with the servant of God, arrived at a poor village called Satriano.
As the hour and hunger made them feel the need for food, they went to look for it in the village. But, finding nothing to buy, they returned empty-handed.
Then the Saint said to these men:
«If you have found nothing, it is because you have more faith in your flies than in God (by the term 'flies' he meant money).
But go back to the houses you passed by and humbly ask for alms, offering God's love as payment.
And do not think that this is a shameful and humiliating gesture: that is a mistaken idea, because the Great Almsgiver, after sin, has made all goods available to the worthy and the unworthy, with most generous goodness».
The knights put aside their embarrassment, went spontaneously to ask for alms and managed to buy with the love of God what they had not obtained with money.
In fact, those poor inhabitants, moved and inspired by God, generously offered not only their possessions, but also themselves.
And so it came to pass that Francis' poverty made up for the poverty that money had been unable to alleviate" (FF 1130).
On the other hand, the Servant of the Lord had always believed throughout his life that God offers much more than we think, giving us the Holy Spirit - the sum of all good things.
In fact, in the ‘Regula bullata’ (1223), Francis states that we must «desire above all else [...] to have the Spirit of the Lord and his holy working» (FF 104), which rests on those who live the Gospel faithfully.
The Poor Man of Christ, in fact, considered Him the Minister of the Order.
And he said:
«In God [...] there is no preference of persons, and the Holy Spirit, the general minister of the Order, rests equally on the poor and the simple» (FF 779).
«How much more will the Father who is in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him» (Lk 11:13b)
Thursday of the 27th wk. in Ordinary Time (Lk 11:5-13)
