Like Jesus, so his disciple.

Following in the footsteps of Christ, Francis of Assisi also wished that the people of his time had been builders and prophets of other dreams.

But in his life he meets [and with him his friars] men in whom often dwells the incapacity to recognise the figure of the divine in the human.

A hardness that goes hand in hand with that contempt for the prophetic and that tends to nullify what is revolutionary in the spirit of the Poverello: the happy intuition of the valorisation of the person.

We find in the authoritative Sources:

"If Guido [a benefactor] treated them with so much consideration, others held them in contempt.

People of high and lowly status mocked and maligned them, even to the point of stripping them of their miserable garments.

The servants of God remained naked because, according to the evangelical ideal, they wore nothing but that one piece of clothing, and moreover they did not demand the return of what was taken from them [...].

Some threw mud on them; others put dice in their hands, inviting them to play; still others, grabbing them from behind by the hood, dragged them on their backs. These and other such wickednesses were inflicted on them, because they were thought to be such mean beings, that they could be scrambled at will.

Together with hunger and thirst, with cold and nakedness, they endured tribulations and sufferings of all kinds.

But they endured everything with imperturbable patience, according to the admonition of Francis" (FF 1444).

"A prophet is not despised except in his own country, among his relatives and in his own house" (Mk 6:4).

14th Sunday in O.T. B (Mk 6,1-6)

Jesus answers John's disciples about fasting. Now the Bridegroom is with them and they will not fast; when he is taken from them they will fast.

Logic that breaks down the legalistic mentality.

In the Sources we have various passages that highlight the Poor Man of Assisi's way of acting on this subject.

The Minim forbade excesses.

Francis knew well how to discern between the importance of fasting and exaggeration in practising it.

In his life, never did form take the place of substance. The Franciscan Sources illustrate:

"Francis reproached his brothers who were too hard on themselves and who were exhausted by vigils, fasts, prayers and corporal penances [...].

The man of God forbade such excesses, admonishing those brothers lovingly and calling them to common sense, healing their wounds with the medicine of wise instructions [...].

He spoke with them, identifying himself with their situation, not as a judge then, but as an understanding father with his children and as a compassionate doctor with his own sick.

He knew how to be sick with the sick, afflicted with the afflicted" (FF 1470).

All this while being "a new man, [who] with new virtues renewed the way of perfection that had disappeared from the world" (FF 3162).

As a mature and profoundly human person, he knew how to help his brothers, evaluating the different situations he had before him.

In the Legend of the Three Companions: "However, when it was appropriate, he chastised those who committed offences" (FF 1470).

Francis had received, by Grace, the immeasurable gift of true discernment.

The Little One did not betray substance for form: he kept both in a sensible human and spiritual balance.

"But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast" (Mt 9:15).

Saturday of the 13th wk. in O.T. (Mt 9:14-17)

Jesus makes us contemplate Matthew's strong and particular call, displacing everyone, precisely because it begins with sinners and not with the perfect according to the mentality of the time.

"For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners" (Mt 9:13).

Francis and Clare saw in the stimuli of their vocation and the brothers and sisters who followed them a fundamental attractive appointment. An opportunity for existence in Grace, which had looked upon them and redeemed them.

Through the Call, God was realising a secret gift in them, far beyond the expectations of a small life.

Regarding Francis, we read in the Sources:

"As he was passing near the church of San Damiano, he was inspired to enter it. He went there, and began to pray fervently before the image of the Crucifix, who spoke to him with moving goodness

"Francis, do you not see that my house is falling down? Go then and restore it".

Trembling and astonished, the young man replied:

"I will do it gladly, Lord".

However, he had misunderstood; he thought it was about that church which, because of its antiquity, threatened imminent ruin.

At those words of Christ he became immensely happy and radiant; he felt in his soul that it was really the Crucified One who had given him the message.

As he came out of the church, he found a priest sitting nearby, and putting his hand in his purse, he offered him money saying:

"Sir, I beg you to buy oil to make a lamp burn before that Crucifix. When I have finished this money, I will bring you more, according to need' " (FF 1411).

During his life, the Poverello continued to consider minority as a specific vocation of the friar.

Thus, observing the behaviour of the religious, he sometimes seemed preoccupied....

At times he "saw that some were ardently desirous of the offices of the Order, of which they made themselves unworthy, apart from anything else, by the mere ambition to govern. And he said that these 'were not Friars Minor, but had forgotten their vocation and had fallen from glory'" (FF 729).

Clare, regarding the vocation of the sisters residing at San Damiano, also expressed herself in her Testament as follows:

"The Lord himself has placed us as a model, as an example and mirror not only for other men, but also for our sisters, those whom the Lord himself has called to follow our vocation, so that they too may shine as a mirror and example for all those who live in the world" (FF 2829).

Friday of the 13th wk. in O.T. (Mt 9,9-13)

By virtue of the faith testified to by the bystanders, Jesus heals not only the limbs of a sick person but, more radically, frees one from sins; a fact that scandalised the scribes with an evil eye. 

In Francis, perfectly conformed to Christ, this prerogative was repeated thanks to God's plan for him, open to divine Love.

The Franciscan Sources constitute "the vocabulary" of the life of the Poverello and the beginnings of his fraternity, with multiple episodes that reveal Francis' introspection and his holy operation through the Holy Spirit in him.

The Sources attribute to Francis 10 prodigies relating to healed paralysis. They are extensively mentioned in the Major Legend.

We quote some of them to testify how the Lord worked greatly through his servant:

"There was near the town of Orte, a child all shrunken up, who had his head joined to his feet and several bones broken.

Moved by the tears and prayers of his parents, the saint blessed him with the sign of the cross, and he stood up with his limbs well stretched out, instantly healed" (FF 1216).

Again: 'In the diocese of Rieti, a weeping mother presented her child to him, who had been so swollen for four years that he could not even see his own legs: the Saint barely touched him with his sacred hands and made him perfectly healthy' (FF 1215).

Where eminent Faith is alive, God works wonders with His instruments; indeed, He endows them with His own powers and enables them to work greater things with Him.

"And seeing Jesus their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven'" (Mt 9:2).

Thursday of the 13th wk. in O.T. (Mt 9,1-8)

On the first day of the week Jesus went behind closed doors into the place where the disciples were gathered.

He entrusted them with the mandate to announce the Good News, "breathing" on them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.

Thomas, absent, struggled to believe and received a reprimand from Jesus for claiming to see and touch, without accepting the testimony of the other disciples.

Yet Thomas sought first-hand experience of the Risen One.

The Poor Man of Assisi and his friars grew in faith also through an active encounter with the Lord in lived poverty, solitude and prayer experienced in daily life.

Faith in Jesus, who died on the cross as an evildoer to assure us of Life without end, overflowed into the bare Minorite existence of Francis and his brothers.

It was certainly a divine gift, but it was also the fruit of a non-formal relationship, developed in the itinerary undertaken.

It is worth recalling what the Sources attest:

"[Francis] taught them to praise God in all creatures; to honour priests with particular veneration, as well as to believe firmly and confess frankly the truth of the faith [...].

They observed in all things the teachings of their holy father and, as soon as they saw some church from afar, or some cross, they turned towards it, prostrating themselves humbly on the ground and praying according to the form indicated to them" (FF 1069).

Clare herself, in her Letter to Ermentrude of Bruges, regarding the life of Faith, suggests:

"Remain, therefore, O dearest one, faithful until death to Him to whom you are bound for ever. And surely you will be crowned by Him with the crown of life.

The time of toil here below is short, but the reward is eternal.

Let not the splendours of the world that passes like a shadow daunt thee.

Let not the empty images of this deceiving world surprise thee; Close thine ear to the whistling of hell, And break its temptations from strong.

Endure adversity willingly, and let not pride swell your heart in prosperous things; these call you to your faith, those require it" (FF 2914).

The experience of God in their lives had been so strong, incisive and merciful that they could speak as no one had ever done.

"Thomas answered and said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (Jn 20:28)

In today's Gospel Jesus asks his own, in the storm at sea, for a supplement of faith.

"Why are you afraid, [men] of little faith?" (Mt 8:26).

Even to Francis, in certain situations of life, Jesus asked for a greater faith, free from fear, because on his boat besieged by the waves of temptation was He: Christ, the Great Helmsman.

In the Sources, in the Second Life of Celano, we find a lesson in this regard:

"At a certain moment of his life, the Father suffered a most violent temptation of spirit, certainly for the sake of his crown.

For this he was distressed and full of suffering, he mortified and macerated his body, he prayed and wept in the most painful manner. This struggle lasted several years.

One day, while praying in St Mary of the Portiuncula, he heard a voice in spirit:

"Francis, if you have faith as much as a mustard seed, you will tell the mountain to move and it will move".

"Lord," replied the saint, "what is the mountain, which I wish to move?".

And the voice again:

"The mountain is your temptation".

"O Lord," replied the Saint in tears, "let it happen to me, as thou hast said.

Immediately all temptation disappeared and he felt free and completely serene in the depths of his heart" (FF 702).

Entrusting himself to Jesus, the Poverello did not become shipwrecked in the storms of life, and with Grace he was able to overcome every serious obstacle.

Clare herself, faced with pressing dangers, found the way out in the Faith and urged her sisters to do the same.

This is attested in her Letter to Ermentrude of Bruges in which she says, among other things:

"Support adversity willingly, and pride not swell your heart in prosperous things; these call you to your faith, those require it'.

Tuesday of the 13th wk. in O.T. (Mt 8,23-27)

In today's Gospel passage Jesus proposes to those who want to follow him a real poverty of living and ready detachment from the demands of kinship.

Francis of Assisi fell in love with Our Lady Poverty from the very beginning and never separated himself from her, teaching his brothers to do likewise.

The Franciscan Sources offer countless passages on this subject.

We propose a few.

"While in this vale of tears, the blessed father despised the poor riches common to the sons of men and aspired wholeheartedly to poverty, desiring higher glory.

And since he observed that poverty, while it had been intimate to the Son of God, was almost rejected by all the world, he longed to marry her with eternal love.

Therefore, in love with her beauty, in order to adhere more strongly to his bride and be two in one spirit, he not only left father and mother, but detached himself from everything.

From then on he held her in chaste embraces and not for a moment did he accept that he was not her husband.

He repeated to his children that this is the way to perfection, this is the pledge and guarantee of eternal riches.

No one was so greedy for gold, as he was for poverty, nor was anyone more concerned about guarding a treasure, than he was the gospel gem.

In this he was particularly offended, if in the brothers - either at home or outside - he saw anything contrary to poverty.

And indeed, from the beginning of his religious life until his death, he had as his wealth a single cassock, girdle and breeches: he had nothing else.

His poor appearance clearly indicated where he accumulated his wealth.

For this reason, happy, confident, agile in his race, he enjoyed having exchanged for a good worth a hundred times the riches destined to perish" (FF 641).

Convinced that the precarious condition brought one closer to that of Christ in a special way, he blessed almsgiving and considered it characteristic of becoming lesser according to the Gospel.

In the Major Legend:

"Sometimes, exhorting the brothers to seek alms, he used arguments of this kind:

"Go, for in these very last times the Friars Minor have been given on loan to the world, to enable the elect to perform in them the works by which they deserve the praise of the Supreme Judge and that most sweet assurance:

'Whenever you have done it to one of these lesser brothers of mine, you have done it to me'".

"Therefore," he concluded, "it is good to go begging under the title of 'lesser brothers', a title that the Master of truth has indicated in the Gospel with such precision, as the reason for eternal reward for the just" (FF 1128).

And in the Rule of St Clare:

"And so that we might never depart from the most holy poverty which we embraced, nor those which would come after us, shortly before his death he again wrote his last will for us in these words:

"I, little brother Francis, wish to follow the life and poverty of our Most High Lord Jesus Christ and his most holy Mother, and to persevere in it to the end.

And I beseech you, my Lord, and advise you that you live always in this most holy life and poverty.

And be very careful never to depart from it in any way by the teaching or advice of anyone" (FF 2790).

"The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Mt 8:20).

Monday of the 13th wk. in O.T. (Mt 8,18-22)

The Liturgy gives us the story of the healing of the haemorrhoissa, a poor sick woman - and the resuscitation of the daughter of Jairus, leader of the synagogue.

The common denominator of these episodes is the sincere trust that the Lord asks for and finds in some people.

Animated by indomitable Faith, Francis became Alter Christus and received from the Lord the Divine Energy for healing, testifying that God was in him and with him.

A simple man not by nature, but by divine Grace, he was a friend of the Most High, testifying to this character with numerous prodigies.

Already in his lifetime he performed many signs: for example, the one that took place in Nardi. A woman regained her sight the moment Francis made the sign of the cross.

Or the one portraying Francis in distress over a friar suffering from epilepsy. He went to him and, after blessing him, cured him.

In the process of canonisation, more than 40 miracles were recognised by the ecclesiastical authorities.

We report one of them, taken from the Sources and relating to after his death.

"The little son, barely seven years old, of a notary in Rome, had taken it into his head, as children do, to follow his mother who was going to the church of St Mark.

Since his mother had forced him to stay at home, he threw himself out of the window of the palace [...] The mother, seeing that she had suddenly lost her son [...] began to tear herself apart with her own hands [...].

But a friar of the Order of Friars Minor, named Rao, who was on his way there to preach, approached the child and then, full of faith, said to the father:

"Do you believe that Francis, the saint of God, can raise your son from the dead, by virtue of that love he always had for Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to give life to men?"

The father replied that he firmly believed this.

The friar prostrated himself in prayer with his companion and incited all present to pray.

As the prayer was finished, the child began to yawn a little, opened his eyes and raised his arms, finally stood up on his own and immediately, in the presence of all, began to walk, safe and sound, restored to life and, at the same time, to salvation by the admirable power of the Saint" (FF 1266).

Again in the Sources, in the Major Legend, we find a significant miraculous episode:

"The son of a nobleman of Castel San Giminiano, due to a serious infirmity, was reduced to the extremes, with no more hope of recovery.

From his eyes came a stream of blood, like that which usually spurts from the vein in his arm.

Throughout the rest of his body, too, there were signs of impending doom, so that he was now considered dead.

When his breathing became shallow, his life force, sensibility and motion were extinguished, he seemed to be gone altogether.

Relatives and friends had come for mourning, according to custom, and by now there was only talk of burial. But the father, who trusted in the Lord, ran with great strides to the church of Blessed Francis, which had been built in the village and, with the cincture around his neck, prostrated himself on the ground in all humility.

Making vows and praying without ceasing, amid weeping and sighing, he deserved to obtain that St Francis should make himself his patron saint with Christ.

In fact, returning immediately to his son, the father found him cured and transformed his mourning into joy" (FF 1280).

Prayer of Francis before the Crucifix (FF 276).

Most glorious God

illuminate the darkness of my heart.

and give me straight faith

certain hope and perfect charity

wisdom and knowledge,

Lord,

that I may do thy holy and true commandment.

Amen.

13th Sunday in O.T. B (Mk 5,21-43)

Francis of Assisi had great respect for the Church, which he considered mother, holy, catholic, apostolic, Roman:

"At the beginning of my new life, when I separated from the world and my earthly father, the Lord placed his Word on the lips of the bishop of Assisi, that he might counsel me wisely in the service of Christ and give me comfort.

For this reason and for the other eminent qualities that I recognise [...] I want to love [...] and consider as my lords not only the bishops, but also the humble priests" (FF 1562).

Furthermore, the Sources attest how Francis went with eleven companions to the Pope's Curia to inform him of his new and original plan of life and to obtain confirmation of the Rule he had composed.

We read: "Seeing that the Lord was increasing his brothers [...] he addressed the eleven of the group:

"Brothers, I see that the merciful Lord wants to increase our community.

Let us therefore go to our mother, the holy Roman Church, and communicate to the supreme pontiff what the Lord has begun to do through us, in order to continue our mission, according to his will and dispositions' " (FF1455).

He was thus presented to the supreme pontiff who begged Francis to ask God if that kind of life really corresponded to his will.

In obedience to his request, the Poverello, after long prayer, confirmed the holy intention as coming from God, convincing the Pope with a parable received by divine inspiration.

He embraced the saint and approved the Rule.

"Having received the blessing from Innocent III, they went to visit the tombs of the Apostles [...] Then the man of God set out from Rome with his brothers, heading for the evangelisation of the world" (FF 1460-1462).

On the other hand Francis, praying in front of the Crucifix of the church of San Damiano "which was threatening ruin, old as it was [...] he heard with the ears of his body a voice descending towards him and saying three times:

"Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is all in ruins!" "(FF 1038).

This referring not only and not so much to the walls as "to that Church which Christ purchased with his Blood, as the Holy Spirit would have him understand and as he himself later revealed to the brothers".

(FF 1038).

Saints Peter and Paul Ap. (Mt 16:13-19)