The passage proposed on this day is the passage from Mark that narrates the martyrdom of the Baptist.

Herod wanted to have John killed because he reproached him for his offences, but at the same time he feared the crowd who considered him a prophet.

The theme of persecution combined with the people's favour for the man of God is also present in Francis of Assisi.

In the Sources:

"Since the herald of Christ was famous for these and many other prodigies, the people paid attention to his words as if he spoke as an Angel of the Lord.

Indeed, the prerogative of the lofty virtues, the spirit of prophecy, the thaumaturgic power, the mission to preach coming from heaven, the obedience of creatures deprived of reason, the sudden conversions of hearts brought about by hearing his word, the knowledge infused by the Holy Spirit and superior to human doctrine, the authorisation to preach granted by the Supreme Pontiff by divine revelation, as well as the Rule, which defines the form of preaching, confirmed by the Vicar of Christ himself and, finally, the signs of the Supreme King impressed like a seal on his body, are like ten testimonies for the whole world and confirm without a shadow of a doubt that Francis, the herald of Christ, is worthy of veneration for the mission received, authentic in the doctrine taught, admirable for his holiness and that, therefore, he preached the Gospel of Christ as a true envoy of God" (FF 1221).

For this he too encountered persecution.

But to his brothers, in the Regola non bollata, he reminds them:

"And let all the brethren, wherever they are, remember that they have given themselves and abandoned their bodies to our Lord Jesus Christ. And for his love they must expose themselves to enemies both visible and invisible, for the Lord says:

'He who loses his soul for my sake will save it for eternal life' " (FF 45).

Francis sacrificed his whole self on the altar of charity and poverty for the sake of the Kingdom, leaving a shining example to all.

«And immediately the king sent a guard and ordered his head to be brought» (Mk 6:27)

Martyrdom of St John the Baptist  (Mk 6:17-29)

Today's passage from Matthew calls us to vigilantly await the Lord's return, behaving as committed and available servants. Those who let themselves go will find bitter surprises in the end.

Since we do not know when he will come, it is necessary to watch.

The Poor Man of Assisi made diligent waiting and vigilance the leitmotif of his journey of faith.

Not only did he keep vigil in prayer, always waiting for the coming of his Lord, but he also strove to embody the Word by serving and loving his brothers and every creature.

In this sense, the Sources inform us and bear credible witness to his simple evangelical life.

We read:

"He always raised his hands to heaven in favour of the true Israelites, and sometimes, forgetting himself, he provided first for the salvation of his brothers.

He prostrated himself at the feet of the divine Majesty, offered a spiritual sacrifice for his children, and implored God to benefit them.

He watched over the little flock that had followed him with anxious love, lest they should lose heaven after leaving this world.

He was convinced that one day he would be left without glory if he did not make those entrusted to him worthy and participants in that glory, whom his spirit brought to birth with greater pain than that felt by a mother's womb" (FF 760).

He watched over the spiritual children God had given him with the love of a father and mother, with great solicitude and foresight.

He watched with ardour so that he could live every day what Jesus had revealed to him on his journey.

He watched paternally over the Poor Ladies of St. Damian, over those little plants born of the same call: the vocation to incarnate the Holy Gospel, proclaiming it to every creature under heaven.

«You too, keep yourselves ready, for in the hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come» (Mt 24:44)

Thursday of the 21st wk. in Ordinary Time  (Mt 24:42-51)

Jesus points the finger at the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. They concern themselves with trifles, instead of practising justice and mercy.

They are whitewashed sepulchres, displaying an appearance that only serves as a smokescreen to inner rot.

Francis detested the hypocrisy reproached by Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees, and he was careful not to cultivate it in any form.

Even when illness forced him to slacken his fasts to regain his strength, he would then denounce everything before the people, openly, to earn contempt.

In fact, in the Major Legend it is written:

"It was a demonstration of perfect humility, which teaches the follower of Christ the need to despise praise and passing praise, to repress the pomp and arrogance of ostentation and to expose the fraudulent lies of hypocrisy" (FF 1104).

One day to a friar who was showing his sad face he said:

"The servant of God must not show himself to others sad and gloomy, but always serene.

To your sins, reflect in your room and in the presence of God weep and wail.

But when you return among the brothers, leave sadness behind and conform to others" (FF 712).

«Woe to you, hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you resemble whitewashed tombs that look splendid on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and every impurity» (Mt 23:27)

Wednesday 21st wk. in O.T.  (Mt 23:27-32)

The «Woe» pronounced by Jesus in Matthew's Gospel continues.

He lashes out at rampant hypocrisy, rebuking the care of the exterior that clashes with the sooty interior.

Let us look at the life of the Poor Man through the Sources and on the merits.

Francis detested the hypocrisy reproached by Jesus to the scribes and Pharisees, and he was careful not to cultivate it in any form.

Even when illness forced him to slacken his fasts to regain his strength, he would then denounce everything before the people, openly, to earn contempt.

In fact, in the Major Legend it is written:

"It was a demonstration of perfect humility, which teaches the follower of Christ the need to despise praise and passing praise, to repress the pomp and arrogance of ostentation and to expose the fraudulent lies of hypocrisy" (FF 1104).

One day to a friar who showed a sad face he said:

"The servant of God must not show himself to others sad and gloomy, but always serene. To your sins, reflect in your room and in the presence of God weep and wail. But when you return among the brothers, leave sadness behind and conform to others'" (FF 712).

Francis was a lover of truth, abhorring all greed and intemperance.

He looked to the Father who is in heaven and expects justice, fidelity and mercy from everyone.

«Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you pay the tithe of mint and dill […] and betwixt the weightier [points] of the Law: judgement and mercy and faithfulness» (Mt 23:23).

Tuesday of the 21st wk. in O.T. (Mt 23,23-26)

Matthew's Gospel insists on the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees who close the kingdom of heaven before the people by their behaviour.

Looking in the Sources we discover how all this was embodied by the Poor Man of Assisi in a unique way.

Francis was so averse to hypocrisy that he put in the same Regola non Bollata (1221) a specific paragraph about it:

"And let the brothers beware of showing themselves sad on the outside and dark in the face like hypocrites, but let them show themselves joyful in the Lord and joyful and graciously lovable" (FF 27).

He detested all duplicity as a plague, and denounced it publicly even in his own regard, if it seemed to him that he had not lived according to the Word of God - fearing that he would not enter the kingdom of heaven and would not be a credible witness.

In this regard, the Sources reveal:

"Once, around Christmas, a large crowd had gathered for a sermon at the hermitage of Poggio*.

Francis began in this way:

"You think me a holy man and therefore you have come here with devotion. Well, I confess to you, throughout this Lent I have eaten food seasoned with lard".

And so more than once she attributed to gluttony what she had instead conceded to illness' (FF 715).

Clare herself, an imprint of the Mother of God, always exhorted her community to shun all forms of falsehood, which she categorised as true blindness.

She, Clare by life and virtue, always guarded against this plague that could ruin fraternity between sisters and prevent mutual love.

«Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven before the people» (Mt 23:13).

- This means Poggio Bustone, in the Rieti valley.

Monday 21st wk. in O.T.  (Mt 23,13-22)

On this Sunday, Luke's Gospel brings to our attention Jesus' exhortation to strive to enter through the narrow gate, reiterating that at the moment of our final encounter with Him, our deeds will speak for us.

«And behold, there are those who are last who will be first, and there are those who are first who will be last» (Lk 13:30).

The theme of the Narrow Gate and 'becoming the last' is present throughout the Franciscan sources.

After his conversion, the Son of Peter Bernardone took great care to follow Jesus' recommendation to «strive to enter through the narrow gate».

In fact, in what we call the "Writings of Francis" [mostly dictated to a friar who was his secretary], his firm adherence to the Gospel emerges clearly.

In the Earlier Rule (1221), we find among the exhortations addressed to his friars:

'And let them strive to enter through the narrow gate, for the Lord says: "Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life, and few find it" (FF 37).

Well aware of the Gospel's demand for humility and minority, he responded to his followers regarding who should be considered a true friar minor:

"Take a dead body," he said, "and put it wherever you like. You will see that if you move it, it does not resist; if you let it fall, it does not protest. If you put it on a chair, it will not look up, but down. If you put it in purple, it will seem twice as pale. This is the true obedient person: one who does not judge why he is being moved; he does not care where he is sent; he does not insist on being transferred; when elected to office, he maintains his usual humility; the more he is honoured, the more he considers himself unworthy" (FF 1107).

And Clare was no less so!

In her Testament left to her sisters, we read:

"But since the way is narrow and the gate is small through which one enters into life, few are those who find it and enter into it; and even if there are many who enter, very few persevere in it. But blessed are those who are allowed to walk this path and persevere to the end" (FF 2850).

In the Legend:

"From then on, she no longer refused any menial task, to the point that, for the most part, she was the one who poured water on her sisters' hands, stood to assist them while they sat, and served them at table while they ate" (FF 3180).

Yes, the last shall be first in the Kingdom of God!

How many have been pushed aside by the harshness and arrogance of competitive life will be embraced by God's mercy.

Sunday 21st O.T. year C  (Lk 13:22-30)

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus addresses the common people and his disciples, warning them against the criteria used by the scribes and Pharisees:

«Do not do as they do, for they say and do not do» (Mt 23:3). 

In their actions, they seek to appear and be admired, living outside themselves rather than within.

They seek the first places and to be called 'rabbi' by the people.

No, says Jesus, let it not be so among you; the logic of the Kingdom is different, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

In this context, let us look to the Sources.

Francis had such great practical respect for God that we read in the Sources:

"He did not want to call those who were named 'Good' by their name, out of reverence for the Lord who said, 'No one is good except God alone.

Likewise, he did not want to give anyone the title of 'father' or 'master', nor write it in letters, out of respect for the Lord who said: Call no one 'father' on earth, nor be called 'masters', etc." (FF 1615).

The Poor Man of Assisi also abhorred hypocrisy, the disease of appearing to be and not being, and not doing.

In fact, in Celano's Second Life we read:

"These people are concerned with appearing good, not with becoming good. They accuse others of vice but do not renounce their own [...] They sell the pallor of their emaciated faces for the price of fatal praise in order to appear spiritual, so that they may judge everything and be judged by no one.

They enjoy the fame of being saints without having done any good works, of being called angels without having any virtue" (FF 770).

The Poverello was clearly opposed to all forms of ostentation and lack of transparency.

In fact, in the Sources: "Once, around Christmas, a large crowd had gathered for a sermon at the hermitage of Poggio [Bustone].

Francis began in this way:

'You believe me to be a holy man and therefore you have come with devotion. Well, I confess to you that throughout this Lent, I have eaten food seasoned with lard'.

And so, more than once, he attributed to gluttony what he had actually allowed himself because of his illness" (FF 715).

Francis' interiority went hand in hand with his outward appearance, in a skilful existential balance.

Saturday of the 20th wk. in Ordinary Time  (Mt 23:1-12)

Matthew highlights the answer given by Jesus to the leaders who were trying to test him, regarding the greatest commandment.

And the Lord displeases them: to love God with all one's self, and one's neighbour as oneself, is the best one can do.

Francis of Assisi was inflamed by a profound love for God and neighbour, because, by grace, he had understood that in these two commandments was contained the whole Gospel.

The Sources attest to this glaringly.

"Among other words, which recurred frequently in his speech, he could not hear the expression 'love of God' without feeling a certain emotion. Immediately indeed, at the sound of this expression 'love of God' he was aroused, moved and inflamed, as if the inner chord of his heart were touched with the plectrum of his voice.

"It is a prodigality of nobility," he repeated, "to offer this wealth in exchange for alms, and those who value it less than money are most foolish".

For his part, he infallibly observed until his death the resolution he had made when he was still in the world, not to refuse any poor person who asked him for the love of God.

Once a poor man asked him for charity for the love of God. Since he had nothing, the Saint secretly took the scissors and prepared to part with his miserable cassock.

And he would certainly have done so had he not been discovered by the brothers, whom he ordered to provide the poor man with other compensation" (FF 784).

"The power of love had made Francis a brother to all other creatures; it is no wonder, therefore, that the charity of Christ made him even more a brother to all those who are honoured with the image of the Creator.

For he said that nothing is more important than the salvation of souls, and he proved this very often by the fact that the Only-Begotten of God deigned to be hung on the cross for the sake of souls.

Hence his commitment to prayer, his moving from place to place to preach, his great concern to set a good example.

He did not consider himself a friend of Christ if he did not love the souls he loved [...].

But above all measure, he loved with a particularly intimate love, with all the affection of his heart, the brothers, as family members of a special faith and united by sharing in the eternal inheritance" (FF 758).

Francis knew that brotherly love was proof of the love attested to God in all its concreteness.

Friday of the 20th wk. in O.T. (Mt 22:34-40)