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)

Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a wedding banquet.

The guests do not care to attend the king's banquet, and the servants are sent to gather those they find in the streets, but in their wedding garments.

"For many are called, but few chosen" (Mt 22:14).

Let us now look at the Poor Man of Assisi: how he lives all this, according to the account of the Sources.

Enamoured of Our Lady Poverty, Francis insistently invited the Same to take food with the brothers [cf. Sacrum Commercium Beati Francisci cum Domina Paupertate]:

"Then they led her to the place where the table was prepared. As she arrived she looked around and, seeing nothing but three or four loaves of barley bread and bran placed on the grass, was seized with great admiration" (FF 2020).

He then "commanded them all to be together and spoke words of life to them, saying:

"Be blessed, my children, by the Lord God who created the heavens and the earth, for you have welcomed me into your home with such fullness of charity, that today, being with you, it seemed to me that I was in the paradise of the Lord [...].

Here is what I have sought so much, now I contemplate it [...] because on earth I have united myself with men who are for me the faithful image of Him who is my spouse in heaven.

May the Lord bless your courage and praise the work of your hands'" (FF 2024).

Called and elected in the company of Our Lady Poverty, to follow in the footsteps of the Son of God.

Clare herself, in her Spiritual Testament, a true Franciscan pearl, addresses her present and future daughters, inviting them to guard the priceless treasure of election. We read in it:

"Among the other benefits that we have received and every day receive from our Donor, the Father of Mercies, for which we are greatly obliged to render to Him glorious living deeds of grace, great is that of our vocation. And the greater and more perfect it is, the more we are obliged to him. Therefore the Apostle admonishes: 'Know your vocation well'" (FF 2823).

And again:

"The Son of God became our Way; and this by word and example our blessed father Francis, a true lover and imitator of Him, showed and taught us" (FF 2824).

At this point Clare recalls when the Saint, under divine inspiration, prophesied about them.

"Having climbed over the wall of the said church [...] he addressed some poor people who were standing nearby:

"Come and help me in this work of the monastery of St Damian, for soon women will come to inhabit it, and by the fame of the holiness of their lives glory will be given to our heavenly Father throughout his holy Church".

We can, therefore, admire in this fact the great goodness of God towards us: He has deigned, in His superabundant mercy and charity, to inspire such words to His Saint concerning our vocation and election" (FF 2827-2828).

[Thursday of the 20th wk in O.T. (Mt 22:1-14)]

In chapter twenty of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to a master who calls and welcomes to work in his vineyard at all hours, even those who arrive at the last hour. Without taking anything away from those who have worked hard all day, the Lord fully welcomes even those who arrive late, according to the human clock.

God, in his goodness, evaluates according to a criterion different from the prejudices of men.

Therefore: "the last shall be first and the first, last" (Mt 20:16).

In the Franciscan Sources we find a Poor Man who loved hard work and not prejudice, shunning idleness.

He understood, however, that our God is not despotic, but dispenses his goods in total gratuity.

The Minor always looked to the Goodness of the Author of all things, who cares for each one, and wants to lead all into his Kingdom.

He exhorted his brothers to work with solicitude in the Vineyard of the Lord, welcoming everyone and staying away only from those who were idle.

The Sources recount:

"When the brothers were staying at Rivotorto, there was one of them who prayed little, did not work, and refused to go looking for alms because he was ashamed: he ate hard, however.

Considering such conduct, Francis realised with the light of the Holy Spirit that this was a carnal man. And he addressed these words to him:

"Go your way, Brother Mosca! You want to eat the work of your brothers, but you are idle in the service of God. You are like the drone, which neither works nor gathers, and devours the fruit of the labour of the industrious bees."

That fellow went his way, without even asking for an apology, from the carnal man that he was" (FF 1612).

Yet Francis had no prejudices, and always contemplated the Supreme Goodness of God, going back to the saving Origin of all things.

In this way "he exulted over all the works of the Lord's hands and, from that spectacle of joy, he went back to the Cause and Reason that makes all things live" (FF 1162).

So he did not fail to admonish his brothers not to be envious of what the Lord was working in their neighbour:

"Whoever envies his brother concerning the good that the Lord says and does in him, commits the sin of blasphemy, for he envies the Most High himself, who says and does all good" (FF 157 Admonitions).

And again:

"I want my brothers to work and keep themselves exercised. In this way they will not go about, idling with their hearts and their tongues, grazing on illicit things" (FF1093).

Wednesday of the 20th wk. in O.T. (Mt 20:1-16)

Jesus astonishes and astounds his disciples, remarking:

"it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24).

Peter's question arises: what about us who have left everything for the Gospel?

But Jesus assures the hundred for one and the experience of the Life of the Eternal.

Let us look at Francis and his own in the Sources and on the subject.

As Dante Alighieri recalls in the Divine Comedy (Canto XI of Paradise):

"Oh unknown riches! veracious wealth!/ takes off his shoes Egidio, takes off his shoes Silvestro/ behind the groom, this way the bride likes".

Francis had embraced Lady Poverty as the greatest wealth existing on this earth.

In love with Christ, in order to follow in His footsteps so as to resemble Him as much as possible, he adhered to Him with all his fibres and taught his own to do the same.

In fact, in the Sources (Legend of the Three Companions) it is narrated:

"There went Messer Bernard, who was very rich, and sold all his possessions, gaining much money, which he distributed entirely to the poor of the city.

Peter also carried out the divine advice as well as he could.

Having deprived themselves of everything, they both put on the habit that the Saint had taken shortly before, after having left that of a hermit.

And from that hour, they lived with him according to the form of life of the holy Gospel, as the Lord had indicated to them.

And so Francis was able to write in his Testament:

'The Lord himself revealed to me that I should live according to the form of life of the holy Gospel'" (FF 1432).

Consulting the Word, as he was wont to do, he had before his eyes the expression "Do not take anything with you on your journeys" and "Whoever wishes to follow me should renounce himself" (FF 1431), shaking with joy.

"Francis, a man of God, with the two brothers of whom we have spoken, having no lodging where they could dwell together, took refuge with them at St Mary of the Portiuncula.

There they made themselves a hut to live in community.

A few days later, a man from Assisi, Egidio, came down to them, and with sincere respect and devotion, on his knees, begged the man of God to receive him with him.

Francis, touched by his faith and goodness [...] received him gladly" (FF 1435).

Those who followed the Poverello, in his fraternity and for the sake of the Gospel had well understood the scope of that vocation-mission and its happy conclusion beyond time.

To leave for Christ is to find and live to a greater extent.

Tuesday of the 20th wk. in O.T. (Mt 19:23-30)

The Poor Man of Assisi, had understood by divine revelation that true wealth is the Poverty embraced by the Son of God, who became Poor for us, so that we might become rich in Him.

Indeed, the Giver of all good wanted Francis to grow in the riches of simplicity through love of the highest poverty. 

We find in the Sources:

"The Saint, noticing how poverty, which had been the intimate friend of the Son of God, was now being repudiated by almost the whole world, wanted to make her his bride, loving her with eternal love, and for her he not only left his father and mother but generously distributed all he could have.

No one was so greedy for gold, as Francis was for poverty; no one was more eager for treasures, than Francis was for this gospel pearl.

Nothing offended his eye more than this: to see something in the brothers that was not entirely in harmony with poverty.

As for him, from the beginning of his religious life until his death, he had these riches: a cassock, a cord and pants, and of this he was content" (FF 1117).

"He often recalled to mind, weeping, the poverty of Jesus Christ and of his Mother, and affirmed that this is the queen of virtues, because one sees it shine so brightly, more than all the others, in the King of kings and in the Queen his Mother (FF 1118). "He taught, having learned it by revelation, that the first step in holy religion consists in fulfilling that word of the Gospel: If you want to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor" (FF 1121).

«If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me» (Mt 19:21).

Monday, 20th wk. in O.T. (Mt 19:16-22)

Jesus upsets the mind-sets of the Jews who wonder how he can give them to eat his body and drink his blood.

Francis, endowed by Grace with extraordinary charisms, understood all this well.

In his simplicity he was a great lover of the Eucharist, to which he dedicated a special letter: "Letter to all clerics on the reverence of the Body

of the Lord".

Francis loved the Crucified One so much, and for Him and in Him the Cross on which He was confined for the salvation of the world, that he received the gift of the stigmata.

Made like Christ, therefore Alter Christus.  He had always fixed in his mind the Gift of the Father to humanity, in the Son.

The Sources enlighten us in this regard:

"And we give thee thanks, because as thou hast created us through thy Son, so by thy holy love, with which thou hast loved us, thou hast brought forth the same true God and true man from the glorious ever-virgin most blessed Saint Mary, and, by the cross, blood and death of Him hast willed to redeem us from bondage" (FF 64).

And again: '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 [...].

He did not consider himself a friend of Christ if he did not love the souls He loved" (FF 758).

"One morning, as the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross approached, while he was praying on the side of the mountain, he saw the figure like a seraphim, with six wings as bright as they were fiery, descending from the sublimity of heaven [...].

He came close to the man of God, and then there appeared between his wings the effigy of a crucified man, who had his hands and feet stretched out and confined on the cross [...].

He understood by divine revelation the purpose for which divine Providence had shown him that vision, that is, to make known to him in advance that he [...] was about to be transformed into the visible portrait of Christ Jesus crucified [...] by the fire of the Spirit" (FF 1225).

The Sources, a Franciscan treasure chest, masterfully attest to the sacrificial beauty of such an experience:

"His hands and feet appeared pierced in the centre by nails [...].

His right side was also pierced as if by a lance blow, with a wide scar, and he often bled, bathing his cassock and pants with that sacred blood" (FF 485).

Also at San Damiano there was great reverence and love for the Flesh and Blood of Christ.

In fact, Clare also yearned to receive the living Bread that came down from heaven with great devotion and recollection.

The life of these two Poor Clares was an unceasing Eucharistic sacrifice for the benefit of humanity, in unity with Jesus.

Their every gesture was Bread broken and Blood shed for every creature in need.

Living in poverty and simplicity in daily life they became Food and Drink for all.

"Whoever chews my flesh and drinks my blood has the Life of the LORD" (Jn 6:54)

20th Sunday in O.T. B (Jn 6,51-58)

In today's Gospel Jesus takes as a point of reference for entering the Kingdom of heaven the simplicity and littleness of children, because: "of such is the Kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19:14).

His exhortation not to put obstacles between Him and the least is striking.

Francis of Assisi was loved in a special way by God because of his making himself small.

With a refined mind, he described himself as "simple and idiotic".

The Poverello understood the logic of the Gospel very well: whoever wants to be great must be the smallest, like a child - in times past considered of no value; minimal.

He endeavoured to make his brothers understand all this, more with deeds than words.

Nevertheless, in his 'Letter to the Rulers of the Peoples' he writes:

"To all the podestas and consuls, magistrates and rulers of every part of the world [...] to whom this letter will reach, Brother Francis, your servant in the Lord God, small and contemptible, wishes you all health and peace" (FF 210).

Furthermore, we read in the Sources:

"The servant of God, Francis, small in stature, humble of spirit and a minor by profession, while living here on earth, chose for himself and his brothers a small portion of the world: otherwise, without using anything of this world, he would not have been able to serve Christ.

And they were certainly inspired by God who, in ancient times, called Porziuncola the place that fell to the lot of those who wanted absolutely nothing on this earth.

There stood in this place a church dedicated to the Virgin Mother, who, by her particular humility, deserved, after her Son, to be Sovereign of all Saints.

It was here that the Order of the Minors began, and their noble building rose up spacious and harmonious, as if resting on a solid foundation.

The Saint loved this place more than any other and commanded his friars to venerate it with special devotion.

He wanted it always to be kept as a mirror of the Order in humility and the highest poverty, reserving its ownership to others and keeping its use for himself and his own only" (FF 604).

And to his beloved brothers he repeated:

"We have promised great things, greater things are promised to us; let us observe those and aspire to them. Pleasure is short, punishment eternal; suffering small, glory infinite" (FF 778).

Francis understood that to be Christ's and heirs of the Kingdom means not to count according to worldly mentality, and to carry with one the simplicity of the dove, as well as the frank transparency of the child.

This outfit requires belonging to the Eternal, and its transparency on earth.

Saturday of the 19th wk. in O.T. (Mt 19:13-15)

Jesus points out to the eyes of the Pharisees who want to frame him, the fontal goodness of marriage, but also the value of a life given directly to the Lord and which therefore becomes "eunuch" for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Looking in the Franciscan Sources, we note that the Poor Man of Assisi esteemed marriage, in the Christian life, as a place of witness to God's springing love for man and woman, knowing how to welcome and await the times of Providence in every situation.

In the Sources, it is narrated that a noblewoman once came to him to ask the saint for a remedy against a very bad husband, who was hindering her in the service of Christ.

"After listening to her, he said to her: 'Go in peace and be assured that you will soon have from your man the consolation you desire.'

And he added: "You will tell him from God and from me that now is the time for mercy, then for justice".

Having received the blessing, the woman returns, finds her husband and tells him those words.

The Holy Spirit descends upon him, transforming him into a new man, thus inducing him to respond with all meekness:

"Madam, let us serve the Lord and save our souls".

At the urging of his holy wife, they led a celibate life for several years, until they both returned to the Lord on the same day" (FF 1193 - Major Legend).

But for those who, like Francis and Clare of Assisi, follow their call to become disciples in poverty following Christ [eunuchs for the Kingdom of God] life unfolds differently.

We read about St Clare:

"When therefore she began to feel the first stirrings of holy love, she considered the perishable and false flower of worldliness despicable, instructed by the anointing of the Holy Spirit to attribute little value to things that have little value.

And indeed beneath her precious and soft garments she wore a small cilice concealedly, appearing outwardly adorned for the world, but inwardly clothed in Christ.

Finally, wanting her parents to marry her nobly, they did not consent in any way: but, pretending to want to postpone the earthly wedding until later, she entrusted her virginity to the Lord" (FF 3160).

Francis and Clare attest to us with facts how important it is to respond and live well the specific and unrepeatable call, addressed to each one.

"What God has joined together, let no man put asunder [...] And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 19,6b.12b).

Friday of the 19th wk. in O.T. (Mt 19,3-12)

The Lucan Gospel highlights Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth and the dance of the two Little Ones carried by special women, embraced in different ways by Grace.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, expresses herself in the song of praise of the Magnificat, which refers back to God the extraordinary benefits received.

From the very beginning of his calling, Francis had a special and profound veneration for the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Lord.

Of her he always contemplated the mysteries in the various seasons of his life.

The Sources provide wonderful pictures in this regard.

"He surrounded the Mother of Jesus with an unspeakable love, because she had made our brother the Lord of majesty.

To his honour he sang special praises, raised prayers, offered affections so many and such that human tongue could not express them.

But what fills one most with joy, he made her the Advocate of the Order and placed her children under her wings [...] so that they might find warmth and protection there to the end" (FF 786).

"In her, above all, after Christ, he placed his trust [...] In her honour he fasted with great devotion, from the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul until the feast of the Assumption [...]" (FF 1165).

And to his daughters, dwelling at St Damian, Francis in a composition dedicated to them, concludes by saying:

"Those who are aggravated by infirmity/ and the others who for their part are fatigued/ all of them be sustained in peace,/ for you will sell this toil dearly,/ and each one will be queen/ in heaven crowned with the Virgin Mary" (FF 263).

And Clare, when she began her journey of faith following Francis, was received by him and his friars at the altar of the Blessed Virgin at the Portiuncula. Moreover, that same Mother, at the moment of her passing, came to take her, appearing to her by her bed.

Mary was for Clare a model to follow throughout her life, so much so that in the Letter of Introduction to the Legend, in the Sources, we read:

"Let men therefore follow the new followers of the Incarnate Word: let the women imitate Clare, the imprint of the Mother of God, the new guide of women" (FF 3153).

Francis and Clare assumed Mary, the Mother of God, into their daily lives to be assumed by Christ into heavenly glory.

"My soul magnifies the Lord [...] for he has looked upon the lowliness of his servant. For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed" (Lk 1:46, 48a).

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Lk 1:39-56)