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)
