The Minim of Assisi, in order to follow Jesus and live his Gospel, renounced everything (literally) after his conversion to be free to follow in his Lord's footsteps.
He understood that earthly goods are a stumbling block to the evangelical freedom of 'becoming one' with the Master.
Hence we read in the Sources:
"On the advice of the bishop of the town, a very pious man, who did not think it right to use ill-gotten money for sacred purposes, the man of God returned to his father the sum, which he wanted to spend on the restoration of the church. And in front of many who had gathered and were listening:
«From now on - he exclaimed - I will be able to say freely: Our Father, who art in heaven, not Father Peter of Bernardone. Behold, I will not only return him the money, but I will also return him all my garments. Thus, I will go naked to meet the Lord».
O noble soul of a man, to whom Christ alone suffices!" (FF 597).
When the first companions began to arrive, who wanted to live like him, Francis "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, sell everything you have and give it to the poor.
So he admitted to the Order only those who had renounced property and kept absolutely nothing for themselves.
So he did, in homage to the word of the Gospel, but also to avoid the scandal of private purses' (FF 1121).
«Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, who does not receive a hundredfold now, in this time, in houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, together with persecutions, and in the age to come, the life of the Eternal One» (Mk 10:29-30)
In the light of the Gospel, at the time:
"Several men of culture and famous men of letters, both of the laity and the clergy, renouncing the allurements of pleasures, sin and worldly greed, entered the Order in their turn, committing themselves to follow, each according to the particular grace received from God, the poverty and the example of Christ and His servant Francis" (FF 1487- legend of the three companions).
In the section of the Sources: "Chronicles and other testimonies" we find out about the brothers:
"They then strove so diligently to renew in themselves the religion, poverty and humility of the early Church, drawing with thirst and ardour of spirit from the pure waters that flow from the spring of the Gospel [...] renouncing all possessions, denying themselves and, taking up their cross, naked they follow the naked Christ.
Like Joseph, they lay down their cloak*; like the Samaritan woman, their amphora, and they run free and light, before the Face of the Lord, never looking back. 'Forgetting past things, they always lean forward [...]' (FF 2218).
Holy love is content with the fruit of prayer and it is its characteristic to disregard earthly gifts, thinking only of serving the Word in the brothers, with freedom of spirit.
*Jacobus of Vitry captured, in particular, the apostolic commitment of the Friars Minor.
Tuesday 8th wk. in O.T. (Mk 10:28-31)
