Today's Gospel passage speaks of persecution and hatred towards the witnesses of Jesus.

The Poor Man of Assisi, having known Christ, well knew that following in His footsteps would also entail insults and persecution, starting with his family.

In fact, the people of Assisi and his father, a shrewd merchant, could not bear his radical change, and thought him mad.

But Francis, Herald of Christ, did not let himself be intimidated, guided by divine Wisdom, which suggests to those who welcome it every response appropriate to the moment.

The Franciscan Sources, a place of special evangelical training, narrate:

"One day, inflamed with enthusiasm, the Saint left the cave and set out towards Assisi, lively, quick-witted and joyful.

Armed with confidence in Christ and inflamed with heavenly love, he reproached himself for cowardice and vain trepidation, and boldly decided to expose himself to the hands and blows of his persecutors.

At the first sight of him, those who knew him as he was before, began to insult him, shouting that he was a madman and a fool, throwing mud and stones at him.

Seeing him so changed, exhausted by penances, they attributed his change to exhaustion and dementia.

But the Knight of Christ passed through that storm without paying any attention to it, not allowing himself to be struck and agitated by the insults, giving thanks to God instead.

News of what was happening spread through the squares and streets of the city, until it came to the ears of his father.

Hearing how they were mistreating him, he immediately went out to get him, intending not to free him but to end it.

Out of his mind, he pounced on him like a wolf on a sheep, and staring at him with grim eyes and a face contracted in fury, he seized him and dragged him home.

There he locked him up in a dark cubbyhole for several days, doing everything, with words and blows, to bring him back to worldly vanity" (FF 1417).

But "Francis did not let himself be moved neither by words, nor by chains, nor by beatings. He endured everything with patience, indeed becoming more agile and stronger in following his ideal" (FF 1418).

"Now before all these things they will lay their hands on you and persecute you by delivering you to synagogues and prisons" (Lk 21:12).

"And you will be hated by all because of my name" (Lk 21:17).

Wednesday 34th wk in O.T. (Lk 21,12-19)

In today's Gospel, while some were thinking of the beautiful stones of the temple, Jesus announces that nothing would remain of what they admired.

Francis and Clare of Assisi, with different paths, lived with the final horizon of life always before them.

By divine revelation and by unquestioned intuition they understood that the glitter of this world would be the first detractors of souls.

They knew that of all they saw, nothing would remain at the end of days.

And every day, from the first light of dawn, this thought guided them in the work of witnessing.

The Sources, a bottomless vein of the Gospel events experienced by these Giants of the Gospel, proclaim beginning with the Canticle of Brother Sun

"Be praised, my Lord, for sister our death of the body/ from which no man can escape/ woe to those who die in mortal sins;/ blessed are those who find in your most holy will,/ for the second death will do them no harm" (FF 263).

Nevertheless, Clare reminded her sisters of the ultimate goal of life:

"Blessed, however, are those to whom it is granted to walk this way and persevere in it to the end" (FF 2850).

Again in one of her letters to Agnes of Bohemia, she recalls:

"How many times do kings and queens of this world deceive themselves in this regard!

Even if they raise their pride up to heaven and almost touch the clouds with their heads, in the end they will be dissolved into nothingness, like rubbish' (FF 2894).

They always threw their hearts over the hurdle, trusting in God.

As Jesus announces in the Gospel: "These things you observe, there will come days when no stone will be left upon stone, which will not be destroyed" (Lk 21:6).

Tuesday 34th wk. in O.T. (Lk 21:5-11)

In today's Gospel Jesus emphasises the extent of a poor widow's gift: "her whole life" (Lk 21:4b).

A man of thought like Fr Claudel said: "What is life for if not to be given?".

Francis of Assisi, who shared his birth on his mother's side [Mona Pica, a refined woman of France] had made the total gift of himself to God and his brothers and sisters the evangelical meaning of his life.

He had embedded it in a verb very dear to him: 'give back' - give back to God what he had lavishly bestowed upon him.

And the 'poor in spirit' understand this better than anyone else.

In the Sources we read:

"To those who wanted to enter the Order, the Saint taught to repudiate the world first, offering to God first the external goods, then to make the interior gift of oneself.

He did not admit to the Order except those who had divested themselves of all possessions, holding nothing absolutely, both for the word of the holy Gospel and so that personal peculence would not be a scandal' (FF 667).

And again:

"In poverty they found great joy: they did not covet riches, indeed they despised every ephemeral good, coveted by the lovers of this world.

Above all they were against money, trampling it underfoot like the dust of the road: Francis had taught them that money was worth no more than donkey dung.

They were happy in the Lord, always having nothing within themselves or among them that could in any way upset them.

The more they were separated from the world, the more they held fast to God. They advanced in the way of the cross and in the paths of righteousness" (FF 1454).

They had well understood what the Gospel means when it proclaims the Blessedness of those who give all of themselves for Christ and in Christ.

"Truly I tell you, this widow, so poor, has given more than all" (Lk 21:3).

Monday, 34th wk. in O.T. (Lk 21:1-4)

Francis considered himself 'the herald of the Great King'.

Assailed by brigands who asked him who he was, he fearlessly replied: 'I am the herald of the Great King; does this interest you?

And when he had to sit at sumptuous tables of great personages, Francis repeated:

"The Lord is pleased with poverty and especially with that which consists in becoming voluntary beggars for Christ. And I, this royal dignity that the Lord assumed for us, making himself poor in order to enrich us with his misery and to make the truly poor in spirit heirs and kings of the Kingdom of heaven, do not want to exchange it for the feud of false riches, granted to you for a moment" (FF 1127).

And when he set up the first nativity scene at Greccio, Francis stood before the manger filled with pity:

"He preaches to the people the birth of the poor King, and in naming him, he calls him by Tenderness of love, the "child of Bethlehem" (FF 1186).

And Clare echoes him in the Legend, saying:

"For if the King of kings gives himself to those who love him ardently, what can there be that he does not grant, if it is fitting, to those who pray to him with devotion?" (FF 3208).

In the Praises of God Most High we read:

"Thou art Holy, O Lord, only God, who workest wondrous things.

You are strong, You are great, You are Most High, You are Almighty King, You, Holy Father, King of Heaven and earth..." (FF 261).

Christ the King (B) (Jn 18:33b-37)

Jesus reminds us that those who are considered worthy of the future life do not take a wife or husband.

In this regard, the Sources have a very significant episode that gives us pause for thought.

"In the hermitage of the friars of Sarteano, the evil one, who always envies the spiritual progress of the sons of God, even had this presumption.

Seeing that the saint was continually attending to his sanctification, and did not neglect today's gain satisfied with that of the previous day, one night, while he was praying in his little cell, he called him three times: 'Francis, Francis.

"What do you want?"

And that one: "There is no sinner in the world who does not obtain God's mercy if he repents. But whoever causes his own death by rigorous penance will not find mercy in eternity".

The saint immediately recognised, by revelation, the cunning of the enemy, as he sought to induce him to lukewarmness [...].

Seeing that in this way he had not succeeded in hiding the snare, he prepared another, that is, a carnal stimulus [...].

As soon as the Father noticed (such a temptation), he stripped off his robe and scourged himself with extreme harshness with a piece of rope.

"Brother Donkey,' he exclaims, 'this is how you must submit, this is how you must suffer the scourge! The cassock is the Order's, it is not lawful to misappropriate it [...]".

But since he saw that with the blows of discipline the temptation would not go away [...] he went out into the garden and plunged naked into the deep snow.

Then taking the snow with his bare hands he clutched it and made seven piles of it in the shape of dummies; he then placed himself before them and began to speak to the body thus:

"Behold, this eldest is thy wife, these four, two are thy sons and two thy daughters; the other two are the servant and the maid, necessary for the service."

"Make haste, they must all be clothed because they are dying of cold. If then this manifold concern is a burden to you, serve the Lord with diligence."

"[...] and the Saint returned to his cell glorifying God" (FF 703).

"But those who will be judged worthy to have part in that other world and in the resurrection of the dead shall neither take a wife nor a husband" (Lk 20:35).

Saturday, 33rd wk. in O.T. (Lk 20:27-40)

Francis, a man of God, loved prayer in a special way, as a place of encounter with the Bridegroom, jealously guarding it from all noise.

We read in the Second Life of his well-known biographer, Celano:

"He always sought a secluded place, where he could be united not only with the Spirit, but with his individual members, to his God.

Instead, when he prayed in the woods and in solitary places, he filled the woods with groans and bathed the earth with tears.

He often dialogued aloud with his Lord: he gave an account to the Judge, pleaded with the Father, spoke to the Friend, joked amiably with the Bridegroom.

And actually, in order to offer all the fibres of his heart in manifold holocaust to God, he considered Him who is supremely One.

Often without moving his lips, he meditated long and hard within himself, and concentrating the outward powers within, he rose with the Spirit to heaven.

He was not so much a praying man as he himself was all transformed into living prayer" (FF 681-682).

"It is written: My house shall be a house of prayer" (Lk 19:46).

Friday, 33rd wk. in O.T. (Lk 19:45-48)

Jesus shed tears over Jerusalem for its ungrateful choice of power.

Francis too, a disciple of the Lord, in the footsteps of the Word made flesh, as soon as he had finished his errands (indeed he would cut them off in a flash, so as not to be distracted by the things of God!) would retire, like Jesus, all alone, to pray, even at night.

Thomas of Celano, one of his most eloquent biographers, in the Sources, speaks thus about Francis' relationship with Christ.

This intimate union strengthened his faith, making him capable of going to God even on the great waters of life, amidst the storms of the world.

"He spent all his time in holy recollection, in order to imprint wisdom in his heart; he feared to turn back if he did not always make progress.

And if at times there were urgent visits from seculars or other matters, he would cut them off rather than finish them, to take refuge again in contemplation" (FF 681).

"When, on the other hand, she prayed in the woods and in solitary places, she filled the woods with groans, bathed the earth with tears, beat her breast with her hand; and there, almost as if taking advantage of a more intimate and reserved place, she often dialogued aloud with her Lord" (FF 682).

But Clare too, a seedling of the Seraphic Father Francis, was nourished by assiduous prayer and solitary contemplation to understand God's will and abandon herself to a solid faith.

Witness what he wrote in his third letter to his spiritual daughter, Agnes of Bohemia. Words charged with authentic 'Christian relationship'.

"Place your eyes before the mirror of eternity, place your soul in the splendour of glory, place your heart in Him who is the figure of the divine substance, and be transformed entirely, through contemplation, into the image of the divinity of Him" (FF 2888).

The Poor of Assisi have made "being with God" the condition for not fearing the adversities encountered on their journey; walking, by Grace, on the "great waters".

Thus, thanks to their eloquent example, many souls abandoned the spirit of confrontation and overpowering, turning to a life of conciliation and fraternal Peace.

"Hadst thou known in this day also that which is for peace! But now it has been hidden from your eyes" (Lk 19:42).

Thursday, 33rd wk. in O.T. (Lk 19:41-44)

Today's Gospel passage highlights the spiritual intelligence of one who, like Francis, places at the service of the Kingdom all that The Most High has deposited in his bare existence.

Those who place the mines (Greek currency/talents) received at the service of the Gospel will find them increased by the Lord's longanimity.

Francis, who described himself as a "simplex et idiota", after meeting Christ, changes his skin - and everything he previously yearned for ends up detesting him - and everything he previously abhorred becomes a sweetness of soul for him.

Walking through the Franciscan Sources, a chisel of events and of the Saint's deep and solid vocation, we read:

"Many, nobles and plebeians, clerics and laymen, docile to divine inspiration, came to the Saint, yearning to stand forever with him and under his guidance.

And to all he, as a rich spring of heavenly grace, bestows the life-giving waters that make the virtues blossom in the garden of the heart.

A truly glorious artist and teacher of the evangelical life: through his example, his Rule and his teaching, the Church of Christ is renewed in her faithful, men and women, and the threefold militia of the elect triumphs" (FF 384).

We also learn that 'he became a herald of the Gospel. He began, in fact, to travel through towns and villages and to proclaim the kingdom of God there, not relying on persuasive speeches of human wisdom, but on the demonstration of spirit and power [...] from then on the vineyard of Christ began to produce fragrant shoots of the good odour of the Lord, and abundant fruit with sweet flowers of grace and holiness" (FF 1072).

The Poor Man of Assisi had known how to 'traffic' his mines, received to reach as many souls as possible through the power of the Spirit of God and make known the salvific value of the Word made flesh.

"I tell you that to everyone who has will be given, but from him who does not have will be taken away even what he has" (Lk 19:26).

Wednesday, 33rd wk. in O.T. (Lk 19:11-28)

The beginning of Luke chapter nineteen recounts the conversion of Zacchaeus. A change of heart that had led him to return four times what he had stolen from the poor.

Thus, by receiving the Lord, salvation had found a home in his house.

Francis, like Zacchaeus, was also small in stature and wanted to see Jesus.

He had climbed the sycamore of his false securities, and Jesus tells him to come down from the world of self-will and climb the hill of evangelical freedom, giving what he had to the poor.

The moment he met Christ, he realised that salvation, the clarity of living, had entered his inner house.

The Sources document these interesting historical events:

"Since, however, as the whole of Scripture says: 'When a man is finished, then he begins, and when he is consummated, he will work' - one saw his spirit become more ready in his infirm flesh.

So vivid was his love for the salvation of souls, and his thirst to win them to God, that, no longer having the strength to walk, he rode out into the countryside on a donkey.

Often his brethren, with sweet insistence, invited him to restore his infirm and too weak body a little with medical care, but he, whose spirit was continually turned to heaven, declined the invitation each time, since he only wished to be untied from his body to be with Christ" (FF 490).

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 hang on the cross for souls [...].

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

Saved, he sought to save; healed, he wanted to heal!

"Zacchaeus, hasten down, for today I must remain in your house" (Lk 19:5b)

Tuesday 33rd wk in O.T. (Lk 19,1-10)