Crazy! This was my first impression of St. Francis after reading about his life as described in “The Little Flowers of Saint Francis.” Crazy because his thought and the thoughts of his monks seemed so out of the ordinary compared to what modern church society thinks. I can’t picture modern day Franciscans such as Fr. Terry asking Fr. Scanlon to step on his throat and mouth telling him “Lie there, you country lout, How is it that you have so much pride since you are such an extremely worthless creature? (pg. 47)” I read things such as this and think that if that is what it means to be holy, I don’t think I want much part in it. I am going on a Missions Trip to Honduras during spring break and one of the goals during the time that I serve there is not to go to the village square so the towns folks can have a better chance to mock me. I can’t say that it would give me as much joy as Brother Bernard to go out of my way to be made fun of. (pg. 53)
I think at first reading, I missed the overall picture of the episodes described in ‘Little Flowers’. It seems as if St. Francis loved to go off on himself, telling himself what a great and wicked sinner he was and that there is no way that God would have mercy on the likes of someone like him. I can say honestly if I had this type of attitude I would curl up in my bed and avoid doing anything in life. But Brother Leo gives me the assurance that is not how God wants us to think about ourselves by correcting Francis on his self-spiritual flagellation. “God the Father, whose mercy is infinitely greater than your sins, will be very merciful to you and moreover will give you many graces.” (pg. 61) It is nice to have Brother Leos around to point us back to looking at the mercy of our Father who loves us instead of the state our soul would be in, if He didn’t. It seems as if St. Francis’s attitude about himself is a reflection on the spiritual discipline during the time in which St. Francis lived.
Saints were more rigorous and extreme in the ways that they loved God and transformed their lives. Their penances were usually more strict then what modern day Christians are used to. Life was rough and it made people tough. The thought process on how to please God was very much different then it is today. God usually gave testimony to that rigorous life through signs and wonders. Sometimes people may wonder why miracles and visitations from heavenly persons that happen in the time of Francis do not happen in today’s modern world. Should we all be extreme as Francis in his zeal for God so that miracles like this can happen? The thing is that God can and wants to perform miracles through us who are alive today. But they do not have to be extraordinary miracles to touch the hearts and souls of men and women.
God may very well give us the ability to heal some one with leprosy, blow someone in the air with our breath or to tame wild animals. But then again the majority of us will not perform miracles like Francis. We all must be saints in order to enter the kingdom of heaven but we all do not have to do take an extreme fast of nothing for forty days or other extraordinary feats of penance to accomplish this. Francis was important and it was necessary for him to be as extreme as we was. God choose him to rebuild his church after all. I look at Francis at think that I could never be as extreme as he was. I don’t think I would want to be as extreme he was or at least in the way he went about it. Every Saint is different from every other saint cause all saints have their different personalities. The lessons I and others can learn from Francis do not consist of preaching to people while naked or jumping naked into a fireplace to convert a prostitute.
The things we can and should desire from St. Francis consist in the simplistic ways of virtue that any Christian can and should imitate. Two things stand out. The first thing is something that runs through out the “Little Flowers”, which is the theme of humility. Trouble always seemed to brew for those who were puffed up with any sort of pride. They might get rebuked by angels or Christ himself. It was Francis’s Humility that converted Bernard to a Saint.
The Friars were always testing each other’s humility and giving each other opportunities to practice the virtue such as the time Francis had Brother Masseo be the gatekeeper at the place they were staying instead of using his gift of preaching.
Anther noticeable thing that one can lean and imitate from St. Francis is his intense love of God and his dedication to Him. Francis’s heart was for the one that’s heart was for Him. God has already given us his all, we should do the same in return. Loving God will cause us to want to do anything that brings glory to God’s name. In the time period that Francis lived in, it was thought virtuous to want to suffer purposefully in spirit and in body. Although that seems a tad bit sadistic by today’s standards, we can desire to do anything for Christ, no matter what it may cost us. If we love Christ we will love anyone, no matter how difficult. We will talk to the outcast and to our enemy. We will suffer anything if God dwells in our hearts. We will get rid of anything that detaches us from God. This lead Francis to have contempt for the things of the world and caused him to be unattached to them. We may even help convert to Christ, maybe even our enemy You never can tell who God will touch through you.
St Francis’s spirit lives on at the university named after him. Miracles happen as peoples souls and spirits have been healed and not to mention some physical aliments if I’m not mistaken. I honestly think Francis would feel very comfortable with the Charismatic aspect that is a big part of this campus. He really might enjoy a FOP. Hearts are converted to Christ at Franciscan U, not because of big dramatic miracles but because of the ordinary miracles of a changed life. The devotion to Orthodox Dynamic Catholicism wins over many people. It may not be the healthiest thing to ridicule one self as strictly as Francis did, but we do need to realize that we totally need God and that without him we would be lost and going to hell. Through humility and loving God we can attach ourselves with zeal to the one who attached himself to us and we can inspire others around us to do the same. That is what Francis did then and it is what we should do today.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In