Introduction
Saint
Francis is one of the famous saints, not only among the Catholics but also for those
who claim themselves non-Christians. He was famous not because he became a
cardinal or a pope, but because he tried hard to live the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. One of the evangelical principles lived by Francis is holy poverty.
This essay will explore the theme in three parts: a short history of Saint
Francis of Assisi, his idealism on living in poverty, and the relevancy of his
spirituality for the post-modern world.
Who is Saint Francis of Assisi?
Saint
Francis was born in 1181/1182 in Assisi. His parents were Pietro Bernardone, a
wealthy cloth merchant, and Dona Picca, a woman from a prominent family in
Assisi. He was baptised by the name of Giovanni (John), but later became better
known as Francis. He
received his primary education at the Church of San Giorgio under the guidance
of one of the priests. However, it seems that the priest was not very
successful in developing Francis' intellectual abilities. He taught Francis in
Latin, art or images, and develop Francis' skills in the learning process. Over
time, it seems clear that Francis had a better ability in observation,
intuition, and expressing his feelings.
In
1205, when Francis was twenty-three-year-old, he participated in a military
campaign as a knight in many battlefields. One day, when Francis was in the
journey to Perugia, he was sick. And because of the illness, he finally had to
stop at Spoleto and spent the night there. While he was sleeping, he had a
dream about a hall full of military weapons. While looking at the weaponry, a
voice said to him: "Is it better to serve the Lord or the servant?” “The
Lord” he replied. “Then why" he heard, “do you serve the servant?” Francis
was awakened by his dream and wondered what the dream could mean. That dream was the initial
transformation in the life of Saint Francis. Upon his return from Spoleto, he
began to dedicate himself to serve "the Lord" as he heard from his
dream. Francis began serving the poor, the sick, beggars, even he courageously hugged
and kissed the lepers. He expressed his feelings when encountering the lepers in The Testament:
“… when I was in sin it seemed too
bitter for me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led me among them and I
showed mercy to them. And when I left them, what had seemed bitter to me
was turned into sweetness of soul and body.”
A
decisive moment occurred when he was praying before a cross in the chapel of
San Damiano. There, Francis listened to the call of the Lord to build his
Church, which is falling into ruin. In Francis' initial interpretation, the
voice he heard was an order from God that he must rebuild the chapel.
Therefore, in response to that call, Francis then sold his horse and some
clothes from his father's shop, then gave the money to the priest who was
taking care of the chapel. However, in the
next reflection, Francis understood that the Church meant by God was a
large-scale Church. The Lord Jesus called him to renew the Church from within.
The
transformation of Francis' life was not without challenges. His father denounced him as a thief and confronted him to return all the
possessions he had spent in the front of Guido, Bishop of Assisi. Francis then,
not only returned his father's money but also given back all the clothes he was
wearing and therefore, standing naked before all people. Since
then, Francis declared his Father would be God, the Father in heaven. It was a
decisive moment where Francis left everything and started a new life. Francis' unique and radical way of life attracted the
attention of several people, such as Bernard of
Quintavalle, Peter Catanii, and Giles. They started a brotherhood
dedicated to helping the poor and the marginalised by society, while going
around proclaiming the Gospel as itinerant preachers. This
little group - with their radical way of life - attracted the attention of many
people, including a young noble woman, Clare of Assisi, who later will form the
Second Order for cloistered-nuns (OSC).
An
interesting story from Francis which is worth noting here is his visit to
Sultan Malik Al-Kamil, the Sultan of Egypt at that time (reigned between 1218 –
1238). Francis met the sultan at Damietta (Dumyat),
during the Fifth Crusade in 1219, walking only in bare feet. Although
Francis did not succeed to convert the sultan to Christianity, he was treated with good respect by the sultan. It is also said
that because the sultan was so touched by Francis' teachings, he ordered that Francis
and all his brothers could have access to the Holy Sepulchre without the need
to give any payment. After the encounter between the sultan and Francis, there were peace in the
region for a long period of time.
A
few years before the end of his life, Francis received the stigmata (the five
wounds of Jesus) while he was praying at Mount La Verna. The grace of stigmata
received by Francis was the first time in the history of the Church, no figure
has ever received it before. Finally, on 3rd October 1226,
Francis left the world to go to heaven. He was canonised two years after that,
on 16th July 1228 by Pope Gregory IX with the canonization bull, Mira
circa Nos. Despite
being no longer in this world, Saint Francis has left one of his most valuable legacies
for the Church: the most effective way to live in holy poverty.
Holy Poverty according to Saint Francis
of Assisi
Francis
is one of the great saints who elevated poverty as a way of life towards
intimacy with God. He saw poverty as a virtue, and it cannot be separated from
humility. Only those who have humility who could genuinely embrace holy poverty.
That truth is clear from his salutation where he wrote, “Holy Poverty, may the Lord protect You, with Your Sister holy
Humility!” Therefore, it is not surprising if poverty
is the heart of Franciscan spirituality, because it is one of the “organising
principles” of the spirituality of Saint Francis, the
Seraphic Father. Thomas Celano narrated that when Francis listened to the Gospel of
Matthew 10:9-10 was read in the Church, Francis was suddenly gripped by the Spirit
of God and said, “This is what I want,” he said, “this is what I seek, this is
what I desire with all my heart.”
The
poverty here, as referred by Saint Francis, is not in the sense of becoming
poor and have nothing in the world, even though it is true that he seemed to
hate money by seeing it as a “dirt on the road.” Poverty can also become a manifestation of sin, if not addressed properly. Poor
people can be greedy and cruel to others. What Francis means by poverty here is “to live without sufficiency, to be
deprived and in a state of need and dependence.” Humility presupposes the ability to know one's limitations as human beings, willingness
to depend on others, and at the same time, to realise the divine presence in
the world.
In
his Testament, Francis emphasised that the Lord Jesus showed a unique way of
life to him. The basic principle of this way is to obey the Holy Gospel, as
stated in his Rule. Moreover, the hallmark of this way of life is by
“living without anything of one's own” (vivere sine
proprio). The basic principle of Francis’ way of life is sharing
life without possessing. This idea can be found in the teachings of the Lord on
the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Based on this principle, Francis focused his life more
on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, not on the desires of the flesh.
However,
this principle must be in line with the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Without this
foundation, poverty only becomes a kind of penitential practice, ascetical
discipline, or self-improvement. Francis sees that poverty is a response
to imitate the example of Jesus Christ, who despite his divine status, has
chosen to “letting go” his prestige as the Son of God by becoming a human and
servant. He lived as a poor man, among the poor people, and even died as a poor
man on the cross. This mystery of incarnation deeply touched the heart of Saint
Francis. Therefore, the spirituality of Saint Francis is centred on the person
of Jesus Christ (Christocentric). The letter of Saint Paul in 2
Corinthians 8:9 has a great influence on the life of Saint Francis, especially
in his efforts to live a life on radical poverty. He wanted to become like
Jesus, who made himself poor. This is the mystery
of the incarnation, and Francis wanted to live it.
Because
the Son of God was willing to incarnate into the world, then for Francis, the
whole creation became holy. He saw that everything that had been created by God
had also been sanctified by the presence of the Word which became human. That
is why Francis is not only a lover of nature and a great poet who admired the
beauty of the universe around him, but he is also able to see the presence of
God in the structure of creation. Francis found that the glory of God reflected in all of His works. Therefore,
he calls the main elements of the universe as brothers and sisters. His most
famous work is The Canticle of the Sun. Francis was not only able to see
the relation of “I-Thou” – as described by Martin Buber – but he also extended
this “I-Thou” relationship to “all that is”, and see that everything that exists has a deep relationship with God, the Creator.
In
living this spirit of poverty, Francis indeed left the world (exive de
saeculo) but not in the sense of escaping from the world as was known in
monastic life. Hermit monks separated themselves from people by running from
the world (fuga mundi) and living in the wilderness. Francis, on the contrary,
left the world in the sense of not involving himself in social affairs, but “essentially abandoned his social class, the dominant order of his day;
he left the society of the maiores, as they were called, and decisively
wanted to be minor.” In other words,
Francis does not alienate himself from the world, but lived in the world, made it
his monastery, and transform it through gentleness, joy, and fraternal
encounter.
Poverty
embraced by Francis is a free choice to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the
incarnated-God. For Francis, poverty became his main foundation to achieve a
true relationship with God, whom he recognised as the God who has become poor for
humans out of love. Because of his great desire to follow Jesus' example, Francis then gladly chose
to live among those who were excluded from society. This is clearly stated in The
Earlier Rule, as he advised his brothers, “They must
rejoice when they live among people considered of little value and looked down
upon among the poor and the powerless, the sick and the lepers, and the beggars
by the wayside." This is the reason
why the Franciscans in the course of their history have always worked and lived
among lepers and identified themselves with the poor.
Relevancy of the Spirituality of Saint
Francis of Assisi in the Post-modern World
In
his book, Living Our Future: Francis of Assisi and the Church Tomorrow, page 17, Father Mario von Galli quotes the sentence that was written in Stimmen
der Zeit (1927) by one of his Jesuit's colleague, Father Peter Lippert:
"The organizational principle which leads from Benedict through Dominic
and Ignatius to the newer communities seems to have practically exhausted its
inner possibilities. That, of course, does not mean that it could ever become
superfluous or replaceable. But the fundamental newness which is precisely the
thing being sought today by countless souls and in countless attempts at
innovation is to be found only along a completely different line: along the
line of the original ideal of Francis. […] If God should someday deign to
reveal the Order of the future to His Church, the Order so longingly sought by
many of our best people, it will surely bear the stamp of Francis' soul and
spirit."
The
revelation by Lippert almost a century ago turned out to be true. On 13 March
2013, one of the Jesuit members chose the name "Francis" as the name
of his pontificate. He is Pope Francis, who was also known as Cardinal Jorge
Mario Bergoglio. When he had just been elected as a pope, he announced his
remarkable words, that he “would like a poor church … for the poor."
It
seems that the spirituality of Saint Francis of Assisi will never fade. His spirituality
is still appealing in post-modern times because it can be nonlinear. Amid many
debates that prioritise logic or reason today, Francis can offer concrete
actions and practices. He also remained obedient to the Church, although he did
not want an institution that was too static for his followers. For
non-Christians, Francis's voice on environmental issues and interreligious
dialogue are still strongly echoed. Also, post-modern thinkers may apply
Francis' idealism in constructing and reconstructing society. In other words, “Francis of Assisi, more than an idea, is a spirit and a way of
life. The spirit and way of life are only made manifest in practice, not in a
formula, idea, or ideal.”
One
of the most valuable legacies given by Saint Francis for the post-modern world
is his humility to establish the spirit of fraternity with Muslims. Without a doubt,
Saint Francis is one of the most influential persons in the history of the
Church in making the bridge between Christianity and Muslims. As mentioned
above, Francis was able to see the presence of God in all creation. Therefore,
it was not difficult for him to see the presence of God in the Muslim brothers
and sisters. Indeed, Islam is often identified with acts of barbarism or terrorism
and therefore becomes a threat to Western society (which is not entirely true!).
However, Saint Francis has shown a different path that can be done together: bringing
peace and goodness (pax et bonum) in the world. He had preached
respectfully before sultan and had a dialogue with him in an atmosphere of
brotherhood. From this historical event, Francis was able to become a model for
mission. Even though the interreligious dialogue did not exist at that time,
Francis had shown that peaceful dialogue was possible. Therefore, it is
appropriate if Patricia Appelbaum concluded, “Francis became above all a model
of various forms of peacemaking pacifism, political diplomacy, interreligious
dialogue, and pluralism." Francis presented Christianity by example, not merely by words.
Following
in the footsteps of Saint Francis Assisi eight-hundred years ago, Pope Francis also
strengthened interreligious dialogue with the Muslim world by visiting the United
Arab Emirates (UAE) on 3rd – 5th February this year. This
visit resulted in a historic pledge of fraternity between Pope Francis and
Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar in Abu Dhabi. With this historic visit, Pope Francis has succeeded in implementing the
message he delivered at World Day of Peace in 2014, “The reconciled
person sees in God the Father of all and as a consequence, is spurred on to
live a life of fraternity open to all. In Christ, the other is welcomed and
loved as a son or daughter of God, as a brother or sister, not as a stranger,
much less as a rival or even an enemy.” The bold step taken by Pope Francis would not have been the result of overnight
reflection, but was the fruit of the struggle in defeating self-ego, and where
the spirit of poverty and humility of St. Francis inspired him in such a way.
Conclusion
Saint
Francis of Assisi is a simple and humble person. His longing is not to become
one who can sit in the hierarchy of the Church, nor a person who is successful
in life, but to follow radically the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with all
his strength. The way that was taken by Francis to pursue his goal of life is
to choose the holy poverty. He saw poverty as a virtue because he believed that
through it, he could live the incarnation of Christ. For Francis, none of the
material in this world can be claimed as private property. He sees everything
as a gift that comes from God, and everything exists in this world is for the
glorification of God's name. Therefore, all creation cannot be seen as an
enemy, but brothers and sisters, whatever and whoever. This spirit of Saint
Francis will never fade with the passing of the times. The spirit of renewal,
which is bringing pax et bonum into the world, has changed the face of
the Church eight centuries ago, now, and forever.
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