We have to be very careful not to take saints out of context. Too many people do this. I’m not saying that this is the case here. I’m just giving a warning.
Francis puts forth a way of life for all Catholics that places trust in God’s Divine Providence at the forefront. He also pays very close attention to the Scripture and two things jump out at him.
First, Christ is the first-born among many brothers. He looks upon the begger, the leper, the vulnerable and all those people that none of us envy . . . as brothers and sisters. Therefore, he does not stop to pass a moral judgment on those who ask of him. These are his brothers. He takes a very practical approach. If they are scamming him, who’s sin is it? Not his. But if they are truly needy and he turns his back on them, he has turned his back on Christ.
At the end of the day, even when he gives to a scammer, he’s really giving to Christ, because he’s doing it out of love for him who gave us everything we have. The beauty of Franciscan theology is its simplicity and that it is a theology of love.
Second, examines the scriptures very carefully and notices that Christ repeatedly says that one must leave everything and follow him. He observes how the Apostles left their old life in order to work for the cause of the Gospel. He observes that the early Church shares everything in common. The Acts of the Apostles tells us how they put everything in common at the feet of the Apostles to be distributed according to the needs of each person. Francis, while he is a very simple man, is not a simpleton as many people want to interpret him.
This common sharing of the early Church was based on justice. God deserves the best of what we can give. The community has a duty to provide for everyone. It becomes very clear to him that detachment is essential in the Christian life.
It is also important to read the many writings on his life and see that he had many friends who were quite wealthy and he loved them and admired their holiness. These people did not amass good. In other words, they did not horde. They used their wealth and power for the common good. They gave of their resources to those in need. They gave money, jobs, medical care, education and many other things that human beings need. In other words, they did not protect their wealth for themselves alone. One of his closest friends was a wealthy woman whom we onlly know as Brother Jacopa. Francis loved her, even though she was not a beggar. She was a generous soul. She did not hold back when others were sick, hungry, homeless or neglected. In fact, even though she was an aristocrat, history tells us that she would go into her ktichen and bake almond pastries for Francis and his brothers. This was not common to the aristocracy then or today. Why bake when you can have a cook do it? This is real detachment, when your money and your position do not get in the way of charity.
In understanding the Franciscan movement, one has to be very careful. It is not a movement of beggars. It is a movement of penitents who are obedient to the Church and the Gospel without questioning. This is a bone of contention between many Traditionalists and Franciscans. True poverty is detachment. We don’t just detach from material things. We detach from our things, our opinions, our wishes, and our worldview in order to be like Jesus.
In his testament Francis makes it very clear that the brothers and sisters are to work for a living. They are to beg when they can’t get enough pay for their work. This was important then and is important today. People will often engage in immoral activities in order to survive: prostitution, selling drugs, stealing, cheating, lying, and other corrupt behaviors. Francis points out that begging is the noble alternative.
Observe what he says in his testament.
And I worked with my hands and I wish to work and I wish firmly that all the other brothers should work at some labor which is compatible with honesty. Let those who know not [how to work] learn, not through desire to receive the price of labor but for the sake of example and to repel idleness. And when the price of labor is not given to us, let us have recourse to the table of the Lord, begging alms from door to door.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
