Father Richard identifies a radical change in lifestyle at the heart of Franciscan spirituality and the gospel of Jesus:
For Francis and Clare of Assisi, Jesus became someone to actually imitate, not just to worship. Since Jesus himself was humble and poor, Francis made the pure and simple imitation of Jesus his life’s agenda. In fact, he often did it in an almost absurdly literal way. He was a fundamentalist—not about doctrinal Scriptures—but about lifestyle Scriptures: take nothing for your journey; eat what is set before you; work for your wages; wear no shoes. This is still revolutionary thinking for most Christians, although it is the very “marrow of the gospel,” to use Francis’ own phrase. [1] He knew that humans tend to live themselves into new ways of thinking more than think themselves into new ways of living. (This is one of the CAC’s Core Principles.)
“When we are weak, we are strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10) might have been the motto of the early Franciscans. In his First Rule, Francis wrote, “They must rejoice when they live among people considered of little value.” [2] Biblically, they reflected the early, practical Christianity found in the Letter of James and the heart-based mysticism of the Eastern Church. While most male Franciscans eventually became clericalized and proper churchmen, we did not begin that way.
The early Franciscan friars and the Poor Clares (women who followed Clare of Assisi) wanted to be gospel practitioners instead of merely “inspectors” or “museum curators” as Pope Francis calls some of today’s clergy. Both Francis and Clare offered their Rules as a forma vitae, or “form of life,” to use their own words. They saw orthopraxy (correct practice) as a necessary parallel, and maybe even precedent, to mere verbal orthodoxy (correct teaching) and not an optional add-on or a possible implication. History has shown that a rather large percentage of Christians never get to the practical implications of their beliefs! “Why aren’t you doing what you say you believe?” the prophet invariably asks.
At the heart of Franciscan orthopraxy is the practice of paying attention to different things (nature, people on the margins, humility, itinerancy, mendicancy, mission) instead of shoring up the home base. His early followers tried to live the gospel “simply and without gloss,” as Francis told them. [3]
Author Jon Sweeney describes how Franciscan preaching took place in everyday circumstances:
Francis … was a person of action and movement. Spiritual practice was paramount. He made preaching mandatory for all who joined him in his way of life, but preaching was not always done from behind a pulpit. The earliest Franciscan sermons were more like open-air discussions, encouragements, inspirations—usually while the preacher or another friar were on the road walking, beside the road begging, in hospitals caring for the ill and accompanying the dying, repairing crumbling churches, acting as intermediaries between people in trouble and people in power, and touching with tenderness the creatures and creation around them. [4]
References:
[1] Thomas of Celano, The Remembrance of the Desire of a Soul 158, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, The Founder (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2000), 380.
[2] Francis, The Earlier Rule 9, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, The Saint (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1999), 70.
[3] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media, 2014), 84–87; Francis, The Testament 39, in Early Documents, vol. 1, The Saint, 127.
[4] Jon M. Sweeney, St. Francis of Assisi: His Life, Teachings, and Practice (New York: St. Martin’s Essentials, 2019), 91.
Image credit and inspiration: Dimitri Kadiev, Be Praised—mural of Francis and Clare on the side of the CAC (detail), photo of paint on adobe wall. Click here to enlarge image. This mural art on the outside of the CAC represents Francis’ love and acceptance of life in its varied and diverse manifestations.
Story from Our Community:
St. Francis’ love of creation as shared by Fr Richard has completely changed the way I treat ants. I used to sweep them away. Not anymore…. I was eating cookies and some crumbs fell. My wife who was sitting nearby noticed small ants carrying a crumb away and was about to sweep the ants. I stopped her and even took a video of the phenomenon. I was astounded by how much my own attitude towards all of creation has changed from dismissal to awe.
—Ed S.
