Feast Day of Thérèse of Lisieux
It has struck me in a recurring way over my lifetime that Francis’ universal social justice agenda was to live a simple life. Otherwise, we’re always a part of the system, pleasing somebody to get some advantage or make more money.
—Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs (podcast)
Richard Rohr considers how the prophetic lives of Francis and Clare shaped others through their witness:
Francis and Clare were not so much prophets by what they said as in the radical, system-critiquing way that they lived their lives. They found both their inner and outer freedom by structurally living on the edge of the inside of church and society. Too often people seek either inner freedom or mere outer freedom, but seldom—in my opinion—do people seek and find both. Francis and Clare did.
Their agenda for justice was the most foundational and undercutting of all others: a very simple lifestyle outside the system of production and consumption (the real meaning of the vow of poverty), plus a conscious identification with the marginalized of society (the communion of saints pushed to its outer edge). In this position, we do not “do” acts of peace and justice as much as our lives themselves become peace and justice. We take our small and sufficient place in the great and grand scheme of God.
By “living on the edge of the inside” I mean building on the solid Tradition (“from the inside”) from a new and creative stance (“on the edge”) where we cannot be co-opted for purposes of security, possessions, or the illusions of power. Francis and Clare placed themselves outside the social and ecclesiastical systems. Francis was not a priest, nor were Franciscan men to pursue priesthood in the early years of the order. Theirs was not a spirituality of earning or seeking worthiness, career, church status, moral one-upmanship, or divine favor (which they knew they already had). Within their chosen structural freedom, Francis and Clare also found personal, mental, and emotional freedom. They were free from negativity and ego. Such liberation is full gospel freedom.
Today, most of us try to find personal and individual freedom even as we remain inside of structural boxes and a system of consumption that we are then unable or unwilling to critique. Our mortgages, luxuries, and privileged lifestyles control our whole future. Whoever is paying our bills and giving us security and status determines what we can and cannot say or even think.
When Jesus and John’s Gospel used the term “the world,” they did not mean the earth, creation, or civilization, which Jesus clearly came to love and save (see John 12:47). They were referring to idolatrous systems and institutions that are invariably self-referential and “always passing away” (see 1 Corinthians 7:31). Francis and Clare showed us it is possible to change the system not by negative attacks (which tend to inflate the ego), but simply by quietly moving to the side and doing it better!
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi rev. ed. (Franciscan Media, 2024), 33–36.
Image credit and inspiration: Tom Swinnon, untitled (detail), 2019, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. A weathered table, humble in its presence, bears witness to Francis’s kinship with the poor, his simplicity of life, and the quiet prophecy of poverty lived as solidarity.
Story from Our Community:
I very much relate to St. Francis and St. Clare’s simplicity. There are so many spiritual teachings, but I find solace in one-word portals to God, such as “open,” “present” and “kind” for example. Each word—individually—is a key to the kingdom. They unite us with the divine and each other. Each of these words works as a way home, because each of them has everything to do with love. Love is open. Love is present. Love is kind. Welcome home!
—Lucia H.
