The Freedom of Letting Go
We Conspire is a series from the Center for Action and Contemplation featuring wisdom and stories from the growing Christian contemplative movement. Sign up for the monthly email series and receive a free invitation to practice each month.
In our September “We Conspire” series, journey with St. Francis of Assisi as he lets go of upward striving to embrace a life of spiritual freedom — offering us a countercultural invitation to surrender and create space for God.
There’s an obscure story in the Franciscan tradition about St. Francis of Assisi traveling cross-country on foot and arriving at a fork in the road. Francis allegedly asked his companion, Brother Masseo, to spin around until he fell [1] — as though he trusted that each direction ultimately went to the right place or, as Yogi Berra famously said: “When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it.” Whichever way he fell would determine the way they would go. Naive (or even foolish) as this may seem, the story illustrates Francis’ inherent trust in God and spiritual simplicity — a simplicity that can inform our lives today.
Simplicity became Francis’ mode of being as his conversion deepened.
Francis was born into a family that was part of the rising merchant class in Assisi, a medieval town in central Italy whose construction mirrored its class composition. Knights and nobles — like St. Clare of Assisi’s family — lived higher up on the hillside. Francis, whose father was a cloth merchant, grew up living below the nobles in an area that we would consider today “middle class.” At the foot of Assisi lived the lepers and poor, where the small Portiuncula chapel would eventually become the hub of the Franciscan mission. Before Francis’ conversion, he had his ambitions set on achieving glory on the battlefield and becoming a knight. Upward mobility then, not unlike today, was the name of the game. But some scholars theorize that everything began to change for Francis when he was captured as a prisoner of war for a year, circumstances that likely led to a psychological condition we would now describe as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). [2]
Francis attempted to return to war after his release, still clinging to the hope of knightly glory and fame, but then fell ill, leaving his comrades to make the journey without him. Something within Francis began to change. As scholar André Vauchez summarizes, “Francis perceived the limits of the knightly ideal which up to then had been animating him.” [3] Francis’ life soon became reoriented around the notion of downward mobility when, in his famous embrace of the leper, he experienced the embrace of Christ. Vauchez adds, “This fateful association with the most despised part of humanity was going to enable Francis to find God in the person of Christ, who had identified himself with the misery of the world by becoming united with the inhuman suffering of these marginalized persons.” [4]
Francis’ life became reoriented around the notion of downward mobility when, in his famous embrace of the leper, he experienced the embrace of Christ.
There are many more elements to Francis’ conversion, but his reorientation — from upward mobility to downward mobility, from worldly ambition to identifying Christ in the poor and outcast — would remain with him throughout his life. His spiritual trajectory became one of continually letting go in his marriage to “Lady Poverty.”
“Simplicity” can seem shallow, or, like the opening anecdote, naive. But in Francis’ life, simplicity forces us to challenge our cultural ideals and perhaps even question our own ambitions and goals. This “letting go” fosters a surrendering movement in our lives, aligning us with the loving surrender of God. As St. Francis said, “Create within yourself a place where God might dwell” [5] — which we make room for by letting go and simplifying. As Francis modeled, simplicity leads to freedom.
References:
[1] Matthew Fox, Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior for Our Times (New World Library, 2013), 185.
[2] Katie Rutter, “St. Francis: Giving Comfort to Weary Soldiers,” St. Anthony Messenger, Nov. 2021: 28-33.
[3] André Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Saint (Yale University Press, 2012), 19.
[4] Vauchez, Francis of Assisi, 23.
[5] Dan Riley, Franciscan Lectio: Reading the World through the Living Word (Paraclete Press, 2022), 151.
Reflect with Us
What is one ambition, possession, or expectation you could release this week to make space for simplicity and deeper trust in God? Share your reflection with us.
“We Conspire” is a series from the Center for Action and Contemplation featuring wisdom and stories from the growing Christian contemplative movement. Sign up for the free monthly email series and receive your invitation to practice each month.