FRANCIS OF ASSISI, A GIANT OF SANCTITY
VATICAN
CITY,
27 JAN 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI dedicated his catechesis during the
general
audience, held this morning in the Paul VI Hall, to St. Francis of
Assisi
(1181/82-1226), a "true 'giant' of sanctity who continues to enthral
many
people of all ages and religious beliefs".
Francis,
the Pope explained, was born into a rich family and passed a carefree
youth. At
the age of twenty he took part in a military campaign and was taken
prisoner.
On his return to Assisi he began a process of spiritual conversion that
gradually led him to abandon worldly life. In the hermitage of St.
Damian,
Francis had a vision of Christ, Who spoke to him from the crucifix
inviting him
to repair His Church.
This call
"contains a profound symbolism", said the Holy Father, because the
ruinous condition of the hermitage also represented "the dramatic and
disquieting situation of the Church at that time, with her superficial
faith
that neither formed nor transformed life, her clergy little committed
to its
duties, ... and the interior decay of her unity due to the rise of
heretical
movements. Yet nonetheless, at the middle of that Church in ruins was
the
Crucifix, which spoke and called for renewal, which called Francis".
Pope
Benedict also remarked upon the coincidence between that event in
Francis' life
and the dream of Pope Innocent III in the same year of 1207. The Pope
had
dreamt that the basilica of St. John Lateran was about to collapse, and
a
"small and insignificant" friar held it up to prevent its fall. Pope
Innocent recognised the friar in Francis, who came to see him in Rome
two years
later.
"Innocent III", said Benedict XVI, "was a powerful Pontiff, who
possessed profound theological culture as well as great political
power, but it
was not he who renewed the Church. It was the 'small and insignificant'
friar,
it was Francis, called by God. Yet it is important to recall that
Francis did
not renew the Church without the Pope or against the Pope, but in
communion
with him. The two things went together: Peter's Successor, the bishops
and the
Church founded on apostolic succession, and the new charism that the
Spirit had
created at that moment to renew the Church".
Having
renounced his paternal inheritance in 1208, the saint elected to live
in
poverty and dedicate himself to preaching. A year later, accompanied by
his
first followers, he travelled to Rome to present his project for a new
form of
Christian life to Pope Innocent III.
Referring
then to the philosophical debate concerning, on the one hand, the
Francis of
tradition and, on the other, the Francis some scholars define as
historical,
the Pope explained that the saint "wished to follow the Word of Christ
...
in all its radical truth", but at the same time "he was aware that
Christ is never 'mine' but 'ours', that 'I' can never possess Him, that
'I' can
never rebuild against the Church, her will and her teaching".
It is also
true that at first Francis "did not wish to create a new order" with
all the due canonical procedures. However, not without disappointment,
he came
to understand "that everything must have its order and that the law of
the
Church is necessary to give form to renewal. Thus he entered ... with
all his
heart into communion with the Church, with the Pope and the bishops".
The Holy
Father recalled how St. Clare also joined the school of St. Francis,
and he
praised the fruits that the Second Order of St. Francis, the Poor
Clares, has
brought to the Church. He then went on to speak of Francis' 1219 voyage
to
Egypt, where he met the Sultan Melek-el-Kamel and preached the Gospel
of Jesus
Christ. "In an age marked by an ongoing conflict between Christianity
and
Islam, Francis, armed only with the faith and his personal gentleness,
effectively followed the path of dialogue. ... His is a model which
even today
must inspire relations between Christian and Muslims: promote dialogue
in
truth, in reciprocal respect and mutual understanding".
The Pope
also referred to the possibility that Francis might have visited the
Holy Land
and pointed out that the saint's spiritual children have made the Holy
Places a
privileged place for their mission. "I think with gratitude", he
said, "of the great merits of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land".
Francis, who died
in 1226, "lying on the bare earth" of the Porziuncola,
"represents an 'alter Christus'", and this "was, in fact, his
ideal, ... to imitate Christ's virtues. In particular, he wished to
give
fundamental value to interior and exterior poverty, also teaching this
to his
spiritual children. ... The witness of Francis, who loved poverty in
order to
follow Christ with complete devotion and freedom, continues to be, also
for us
today, an invitation to cultivate interior poverty so as to develop our
trust
in God, with a sober lifestyle and a detachment from material goods.
"In
Francis", the Pope added, "love for Christ was expressed in a special
way in the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist". He
also
mentioned the saint's great admiration for priests "because they have
received the gift of consecrating the Eucharist. ... Let us never
forget",
he said, "that the sanctity of the Eucharist requires us to be pure, to
live in a manner coherent with the Mystery we celebrate".
Another
characteristic of the saint's spirituality was "the sense of universal
fraternity and love for nature which inspired him to write the 'Laudes
Creaturarum'. This is a very relevant message because ... the only form
of
sustainable development is that which respects creation and does not
harm the
environment", and "even the construction of lasting peace is linked
to respect for the environment. Francis reminds us that that the
creation
reflects the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator".
The Holy
Father concluded by describing Francis as "a great saint and a joyful
man.
... There exists, in fact, an intimate and indissoluble bond between
sanctity
and joy. A French author once wrote that only one sadness exists in the
world:
that of not being saints".
AG/FRANCIS
OF
ASSISI/...
VIS 100127 (1040)