PENITENTIAL SPIRITUALITY
IN THE FRANCISCAN SOURCES

 Christ in the Penitential Life. In the actual economy of salvation, there does not exist any bridge of communication between man and God outside of the Christ, the God-man. Only in communion with Him in thought and work is it possible to give an answer to the penitential vocation of approaching the Father.

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Francis passes from the word of God to the Word of God par excellence, that is, the Word Incarnate. The principal mysteries of Christ are the continual object of attention, meditation and fascination. (130)

The Poverello feels the person of God made man vibrating in the Gospels; he perceives the message and senses the living and personal presence there. It is as if he saw Him, as if he listened to His voice and had direct experience of Him. Thinking of Christ, he meditated and imitated, was moved to tears and prayed, abandoning himself in ecstasy.

The life of penance finds in Christ the way that leads to God, invisible and inaccessible. The Lord says in fact to His disciples: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one goes to the Father but through Me" (Jn 14,6; Admonitions 1, 1).

Francis exhorts: "Let us follow the word, the life, the teaching and the holy gospel of Him... (Rule 1221, 22,43; cf. I Pet., 2,21). He taught his followers "to follow as a guide to virtue, not the criteria of the flesh but the discretion of Christ whose holy life constitutes the prototype of every perfection"(LM 5,7). He said to the brothers: "We must do everything according to the model we see shining in Him" (LM 12,l).

St. Clare wrote in her Testament (v.5): "The Son of God made Himself our Way; and our blessed father Francis who was the true lover and imitator of Him, has taught and shown us this way with words and example. "

Whoever knows Christ and follows His directives realizes true penance. In Him, pilgrim-man experiences the presence of God as a concrete and tangible reality. Making himself intimate with the Word Incarnate, man finds himself involved in the orbit of the divine life and in a love which is filled with grace and perfect joy.

Francis of Assisi, in his humility, feels the need of Christ and only in Him does he recognize the road of true conversion. Thomas of Celano declares: "His greatest care, his most ardent desire, his supreme purpose was to observe the holy gospel in all things and with perfect vigilance, with all zeal and longing of his mind and all the fervor of his heart, to follow the teaching and the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. He would recall Christ's words through persistent meditation and bring to mind His deeds through penetrating consideration. The humility of the Incarnation and the charity of the Passion occupied his memory particularly, to the extent that he hardly wanted to think of anvthing else. "
(1 Celano,84)

Taking all from the mystery of the Son of God Incarnate, Francis seemed to men of his time "almost another Christ," according to the expression of the Fioretti, c.7 (Actus B. Francisci, c.6).
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(130) cf. M. Ciccarelli, I misteri di Cristo nella spiriualita francescana,Benevento 1962; AA.VV., Gesti Cristo nella spiritualita Francescana, in Quaderni di spiritualita francescana 2 (1961),ed. Assisi.

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In fact, as Celano says, he "was intimately united with Jesus. He carried Jesus in his heart, Jesus on his lips, Jesus in his ears, Jesus in his eyes, Jesus in his hands, Jesus in all his members" ... "the brothers who lived with him knew how his daily and continuous talk was of Jesus and how sweet and tender his conversation was, how kind and filled with love his talk with them" (I Celano, 116; 1 Celano, 1 15).

Francis, animated by faith and overflowing with love, thanks the Father for the gift of the Incarnation: "We thank You also, because having created us through Your Son , by that holy love with which You loved us, You decreed that He should be born, true God and true man, of the glorious and ever blessed Virgin Mary...... (Rule 1221,23,5).

A profound devotion to Our Lady, Mother of God, is the logical consequence of this preeminence of Christ in the spirituality of Francis and all Franciscans. The Poverello "was filled with an inexpressible love towards the Mother of Jesus, because it was she who made the Lord of Majesty, our brother" (2 Celano,198). "Oh, how holy and beloved, how pleasing and lowly, how peaceful, how delightful, lovable and desirable above all things it is to have a brother like this... ! (2 Faithful 9,56;1 Faithful, 1, 13). (131)

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