PENITENTIAL SPIRITUALITY
IN THE FRANCISCAN SOURCES

The Penitential Life and the Evangelical Counsels.

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The practice of the evangelical counsels, poverty, chastity and obedience, favors the penitential life in a definite way, since it removes every obstacle on the way of total conversion to God. Freed from themselves and from the goods of this world, the penitents render themselves more available to the brothers while straining towards God alone, the goal of all their aspirations and of their spiritual journey.

a.) Poverty

Attachment to the goods of this world has always proved a weighty obstacle, even for the man of God. In the Gospel, Jesus admonishes: "... how difficult it is for the wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of God!" (Mt. 19,23; cf. Lk 18,24-27).
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(137) For the bibliography see first of all The Writings of St.Francis, biographies, chronicles and also the numerous studies among which are: K.ESSER - E.GRAU, Love's Reply, Quaderni di spiritualita  francescana 19, (1971).

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Francis, stirred in a healthy way by this Gospel reading, understood - that, in order to realize the Word of God fully, he must strip himself of everything and free himself from the attractions of this transient world. The words of Jesus echoed in his soul: "... if you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have, give it to the poor, and come, follow me! " (Mt. 19,2 1). In answer, Francis declared" "I, brother Francis. little as I am, wish to follow the life and poverty of our Most High Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Holy Mother, and to persevere therein to the end" (Testament, 1). Clare, that little, chosen plant exclaimed, full of admiration: "Our blessed Father Francis, following Christ's footsteps, chose for himself and his friars, the holy poverty of the son of God and, to the end of his days, he never left it, either in words or with his way of life" (Testament of St. Clare, 36).

Francis could not forget the example of the Son of God made man. St. Paul writes: "He who was rich made Himself poor in order to make us rich out of His poverty" (2 Cor.8.9).

The brothers and sisters of penance understand that the more they free themselves from enslavement to material goods, the richer they become in the gifts of the Spirit, thus advancing swiftly towards the Highest Good.

Chasing after earthly goods is an old and incurable sickness, especially, as we pursue them even at the price of forgetting God and our brothers. Poverty, held so dear by Christ and by Francis, has never found eager admirers.

We ourselves are often tempted to imitate the lifestyle of the wealthy, the well to do, as we worry about investments, financial involvements, various forms of financial schemes and the like. We have vowed the same kind of poverty which so enthused the poor folk at the outset of Franciscan life. In spite of this, we allow ourselves too often to be infected by that "senseless remedy of mortals" (Paradise 11:1 and 3).

The austerity and simplicity of the first Franciscans may, perhaps, appear as outdated to the Penitents of the twentieth century! So we often fall into line with our comfortable dwellings, our stylish clothes which are very different from the styles of the poor, and our increasingly demanding attitude towards diet, vacations, the means of travelling, the apparatus "required" by our apostolate, etc.

And yet, Francis "pauper et humilis" deserved to enter rich into the Kingdom of Heaven. Everyone knows how heroic was his poverty, from his conversion till his death, naked on the bare ground!

As Franciscan Penitents can we say to our Divine Master as Peter did: we have left all and have followed You"? (Mt. 19,27) Would we be truthful in affirming with St. Paul ... I consider everything as loss in comparison to the supreme advantage of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have denied myself all things, and have held everything as so much rubbish in the hope of gaining Christ and finding my home in Him" (Philip. 3, 1)

All the early biographers and chroniclers have understood the extraordinary importance of poverty in the lives of Francis and his first followers: it is a question of giving through poverty, a worthy witness, and it is also something which has won much admiration for the Franciscan movement. If we, penitents, should lose sight of this characteristic, it would really be too great a loss! Let us pray that the Lord would help us to live in the freedom of the sons of God, poor and humble, desiring heavenly things above all else.

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b.) Chastity

If a pilgrim who walks the way of the Lord, wishes to give himself wholly to God with undivided heart, not only must he free himself from his attachment exterior goods, but it is also necessary that he sublimate even the most urgent demands of his physical and psychological nature, casting all his energies into an untiring pursuit of God.

Francis understood the fundamental importance of serving the Lord "with a pure heart and a pure mind" (Admonitions 16,2). It is through purity of life and sentiments that a man can expel his own selfishness and feel himself spurred to possessing those goods which do not change.

Francis read the Gospel and realized that only the pure of heart will see God (cf.Mt.5,8). Whoever wants to be a follower of Christ in a full sense and conform himself to Him in order to accede to the Father, must disentangle himself from everything so that he can advance swiftly and speedily towards the Kingdom of heaven (cf. Lk. 14,26;Mt. 19,29).

The true Franciscan penitent who aspires with his whole soul to the highest good who is God, must guard himself against every fault and every danger (cf. Rule 1221,13,1-2).

Francis never tired of repeating that it is necessary to master the body, called by him, "brother ass." The Saint has given us an example of this, (2 Celano 116-117). and "like him, all the members of his early following deprived themselves of everything, in such a way, that it seemed a sin to seek relief outside of spiritual consolations. In fact, they girded themselves with iron hoops and corsets and emaciated their bodies by continual fasts and vigils; and many times they would have fainted if the persistent admonitions of their good Shepherd had not restrained such rigorous mortifications" (2 Celano, 21).

This extract from Celano is sufficient to have us understand how far we are from the spirit of the Poverello and from that initial fervor! St. Paul wrote to the Galatians (5,24): "Those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and evil longings." Francis, wholly extended towards God,"not only taught that we must mortify our bodily vices and curb anything which might encourage them, but also that we must guard the external senses with the utmost care, for through these death enters the soul"(LM 5,5).

The immense void left in our heart and body by creatures can be generously filled by God, the greatest good and high point of our penitential orientation. An intense love of Christ and zeal in the service of our brothers are more than sufficient to fill all of our celibate life.

"Let us, therefore, love the Lord," exhorts our Seraphic Father, "and adore Him with a pure heart and a pure mind" (2 Letter to the Faithful 3,19). (138)

c.) The holocaust of one's will in the life of penance.

He who totally entrusts himself to obedience at the hands of his superior abandons all that he possesses" (Admonitions 3,3). By means of "true obedience, "(Letter to a Minister General,4,) the religious deprives himself of a property which qualifies him as a man: the ability to make his own decisions.
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(138) On this subject cf.: L.Cignelli, II dono delta castita nella scuola ascetica francescana, in Quaderini di spir. francescana 18 (1970)pp 105-147; K.ESSER - E.GRAU, Love's Reply, cit., pp. 187-218.

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In the penitential life, the surrender of one's will is a striking decision, inasmuch as it represents the peak of that stripping which leads the penitent to be reclothed in Christ.

Francis recalled how "Our Lord Jesus Christ gave His life in order to obey His Most Holy Father" (Letter to a General Chapter 6,57). St. Paul warns: "Have in you those same sentiments which were also in Christ Jesus, who, though possessing a divine nature, did not consider His equality with God to be important but rather, He rendered Himself insignificant and took on the nature of a slave, making Himself like all men; and, having reclothed His human nature, He then humbled Himself further, making Himself obedient unto death, even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2: 5-8).

Whoever wants to walk with Christ on the way which leads to the Father, must conform himself to Him in the complete renunciation of his own will, to the extent that he or she can truthftilly exclaim with St. Paul: "Christ lives in me" (Galatians 1, 20). The Son of God made man, at the close of His mission confirmed His attitude of perfect obedience to the Father: "May Your Will, not Mine be done!" (Mk. 14,36).

To forego one's own will in order to entrust oneself entirely to God, all-knowing and good, is a guarantee of salvation and the confirmation of a total conversion to the Lord. Francis insisted again and again on obedience -- a basic virtue along the path of penitential living. He "confirmed writes St. Bonaventure - that holy obedience is abundantly fruitful for those who place themselves under its yoke; they never wait long before gaining something from it; for this reason, he was always in the habit of promising and practicing obedience to whichever friar accompanied him" (LM 6,4;2 Celano 151-2). "Readiness in obedience" (1 Celano 83) to the Word of God had been for Francis the beginning of a new life, the incipit of the penitential journey. Daily and faithful obedience had become a matter of habit with him ( I Celano 97) and almost instinctual (2 Celano 9). Very soon, he appeared to all as a "model of obedience" to God and men (2 Celano 6).

Ready obedience to God and, in His Name, to the brothers is so important that it must be held indispensable to an authentically penitential life. Francis said that any religious who, having left everything else persists in seeking to arrange his own will (cf. 2 Celano 140) is still too rich with self and shackled to his own selfishness. Such a person cannot walk with benefit along the way of penance.

Francis exalts "holy sister obedience" (Praise of the Virtues, 3) in the Rules of 1221 (1,1) and of 1223 (1,2) in Admonitions (c. 2 and c. 3), in the second Letter to the Faithful (c. 8). These sources, between teachings and examples, dedicate much space to this virtue.

Obedience, humble, and never easy finds itself in a critical position in these times particularly because of anthropological research - study which emerges directly from the current sociological context of our lives. Within this atmosphere of freedom, actual, yet often illusory at the same time, it is too easy even for the penitent to want to trust his own will, to make decisions and choices at the horizontal level, under the influence of motivations which are often personal and exclusively human outside of God's salvific plan. Too often one forgets that man's salvation comes only from God through Christ. Woe to us if we forget this vertical dimension which was so much alive in the spirituality of St. Francis!

A ready and responsible obedience is not an indication of depersonalization, but it is a sign of interior maturity and profound conviction rooted in faith. Our forefathers who chose to follow their own will instead of God's set themselves on the way of perdition. Obedience, instead, places man in safe hands, because it entrusts him gently to God. As well as this, it brings his disposition into one with the marvelous harmony of creation. St. Francis wrote: "all creatures which are under heaven recognize their Creator and obey Him better than you do!" (Admonitions 5,2). This is a serious warning which we must not allow to escape us easily!

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It is obvious that Franciscan obedience is not simply a passive and external response to a need created by the demands of an organized structure, but it is an interior strength which bestows on us our true identity and has us experience our need for God, the highest good of creation of human life. Therefore, one can understand how fundamental to the life of penance is this virtue and how necessary it is in these times to regain its authentic meaning. (139)

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