Francis echoes Frances
On Friday, October 4, the Church joyfully celebrated the feast of Saint
Francis of Assisi. The name Francis says much nowadays not merely to us
Franciscans but, and most of all, to many believers and non-believers alike.
The reason being that the actual 266th Roman Pontiff of the Roman Catholic
Church bears the same name as the famous Assisian Poverello: Francis!
In the past days I had the joy of reading the celebrated speech which Pope
Francis made to the representatives of the communications media upon his
election as Pope, precisely on Saturday 16 March 2013. In that moving
address the Holy Father explicated what he felt when he was elected to the
See of Saint Peter. When it became obvious that God, through the vote of
the Cardinal electors, has chosen him to be the Vicar of Christ and the
Successor of Saint Peter, his friend, the Franciscan Archbishop Emeritus of
São Paolo and Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal
Claudio Hummes, hugged and kissed him and then gently but firmly
exhorted him: “Don't forget the poor!”
It was this brief yet powerful exhortation coming from the lips of a faithful
and caring friend which spurred the current Pontiff to choose his present
pontifical name Francis. Francis was the way the actual papacy has to trail
on. In fact Pope Bergoglio confessed: “And those words came to me: the
poor, the poor. Then, right away, thinking of the poor, I thought of Francis
of Assisi. Then I thought of all the wars, as the votes were still being
counted, till the end. Francis is also the man of peace. That is how the name
came into my heart: Francis of Assisi. For me, he is the man of poverty, the
man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation; these days we do not
have a very good relationship with creation, do we? He is the man who
gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man”.
In so doing Pope Francis not only broke away from the centuries-old
tradition of living in the luxurious Apostolic Palace where the papal
apartments are based and chosen instead to dwell in the humble Domus
Sanctae Marthae guesthouse. Even more importantly the message the newlyelected Pope wanted to convey to the world at large and not just to the
Catholic fold is absolutely clear: On Jesus’ example the Bishop of Rome
wants to serve! Did not Jesus, Pope Francis’ Lord and Boss, say: “For the
Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Mark 10:45)? Is not one of the Pope’s titles, namely
‘servus servorum Dei’, meaning servant of the servants of God, is intently
given to him so as to personally remind him that as Pope he is expected to
serve every baptized person?
The humble and charismatic Pope Francis strongly brought to life Saint
Francis of Assisi. both in letter and in its spirit. Francis too loved and took
care of the poor. In his approved Rule of 1223, exactly in its sixth chapter,
after explaining why the friars are to be poor Francis then stated that
personal poverty should motivate his brothers to be charitable towards each
other. “Wherever the friars meet one another, they should show that they are
members of the same family. And they should have no hesitation in making
known their needs to one another. For if a mother loves and cares for her
child in the flesh, a friar should certainly love and care for his spiritual
brother all the more tenderly. If a friar falls ill, the others are bound to look
after him as they would like to be looked after themselves”.
Moreover in Saint Francis’ conversion journey we notice another decisive
step: genuine conversion takes place when the self goes out of itself and
serves the brothers and sisters in need. The Testament of Saint Francis
extraordinarily portrays this saving shift from the self to others. “The Lord
granted me, Brother Francis, to begin to do penance in this way: While I was
in sin, it seemed very bitter to me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led
me among them and I had mercy upon them. And when I left them that
which seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness of soul and body;
and afterward I lingered a little and left the world”.
In a nutshell Francis echoes Frances in the holy conviction that the poor are
our faith educators. Are we ready to let them evangelize us?
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap