Saint Francis and the Imitation of Christ | Ivan Gobry |
From Saint Francis of Assisi: A Biography
The sentiment that would carry Francis away and govern the founding of his
religious order was, from the 
very first moment of his conversion, a delirious
love for Christ. Not a contemplative love, which is satisfied with a
perceptible, mental vision of the Savior, which dwells at length upon his words
and his sufferings, but rather an active love. Of course, Francis habitually
possessed that contemplative fervor, too, as all of his biographers assure us.
Bonaventure writes: "He devoted such an ardent love to Christ, and his
Beloved showed him in exchange such a familiar tenderness, that the servant of
God had almost continually before his eyes the physical presence of his
Savior."
And we find, in one of his prayers, the accents of all the great mystics:
"Lord, I beg thee, let the burning, gentle power of thy love consume my
soul and draw it far from everything that is under heaven, so that I may die
for love of thy love, O thou who hast deigned to die for love of my love."
Furthermore, this is the desire that he expresses for Christians in general, in
a sort of "encyclical letter" that he wrote entitled, "Letter to
All the Faithful".
The more I read about St. Francis the more I am convinced of two things: 1) He was the among the most genuinely committed Christians that ever were or ever will be. I mean, some may consider themselves good Christians, but Francis really went the extra mile in following Christ. And 2) The most lasting comparison comes from the Sufi mystics of Islam. A comparison that is not, in fact, too far fetched considering he likely got the idea of the Angelus three times a day from Islam, actively sought dialog with Muslims, and a Sufi legend reports that in his younger days he joined a Crusade and went to Syria where he played (and cheated!) at cards with Shams of Tabriz, the teacher of the great poet/theologian/mystic Rumi.
If you want two pillars of the Church, look no further than Francis and Thomas Aquinas.
Posted by: Matt Robare | Thursday, October 04, 2007 at 08:35 PM