Radical Purity & Utter Simplicity

Last year I had the opportunity to make a retreat in Assisi, the home of course of St. Francis. (Given the Coronavirus, I wonder if I will be able to do that again.)

As part of the retreat I read a life of Saint Francis by New Yorker, Donald Spoto :“The Reluctant Saint”. It was inspiring to read the stories in the very place they occurred. But what I recall most was being awed by the radical purity and utter simplicity of Francis’ converted life.

Francis took Jesus at his word and lived it thoroughly.

From the moment he took off his clothes in the Basilica square, he cast himself totally on the providence of God: he wore only a beggars robe. He ate no food except what he could beg. He (and eventually his first followers) lived in the simplest of dwellings, the open air or in caves. He worked for no one except God and his people; he was especially devoted to the poor among whom he proudly numbered himself.

Francis embraced a simple and at times solitary life not in order to meet some prescription but because for him it was the surest way to a deeper, fuller and richer life. It was the path to life that Jesus had lived and preached.

Francis was free because he had no attachments, material or otherwise. He was joyful because he had no fixed expectations. He was at peace because he had no possessions.

In these days many of us feel stripped bare of much we may have taken for granted: visiting with family and friends, going out to restaurants and shows, and even church. We have been forced into isolation or confinement like Francis. Unlike Francis much of this is not of our making. But like Francis we have the choice how to respond to our circumstances, whatever they are. Perhaps Francis suggests a way for us to access new-found peace, joy and freedom. And maybe we will begin to see the wisdom of those lines attributed to him:

“For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

Fr. Mark J. Lane, c.o.

Pastor

The Brooklyn Oratory

St. Boniface