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Chapter 1 Encounter for Life
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23 Chapter 1 Encounter for Life Francis’s Testament, well known though it is, remains an intriguing testimony. It would be a mistake to see it as Francis’s last endeavor, at the very end of his life, to give a systematic exposition of his life’s vision or to outline an ideal society. Averse to grand theories, he simply tells what happened to him at the decisive turning point of his life. This change, he indicates, had its origin in an inspiration from the Lord. It took place in an encounter with lepers. This encounter touched him so deeply that it seems to have caused a profound and definitive change in his way of feeling and thinking. Presenting the Question How does Francis turn his Testament into an instrument of persuasion? That is our question here. As we study the categories he employs and the tone of voice in which he speaks in this final writing, the concerns of this last phase of his life may become clear. It is not our intention to present a verse-by-verse commentary on the Testament. Freeman and Sevenhoven have recently done instructive work on this.1 We restrict ourselves largely to the first part of the Testament, which deals with the way Francis began his life as a penitent and with the consequences this had for his attitude towards the ministers of the Church (vss. 1-13). We do this because, in the words Francis uses there, a model of evangelical thinking emerges which to a large extent gave shape to his thoughts and actions. In this chapter our attention focuses on: 1. the model which can be considered a leitmotif of his spirituality; 2. the question of how this model corresponds with the outline of preaching as laid down in chapter 21 of the Rule of 1221; 1 Gerard Pieter Freeman and Hans Sevenhoven, “The Legacy of a Poor Man. Commentary on the Testament of Francis of Assisi. I-V,” in Franciscan Digest 3 (1993): 1-18; 80-98; 4 (1994), 34-63; 63-83; 6 (1996), 1-26. 24 Yours Respectfully: Francis of Assisi 3. a comparison of this outline with the Canticle of the Creatures, which served as a sermon-in-song; 4. a characteristic usage of words in the last part of the Canticle of the Creatures. Here we will also refer to the Canticle of Exhortation for St. Clare and her Sisters. In this preliminary study of these documents, the power lines of Francis’s spirituality will already become visible. Further, we hope to demonstrate in the first part of our book that the model we discovered in the opening verses of Francis’s Testament had marked the orientation and motivation of his life as a Christ follower for many years. In other words, the construction of the narrative which was the last one to be written—the story of the beginning of his conversion—says a great deal about the choice of life he kept pursuing after that beginning. This is one of the reasons for us to place our study of this characteristic model at the beginning of our book. Testament 1-14: a Forceful Testimony 1. Dominus dedit mihi fratri Francisco incipere faciendi poenitentiam: quia, cum essem in peccatis (cf. Rom. 7:5), nimis mihi videbatur amarum videre leprosos. 2. Et ipse Dominus conduxit me inter illos et feci misericordiam cum illis (cf. Lk. 10:37). 3.Et recedente me ab ipsis, id quod videbatur mihi amarum, conversum fuit mihi in dulcedinem animi et corporis; et postea parum steti et exivi de saeculo. 4. Et Dominus dedit mihi talem fidem in ecclesiis, ut ita simpliciter orarem et dicerem: 1. The Lord gave me, Brother Francis, thus to begin doing penance in this way: for when I was in sin, it seemed too bitter for me to see lepers. 2. And the Lord Himself led me among them, and I showed mercy to them. 3. And when I left them, what had seemed bitter to me was turned into sweetness of soul and body. And afterwards I delayed a little and left the world. 4. And the Lord gave me such faith in churches, that I would pray with simplicity in this way and say: [18.232.125.188] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:22 GMT) Encounter for Life 25 5. “Adoramus te, Domine Jesu Christe, et ad omnes ecclesias tuas, quae sunt in toto mundo, et benedicimus tibi, quia per sanctam crucem...