Francis of Assisi Heritage and Heirs: Eight Centuries Later

Introduction

inTroduCTion What can I be thinking and saying as a Friar Minor – a Franciscan – living at the onset of this third millennium when celebrations are taking place to honor the eighth centenary of the birth of an adventure of which I consider myself to be an heir and continuator?1 As a matter of fact, it was about the year 1209 that a somewhat strange group of some dozen lay men, all from Assisi and having as their leader a certain Francis, presented themselves before Pope Innocent III asking him to confirm the plan to “live according to the pattern of the Holy Gospel” as had been revealed to them “by the Most High Himself.” With some hesitation an oral approval was given to them although the official confirmation Bull did not come until some fifteen years later (1223). This is how the Franciscan movement was born, one which enjoyed a stunning success: in ten years the brothers already numbered some two thousand without counting the women who gathered around Clare and the numerous lay people touched by this gospel impetus. This movement – and this charism – along with the contemporary Dominican family shaped thirteenth century history and did not cease, with high and low moments, to be present throughout the life of the Church up to this day. At the beginning of this twenty-first century it still occupies an important place. Having received the inheritance of the origins of which Francis is at once the emblematic figure and the messenger, the Franciscan movement considers itself 1 I am greatly indebted to Colette Wisnewski for editing this translation . For any francophonic leftovers in the text: c’est ma faute. Thaddée MaTura 2 both the guardian and the one passing it on.This is explained by the mere fact of existing as a Franciscan group, then by reference to the past on which it depends and also by the attempts , always in need of being taken up again, to incarnate the Gospel plan in the evolving history of the Church and society. There is a constant going back and forth between the heritage and the heirs. Francis’s heritage is primarily viewed through his human and Christian figure, a rich, complex and seductive one. The number of biographies, those during his centenary and the incalculable number which never cease to appear, witness to the fascination and challenge which they exercise. But also, and this is new, we have the surprising written message which he has left behind and whose importance we are discovering today. The heirs are the men and women, nearly a million, who still today in this century and in our times when belief is so difficult, commit themselves, for better or for worse, to follow something of the poverty and humility of the Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ. The pages that follow are meant not only for the Franciscan family but also for all Christians, and, indeed, all men and women. As a Friar Minor for more than half a century, committed and involved in the concrete life of the Franciscan movement and in reflections on its foundations and their actualization , I thought that it would be good to present a few ideas on Francis’s heritage and the reception which we, its heirs today, must give to it. I am not concerned with providing an historical treatise of the academic type, but rather with a reflection which provokes thought. It is based, nonetheless, on historical knowledge, on the reading and interpretation of the founding documents, as well as a concrete experience of Franciscan life. There exists an abundance of literature on Francis’s heritage – both his figure and his message – and I am content with referring the reader to ancient and modern biogra- INTRODUCTION 3 phies.2 In this text, my purpose is shedding light on a central point of Francis’s vision, his reference to the Gospel. I then ask myself the question of whether the term “theologian” can be applied to him, and, to illustrate this point, I provide a sketch of his experience of God and Francis’s thought on the human condition. As far as Francis’s heritage is concerned, the glorious and tumultuous history of the movement throughout eight centuries has already been adequately covered.3 It is to the heirs of today, who we are, as men and women of our time, that I address myself by raising...