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One of the spiritual concepts that set Francis apart from the spiritual leaders of his day was his love of Poverty, which he personified as the Lady Poverty. For Francis, his deep love of Christ was influenced to a large extent by the thought of how Jesus stepped down from His Glory to take on human form like us, for love of us, and most especially a poor human form, not born in a palace but a manger. Then his sacrifice on a Cross, completely naked, humiliated and tortured, only for love of us who put him there, was the ultimate in Poverty. Jesus gave everything to give us all. Francis felt that to follow Jesus to the Cross meant to also give up everything so that God was all. He took this to the most extreme he could, the poorer he got, the more at one with Christ Crucified he became. His, and his counterpart Clare's, theology was “possess nothing, so they could belong entirely to God.” This complete surrender to God meant they gave up owning any possessions other than the peasant tunics on their backs, they worked manual labor or begged for their food, they did not own property, but the friars began only living in mud huts. His radical love of holy poverty and love for God and God's creatures was such a sharp contrast to the materialism in the church of that day, that it attracted many followers and helped to “rebuild the church,” as the Crucifix of San Damiano asked, in the Gospel message.
The following verse from the letters describes some of their thoughts on Christ's poverty:
"Though he was in the form of God, Jesus did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Phil 2:6-8).
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Poverty was a joy to Francis and Clare. The closer to complete poverty they got, the more joy they felt as they detached from all except our Lord. Francis took special joy in, when finding anyone more poor than himself, trading garments with him. This concept of joy in poverty and other forms of penance, as well as complete humility, is expressed quite well in this chapter from Little Flowers of St. Francis, Perfect Joy:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/ugolino/flowers.iii.viii.html
Full text of The Lady Poverty, believed to be written by his companions after his death:
http://www.archive.org/stream/ladypovertyxiiic00giovrich/ladypovertyxiiic00giovrich_djvu.txt
Other links on Poverty:
http://www.ad2000.com.au/articles/1999/jun1999p20_345.html
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Francis' Biography
Lady Poverty
Francis and the Animals
Francis and Peace
The Christmas Creche
Comtemplative Mysticism and Contemplative Action
The Stigmata
Francis' Prayers |