Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
Continuing our series on Franciscan spirituality, today talking about the first fruit of this spirituality, which is interior freedom. The experience of St. Francis himself, rich in evangelical spirit, celebrates above all the exercise of man's interior freedom, which Francis jealously loved and defended, perhaps not less than he loved and defended Lady Poverty. The combative spirit placed in evidence by St. Paul in his writings and in his tireless ministry was magnificently cultivated and developed by the chivalrous nature of St. Francis, and it made of him, who constantly strove towards the spiritual mountaintop, an audacious combatant who in the history of the conquest of freedom—we talk about interior freedom which is true freedom—it made him one of the most sublime and incomparable pages of that freedom.
First of all, St. Francis engaged in the struggle against himself. In the spiritual life, before becoming masters, you need to become heroes first, because our external works are nothing when compared to living the example that we're called to give. Francis fought in order to overcome and master himself to the point of re-establishing the interior harmony of his being. He arrived at such a point that his biographer, Thomas of Celano, says, "There was in him such harmony of flesh with spirit and such obedience that as the spirit strove to reach all holiness, the flesh did not resist but even tried to run ahead," says Thomas of Celano.
St. Francis fought to dismantle the old man and to build in place of his ruins the new man by means of divine grace, and he did so to the point of loving what he used to hate and hating what he used to love. He loved poverty and penance and learned to renounce the opposites. Francis fought to conquer virtue, to safeguard poverty, to defend his ideal. He fought against whoever wanted to hamper or hinder the mission entrusted to him by his King.
Since Saint Francis conquered the passions and acquired interior freedom and the dominion of himself, he had an independent and original personality. He wasn't dragged off by events, by persons, by circumstances. He has a mysterious guiding thread that he seemed to clearly understand and which was his soul guide, meaning the will of God, God's designs upon him, which he understood and fully carried out because he was free and nothing outside of him nor inside of him could hold him back from doing that.
Everyone can admire the coherence of his conduct, the harmony of his life, the organic growth of his work. He wasn't always clear on God's plans, especially in the beginning of his conversion, but he never took a false step in actualizing his ideal once it was clear what the Lord wanted from him.
Saint Francis was freed from human respect and from the limitations of his environment, from egoism, also from the traditional forms of his time, more monastic forms. He knew when necessary to refuse obedience to the messengers of the local government while at the same time promising to obey the last of his novices. He didn't want to see his Emperor excommunicated, and he went to Palestine to speak to the Sultan. He ardently encouraged Saint Clare to flee at night from her house, and at the same time, he counseled men and women to stay in the world, to stay in their homes and sanctify it through the bond of the family.
Saint Francis didn't want friaries, he wanted friars. He didn't want books, he wanted wise brothers. He didn't look for dignity for his order, but he wanted all of his sons to be decorated with the emblems of poverty. Francis didn't want to hear anyone talk to him about embracing other religious rules, and he refused to merge his order with that of Saint Dominic. And even before the Pope, he was humble and simple but also frank in defending his ideal of poverty and evangelical life.
For Francis really was what we might call a man of steel, a man who called himself small but was great, a sinner but was a saint, a man whom not even Sister Death could intimidate, not even her. Saint Francis was strong because he felt himself to be free, essentially. He was free because he was poor. He was humble and constantly immersed in the truth and in goodness. He aimed without any hesitation toward the ideal that he lived with a passion and with genius as well, an ideal that he incarnated with the concreteness of the Saints as they all do.
Saint Francis again was free because he felt himself to be the servant of the Most High and master of himself at the same time. So the Seraphic soul gathers the fruit of interior freedom by fighting against the slavery of sin, slavery of the passions, and pride as well.
They take their heart in their hand, as it were, and they make Jesus the treasure of their hearts. They're faithful to their duties. They're ready for every obedience. They're docile to the directives of Christ's Church. They're strong when they're fatigued, joyful and confident in front of every event, detached from everyone and everything, not desiring or fearing anything, and loving above all the only thing which can make us free, which is the will of our loving, good Heavenly Father.
So let's ask Our Lady then for the grace to be able to have such freedom in our own spiritual lives as well.
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.