Part 12 (1/2)
But the more St. Francis shall find himself in contradiction with the clergy of his time, the more he will believe himself the obedient son of the Church. Confounding the gospel with the teaching of the Church, he will for a good while border upon heresy, but without ever falling into it. Happy simplicity, thanks to which he had never to take the att.i.tude of revolt!
It was five years since, a convalescent leaning upon his staff, he had felt himself taken possession of by a loathing of material pleasures.
From that time every one of his days had been marked by a step in advance.
It was again the spring-time. Perfectly happy, he felt himself more and more impelled to bring others to share his happiness and to proclaim in the four corners of the world how he had attained it. He resolved, therefore, to undertake a new mission. A few days were spent in preparing for it. The Three Companions have preserved for us the directions which he gave to his disciples:
”Let us consider that G.o.d in his goodness has not called us merely for our own salvation, but also for that of many men, that we may go through all the world exhorting men, more by our example than by our words, to repent of their sins and bear the commandments in mind. Be not fearful on the ground that we appear little and ignorant, but simply and without disquietude preach repentance. Have faith in G.o.d, who has overcome the world, that his Spirit will speak in you and by you, exhorting men to be converted and keep his commandments.
”You will find men full of faith, gentleness, and goodness, who will receive you and your words with joy; but you will find others, and in greater numbers, faithless, proud, blasphemers, who will speak evil of you, resisting you and your words. Be resolute, then, to endure everything with patience and humility.”
Hearing this, the brethren began to be agitated. St. Francis said to them: ”Have no fear, for very soon many n.o.bles and learned men will come to you; they will be with you preaching to kings and princes and to a mult.i.tude of peoples. Many will be converted to the Lord, all over the world, who will multiply and increase his family.”
After he had thus spoken he blessed them, saying to each one the word which was in the future to be his supreme consolation:
”My brother, commit yourself to G.o.d with all your cares, and he will care for you.”
Then the men of G.o.d departed, faithfully observing his instructions, and when they found a church or a cross they bowed in adoration, saying with devotion, ”We adore thee, O Christ, and we bless thee here and in all churches in the whole world, for by thy holy cross thou hast ransomed the world.” In fact they believed that they had found a holy place wherever they found a church or a cross.
Some listened willingly, others scoffed, the greater number overwhelmed them with questions. ”Whence come you?” ”Of what order are you?” And they, though sometimes it was wearisome to answer, said simply, ”We are penitents, natives of the city of a.s.sisi.”[16]
This freshness and poetry will not be found in the later missions. Here the river is still itself, and if it knows toward what sea it is hastening, it knows nothing of the streams, more or less turbid, which shall disturb its limpidity, nor the d.y.k.es and the straightenings to which it will have to submit.
A long account by the Three Companions gives us a picture from life of these first essays at preaching:
Many men took the friars for knaves or madmen and refused to receive them into their houses for fear of being robbed. So in many places, after having undergone all sorts of bad usage, they could find no other refuge for the night than the porticos of churches or houses. There were at that time two brethren who went to Florence. They begged all through the city but could find no shelter. Coming to a house which had a portico and under the portico a bench, they said to one another, ”We shall be very comfortable here for the night.” As the mistress of the house refused to let them enter, they humbly asked her permission to sleep upon the bench.
She was about to grant them permission when her husband appeared. ”Why have you permitted these lewd fellows to stay under our portico?” he asked. The woman replied that she had refused to receive them into the house, but had given them permission to sleep under the portico where there was nothing for them to steal but the bench.
The cold was very sharp; but taking them for thieves no one gave them any covering.
As for them, after having enjoyed on their bench no more sleep than was necessary, warmed only by divine warmth, and having for covering only their Lady Poverty, in the early dawn they went to the church to hear ma.s.s.
The lady went also on her part, and seeing the friars devoutly praying she said to herself: ”If these men were rascals and thieves as my husband said, they would not remain thus in prayer.” And while she was making these reflections behold a man of the name of Guido was giving alms to the poor in the church.
Coming to the friars he would have given a piece of money to them as to the others, but they refused his money and would not receive it. ”Why,” he asked, ”since you are poor, will you not accept like the others?” ”It is true that we are poor,” replied Brother Bernardo, ”but poverty does not weigh upon us as upon other poor people; for by the grace of G.o.d, whose will we are accomplis.h.i.+ng, we have voluntarily become poor.”
Much amazed, he asked them if they had ever had anything, and learned that they had possessed much, but that for the love of G.o.d they had given everything away.... The lady, seeing that the friars had refused the alms, drew near to them and said that she would gladly receive them into her house if they would be pleased to lodge there. ”May the Lord recompense to you your good will,” replied the friars, humbly.
But Guido, learning that they had not been able to find a shelter, took them to his own house, saying, ”Here is a refuge prepared for you by the Lord; remain in it as long as you desire.”
As for them, they gave thanks to G.o.d and spent several days with him, preaching the fear of the Lord by word and example, so that in the end he made large distributions to the poor.
Well treated by him, they were despised by others. Many men, great and small, attacked and insulted them, sometimes going so far as to tear off their clothing; but though despoiled of their only tunic, they would not ask for its rest.i.tution. If, moved to pity, men gave back to them what they had taken away, they accepted it cheerfully.
There were those who threw mud upon them, others who put dice into their hands and invited them to play, and others clutching them by the cowl made them drag them along thus. But seeing that the friars were always full of joy in the midst of their tribulations, that they neither received nor carried money, and that by their love for one another they made themselves known as true disciples of the Lord, many of them felt themselves reproved in their hearts and came asking pardon for the offences which they had committed. They, pardoning them with all their heart, said, ”The Lord forgive you,” and gave them pious counsels for the salvation of their souls.
A translation can but imperfectly give all the repressed emotion, the candid simplicity, the modest joy, the fervent love which breathe in the faulty Latin of the Three Companions. Yet these scattered friars sighed after the home-coming and the long conversations with their spiritual father in the tranquil forests of the suburbs of a.s.sisi. Friends.h.i.+p among men, when it overpa.s.ses a certain limit, has something deep, high, ideal, infinitely sweet, to which no other friends.h.i.+p attains. There was no woman in the Upper Chamber when, on the last evening of his life, Jesus communed with his disciples and invited the world to the eternal marriage supper.
Francis, above all, was impatient to see his young family once more.
They all arrived at Portiuncula almost at the same time, having already, before reaching it, forgotten the torments they had endured, thinking only of the joy of the meeting.[17]