The life of St. Francis of Assisi… how might one describe it? It is at the same time a life of gravity and a life of lightness. It is a life of a powerful and influential man but a man powerful only in his extreme weakness. It is a life lived at a particular point in time, but a life affecting all time afterward. It is a life of joy but also of suffering. Francis gave his life to the Lord and Jesus gave it back to him as an adventure to the cross.
In many ways St. Francis is one of the greatest saints who ever lived, to the point of being called an alter Christus – another Christ. He desired in the depth of his being to live the Gospel call of Jesus Christ – the call to poverty, chastity, and obedience. He served the poor, spoke with the rich and powerful, and brought about great reform in the Church through his holiness.
After his death, the order he founded was looking for someone to write his biography and the choice fell to St. Bonaventure. St. Bonaventure took up this task and went on to do research into the life of St. Francis, visiting the places he had been throughout his life. He then wrote a biography that remains a trustworthy source for us today on the life of St. Francis.
This biography is not arranged in perfectly chronological order like most biographies are arranged today. Instead, St. Bonaventure wrote about St. Francis’ life using a set of different themes which are somewhat arranged in the order of activities in the life of Francis. In this way, St. Bonaventure opens up the heart of St. Francis and demonstrates the ways in which St. Francis takes on the life of Christ.
As we move forward into this year of St. Francis, I am going to reflect upon one chapter at a time in these bulletin articles. It may take only 15 weeks (the number of chapter), but it may also take more, in case a chapter or two needs more articles to fully enjoy it.
As a prologue to the article series, I reflect briefly on the introduction to the Biography:
I want to lift up an image that St. Bonaventure uses very indirectly to describe the life of St. Francis.
“This, then,” St. Bonaventure writes, “is my principal reason for undertaking this task, that I may gather together the accounts of his virtues, his actions and his words – like so many fragments, partly forgotten and partly scattered – although I cannot accomplish this fully, so that they may not be lost (John 6:12) when those who lived with this servant of God die.”
In this sentence, St. Bonaventure sets up a comparison between the memories of the life of the man Francis and the leftover fragments of bread and fish in the Gospel account of the multiplication of loaves. I find this fascinating and beautiful! The idea is this – St. Francis put his little self in the hands of God. God brought about a great multiplication of virtue and experiences in the life of Francis that blessed the Church and was truly nutritious food for the Church. After the death of the holy man, it is the job then of St. Bonaventure to collect those fragments left over so that none of it is lost.
I think this is an amazing way to consider a holy life. Would that all of our lives could end with good and holy “fragments left over” in the minds of all our loved ones and in so many others in the world we don’t even know. May the Lord bless and increase our efforts at sanctity. May he help us surrender what little we have into his hands so that he can bring about a great harvest in the world!