While St. Francis is perhaps best known nowadays (popularly) for his love of nature and animals, these loves were in large part only accidental. The reason he is a great saint is not because of his earthly loves but because of his undying and tireless love of the Lord, Jesus Christ. He loved the incarnation of the Lord; he loved the nativity, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; he loved the Holy Eucharist – Jesus’ continued presence here on earth. These were his great loves, and out of love for the whole past and present life of Jesus Christ, St. Francis loved poverty and simplicity.
What is holy simplicity?
My apologies about this near pun, but we may ask the question, “Is simplicity simply about having fewer things? Is it just about slowing down and taking time to stop and smell the roses?” Based on me asking the questions this way, you’ve probably guessed that the answer is “no, it’s not that,” and you would be correct!
Simplicity runs deeper than possessions.
Certainly, in St. Francis’ case, his renunciation of worldly possessions gave him a greater ease in his simplicity of life, but his simplicity began before he renounced all worldly possessions. It was something not so much external but internal, and I would argue that this quality of simplicity is something shared by every saint.
St. Francis had no conflicting loves.
St. Francis had no conflicting desires.
He was not complicated.
How could this be?
It could be because he had only one true love and thus only one desire – to love and serve the one he loved. At even this somewhat early stage in his life where he is just beginning the foundation of his religious order and a few men are beginning to join him, he willfully channeled all of his love, strength, and desire to the service of his divine king.
As Francis hears those words from the Gospel that I wrote about last week, he knows he cannot do anything but live in just the same way. St. Bonaventure writes, “He directed all his heart’s desire to carry out what he had heard and to conform in every way to the rule of right living given to the apostles” (Quoted from The Life of St. Francis, Translated by Ewert Cousin, ch. 3.1). This led him to wear the habit, accept men who wanted to join him, go about preaching and teaching, and to eventually write a first draft of a rule of life for these brothers so that they could live in accord with the Gospel demands.
There was no ulterior motive here. There was solely a desire to live like Jesus and to serve Jesus – to draw others to love Jesus in his life, death, resurrection, and continued living presence in the Eucharist. And this one-ness of mind and heart drew other men to Francis to live in the same way.
You would think that this radical poverty would turn people away, but no! The heart behind the poverty – the desire behind the simplicity – set other hearts on fire!
May we too love with one love, desire with one desire, and so be truly simple. May the Lord bless us this lent, through the intercession of St. Francis, with a renewal of Holy Simplicity!