“The utopia of Francis has become… Clare”
Autor: Consolata America | Publicado: 2011-12-04T11:27:00-02:00



Saint
Francis ed Saint Claire Of Assisi






Dearest
Missionary Fathers, Brothers and Sisters,



Greetings of
peace and joy!
&nbsp;

With this letter we wish to present
to you the protectors that we, IMC
and MC, have chosen for our two Institutes for the year 2012:&nbsp;Saint
Francis and Saint Claire of Assisi.&nbsp;


They are well known saints and need no lengthy presentations. Just two short brushstrokes
drawn by the immense amount of writings that can be found on their lives:


« In the new kind of life
he had embraced, the servant
of the Most High had no other guide than that of
Christ » (S. Bonaventura, Vita di S. Francesco, Assisi 1981, p. 32).





«This is Claire: a rainbow of prayer, a word of love always alive before the Most High, a joyful and childlike thanks that
blossoms between the smallest and
essential things in life and echoes immensely in
the sky of the Father, and it has a name: contemplation» (G. Mancini,
ofm, Contemporaneità di S. Chiara, Assisi 1954, p. 40). 





The vocational search of Francis and Claire is built upon some
significant encounters, on the discovery of some particularly problematic life
situations: the family, society and Church misunderstandings, the first
shocking encounter with the reality of suffering and poverty, (lepers etc..),
the difficulty to perceive fully the will of God. One ought to be able to recognize
the various realities of life, live them fully, grasping &nbsp;in them the message that God sends, welcoming
His &nbsp;the appeal. The personal history of
each begins with meeting a face of love. We think of our mother; we learned on
that face to decipher life: love, affection, gentleness and tenderness. God
also gave a face to love, and whoever seeks God seeks a face. The human mind
always invokes: “When shall I see your face?” (Ps 41.3).


It is
interesting to notice how brother Francis and sister Claire, in their
Testament, remember the way God’s revelation came about, for themselves and for
their followers: 


«And after the
Lord had given me some brothers, nobody showed me what to do; the Most High
himself revealed to me that I had to
live according to the holy Gospel. And I, with just few words and in a
simple way had this written down, and the Pope confirmed it to me» (Fonti
Francescane, 116).

«After the Most
High, the heavenly Father deigned, by his mercy and grace, to enlighten my
heart to start doing penance, following the example and teaching of our beloved
father Francis, shortly after his conversion, I, together with the few sisters
that the Lord had given me shortly after my conversion, freely I promised him
obedience, according to the inspiration that the Lord had manifested to us
through his laudable life and teaching» (ChTest. 24-26: Fonti Francescane,
2831).


In the spirit of communion that&nbsp; characterizes the walk of our two Institutes,
we wanted to choose two protectors
and, for the first time, present them
together to the reflection and prayer of our Missionaries with a joint letter.&nbsp;


Among the many reasons
that have led to the choice of Francis and Claire we
want to highlight a few:




The male and female dimension of
the same charisma and mission, experienced in holiness of life, from two
different horizons converging into the heart of Christ.


The strong proposal of brotherhood:
the gift of brother and sister as
face of God for our life and mission, in building up communities that are always more
Christian and truer.


The contemplative dimension of
mission, absolutely necessary to support human life, recognise its elements
and think its reality. A contemplative person does not fear to lose anything,
he/she is not tempted “to do well” so as to justify his/her mission. «All our
words mean nothing, unless there is God’s grace. Our first duty is not to work
frantically but to pray» (Così vi Voglio, 176).&nbsp;


The emphasis on poverty,
sharing, and the evangelical essential dimension. At the present time of
economical and social crisis a call to poverty, in all its dimensions, becomes
necessary and prophetical. «What is to be imitated in Saint Claire of Assisi is
her spirit of poverty. She was from a noble family nevertheless she left
everything. Her sisters were so poor that the Pope told them to “possess”
something, but the Holy woman answered begging him to allow them to possess
nothing and experience charity. She was afraid that the community could become
rich and thus lose the religious spirit. How many communities have failed for
lack of spirit of poverty!... It is right to have money, but in order to help
others and not for us to live well. As the Lord sends us money we ought to use
it in doing good works; and, afterwards, the Lord provides everything for those
who observe poverty. To experience the feeling of having just what is purely
necessary and at times even to lack what it is necessary. To do the vow of
poverty and then lack nothing is a rich poverty» (G. Allamano, 12 Agosto 1920, Conferenze alle Suore, vol.
III, p. 110).&nbsp;


The invitation to the renewal and
restructuring of the Institutes, with
courage and humility. Francis prepared himself to discover Christ poor
and crucified in the church of Saint Damian. The biographies report this
meeting that is set at the end of his process of conversion: «He was already
completely changed in his heart and near to be so also in his body, when one
day, he was walking by the side of the church of Saint Damian, almost in ruins
and abandoned by all. Led by the Spirit, he entered to pray, suppliantly and
devoutly he knelt before the Crucifix and touched by divine grace in an
extraordinary way he was totally changed. While he so deeply moved, suddenly
the image of the crucified Christ spoke to him from the painting, moving his
lips. “Francis, – says to him, calling him by name – go, repair my house that, as you can see, is all in ruins”» (Fonti
Francescane, 593-594).



How will Francis and Claire carry
out this mandate? 



«Francis will travel the world, free
to live the poverty and obedience of the Son of God in the “vastness of his open cloister”, &nbsp;as a witness of the Gospel by word and deed. 


Claire, instead, will stay there at
Saint Damian, a woman of faith and poverty, closed up in an unending silence,
like Mary the mother of the Lord; a virgin land always wide open to the Spirit
of the Lord, so that Francis and his companions may fully repair the Church,
through their poor and humble existence as servants of the Most High and the
testimony of her silence of “woman of the Gospel” will not be any less
efficient than that of Francis»
(Chiara Augusta Lainati, S. Chiara d’Assisi, Assisi, 1989, p. 57).


For us today “to repair” and “to
rebuild” become two fundamental attitudes to bring about the renewal and
restructuring desired by our Chapters. Francis “repairs” the Church of Saint
Damian employing the material at hand and rescuing the ruins which in turn
become the foundations, the support of the newness that rests on them: «The
Lord will always guide you, he will nourish you in arid lands, he will give
strength to your bones; you will be like a watered garden and a well that will
never go dry. Your people will build
again the old ruins, rebuilding the foundations of old. They will call you
repairer of breaches, restorer of ruined houses to be lived in» (Is 58,
11-12).





The change takes place not by just
looking for the new as an end unto itself, but by the capacity for
“repairing/rebuilding” our “common house” on the original foundations, with a
look at the future.





&nbsp;«Francis and Claire: two human
beings that offer to each other the joy of seeing the Lord loved as each of
them wishes to love him and who were born from the one Spirit in order to
achieve one only program: the clear and straightforward fellowship of the
Gospel, in a complementary way» (Lainati, p. 53). 

«The Franciscan
vocation is only one: to live Christ. But there is only one way of living
Christ here on earth, in his belonging totally to the Father and to the people:
and be, at the same time, together, Francis and Claire» (ibidem, pp. 56-57).


To continue our process


The
encounter with Christ
changed the lives of Francis and
Claire, making them brother and
sister of mercy, renouncing
all power, all claim, each domain and possession. Francis and Claire
become “another person”: their long search leads them to choose God, the only wealth in a poor and simple lifestyle.&nbsp;


«We are few, and do not have
prestige. What can we do to strengthen the pillars of the Church? We cannot
fight against the Saracens because we do not possess weapons. And then, what do you get by
fighting? We cannot fight against the heretics, because we lack the dialectical
arguments and the intellectual preparation. We can offer only the weapons of
the little ones, namely: love, poverty, peace. What can we put at the service
of the Church? Only this: to live the Gospel of the Lord to the letter». (S.
Francesco, citato in Ignacio
Larrañaga, Nostro Fratello di Assisi, Padova 1986, p. 158)


May Francis and
Claire be an inspiration and encouragement in the missionary path that, today
as then, requires from us to live with joy and simplicity the Gospel of the
Lord.&nbsp;


Rome,
November 09, 2011


&nbsp;Fr.
Stefano Camerlengo, IMC &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sr.
Simona Brambilla, MC