Alan Schreck - St. Francis and Pope Francis: Prayer, Poverty, and Joy in Jesus

St. Francis and Pope Francis

Prayer, Poverty, and Joy in Jesus

St. Francis and Pope Francis

Prayer, Poverty, and Joy in Jesus

Alan Schreck, P H.D.

Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division

Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.

Huntington, Indiana 46750

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the Second Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), copyright 1956, 1966, 2006 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture texts marked NAB are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C., and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All rights reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition, for use in the United States of America, copyright 1994 and 1997, United States Catholic Conference Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quotations from papal and other Vatican-generated documents available on vatican.va are copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

Excerpts from St. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, edited by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., J. A. Wayne Hellmann, O.F.M. Conv., and William J. Short, O.F.M., copyright 1999 Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, NY. Reprinted by permission of New City Press. Excerpts from St. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 2, edited by Regis J. Armstrong, O.F.M. Cap., J. A. Wayne Hellmann, O.F.M. Conv., and William J. Short, O.F.M., copyright 2000 Franciscan Institute of St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, NY. Reprinted by permission of New City Press.

Every reasonable effort has been made to determine copyright holders of excerpted materials and to secure permissions as needed. If any copyrighted materials have been inadvertently used in this work without proper credit being given in one form or another, please notify Our Sunday Visitor in writing so that future printings of this work may be corrected accordingly.

Copyright 2014 by Alan Schreck, Ph.D. Published 2014.

19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

All rights reserved. With the exception of short excerpts for critical reviews, no part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without permission in writing from the publisher. Contact: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750; ; 1-800-348-2440.

ISBN 978-1-61278-788-6 (Inventory No. T1594)

eISBN: 978-1-61278-360-4

LCCN: 2014943653

Cover design by Amanda Falk

Cover images: St. Francis, by Restored Traditions; Pope Francis, by

Catholic News Service; background by Shutterstock.

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

To all faithful followers of St. Francis,
especially my friends and colleagues, past
and present, at Franciscan University:
the friars of the Third Order Regular of
St. Francis of Penance, the Franciscan
Sisters T.O.R. of Penance of the Sorrowful
Mother, and Fr. Conrad Harkins, O.F.M.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Jorge Mario Bergoglio made an immediate impression when he chose the name of a medieval saint, Francis of Assisi, upon his election as pope of the Catholic Church. How apropos that the first Jesuit pope and the first pope from the Western Hemisphere should also choose an unprecedented papal name! This book will compare the life and teaching of Pope Francis and those of his namesake, especially exploring what we can learn from them about conversion and discipleship, that is, about following Jesus. Is it possible to find a common message from two persons living eight centuries apart?

The world today is so much different from that of St. Francis. How do we compare a man who wrote relatively little who is known more through the remembrances and tales of his followers with one whose every public word is published online almost immediately and who regularly sends tweets? How do we compare a person who, following the Holy Spirits leadings, ended up founding a new religious way with a person formed in a rich religious tradition, the Society of Jesus?

Francis of Assisi, in the final years of his short life, passed on to others the leadership of his young order. Jorge Bergoglio, after years of faithful but relatively obscure service to his order and to the Church, was raised to archbishop of one of the worlds largest cities and then, when he was preparing to retire from that post, was elected chief shepherd of the Catholic Church. There are many differences, and the most obvious is that St. Franciss life and ministry were completed long ago, while Pope Franciss papal ministry, at this writing, is still in its early stages a work in progress.

Despite these differences, there are many evident similarities between St. Francis and Pope Francis. Perhaps the most significant is how quickly both men captured the attention and sparked the imaginations of the people of their times. The religious communities of consecrated (celibate) men and women and groups of lay people who sought to imitate and follow St. Francis blossomed and flourished even in his lifetime. Pope Francis was named Person of the Year by Time magazine just months after his election. The world is fascinated with both these men.

Hans Urs von Balthasar reflected on the secret and the source of St. Franciss appeal, which has not diminished in the eight hundred years since he lived:

Everything depends on the awareness we have of our Christianity. For Francis, to be a Christian was something just as immense, certain and as startlingly glorious as to be a human being, a youth, a man. And because being a Christian is eternal being and eternal youth, without danger of withering or resignation, his immediate joy was deeper. Not one single year separated him from Christ, the one who had become flesh; from the manger; from the Cross. For him, not one speck of dust had settled on the freshness of the wonder in the passage of time.

Here is the critical and closest point of contact between St. Francis and Pope Francis: their sense of the immediacy of the Gospel that flows from their awareness of the closeness of God to us through the coming and the presence of Jesus Christ. It is also the source of the joy that is evident in the lives and messages of both. Pope Francis spoke of this joy in an interview in December 2013, in which he was asked to reflect on What does Christmas mean for you?

It is the encounter with Jesus. God has always sought out his people, led them, looked after them and promised always to be close to them.

This is why Christmas gives us so much joy. We dont feel alone any more. God has come down to be with us. Jesus became one of us and suffered the worst death for us, that of a criminal on the Cross.

The message announced to us in the Gospels is a message of joy. The evangelists described a joyful event to us. They do not discuss about the unjust world and how God could be born into such a world. The (first) Christmas was not a condemnation of social injustice and poverty; it was an announcement of joy. Everything else [is] conclusions we draw. Some are correct, others are less so, and others still are ideologized. Christmas is joy, religious joy, Gods joy, an inner joy of light and peace.

One indication of the central importance of joy for Pope Francis, and not just for the Christmas season, is that he chose it as a central theme of his first apostolic exhortation, on evangelization,