Sequela Christi of St Francis of Assisi
While strolling through the memorial park of St Andrew Kim and venerating his relics on his feast day, September 20, it really made me reflect on the kind of passionate love that He and the other Holy Martyrs had for Christ, that they would willingly give up their lives “in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18).
As Pope St John Paul II said in Veritatis Splendor, the martyrs of our tradition offer the most eloquent witness to the truth of the connection between morality and faith. They are embodying this Sequela Christi (following Christ) and the gospel morality that we are striving to live. All the saints of our tradition offer to us this eloquent witness to the Sequela Christi in real life. So, what does it take and what are the authentic characteristics of the life of Jesus that we must follow in order to be a true witness to the Sequela Christi? To answer this question we should consider seven characteristics of Jesus’ life.
Characteristic of the Life of Jesus
1. Poverty
In His whole life, Jesus shares the life of the poor, experiencing hunger, thirst and privation, from cradle to the cross (CCC 256). “Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption” and it began at His incarnation by becoming poor, He enriches us with His poverty (CCC 517). Our Lord has chosen to be “born in a humble stable, into a poor family… in this poverty Heaven’s glory was made manifest” (CCC 525). For poverty is an especial way of salvation and that treasure hides in a field of the Gospel (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p 69). Just as Jesus said to the young rich man in Matthew 19:16-21, poverty is that one thing that is lacking in him to “enter upon the path of perfection.” Jesus said to him, “if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mt 19:21). “The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly” (CCC 544) and it is only if we follow Christ whose life is our model (CCC 520), to live in poverty and make active love toward the poor that we may be conditioned to enter His Kingdom (Mt 25:31-46).
2. Love
Charity is the new commandment made anew by Jesus Christ (Jn 13:34). This is the same love He receives from the Father (Jn 15:9), “love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings without exception” (CCC 478). Through His life, and in particular His Passion and Death on the Cross, He shows “the living revelation of His love for the Father and for others”. Christ makes manifest the Father’s love by loving us “to the end” (Jn 13:1) and “gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). This is exactly the love in which Jesus asks all of those who follow Him to imitate, the “path of love”, the love that He has for His neighbor (Veritatis Splendor 3). “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12).
3. Prayer
“Jesus’ filial prayer is the perfect model of prayer in the New Testament” (CCC 2620). “He is already teaching how to pray” by the way He prays (CCC 2607). Christ is a genuine man of prayer, often prays alone, on a mountain, preferably at night, seeking that solitude with God the Father (CCC 2602) and would always pray “before the decisive moments of His mission” (CCC 2600). He taught us to “pray with a purified heart, with lively and persevering faith, with filial boldness” and to present our petitions to God the Father in His name (CCC 2621). “It is possible because the beloved Son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to ‘seek’ and to ‘knock’, since he himself is the door and the way” (CCC 2609). His prayer to the Father is the path of faith, hope and charity of our prayer to God (CCC 2607), which begins with thanksgiving (CCC 2603) and includes all of humanity. He brings His love of God and love of neighbor into His prayer in a balanced way.
4. Chastity
Christ is the model for all chastity (CCC 2348) which all baptized are called to “put on Christ” (Gal 3:27) and to lead a chaste life, according to their own state of life (CCC 2394). Just as Christ said to the young rich man in Matthew 19 to sell all his possession and give to the poor and follow Him (Mt 19:21), Christ was inviting the young man to join Him to poverty and chastity (CCC 2053). “No balance can weigh the value of a chaste soul” (Sir 26:15). Jesus taught us to be “pure in heart” (Mt 5:8) and to attune our will and intellect to the demands of God’s holiness including chastity (CCC 2518), as our body is “a temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19) and a manifestation of divine beauty (CCC 2519). By the gift of chastity, it allows us to love with an upright and undivided heart (CCC 2520).
5. Preaching of Christ & His Commitment to the Truth
Jesus has the unconditional love of truth, which He has taught His disciples, “let what you say be simply Yes or No” (Mt 5:37). As a disciple of Christ, we are consented to “live in the truth” with the Lord’s example and abiding in His truth (CCC 2470), just as Jesus proclaimed before Pontius Pilate that he had “come into the world, to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37), we must act as witnesses of the Gospel (CCC 2472) because we are “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24). Therefore, in order to say that we have fellowship with Christ, we must “live according to the truth” (1 Jn 1:6) and we must follow Christ in His commitment to the truth because, as St. Thomas Aquinas said, in justice, “one man owes it to another to manifest the truth” (CCC 2469).
6. Mercy and Love for Sinners
Christ was sent by the Father as the revelation of God’s mercy (Veritatis Splendor 118). The angel announced to Joseph, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). He came not to condemn but to forgive and show mercy (Mt 9:13). He sacrificed His own life by giving Himself up on the cross (Gal 2:20) “for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28). During His public life, Jesus has shown His mercy and love for sinners by inviting them to the table of the kingdom (CCC 545), forgiving the sins of the sinful woman (Lk 7:48) and the paralytic (Mk 2:9) and teaching the disciples to forgive seventy-seven times (Mt 18:22). Christ was strict towards sin, but was always patient and merciful towards sinners out of His love for them (Veritatis Splendor 95).
7. Commitment to Healing & His Sympathy for the Sick
Christ is the physician and is compassionate towards the sick (CCC 1503). He loves them to the extent that “He makes their miseries His own” (CCC 1505), associates them with his own life and has them to share in His ministry of compassion and healing (CCC 1506). He has the power not only to heal but also to forgive sins (Mk 2:10) by using signs to heal, like laying of hands, mud and washing, or simply allowing the sick to touch Him. It is a “gift of God who heals, restores and transforms the human heart by His grace” (Veritatis Splendor 23). That even now, Christ continues to “touch” us in order to heal us through the sacraments of confession and anointing of the sick (CCC 1504).
Sequela Christi of St Francis of Assisi
Following Christ in gospel morality is a matter of conversion, a transformation of our lives on the inside and the outside, so our heart and our lives are more closely aligned to Christ Himself and His life. St. Francis of Assisi took this path in the Sequela Christi, when he opened himself to the transforming power of God in gospel morality. St Francis shone forth the kindred form in the man of God – “touching chastity, to wit, and obedience, and poverty”, the beauty of Gospel perfection (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.73). All Saints of our tradition offer to us an eloquent witness to the truth of the connection between morality and faith. Let’s take a glimpse at three of the characteristics of Jesus’ life, that we also see in the life of St. Francis of Assisi.
1. Poverty
As described by Saint Bonaventure, St Francis of Assisi was the “true patriarch of the poor”, “poor man of Christ” and “true lover of poverty” (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.70, p.71 & p.73). St. Francis of Assisi, who was a wealthy young man, decided to take the path that Jesus asked of the rich young man in Matthew 19:21. St Francis regarded poverty as the “familiar friend of the Son of God” and “the queen of virtues”. He counted himself rich with just a tunic, a cord, and breeches (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.68), just as described in 1 Timothy, “if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 Tim 6:8). He would dwell in poor little houses which they built (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.69), and think of money no more than of dust (St Francis, Franciscan Rule of 1221, p 38). The Holy man was delighted to follow the lowliness and poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ (St Francis, Franciscan Rule of 1221, p.39) and would even come to tears when recalling the poverty of Christ Jesus (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.68). St Francis of Assisi had truly exemplified the poverty of Christ in his heart and in his life. He was willing to live in loving obedience and was willing to suffer in poverty to imitate Christ in real life.
2. Prayer
St Francis of Assisi was a Holy man who “devoted himself without interruption unto fasting, prayer, and the praise of God” (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.95). Like Christ, He would seek lonely places to pray by night in solitude (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.106). He would be so absorbed in prayers that he seemed to devote not only his whole heart and body, but also his whole labor and time (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.104). Not only was prayer a consolation unto him in contemplation (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.104) but he also believed that those who serve God should always be busy praying or doing good (St Francis, Franciscan Rule of 1221, p.38). He believed that no good could be wrought in the service of God without prayers (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.104). We must “always pray and not lose heart” (Lk 18:1). He relied on only the heavenly goodness. He casted all his cares upon the Lord in earnest prayer and affirmed that the grace of prayerfulness should be more desired than all others (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.104).
3. Love
As Saint Bonaventure described, St Francis of Assisi seemed utterly consumed by “the flame of the love divine” that love glowed in him, which even at the mere mention of the Lord’s love, he would be aroused, moved, and enkindled (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.94). With his love for Christ and affectionate heart, it made him kin unto all created things and he esteemed himself “no friend of Christ” if he did not cherish the souls that He had redeemed by hanging on the Cross for the sake of men’s souls (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.97). St Francis of Assisi yearned to be transformed into Christ by the fire of His exceeding love (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.95) and even yearned to offer himself up as a living sacrifice of martyrdom in order to pay back Christ who died for us (Saint Bonaventure, The Life of Saint Francis, p.98). He truly obeyed “let us not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18). He was prepared for martyrdom by exposing himself to every enemy, giving himself up to his executioners and loving these enemies for the eternal life he would be given from all they did to him (St Francis, Franciscan Rule of 1221, p.44 & p.47). St Francis lived our Lord’s commandment to “love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 15:12) and “to serve and obey one another in a spirit of charity” because this is the true, holy obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ (St Francis, Franciscan Rule of 1221, p.36).
Can We be a Follower of Christ?
We too can take this path of Sequela Christi and be a follower of Christ just like St. Francis of Assisi and the other saints have modeled for us. We tend to place saints on a higher level, a level of perfection where they represent holiness and spirituality. If we want to authentically follow Christ, we must live the authentic Catholic morality and look to the saints and their examples of Sequela Christi in their real life.
This article was written by Joni Cheng.
Published on Regnum Christi, October 18, 2017