Wednesday 05/14/2008

Main | The Ardent Love of St. Francis for Mary

The Ardent Love of St. Francis for Mary

 Fri, 21 Dec 2007  PRINT   E-MAIL  

Rivers of ink have been spilled over St. Francis. And yet it would not be right to begin this new series of articles about the bond between the Mother of God and the Saints with anyone other than this especially beloved son of Hers. Indeed, if St. Francis is the closest to Jesus’ Heart, as Our Lord Himself revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, he is surely also the closest to Hers, since Mary’s Heart is so perfectly united to that of Christ.

Nor do I worry that I am wasting paper by writing about this exceptional man, to whom we can apply—in virtue of the realization of every mystery of the life of Christ in his flesh— what St. John wrote about the Lord: “There are many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (Jn 21: 25).

Furthermore, considering that several works about him aretruly lamentable (such as those of Paul Sabatier and of his sympathizers even today), it is necessary to set the record straight. The effects of their vision of St. Francis are widespread and evident. To them, he’s a charismatic figure and a free thinker oppressed by the ecclesiastical authorities, which, to boot, are almost always presented as a sort of mafia. This vision is part of a modern romantic mentality that’s replete with Protestant ideas and by now trite and tedious. It’s a mentality that desires to see in individuals what is not there, and in the final analysis always has the goal—even if sometimes it’s concealed by the context of eliminating the Catholic Church.

What concerns us here is setting the record straight on St. Francis’ catholicity, his faithfulness to the Pope, and above all his Marian spirit. He is the one who took up the patristic conception of the relation between the Church and Mary and gave it new expression in the title “Virgin made Church.” This humble and submissive man was also accustomed to call the Church Mother. His devotion to Our Lady, the Mother of mankind, kept him closely united to the Church. Indeed, the title he formulated for the Virgin extends Mary’s Divine Maternity of Christ to all men, as the Mariologist Fr. Stefano Manelli affirms, in that we become sons of God and of Mary through the maternity of the Church.

If, as we have said, all of the mysteries of Christ are realized in St. Francis, it is because in the first place “The Mystery,” namely the Incarnation, is realized in him: like Jesus, he was substantially the son of the Virgin Mary, a perfect image of the Mother. Let us consider St. Francis when he was already mature in his vocation, eighteen years after his conversion. At that time he was making a lent in honor of St. Michael the Archangel, praying and fasting on La Verna, the mountain he consecrated “to the honor and glory of God and of His glorious Mother, the Virgin Mary.” St. Bonaventure narrates the episode: “Early in the morning of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, as he was praying in a secret and solitary place on the mountain, he beheld a seraph... There appeared between his wings the form of One crucified... Yet to behold Him thus fastened to the Cross pierced [Francis’] soul like a sword of compassion and grief” (Major Life, Chapter XIII). Just before this, the holy Doctor says that St. Francis was “wholly transformed by the sweetness of compassion into Him Who, of His exceeding charity, was pleased to be crucified for us.” He was now completely conformed to Mary. To appreciate this, we need only consider the effect that the vision of Christ Crucified had on him. For us it is a sweet comfort in tribulations to look at a crucifix. But for the Blessed Virgin on Calvary, it was precisely the sight of Her crucified Son—as Fr. Faber affirms— that pierced Her soul with a sword of sorrow. “The vision, disappearing,” continues St. Bonaventure, “left behind it a marvelous fire in his heart, and a no less wonderful sign impressed on his flesh.”

It is a singular fact that blood often issued from the wound in Francis’ side. This symbolizes in a particular way Mary’s martyrdom, which took place in Her Heart and from there extended to Her entire body. And just as from the side of Christ the Church was born, so from Francis’ side was born the Franciscan family, of which he was essentially “mother.” This becomes clearer if we recall the parable that the Lord once inspired the Saint to recount, after the Pope had commanded him to pray to God and ask Him to manifest His will regarding the poverty proposed by St. Francis. A poor and beautiful woman was taken to wife by a king, who had many sons by her. When they grew up, their mother sent them to their father, who admired their handsomeness. When he learned that they were his sons, he took them into his court. St. Francis then said to the Pope: “I am that poor woman whom God in His mercy has loved and honored, and through whom He has begotten legitimate children. The King of kings Himself has told me that He will provide for all the sons He wills to raise up through me; because if He cares for strangers, He will also do so for His own children... for evangelical men who deserve His favor” (Legend of the Three Companions, 51). He was that poor woman made beautiful by her Lord, after the image of the Immaculate, the poor Virgin of Nazareth and Mother of the Son of the Most High.

St. Francis, moreover, was not a priest but a deacon, and during Holy Mass the deacon stands beside the priest to serve him, as minister of the chalice. Mary too stood beside Her crucified Son to receive the blood from His side and unite it to Her tears, as the fount of salvation for mankind.

From the time of the Saint’s conversion, numerous episodes reveal not only the Blessed Virgin’s special care for him, but also his devotion consisting in imitation and conformation. He was completely conformed to Mary in his heart that he might be conformed to Christ Crucified in his body. Such was the spiritual itinerary that took St. Francis to the heights of holiness.