The Wisdom of the People of St Francis of Assisi - Research Paper Example

St. Francis of Assisi School St. Francis of Assisi This paper analyzes the following quotation of St. Francis of Assisi,”start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible”. The analysis of this quotation is done in the context of the universal call to holiness. The analysis of the quotation also incorporates answers to six questions on the context and the meaning of the quotation. This quotation is quotation is verbatim English translation of St. Francis of Assisi. St. Francis of Assisi was born in 1181-1182, at Assisi in the modern day Italy. St. Francis’ father was Pietro di Bernardone, and he was a successful silk merchant1. St. Francis of Assisi was born Giovanni Bernardone, but his father changed his name to Francesco. Despite having been born in a wealthy family, St. Francis of Assisi left everything for Jesus Christ, after the dramatic event in 1206, when Jesus is said to have spoken to him from the crucifix in St. Damian church2. St. Francis then became a friar, and he started living a life of extreme austerity characterized by begging for food and serving the poorest of the poor in the society; St. Francis of Assisi also was an itinerant preacher. St. Francis of Assisi is credited for founding the Order of the Friars Minor and the Women’s Order of St.Clare. St. Francis of Assisi died in the year 1226 at the age of forty four. St. Francis of Assisi said these words in the year 1209, when the Catholic Church in medieval period was too clerical3. During St. Francis’ time, the Catholic priest’s wielded a lot of power, and they were seen as the only people who had the mandate to preach the Gospel. During this period of time, the role of the laity in the church was quite peripheral. During this period of time also, the Catholic Church taught that salvation was possible only through the Catholic clerics, and that was only the Catholic believers who would be saved4. Also, the medieval Catholic Church understood preaching only in terms of evangelizing through the word of mouth; preaching through actions was not regarded as an important element of evangelization. For this reason, evangelization was viewed as a preserve for the clergy because canonically, it was only the Catholic Church clergy who had the responsibility to preach the word verbally. The medieval Catholic Church, also, did not conceive universal holiness as a basic call to holiness for every believer; the Catholic Church clerics and the religious people were viewed as the only people who had the basic call to holiness. For this reason, therefore, the medieval Catholic Church saw the clerics and the religious people as more important than the laity in evangelization matters. This quotation does indeed provide helpful guidance to our growth in holiness. First, contrary to the medieval Catholic religious view, this quote implies that holiness is not a preserve for the few, i.e. the clerics and the religious people, but it is a basic call to every human person, holiness is a universal call to holiness for all people. This fact is quite important for the believers, for it encourages all people of God, whether religious or the laity, to seek holiness because it is their primary call in life. This therefore is an important guidance to our growth in holiness. Secondly, this quotation gives clear guidelines on how we can achieve holiness in life, i.e. starting with doing what is necessary in life (accomplishing our daily tasks faithfully), then we proceed to doing what is possible (pursuing goals that are obviously within our reach), and finally, we would be able to do the impossible things through the help of God. In other words, doing what is necessary and what is possible will enable us to be holly in our lives, thus being able to accomplish impossible things that we cannot accomplish without the help of God. This teaching of St. Francis was quite important in the medieval time because, as we have said, holiness was seen as an esoteric reality, achievable by only a few people, the clerics and the laity. On the contrary, this quotation teaches that we can achieve holiness in our daily tasks, however menial they are. All we need to do is to start by doing what is necessary and then continue to doing what is possible in our lives; God would then intervene in our lives and enable us to do the impossible things in our lives. This teaching by St. Francis therefore was quite important in the medieval period. This quotation by St. Francis of Assisi is also quite important theologically. The quotation is especially important on the theology of divine election. According to the proponents of divine election or predestination Theology, human beings destiny in salvation is predetermined; God predetermined some people to be saved, while He predetermined others to be eternally lost5. There are a number of verses in the Bible that seem to imply that salvation is predetermined. However, there are also many verses in the Bible that contradict the predetermination Theology. This quotation by St. Francis of Assisi shows that salvation of human beings is not predetermined. This is because St. Francis teaches that the means for holiness are at the disposal of every person. By saying that every person has the means to achieve holiness, St. Francis essentially means that no person is predetermined to be lost or damned. This quotation therefore support the theological view that salvation is not predetermined, but it is the choices that we make in life that finally determine our destinies after death. Again, this quotation is quite important on the Theology of holiness. In this quotation, St. Francis teaches that holiness is a process and not something that can be acquired at one time. St. Francis presents salvation as something that goes through, first doing faithfully, what is necessary, in our lives, secondly, doing what is possible or achievable, and finally, through the grace of God we will be able to achieve holiness, and to accomplish great feats in life that we are unable to achieve without the help of the Holy Spirit. This idea by St. Francis was revolutionary in the medieval period for it was contrary to the predominant theological ideas on holiness. In the medieval period, the predominant idea on holiness was that, holiness was a quite a difficult thing that required some form of esoteric knowledge and special graces from God6. St. Francis of Assisi, however, revolutionized this idea by stating that holiness is the basic call for all human beings. This idea of St. Francis of Assisi, therefore, is quite significant theologically. The main spiritual theme emphasised in this quotation of St. Francis of Assisi is the theme of humility. By stating that the process to holiness follows the three steps that he has enumerated in this quotation, St. Francis of Assisi is means that holiness is, ultimately, the work of God on us, and that all we have to do is to submit in humility to him, and God will lead us to holiness. This point becomes clear when we consider the fact that St. Francis says that, once we do what is necessary in our lives, followed by doing what is possible to us, suddenly we will be able to accomplish the impossible things, i.e. things that we are unable to accomplish without the aid of the Holy Spirit. What this means is that once we do what is within our means in pursuit of holiness, God will grant us the graces that will make us holly and we will be able to do impossible things through the power of the Holy Spirit. In this quotation, therefore, St. Francis teaches that holiness is the work of God on us, and that all we have to do is to submit ourselves to God by faithfully accomplishing our tasks. The theme of humility therefore is central in this quotation. It is through humble submission to God that we will be holly, and not through our own efforts as the medieval church taught. This fact therefore shows that holiness can be achieved in our simple daily tasks as long as we faithfully accomplish the tasks entrusted to us. The message in this quotation is quite relevant in the today’s catholic. This is because, although Catholic Theology has evolved over time and holiness is nowadays viewed as a basic call for every Christian, the modern Church however, still has some false theological views that St. Francis of Assisi was teaching against. For instance, in the contemporary Catholic Church, the laity are still viewed as having a peripheral role in the evangelization of the gospel; the Catholic Church is still too clerical. Despite the fact that there is no Biblical or even traditional teaching of the church explicitly prohibiting the laity from preaching the Gospel verbally or even giving sermons on Sundays in the Church, we still find that the preaching ministry of the church is predominantly a preserve of the clerics. Even the members of the laity who are theological experts are rarely given opportunities in the Catholic Church to preach the Gospel. St. Francis’ teaching in this quotation therefore is a challenge to the modern church that, verbal preaching is just one element of preaching, and that just as the laity preach through their actions, the laity can also preach verbally. This quotation therefore is quite significant today’s Catholic Church. References Manselli, R. St. Francis of Assisi. USA: Franciscan Institute Publishers, 1985. Print Peck, I. The Life and Words of St. Francis of Assisi. London: Franciscan Publishers, 1973. Print. Thomson, A. St. Francis of Assisi: A New Biography. USA: Cornell University Press, 2012. Print Read More