Blessed Are the Poor — A Pilgrimage to Assisi, 1978

We will listen to this word of Jesus and try to respond as St. Francis did, focusing on three themes:

• poverty (Friday)
• Mary (Saturday)
• the Church (Sunday)

The reflections and suggestions that follow were prepared for the pilgrimage planning meeting held in Rome on October 29, 1977.

Poverty

Assisi, 1209: Francis chose the name "minors" for his brothers. ("Our vocation," he said, "is to remain humble, and to follow the footsteps of Christ's humility. We shall be 'the least,' the 'minors' in the Church").
1977: To threaten the life of the smallest (and to the extent that they are small) — is this not a direct assault on what is dearest to God, most tender, most vulnerable in God, the "apple of his eye" (Zach. 2:12; Deut. 32:10)?

We need to be clear about the meaning of poverty.

In everyday language, the "poor" are those without money. But if we adopt only this definition, we reduce Assisi's message and miss what sets Francis apart from Diogenes, for example.

We cannot truly meet St. Francis of Assisi unless we give the word "poverty" the meaning he himself gave it—the meaning of the Gospel: not "Blessed are those who HAVE nothing," but "Blessed are those who ARE poor."

The poor are the small, the insignificant.

Yes, blessed are they, because they are not full of themselves, because they are free to love.

Now we understand: if misery is an evil we must fight with all our strength, poverty (in this sense) is a good we must welcome day after day.

Here are some suggestions. Each of us must complete them and find practical applications.

1. In today's world, the poor are a sign of contradiction: "How can we embrace poverty when it is so often imposed, and money seems to promise every pleasure?"
   To speak this way is to define poverty only in relation to money, when it really concerns the simplicity of heart (in the Bible, "the poor" are those not enslaved by their possessions, those free to love God and their brothers).
2. Before it is a word, poverty is a daily reality we discover in others and in ourselves. Often this reality is hidden and ignored—it frightens us, and we do not want to see it.
   How can I discover my own poverty if I do not know myself? How can I discover yours if I do not know you?
3. Poverty allows true encounters. How can I grasp your hand if mine is full?
   To be brothers, we must be poor. When we meet, do we merely observe each other, or do we truly know one another?
4. For Francis, poverty was first and foremost an encounter with the poor man of Nazareth, "who emptied himself even unto death on the cross" (Phil. 2). By following Jesus, Francis became poor.
   God is the first poor. To meet him as he truly is (not as we imagine him), we must allow ourselves to be impoverished. We must stand at the foot of the cross to hear him say today, "I thirst."
5. Francis was the man of joy (see the dialogue with Brother Leo on "perfect gladness" in the Little Flowers). His poverty brought no sadness, envy, or hatred. His message is steeped in a joy all the more genuine because suffering is not absent from it.
   For those in desperate situations, the joy of others can be a scandal. True joy for all is possible only if each person's pain has been taken seriously.
6. The poor receive only to give. The more they receive, the more they give. Even when they receive little, even when they seem to receive nothing.
   Poverty and sharing.
7. "The prophetic sense of the poor." The poor are for us like a word from God, calling us to go further. From this perspective, we are all poor for one another. The poor disturb us, just as God's word disturbs us. To make a pilgrimage is to accept being unsettled.

Mary

Greccio, 1223: Driven by love for the poor Jesus and his poor Mother, Francis organized the first crèche on Christmas Eve in a stable.
1978: In various countries, communities are rediscovering the place Mary held in the living faith of the first Christians.

To meet Mary at Assisi is not first and foremost a matter of "devotion" or personal piety. It is to join the eternal song of she whose joy rejoices among the poor.

The Council reminded us forcefully: "Mary occupies the first place among the humble and poor of the Lord who hope and receive salvation from him in faith" (Lumen Gentium, 55).

"Faith and Light" was born at Lourdes, at Easter 1971, in the very place where the Virgin appeared to a humble girl from the village. A sign of hope for today's world.

"It is through Mary that the salvation of the world began; it is through Mary that it must be completed" (St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, 49)

The pilgrimage will help us rediscover the Mother of Jesus as she is presented to us in God's Word: humble woman at Nazareth, our mother at the cross, and nearest to us in the glory of the Assumption.

Our journey to Assisi can be a path of conversion if we make it in the company of she who was the first to give Jesus to the world.

Here are some suggestions. Each of us must complete them and find practical applications:

1. If Mary had not said "yes" two thousand years ago, we would not be talking about Francis today. The courage some parents need to say "yes" day after day.
   To say "yes" to something that surpasses us, that we do not always understand.
2. It is impossible to meet the poor man of Assisi without remembering the countless multitude of "the poor of Yahweh," whose prayer was answered in Mary of Nazareth.
   Loneliness is an obstacle to joy. In our gatherings, are we attentive enough to those who are absent?
3. The very splendor of Assisi is already a question. Seven centuries after Francis, here we are on pilgrimage. There is a fruitfulness of Francis, just as there is a fruitfulness of Mary: the fruitfulness of the poor.
   In "Faith and Light," what is the fruitfulness of the poor? How do we explain the radiance of this or that person?
4. At Assisi (Francis) as at Lourdes (Bernadette), the poor hold the first place.
   What can we do to ensure they hold it elsewhere too?
5. Mary's joy, like Francis's, was not without suffering. Often the Gospel shows her amid misunderstanding. She stood at the cross.
   Joy is not the satisfaction of one who succeeds at everything. Is the joy we offer at our celebrations within reach of all?
6. Through his entire life, Francis reminds us that to be like Jesus, we must be born of Mary.
   Mary is Mother of the Church. Let us deepen our understanding of consecration to Mary.

The Church

Rome, 1210: Francis, accompanied by his brothers, presented his vision of religious life to Pope Innocent III, who approved it.
Rome, 1975: Pilgrims from "Faith and Light," coming from various countries, were received in audience by Paul VI on the occasion of the Holy Year.

Francis's love for Jesus Christ cannot be separated from his love for the Church of Christ. This attitude of love and respect stands in sharp contrast to the contempt many Christians of his time felt for the Church. They wanted to live the Gospel but without the mediation of the Church. Francis never yielded to this temptation, which keeps recurring in history among those scandalized by the conduct of "churchmen"—the temptation to abandon the official Church in order to live the Gospel more purely.

Certainly, Francis sought to live according to the Gospel. He suffered from the failures and sins of "Christians." But he was too humble to judge others from on high. He knew the human heart too well not to recognize the pride and lust for power (conscious or not) in those who call themselves pure and want to overturn everything in the name of this purity. (Charles Klein, Francis of Assisi, Ed. SOS, Paris, 1976, pp. 152–153)

Here are some suggestions. Each of us must complete them and find practical applications:

1. The Church in Francis's time knew excess and abuse. Yet Francis did not leave it.
   Is our gaze toward the Church merely sociological, or does it remain the gaze of a child toward a parent?
2. By choosing "the last place," Francis contributed to the renewal of the Church.
   In every age, "return to the Gospel" has been an important factor in renewal. Can we recognize the signs of renewal in the Church today?
3. "Rebuild my Church"—these words of Jesus concerned not only the old building of San Damiano, but the whole Church.
   We are all responsible for building up the Church. What is my part in this construction?
4. The Church is a family. It bears the face we give it.
5. Francis's poverty allowed him to welcome all people. He was a universal brother. Assisi became a place of reconciliation for many Christians and many people.
   The ecumenical dimension of Faith and Light.

L.S., 1978