Joy Prakash OFM
About half a century ago, a fellow Jesuit by name Mario von Galli SJ, wrote a book
entitled “Living Our Future: Francis of Assisi and the Church Tomorrow”. What he says
about St. Francis of Assisi, could be applied to Pope Francis. He says, “It has become the
order of the day to connect the words “Christian” and “revolutionary”, “revolution” and
“Christianity” with one another. For many, of course, that is still a taboo. For centuries it
was impossible for a Christian to be a revolutionary. He could not be revolutionary in
the temporal sphere because the reigning authority has been established by the grace of
God and the resultant regime as sacred. He could not be a revolutionary because the
Church had been founded by God himself”
With Jorge Mario Bergoglio becoming the pope, the Church’s vocation to live the Gospel
of Jesus became a revolution itself! Pope Francis not only took the name “Francis” for
himself but made the Franciscan outlook and way of life as the lasting theme of his
papacy. Laurentius Casutt speaks about the Rules that St. Francis wrote, “Just as the
gospel can hardly be called a law book, so Francis did not want to leave a legal
commentary to his friars. Laws need not necessarily stand in the way of the spirit, but
they often do, the saint knew this. He knew even better the legal norms are superfluous
to a large extent where a living, holy spirit is active” Weren’t these the heart-concern of
Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope?
More than any other reform-minded saint, St. Francis of Assisi brought his life and
vision closer to the Gospel. Father Lippert SJ, who lived a century ago, clarifies this: “The
organizational principle which leads from Benedict through Dominic and Ignatius to the
newer communities seems to have practically exhausted its inner possibilities….
The
fundamental newness which is precisely the thing being sought today by countless
souls…is to be found only along a completely different line: along the line of the original
ideal of Francis. In other words: in the direction of a freely chosen life style and freely
chosen bonds of love; in the direction of a life that operates through spontaneous
initiative of the self rather than through great constructs of the will; in the direction of a
truly living and individual personality shaped by its own inner laws and standards. If
God should someday deign to reveal the Order of the future to his Church…it will surely
bear the stamp of Francis’ soul and spirit.”
No wonder Pope Francis’ papacy had the stamp of St. Francis’ soul and spirit in his
personal life and mission, in his thought (Laudato Sii’, Fratelli tutti, and Joy of the Gospel)
and vision,” “I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting, and dirty because it has been
out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and
from clinging to its own security.” Pope Francis famously expressed these words,
shortly after becoming the Pope in 2013.
