The one guy who followed Jesus

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.” Those words of G.K. Chesterton are not true, but true enough to make a point. But there is one person who may fit the bill of a later Christian actually living the Gospel. The man today immortalized in millions of bird baths was Francis of Assisi (1182-1226).

Francis became and remained a poor, simple man, and yet he gained a rock-star like following by the early 1200s. He remains famous today not because of his own words and actions so much as because his words and actions conformed so closely to those of Jesus.

Francesco was his name in his own native Italian. He was the son of a wealthy textile merchant and as such part of the new Italian middle class that was coming into its own. His father’s wealth and Francis’ own natural charisma, made the young man a leader of the youth of his town.

Francis dreamed of earning glory in battle. He got his chance at an early age when he enlisted, along with the other young men of Assisi to fight in a feud against Perugia. Francis’ side lost the battle and he was imprisoned for a time. Defeat in battle and illness in prison caused Francis to turn away from his visions of glory on the battlefield.

Francis’ path toward God took a series of turns closer and closer to God, rather than an all at once conversion. However, the course of Francis’ life was profoundly changed by at least two formative experiences.

On a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis saw a beggar outside of St. Peter’s Church. The Holy Spirit moved Francesco to trade places with the beggar. Francis exchanged clothes with a beggar and then spent the day begging for alms. That experience of being poor shook Francis to the core.

Later he confronted his own fears of leprosy by hugging a leper. Like trading places with the beggar in Rome, hugging a leper left a deep mark on Francis.

Contrary to the way his story is often presented, the man we now remember as Saint Francis did not change overnight. For years Francis struggled over how to live out the Gospel. Shaped by his experiences with the beggar and the leper, he had a strong identification with the poor. Francis cut himself off from the opulent lifestyle of his father and sought out a radically simple life. Francis and his followers worked to actually follow Jesus’ teaching with all that meant.

One example of that desire to be Christ-like comes from his own words. Francis dictated to a fellow monk the meaning of true joy.

Francis said, “What true joy is: A messenger comes and says…that my brothers have gone to all the unbelievers and converted all of them to the faith; again, that I have so much grace from God that I heal the sick and perform many miracles: I tell you that joy does not consist in any of these things.

“What then is true joy? I return to Perugia and arrive there in the dead of night; and it is winter time, muddy and so cold that icicles have formed on the edges of my habit and keep striking my legs, and blood flows from such wounds. And all covered with mud and cold, I come to the gate and after I have knocked and called for some time, a brother comes and asks, ‘Who are you?’ I answer, ‘Brother Francis.’

“’And he says go away; this is not the proper hour for going about; you may not come in.’ And when I insist, he answers, ‘Go away, you are a simple and stupid person; we are so many and we have no need of you. You are certainly not coming to us at this hour!’ And I stand again at the door and say: ‘For the love of God, take me in tonight.’

“And he answers, ‘I will not. Go to the Crossiers’ place and ask there.’ I tell you this: If I had the patience and did not become upset, there would be true joy in this and true virtue and the salvation of the soul.’”

Francis wanted to conform his life to God’s will in such at way that even cruelty of a fellow brother of the religious order he founded could not wreck his joy.

By the time of his death, Francis had accomplished much. Francis’ followers became the Order of Friars Minor. The group was endorsed by the Church and a similar order was established for women, and yet a third for married persons who wanted to keep a rule of simplicity appropriate to them.

Francis could look on thousands of lives transformed by his call for deep repentance and radical simplicity of life. Francis own example of a Christ-like life transformed the Italy of his youth within his own lifetime. Yet from his deathbed, Francis said to his fellow friars, “Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord our God for up to now we have made little or no progress.”

The progress Francis wanted was for people to follow Jesus, by living out what Jesus taught. The Sermon on the Mount was deeply formative for the monk who had been a wealthy merchant’s son. His project was to follow his Lord with no excuses.

Brown is the color that most associated with Francis. His fellow friars wore brown robes. Rough brown robes fit with the simplicity to which Francis aspired. Brown is associated with humility.

But I think that better than a color, Francis is best represented by translucence—being see through like stained glass. When people saw Francis, they saw Jesus through him. Like a stained glass window whose colors are revealed by the light that bursts through, Francis’ life had such an impact on 12^th century Europe because the light of Christ shined through him.

To come back around to G.K. Chesterton, who I quoted at the start, I think Francis followed another piece of Chesterton’s advice. He wrote, “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.” That was Francis and when it is me and you, then Christianity will have been tried and not found wanting.

            (The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland. He is currently traveling in Italy with his wife and daughter. They will visit Assisi this week.)

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