06221967 HH Paul VI address OFM General Chapter

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June 22, 1967: HH Paul VI address to the OFM General Chapter, about the essence of Franciscan Spirituality

The most cordial greetings to this distinguished Order

We greet with affectionate reverence the members of the 177th General Chapter of the Minor Brothers, which, gathered in Assisi in the famous convent of Saint Mary of the Angels, has given to this great Franciscan family the 115th successor of the incomparable founder Saint Francis in the person of the new Minister General, Father Constantine Koser, and has been busy reviewing the laws and customs of the Minor Brothers according to the spirit of the Order and according to the norms of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. We express to the entire General Chapter our pleasure at the celebration of such an important meeting, carried out with great animation of seraphic charity and with sincere purposes of spiritual renewal and practical aggiornamento; We give the new Minister General our paternal embrace, and we wish that his work be effective and healthy in the government and in the service of the 26,666 younger brothers, and to these we send Our blessing and exhortation to holiness according to their unique vocation and the edification of the entire church of God, which is honored by its worldwide diffusion, its evangelical example, and its generous apostolate.

And this would be all that We have to tell you on this occasion, knowing how your spirits are aware of the internal affairs that concern your Order, knowing its history, its institutions, its needs, its spirituality, and, finally, informed of the problems that arise today more numerous and pressing than ever due to your paradoxical and providential presence in the modern world. We know that the discussions of your General Chapter have dealt with all these topics freely, with breadth and competence; And we have nothing left but to recommend that you treasure so much study and prolong it in successive reflections, disseminate it in the immense network of your religious society, and fervently put into practice the prescriptions to which you have committed yourself.

The essence of Franciscan spirituality

But the interest and affection that we have for the prodigious fact of Franciscan life in the Church of God, move us to express to you some thoughts that your visit, in such a solemn circumstance, awakens in our spirit, very simple and brief, and not very original. , which, however, can give you the consolation of knowing Our spirit in some religious communion with yours.

Let's limit ourselves to three.

The first thought, the most obvious, and certainly common for you, is to identify the essence of Franciscan spirituality. We remember it, not because it is difficult to formulate it, since books and books have been written on this purpose, but because it is important.

Christ: Christ is the focal point of this spirituality. We could say only Christ. We read in a recently published book, which gives us the text and translation of the "Flowers Trium Sociorum", well known to you, a word from Saint Francis that seems to offer the key to his spirituality: "Brother, I feel every day "so much sweetness and comfort in the remembrance and meditation of the humility manifested on earth by the Son of God, that I could live to the end of the world without much need to listen to or meditate on other passages of Scripture" (texts arranged by Campbell, n . 99, p. 301;

Who is there who does not know how to find Saint Francis in the manger of Greccio and in the stigmata of Alverna? Both mysteries of Christ, the incarnation and the redemption, are everything to him, who seeks, perhaps as no other follower of Christ managed to do, to adhere to the Master.

You know how all your Franciscan literature is permeated by the observation of Saint Francis' effort for a literal imitation of Jesus; see the second legend of Thomas of Celano; see the work, in which the theme is almost too accentuated, by Bartholomew of Pisa: "De conformitate vitae beati Francisci ad vitam Domini Iesu" (sec. XIV, Analecta Franciscana, Quaracchi, 1906-1912). This, in summary, is brought to our attention by the great modern scholar of Jesus Christ, Father Leoncio de Grandmaison, who writes of Francis: “Consciously, he continually wanted to live like his Master, with his Master and from his Master. His Rule, as he conceived it, is nothing more than the Gospel in action" (cf. Jesus Christ, Barcelona, ​​Ed. Litúrgica Española, 1932, pp. 953-955). Things very well known to you. But let Us remind you of its simplicity and its strength, its evidence and originality, its beauty and attraction; Let us recognize in this Franciscan tradition a Catholic source of perennial evangelical authenticity, a school always returning to the origin, to the essence, to the truth of Christian life, a love that does not extinguish in forms, that does not evaporate in theories, which is not consumed in time, but is always there, alive, ardent, poor, obedient, patient and full of mystical joy and human goodness, to feed in the community of believers in Christ the desire for that charity, which is the only thing that counts. And make sure, children of Saint Francis, that those who accuse the Church of having polarized its center of interest in other aspects of Christianity, doctrinal, cultural or practical, and not in Jesus Christ, can recognize in this Saint "vir catholicus, totus apostolicus." (Julian of Speyer, Vita, n. 28), and in his faithful sons and followers, who perpetuate his testimony, the proof of the "primacy in everything" of royalty (Col 1,18), which the Church confesses and celebrates for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Always alive and flourishing the apology of the Seraphic

The other thought, which is spontaneously repeated in Us and in those who, comparing the times in which Francis lived with ours, observe their enormous historical diversity, consists of the question about the relevance of Franciscanism; first of all, if it is practicable; if you have any perennial message to announce also to the present generations; if it can - being so non-conforming, even so contrary to the mentality and customs of our century -, be considered as a living and operating moral and religious expression, or as a singular, although venerable, remnant of past times.

This doubt is immediately answered by a paradoxical but real fact: your existence, your group, nourished by more than twenty-six thousand followers, to which we can add, for the question that interests us now, those of the other not a few nor exiguous Franciscan families. . Franciscanism is alive and flourishing. We are the first to enjoy it. And to the pressing question about the reasons for such vitality and its adherence to the spiritual and social conditions of our time, answers the apology, which is familiar to the exponents of your religious family, and to not a few of your faithful in the field of culture and admirers in the field of Christian life; the apology of the present day of Saint Francis, a strangely strong apology for the most unexpected arguments: among all that of poverty, which characterizes the Poverello of Assisi and whoever wants to be his sincere follower.

Yes, Francisco is current because he is a prophet of Poverty. You decide why it is so; demonstrate to the men of today, who all seem to be impregnated by economic anxiety, how the poverty of spirit that the Gospel teaches us is liberation of the spirit, availability for the kingdom of higher realities, vindication of the true and supreme end of life, love for God and neighbor, education for esteem, for conquest (isn't work the conquest of economic goods? And didn't Saint Francis make his brothers humble and assiduous workers?), education, we said, for the discreet use and the most honest and pure administration of dangerous wealth, and education also for the sober enjoyment of temporal realities made signs of divine Providence; and say, finally, why poverty, as demonstrated by the great civil dramas of our era, can be the principle, the condition for a social solidarity, which selfish wealth, on the other hand, immediately compromises or repudiates.

All this, you demonstrate, is constantly modern; and if truly the ancient seduction of possessing earthly goods does not secretly penetrate into the convents or into your souls, your vocation to Franciscan poverty becomes a testimony of evangelical authenticity, and the admiration, sympathy, and faith of men is assured to you. .

A perennial vocation of charity without limits

And here comes the third thought that this Chapter suggests to us, namely: if such is the admirable phenomenon of Saint Francis, for what purposes should it be renewed within the Church and in the eyes of the world? How can that be affirmed today for the edification of Christians and the amazement of society? We believe that the deliberations of your Chapter respond wisely and comprehensively to these questions and that is why we praise them and recommend their punctual and practical execution. But remaining on a level of speculative exhortation, We will advise you not to fear the affirmation of your lifestyle in contrast to the style of the world; by detachment, let's say, by ascetic antithesis, by mystical flight. Others will follow other paths; Yours is the one, far from being ignored today by the capricious tastes of the new generation, of anti-conformism. Do not despise the strange forms of your Franciscan style; provided they are lived with decorous simplicity, they can resume the effectiveness of a free and bold language, all the more apt to impress the world the less it conforms to the imperatives of its taste or fashion.

But the affirmation by contrast is immediately accompanied - a characteristic Franciscan paradox too - by the affirmation by sympathy. For social sympathy, especially, which We would like to see documented by new expressions and related to your vocation of love for the poor, for the inhabitants of the most miserable neighborhoods of the urban peripheries, for the workers in the categories of unemployment or underemployment ( as they say today), for the emigrants, for the humble people, in a word, more in need than others of someone who assists them, comforts them, relieves them and loves them. Friar Lino, of Parma, is yours; and how many among you radiate like him in our time, and not only in the field of popular assistance, but also in any sector of human needs, in religious and missionary needs in the first place, the beneficial and friendly light of charity, inventive and solicitous, who "omnia suffert, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet" (1 Cor 13:7: "Excuses all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things"). Doesn't the Church live on charity, on love?

Solid fidelity with Francis to the "holy Roman Church"

And here, then, your affirmation is validated with another testimony, which We also always, and increasingly in these times, hope to receive from you: that of fidelity to the Church, to that "holy Roman Church", to which Brother Francis in his Rule and in his Testament promises obedience and reverence, and to whose adherence he commits his followers. "All the brothers - it is prescribed in the Rule of the Minor Brothers - are Catholics, and live and speak Catholicly." Since the day when the Crucifix in the chapel of San Damiano speaks three times to the young Francis and says: "Francis, go, repair my Church, which, as you see, is completely falling to the ground" (2 Cel 10), the "herald of the great King" becomes the restorer of the sacred walls in ruins, first materially and almost symbolically; Then, morally, through fidelity and holiness, it supports the ecclesiastical edifice. It is the Franciscan affirmation of fidelity to the holy Catholic Church.

Dear Little Brothers! The vision of Innocent III, of Francis who supports the Lateran basilica, that is, the Church, the mystical body of Christ in its historical and central, unitary and hierarchical, and Roman expression, foreshadowed the vocation and mission of your great religious family (2 Cell 17). We are pleased to represent again this prophetic vision before Our spirit at this precise post-conciliar moment, in which all the healthy and living forces of the Church are committed to the support and restoration of the "house of God"; and We are pleased to recognize, among the most generous, most active, most healthy forces, yours, that of Francis, supporter of the Church of Christ through the virtues of his eternal Gospel.

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