PARABLES AND SIMILITUDES OF THE HOLY FATHER ST FRANCIS
PARABLE I: The Providence of God will never Fail the Poor in Spirit
The holy Father proposed the following parable to Pope Innocent III., who considered the Rule of the Friars Minor too hard and impracticable on account of the great poverty it enjoined :
‘A poor but most beautiful virgin lived in a solitary and desert place, when the king of that country, captivated by her loveliness, took her for his spouse. He dwelt with her some years in that desert, and she bore him children who had the beauty of their mother, and the features of the king their father. The monarch having returned to his court and royal throne, the tender mother brought up her children carefully; and when they were grown up, she sent them to the king, saying : ” You are the children of a great king who dwells in his royal palace. I cannot, and will not, leave this desert ; but do you go to your father and declare to him who you are. He will give you all that is necessary and becoming your high rank.” The children obeyed ; and when the king saw them, he recognised in them his own likeness, and the wondrous beauty of their mother. He therefore said graciously to them : ” I acknowledge you to be my children, and I will treat you as princes ; for if I feed and clothe my servants and strangers, how much more shall I cherish my own offspring, in whom I see the beauty and grace of their mother, whom I so ardently love ? All the children she has borne me shall sit at my table, and dwell at my court.” Most Holy Father, this King is Christ Our Lord, the Monarch of heaven and earth ; and this beautiful virgin is Poverty, who dwelt alone in the desert of this world, scorned and rejected by men. The King of kings, Christ the Lord, was enamoured of her beauty ; and as soon as He entered into this world, He espoused her to Himself in the Crib. She, in this desert, has borne Him many children — apostles, anchorets, monks, and others who have embraced voluntary Poverty; and these, who bear the royal marks of Christ — namely, poverty, humility, and obedience — she has sent to the heavenly King, who receives them lovingly, and promises to nourish them, saying : ” I, Who make my sun to rise upon the just and the unjust — I, Who feed, clothe, and preserve the infidel Moors and Pagans, who are strangers to the faith – will much more willingly give to you, my beloved children, and to all who are born of my beloved spouse, Poverty, all that is necessary for you.” Most holy Father, this Lady and Queen, holy Poverty, has sent us, her children, to the heavenly King ; we are not worse than those who went before us ; we have not degenerated from the’ beauty of our Father and Mother, since we profess the most high and perfect poverty. Do not fear, therefore, lest the children and heirs of the Eternal King should perish with hunger, for we are born in the likeness of the Lord Christ, and by the virtue of the Holy Spirit, of a poor Mother, and by the spirit of poverty, we shall be abundantly nourished in the Order of Poverty. For if the King of Heaven has promised His eternal kingdom to those who imitate Him, how much more will He give us those things which He bestows indifferently on the good and bad !’ When the Vicar of Christ had attentively considered this parable, he marvelled greatly ; and seeing evidently that God spoke by the mouth of the holy man, he approved the Rule.
PARABLE II: Of the Custody and Mortification of the Eyes.
The holy Father used frequently to exhort his Brethren to guard and mortify their senses with the utmost care. He especially taught them the custody of the eyes, proposing to them the following parable : ‘A certain pious king sent two messengers successively to the queen with a communication from himself. The first messenger returned and brought an answer from the queen, which he delivered exactly ; but of the queen herself he said nothing, because he always kept his eyes modestly cast down, and had not raised them to look at her. The second messenger also returned ; but after delivering in a few words the answer of the queen, he began to speak warmly of her beauty. ” Truly, my lord,” he said, ” the queen is the most fair and lovely woman, and thou art indeed happy and blessed to have her for thy spouse.” At this the king was angry, and said : ” Thou wicked servant, didst thou dare to cast thine eyes upon my royal spouse ? I believe thou dost covet what thou hast so curiously gazed upon.” Then he commanded the other messenger to be recalled, and said to him : ” What dost thou think of the queen that replied : ” She listened very willingly and humbly to the message of the king, and replied most prudently.” But the monarch again asked him : ‘^ What dost thou think of her countenance? Did she not seem to thee very fair and beautiful, more so than any other woman ?” The servant replied : ” My lord, I know nothing of the queen’s beauty. Whether she be fair or not, it is for thee alone to know and judge. My duty was only to convey thy message to her.” ” Thou hast answered well and wisely,” rejoined the king ; ‘thou who hast such chaste and modest eyes shall be my chamberlain. From the purity of thine eyes I see the chastity of thy soul ; thou art worthy to have the care of the royal apartments confided to thee. But thou, who hast such immortified eyes depart from the palace; thou shalt not remain in my house, for I have no confidence in thy virtue.’
‘My Brethren, you have heard this parable, and you understand the meaning of it. If you have gazed on any female, do penance, and guard your eyes in future. Death lurks in such glances, and enters by the windows of the eyes. The heavenly King forbids you to look upon His spouses. Now, every Christian woman is His spouse, and who would not fear to look upon the spouse of Christ? Beware of the jealous anger of the King!’
SIMILITUDE I: Of true and perfect Obedience.
A CERTAIN person once inquired of St. Francis whom he considered to be truly obedient, and the holy man proposed to him as an example a dead body. ‘Take,’ he said, ‘a dead body, and place it where thou wilt. It will not refuse to be moved; it will not complain of its position ; it will not expostulate if it be abandoned. If it be placed in an elevated seat, it still looks down, not up ; if it be clothed in purple, it appears paler. This is like a truly obedient man, who does not inquire why he is moved, does not care where he is placed, does not beg to be changed ; being raised to dignities, he preserves his wonted humility, and the more he is honoured, the more unworthy does he consider himself to be.’
SIMILITUDE II. Of the same.
‘I HAVE often,’ said the holy Father on another occasion, ‘seen a blind man, who had no one to guide him on his way but a little dog. Wherever the dog led him, he followed. He did not ask his guide why he conducted him this way or that ; if he led him over rough stones, he still followed ; if through the streets and squares, it was the same ; if he took him to a church, he prayed ; if he entered a house, the blind man asked an alms. Thus he followed wherever the dog chose to lead him, and never went anywhere without him. Such ought to be the truly and perfectly obedient man. He should be blind in obeying: having his eyes, as it were, closed before the commands of his Superiors, and neither wish nor seek to understand them, except that he may promptly and humbly fulfil them. Wherever the wish or command of his Superior leads him, he must follow ; if it be through rough and stony paths, he must cheerfully bear it ; if through smooth ways, he must proceed in virtue of holy Obedience. The truly obedient man should in all things consider, not the difficulty of the command, but the authority of the one who commands, and the merit of Obedience.
SIMILITUDE III: Of the Cares and Solicitudes of Married Persons.
St. Francis being once assailed by a violent temptation of the flesh, and the enemy suggesting to him that he should take a wife, he first chastised his body by a severe discipline, and then going half-naked into the garden, which was covered with snow, he proposed to himself the following lively and apposite example of the cares and anxieties of married persons about their families, so different from the quietude of monastic life. Plunging into the snow, he made seven heaps of it, and thus spoke to himself ; ‘Behold, the largest of these is thy wife, the other four are thy two sons and two daughters, and the remaining two are a manservant and a maidservant whom thou must have to serve thee. Make haste, therefore, to clothe them all, for they are perishing with cold. But if thou findest so many anxieties too troublesome for thee, be careful to serve God alone with much earnestness.’ By this example the tempter, being overcome, left him, and the holy man remained the conqueror in this perilous conflict.
SIMILITUDE IV. Of the great Multitude who should Join the Order.
When the Saint had as yet only four companions, he foretold the increase of his family to Blessed Egidius, his companion, under this similitude : ‘ Our Order is like a fisherman who lets down his nets into the sea, and taking a great multitude of fishes, he picks out the largest and keeps them, but lets the small ones go. Our net is let down into the sea. of the world, and gathers into itself men of great sanctity and religious virtue; but those who have little fervour, and are tepid in the service of God, it lets go ; or having received them, casts them out again. So great will be the multitude of fishes, that I fear lest the net should be broken by their number.’
SIMILITUDE V. That the Servant of God should Refer all Praise and Honour to Him.
The holy Father was daily much honoured by the people, who, out of devotion and reverence for his sanctity, would kiss his hands, his habit, his feet, and even his footprints as he passed. As he never forbade their doing this, one of his disciples, doubting his humility, and somewhat scandalised at his allowing so much honour to be paid him, said to him : ‘Brother, dost thou not see and remark what these people are doing ? How canst thou permit it? Men honour thee, and reverence thee exceedingly as a Saint, and thou dost not prevent nor repulse them ; on the contrary, it seems as if thou didst take pleasure in this homage. How is this?’ The blessed Father replied : ‘So far am I, Brother, from refusing these honours, that they seem to me very little. On the contrary, the people certainly should reverence and much more.’ His companion, still more troubled, replied : ‘ I do not understand. Brother, how thou canst be considered a Saint, when thou desirest the praise and honour of men.’ Then the blessed Father replied : ‘Listen, Brother, and understand. I do not ascribe or appropriate any of this honour to myself; I give it all to God, and I keep myself in the depths of my lowliness. I know my own vileness, and I acknowledge the Majesty of God. But these men gain no little merit by these signs of respect, for they recognise and honour God, and reverence Him in His creatures. They who acknowledge the graces of God in His creatures, cannot be ignorant of God Himself. Creatures do not lose their humility because the Majesty of God is honoured in them. Just as statues of Our Lord or His Mother are honoured, and yet the statue of wood or stone does not become puffed up or exalted, so the servant of God, who is His true and living image, and in whom God is venerated and worshipped on account of the many graces which shine forth in him, does not think more of himself, but becomes the more firmly established in his humility ; he attributes all to God, nothing to himself; he looks upon himself as wood or stone, or rather as pure nothingness in respect to God, to Whom he refers all honour and glory, but to himself misery, shame, and confusion.’