From the "goods" to the good of all.
recent months, the diocese of Padua live the intense pastoral year in the light of the theme offered by the 'guidelines' presented by his bishop, Mgr. Antonio Mattiazzo "Christians for the common good." There were no missing appointments examination of the theme even in parish pastoral councils. The Franciscan charism can offer a few thoughts on this?
If 'good' can be defined as "anything that can be subject to appropriation and use" that "everything that is susceptible to economic assessment," we sense that the option of poverty of Francis of Assisi can remain on the sidelines of this issue.
In a socio-economic environment very different from ours, a moment of epochal transformation toward a monetary system and capitalization, the conversion of a merchant Francesco in Beggar becomes symptomatic of a change dictated by the Gospel values perceived in their radicalism. Transformation so incomprehensible and unexpected - as we know - was mistaken for insanity by his contemporaries, the only explanation for such irrationality.
The episode of the captivity of Francis in Perugia (after the unfortunate experience of the Battle of Collestrada) is not detailed in any of the old section, if not overshadowed as a time of dramatic experience that ended with the liberation: it occurred obviously for large ransom paid by the wealthy family of Peter Bernardone. Francis also - in the writings that have come down and attributed to him - no explicit references to this page difficult of his life. Yet it may be assumed that the prison was particularly painful experience of imprisonment, sickness, great existential questions that boost the search for meaning of life that the young Francis has been evident before the war. Crucial experience of lack of assets, tangible and emotional, to much and too long taken for granted by Francis.
Nothing thus removing the spiritual journey of Francis dictated by the moments of the return to Assisi, Saint Damien, the leper ... both of which we have read in sources and in modern biographies of the saint, it should be emphasized, however the intensity This dramatic experience of captivity. In it, Francis has certainly experienced the humiliation of being treated not as a person but an object, a commodity exchange: his life was 'a price'. That so many of his comrades, not noble, not the children of rich neo-bourgeois ... did not have any value, any price in the eyes of men. Death was the only price that could settle the account with the story.
It takes a different look, different from that of men, to restore the real value of the goods of life and humanity: the gaze of the person who created that life, the eyes of God will look for Francis of the Crucifix of San Damiano. Francis leaves 'catch' this contemplation, one capable of restoring order in the chaos of greed and inequality brought about by men. So here she discovers how the rich heritage of his father and restrict it, driving it away from the eye: this loss is unbearable. Francis leaves the goods!
Francis is poor, does not become poor. Francesco option is to choose poverty, suffer it not for misfortune or injustice. The choice is that of being with and for those who have few or no assets, but may exist with a different look for truth, that the Supreme Good.
It is therefore no coincidence that years later processing experiential Francis converge even in his most thoughtful, such as the Rule: "And give to the Lord God Almighty and sovereign of all goods and recognize that all assets are his and all we give thanks because we receive all from him. And the same high, supreme only true God has, and that they are made, and he gets all the honors and worship, all praise and all blessings, all thanks and glory, because each has its good and He alone is good "(RnB XVII - FF 49). If any good comes from the Father, for the exclusive possession? The path is that of sharing and distribution of goods, as brothers and between brothers. Here is the choice of Francis model of the apostolic community of origin, in fraternitas (not communitas as monastic model) between brothers in front of one Father, to live minoritas.
"Nothing So you'd like, you want nothing more, nothing satisfies us whether we like it and not the Creator, Redeemer and Savior, the only true God who is all good, all good completeness of good, true and supreme good, who alone is good, merciful and meek, gentle and sweet, that alone is holy, just, true and righteous, who alone is benign, innocent and pure, from whom and for whom and in which all pardon, all grace, all glory of all the penitents and all the righteous of all the saints rejoicing together in heaven "(XXIII RnB - FF 70). God is the supreme good, true, complete, total: good is His and He gives them come from Him, we reach us all beggars. Woe to the hand that takes and holds: Francesco learn by looking at the hands of Jesus, they take, bless, break and distribute ...
"You are good, all good, supreme good, Lord God living and true" (praises to God Almighty) also rich in contemplation and prayer of praise flowed from the heart of Francis after the experience of the stigmata at La Verna does not lack this awareness of the uniqueness of well represented by God to every person of any social condition. Goods from the giver of all good Well, material and spiritual.
Why the hostility of Francis for the money? Francis denies (and this could appear provocative in the cities or in the courts of the first two hundred) that the money made of money can credibly represent the reality of the natural and social world. The wolf made it home in Gubbio, the birds that you can preach the Gospel in Bevagna, the robbers of Borgo Sansepolcro, which can be induced to become monks, and cared for lepers met by unafraid to share his bowl, the rustic in their "simplicity" and misery, do not belong the city and the money can not represent the value. Every time that Francis is portrayed in his contacts with these dark presence and free speech, what is communicated is that its poverty, its remoteness from the money and property (ie the appropriation of anything) let's see , hear, smell and experience, that is, to understand, everything that you are beyond the civic life of the rich and that is frightening because they threaten foreign, ugly, contagious, inhuman.
We know how the teaching and example of Francesco has been following with passion but also with difficulty by his brothers' children spiritual ', trying to adapt the radicalism of his proposal with the appeals dictated by the Church and the evolution of time and facilities. The many prohibitions of the use of the money directed to the Friars Minor by Francis (of which there are many traces in the writings and legal letters) over the centuries have been caged or reinterpreted in light of service in the Church and in the new socio-cultural charities that were entrusted to the Friars Minor. Moreover, the real challenge when Francis had launched dying "lying on the ground, after having placed the sackcloth, his face lifted to heaven, according to his habit totally intent on the glory of heaven, while his left hand covered the wound in his right side, you do not see it. And he said to the brothers: "I have done my part, your Christ teach you '" (FF 1239).
Creativity evangelical request by Francis to the brothers has not failed on many occasions as the Franciscan history has been able to document. This is also in the economy: there where it seemed that the monetary system could be only source of increased poverty and social imbalances, the talent and charisma of some of the Friars Minor was able to give rise to structures or institutions entrusted to the laity.
It's never enough known that their creators have been the Friars Minor dei Monti di Pietà (fr. Barnabas Manassei in Terni in 1462, fr. Bernardino da Feltre, † 1494), ie, the first rudimentary banking systems of credit made by a fund as a cash crop begging Trai wealthy. An intelligent and thoughtful way to make feasible values \u200b\u200bof justice and sharing of goods.
And always a Franciscan (fr. Luca Pacioli, † 1517) is the one who theorizes a registration system for commercial and institutional currency movements (now known as 'double entry') in order to provide transparency and protect the accounts justice in areas where greed could lead to unfairness or crimes.
Not to mention the less known story of Brother Anthony of Padua 17 March 1231 sees the fruits of his passionate preaching against usury and solidarity with the families affected by this scourge unable to pay their debts: the City of Padua the day alter the statutes of the city with a law more equitable and less oppressive.
Who loves the Supreme Good, who - as Francis had taught him - he knows that the goods are from him and are his passion, commitment and ingenuity is not to take it, but because they are good of all, the common good.
fr. Vaona Andrea, OFM Conv
published in "In Charit Christi", 1 / 2009.
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