Gulf Pine Catholic
•
July 1, 2016
15
B
ook
R
eview
History a refreshing departure from overly pious
views of St. Francis
BY BRIAN WELTER
Catholic News Service
St. Francis of Assisi had a few rough edges, accord-
ing to Jon Sweeney, who rejects the common practice
of making him too saintly.
First, the strong, public and repeated disobedience
to his father, so frequently romanticized by the saint’s
admirers, amounts to a “flaunting disregard for the
fourth commandment,” according to Sweeney. Readers
might see parallels here with Martin Luther’s paternal
conflict, a relationship much maligned by Catholics
over the centuries.
Second, the author succeeds in showing the impor-
tance of friendship to St. Francis’ spirituality. These
relationships were not always so easygoing. This is an
important slant to the story, as usually Francis’ biogra-
phers present a docetic individual who is phantom-like
in his holy detachment from worldly things yet mysti-
cally in unity with the birds and flowers. The author
treads into the rocky relationship between the saint and
Elias of Cortona, though most of the book sticks to
Francis.
Third, Sweeney’s less-than-romantic portrayal of
St. Francis’ leadership describes a maturation process
which sounds uncomfortably normal.
“It was inevitable that, once Francis had gathered
like-minded men around him, he took on a certain air
of authority,” he writes. “Even before his efforts were
formalized into anything recognized by the church,
Francis acquired a reputation as a man not to be easily
contradicted. One reason for this is that authority used
to attach itself naturally to men who were perceived to
be in communication with God. But how surprising this
transformation was in Francis: he went from village
fool to instructor of bishops and priests in less than two
years.”
“The Enthusiast”
does contain many traditional
views. The author notes the difference between St.
Francis as saint and Peter Waldo as heretic despite
many close parallels between the two leaders and their
movements. The former went out of his way to
acknowledge church authority and teaching, and
expressly countered the urge toward heresy in his own
movement.
Sweeney ties in some of the saint’s more eccentric
behaviors with this orthodoxy: “Above all, Francis’
close identification with the created world was his way
of combatting with life and practice the most prevalent
heresy of the day: dualism.”
The saint’s ideas, with precursors in certain French
hermits, for instance, overturned the often lavish spiri-
tual and ecclesiastical ways of the era: Franciscan “sim-
plicity, clarity and precision about the meaning and
purpose of a Christian life caught the sophisticated
completely off guard. ... Until they heard Francis’
Gospel message, they had thought religion to be simply
the meeting of obligations, which were minimal and
without any real comfort or impact upon one’s life.”
Sweeney uses historical asides, such as regarding
the Cathars and Albigensian Crusade, to situate St.
Francis in his society. The Cathars are not portrayed in
overly abstract, saintly ways, but more truthfully,
which again goes against the common practice of
depicting these heretics as saintly victims of the terribly
patriarchal Catholic Church.
“Their teachings were always insidious and disrup-
tive,” Sweeney writes. “Central to their theology was
the way in which they belittled the Godhead” with their
“theological and existential dualism extended logically
to the second person of the Trinity.”
Sweeney the realist shows how Elias of Cortona,
one of St. Francis’ closest lifelong friends and a friar
from the early days, took the order in the worldly direc-
tion so alien to the founder. The author’s imagery gives
readers a strong sense of the depth and suddenness of
the Franciscans’ fall under Elias: “Tributes and gifts,
whether fancy foods, gold or ornaments for the basilica
in Assisi, were always arriving at Elias’ office as indul-
gences. Fine foods, imported from all over the world,
were added to his table. Cherries, crabs, eel, almond
milk and cinnamon became common.”
The book answers some of the basic questions
regarding the infighting that took place between the
“spirituals” and Brother Elias’ more worldly followers
who turned the order into an institution not so different
from other orders, and how that split had begun well
before the death of the order’s founder. This hints at
certain failings of St. Francis in ensuring a more peace-
ful and structured succession.
Overall, then,
“The Enthusiast”
offers a refreshing
departure from the more naive renditions of St. Francis
and the early Franciscans.
Welter has degrees in history and theology, and
teaches English in Taiwan.
This is the cover of
“The
Enthusiast: How the Best
Friend of Francis of Assisi
Almost Destroyed What He
Started”
by Jon M. Sweeney.
The book is reviewed by
Brian Welter.
CNS
Pope: Before you judge, take a good look in the mirror
BY JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians must take a
good look at their own sins before calling out their
neighbor’s faults, Pope Francis said.
“Look at yourself in the mirror, not to put on make-
up so your wrinkles can’t be seen; no, that’s not (Jesus’)
advice. Look at yourself in the mirror to see yourself as
you are,” the pope said June 20 during the Mass in the
chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae.
The day’s Gospel reading from St. Matthew recount-
ed Jesus telling his disciples to not judge so “that you
may not be judged.”
“You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from
your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the
splinter from your brother’s eye,” Jesus says.
Pope Francis said it is clear that Jesus “gets a little
bit angry here” and is reminding the disciples that those
who judge put themselves “in God’s place.”
“This is why it is so awful to judge. Only God can
judge, only him! We are called to love, to understand,
to pray for the others when we see things that are not
good and also to speak to them. But never to judge.
Never. If we judge, this is hypocrisy,” he said.
When God judges, he judges with mercy, the pope
said, adding that compared to God, “our judgment is a
poor judgment.”
“Today, let us think about what the Lord tells us: Do
not judge, lest you be judged. The measure, the way, the
measure in which we judge will be the same used on us.
And third, we must look at ourselves in the mirror
before judging,” he said.
The Mass June 20 was the last scheduled with a
small group of visitors until September. As in previous
years, the morning Masses are not held in July and
August.
