Franciscan Fakes

 

Franciscan Fakes!

One night as Assisi lay asleep under a beautiful starry sky and a radiant full moon, the silence was shattered by the loud ringing of bells. All the people got out of their beds and ran to the big plaza outside San Rufino Cathedral. Had fire broken out? Invading army below? Suddenly a young man was seen way up on the church belfry pointing to a magnificent sky: “my brothers and sisters”, he said “I wanted you all to see the beautiful moon, God has given us tonight”!

A delightful story but spurious as there is no record of this in the authentic Franciscan sources. So too with the words attributed to St Francis: “Preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words”. The Capuchin Archbishop Chaput ofm Cap said “there is no evidence that St Francis ever said these words”. (1) Dr Scott Hahn agreed saying that “it is a common misconception and a potential excuse for inaction”. While Hahn acknowledges that St Francis lived a life that embodied the Gospel, he notes that there is no historical evidence that St Francis ever actually said this.

Key Points on Hahn’s Position:

·       Misattributed Saying: in his work, particularly around 2014, Hahn debunked the myth that this was a direct quote from St Francis, calling it a “modern urban legend” or apocryphal saying.

·       Both/and Approach: Hahn supports the idea that actions must back up words, but he rejects using this quote as an excuse to avoid verbal proclamation.

·       Necessity of Words: As a proponent of the “New Evangelisation”, Hahn emphasises that the Gospel requires both witness of life and explicit proclamation. He agrees with the sentiment that our lives should be a sermon, but argues that words are indeed necessary.

Hahn, along with other scholars, points out that the quote is often misused to justify a “silent” Christianity, whereas true evangelism involves making the faith audible as well as visible.

The American Protestant pastor, Ed Stetzer, in a three-page article in the South African Joy Magazine, a few years ago writes of this spurious quote attributed to St Francis: ˝as Christians, we should live in such a way that our lives point to the person and work of Jesus. However, good intentions cannot overcome two basic problems with this quote and its supposed origin. One, St Francis never said it, and two, the quote is not Biblical.

˝Mark Galli has pointed out that there is no record of St Francis, [an Italian Catholic friar] and member of a preaching order, uttering anything close to this. In fact, everything we know about the man suggests he would not have agreed with his supposed quote. He was well-known for his preaching and often preached up to five times a day!

A post-modern assumption

˝The idea may not have resonated with St Francis, but for many today, wordless ministry is a compelling approach. “Words are cheap”, we like to say, and “actions speak louder than words”.

˝Galli explains that the sentiment complements our culture rather well: “Preach the Gospel, use words if necessary” goes hand-in-hand with a post-modern assumption that words are finally empty of meaning. It subtly denigrates the high value that the prophets, Jesus, and Paul put on preaching. Of course, we want our actions to match our words as much as possible but the Gospel is a message – news about an event and a Person upon which the history of the planet turns!

An incomplete understanding

˝And this is the real problem – not from whom the quote originally came, but just how it can give us an incomplete understanding of the Gospel and how God saves sinners. Christians are quick to encourage each other to “live out the Gospel”, and to “be the Gospel” to our neighbours. The missional impulse here is helpful, yet the Gospel isn’t anything the Christian can live out, practice or become.

˝The Apostle Paul summarised the Gospel as the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, through whom sin is atoned for, sinners are reconciled to God, and the hope of the resurrection awaits all who believe. The Gospel is not habit, but history. The Gospel is the declaration of something that actually happened. And since the Gospel is the saving work of Jesus, it isn’t something we can do, but it is something we must announce. We do live out its implications, but if we are to make the Gospel known, we will do so through words.

The Gospel is spread through words

˝It appears that the emphasis on proclamation is waning even in many churches that identify themselves as Evangelical. Yet proclamation is the central task of the Church. It is not the only task God has given us, but it is central.

˝While the process of making disciples involves more than verbal communication, and obviously the life of a disciple is proved counterfeit when it amounts to words alone, it is critical to “proclaim the excellencies” of our Saviour. A Godly life should serve as a witness for the message we proclaim. But without words, what can our actions point to but ourselves?

Jesus came to proclaim!

˝A Godly life cannot communicate Jesus’ substitution for sinners, or the hope of Redemption… We can’t be good news, but we can herald it, sing it, speak it and preach it to all who listen.

˝In fact, verbal communication of the Gospel is the only means by which people are brought into a right relationship with God. The Apostle Paul made this point to the church in Rome when he said: “For everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved. But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher”? (Romans 10:13-14)˝

Stetzer writes that St Francis “was well-known for his preaching, and often preached five times a day”.

In fact, St Francis composed a “simple formula that was easily memorised by the Friars and could be used by those who had no patents or permission for preaching”. (2) It goes as follows:

Fear and honour, praise and bless, give thanks ⁽¹⁾ and adore the Lord God Almighty in Trinity and in Unity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit the Creator of all.

Do penance, ⁽²⁾ performing worthy fruits of penance ⁽³⁾ since we will soon die.

Give and it shall be given to you. ⁽⁴⁾

Forgive and you shall be forgiven. ⁽⁵⁾

And if you do not forgive men their sins, ⁽⁶⁾ the Lord will not forgive you your sins. ⁽⁷⁾

Confess all your sins. ⁽⁸⁾

Blessed are those who die in penance, for they shall be in the kingdom of heaven.

Woe to those who do not die in penance, for they shall be the children of the devil ⁽⁹⁾ whose works they do, ⁽¹⁰⁾ and they shall go into the eternal fire. ⁽¹¹⁾

Beware and abstain from every evil and persevere in good till the end.

1.     1 Thessalonians 5:18

2.     Cf. Matthew 3:2

3.     Cf. Luke 3:8

4.     Cf. Luke 6:38

5.     Cf. Luke 6:37

6.     Matthew 6:14

7.     Mark 11:26

8.     Cf. James 5:16

9.     Cf. 1 John 3:10

10.   Cf. John 8:41

11.   Matthew 18:8

Stetzer says above we can ‘herald’ the good news. St Francis said of himself:, “I am the Herald of the Great King”. (3)

Francis said to his brothers that God “has sent you all over the world, that by words and deeds you might bear witness to his message and convince everyone ‘that he, and no other, is God all powerful’”.  (4)

Jesus came to preach the Gospel to the poor, speak liberty to the captives and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18). So too should we!

References

1. Speech at the New York University 25/4/2014

2. Francis & Clare, Paulist Press, 1982, p. 126

3. 1 Celano, Ch. 7

4. ST FRANCIS, LETTER TO THE ENTIRE ORDER 2^nd paragraph.