The discipline of simplicity is not the most pleasant of spiritual disciplines, but it remains one of the most important. We so easily allow our lives to be defined by possessions, status, and all manner of social expectations. Being a disciple means shedding ourselves of anything that blurs our vision of Christ. No person better illustrates this than Francis of Assisi.
His father was a wealthy Italian cloth merchant, Pietro de Bernardone, who had extensive land holdings around Assisi, and he taught the adolescent Francis the family business. But when Francis entered his early twenties, he began to think his life was becoming too complicated, too concerned with status and wealth.
One day Francis impulsively took fine fabric from the family shop, rode to market, and sold it. Then he sold the family horse he’d been riding. And then — this is what infuriated Pietro — Francis gave away the proceeds to the poor!
If this wasn’t bad enough, a month later, Pietro discovered Francis walking the streets of Assisi, begging for food and becoming a laughingstock. This was a disgrace! An enraged Pietro dragged Francis home, beat him, and locked him in a dark cellar, limiting him to bread and water until he came to his senses. When this punishment didn’t work, he dragged Francis before the local bishop — perhaps his son would listen to him.
The bishop told Francis that it was not right to steal, even from one’s family, or even if for the poor. He instructed Francis to return what he had taken. Francis looked shaken but said nothing. He simply stepped into an adjoining room while Pietro and the bishop waited.
When Francis emerged in a few minutes, he was completely naked. He carried his clothes in a neat pile and walked up to Pietro and placed them at Pietro’s feet. He then turned to those present, which included the bishop’s attendants, and said, “Up to now, I have called Pietro di Bernardone father. Hereafter I shall not say, ‘Father Pietro di Bernardone, ‘but ‘Our Father Who Art in Heaven!’ “
The bishop was so moved, he took off his cope and wrapped it around Francis. Francis just turned and walked out of the cathedral. It was less a break with his father than with everything his father represented — comfort, wealth, status. Francis wanted nothing to stand in the way of his following Christ. So began his famous life of simplicity.
Few of us are called to make such radical breaks, but the larger point is still well taken. You don’t have to be fabulously wealthy to see how material things clutter the spiritual life, and that periodically we must shed ourselves of some “stuff” so we can focus our lives on Christ again.
—Mark Galli, guest devotional writer, is editor of Christian History Magazine. To comment on this devotional, e-mail Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net.
Sign up for the Church Leader’s Newsletter and receive a new article plus useful information in your inbox every week!
Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
