Right away that had consequences. Because of his love for God as his Father and Jesus as his Brother, Francis began to see other people in a new way.  They became his sisters and brothers because they were sons and daughters of God, and sisters and brothers of Jesus Christ -- and that relationship wasn’t just words. It was real.  Everyone and all creation that flows from the Fatherhood of God are somehow “children” of God. Francis’ ability to seek real holiness and to be a poor man came directly from this understanding of God’s personal love.  He wanted to depend on nothing but the providential love of God, his Father.

That peace Francis experienced is something all of us need to consider carefully today, because many of us are probably worried about the Church. We have all sorts of factions arguing within her ranks. Francis faced many of the same problems. And yet a key part of his spiritual life was his love for the Church, his obedience to her pastors, and his unwillingness to be critical of the Church. Instead of tearing her down because of the sins of her leaders, Francis chose to love the Church and serve her -- and because of that love and by his simple living of the Gospel without compromise, he became God's agent in renewing a whole age of faith. 

Tradition tells us that when Francis met with his community he would often say to them, “Brothers, up to now we have done nothing.  So let us begin.”  And I think that even though we’ve accomplished many good things in the Church in the United States, even though we have hundreds of new buildings, 19,000 parishes and tens of thousands of people doing religious education and evangelization, teaching in our schools, running our charities, teaching in our universities, doing RCIA and taking part in the Liturgy -- despite all these things, if we really want to be what God calls us to be, we need to be like St. Francis. 

We need to say to each other every day, “Brothers and sisters: Up to now we’ve done nothing -- but let’s begin ."  Let’s begin to live as if our Baptism matters. Let's begin to live as leaven in the world. Let's begin to act like the missionaries Christ called us to be when He told us to "go, make disciples of all nations."

Francis wasn’t the only Church reformer of his day. Plenty of other men and women saw the problems in the Church and tried to do something about them. Francis wasn’t even the smartest or the most talented – but he was certainly one of the most faithful, most honest, most humble, most single-minded in his mission, and one of the most zealous in his love for Jesus Christ. I’d argue that these marks of authentic Church renewal haven’t really changed at all in 800 years. And that’s why, as a Capuchin Franciscan, I see the spirit of St. Francis in so many of the new movements and communities taking root in the Church.

Whenever I hear people talking about the need for Church reform, the first thing I ask is how they feel about obedience. Francis of Assisi was a strong, shrewd man, and he was nobody’s fool -- but both he and St. Clare insisted on being obedient to the Church and her pastors because Jesus was obedient to His Father, and they understood that our salvation comes through that submission of obedience.

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