ST FRANCIS' DISCIPLESHIP
St Francis models a Good Christian lifestyle through the values, words, and actions of Jesus in a variety of ways. Francis' legacy remains as one of the most celebrated figures in the Catholic Church. Find out why below.
INTRODUCTION
St Francis models a good Christian life through values that he portrays. Some of his values centred around respect, to serve one another, justice and peace. St Francis showed respect by caring for the environment and animals throughout every aspect of his life. St Francis served one another by helping the people around him and caring for their needs/what his community wanted. Justice throughout st Francis’s life was shown when he helped the sick people of the community (like the lepers) and offered them chances to get better when no one else wanted to help these people in need.
Even though the Catholic religion wasn't very known and mostly was very negatively impacted before Francis started his mission, st Francis showed his devotion throughout rebuilding the church and continuing to show how much he cared for god and others. Francis was a loyal disciple to Jesus Christ and this fact is visible through his faith, ongoing loyalty and devotion, and counter-cultural approach that echoed in the footsteps of Jesus.
Values
How did Francis use the values of Jesus to model discipleship?
Gospel Values were a major part of Francis' mission to restore the Catholic Church. He used values including hope, peace, appreciation for creation, and other values to instil a sense of meaning into his mission and charism.
Values such as peace, hope and compassion were all core in Francis' life and created a similarity between Jesus and Francis. Jesus wasn't considered normal in society and was counter-cultural. This means that he didn't conform to the cultural expectations of society, otherwise known as the norm, and did things that society didn't do. Francis did the same. When there was a leper on the street, he didn't avoid him/her. Francis went over and treated them with respect because that's what God asks us to do in the world. Everyone is made equal and we should use values to realise this.
Words
Francis wrote many poems and prayers to profess his faith.
As well as values, Francis used words and patience alongside them to profess his faith and mission. The most famous words of St Francis are in the Prayer of St Francis (below the table.) Francis spoke what he believed in a peaceful way - he didn't impose his beliefs on anyone, he just encouraged them to delve deeper into our faith.
In our society, we find getting our point across without challenging someone or imposing on them difficult. It would have been difficult for Francis too - God was giving him visions yet people were calling him a madman full of nonsense. It is in this way that Francis used words combined with values to facilitate a different approach to preaching.
St Francis's words contributed to how he was a model to a good Christian life. St francis would preach the word of god and would spread the word of being Christian, by doing this he achieved so much and got so many people to become disciples and followers of Jesus. He had said “preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words”, this message means to preach the word of the lord and try to make everyone aware of the Christian community and for them to understand what st Francis is trying to preach to us.
Actions
As well as words and values, Francis used simple actions to convey his message.
Actions are just as important as words and values. In the example of Francis, he used actions to represent Jesus. Francis acted with peaceful respect, meaning that he treated everyone and everything with genuine respect. He is a model for society today where all of us need to learn about the need for respect and peace among us and others.
An example of this is in the story of the wolf. Jesus acted through Francis when he approached animals gently and with compassion, as well as care, gentleness and peace. Francis' call for us to be a steward of creation is through actions - if Francis hadn't acted with the respect and peace he was known for then, as society today we wouldn't be able to share his story with him as empathetically as we do now.
