He Discarded His Second Garment
I was thinking about poverty and wondering what to say. My mind began to tighten up and the more I tried to think about poverty the tighter it became. I leafed through the pages of the “Omnibus of Sources” of St. Francis and prayed to the Holy Spirit — nothing. Finally, in desperation, I banged the Omnibus shut and said, “All right, St. Francis, you’re simply going to have to help me. I’m going to open this book and you will have to show me what you want me to say about poverty.” This book has close to 2,000 pages.
I opened it and the first words my eyes lit on were, “He discarded his second garment.” I was startled. That tied right in with poverty. I glanced up to the beginning of the passage and this is what I read:
“Until the work of restoring the church of Saint Damian was completed, blessed Francis still wore the garment of a hermit with a strap to serve as a belt, and he carried a staff and had sandals on his feet. Then, one day during the celebration of Mass he heard the words in which Christ bade his disciples to go out and preach, carrying neither gold nor silver, nor haversack for the journey, without staff, bread, or shoes, and having no second garment. After listening to the priest’s explanation of these words of the Gospel, Francis, full of unspeakable joy, he exclaimed: ‘this is what my whole heart desires to accomplish.’”
“He learned these words by heart, meditating on what he had heard and joyfully he started to put them into practice. He discarded his second garment, and from that day onwards he used no staff, shoes, or haversack; he kept one miserable tunic, and instead of the strap took a length of cord as a belt.”(From: St. Francis’ writings and Early Biographies, English Omnibus of Sources
for the Life of St. Francis, Prologue to the Legend of our Blessed Father Francis, Chapter VIII #25)
To open this huge book on one of the passages of the Gospels that Francis himself had opened to was not only amazing, but it left me a bit shaken.
“He discarded his second garment,” and “This is what my whole heart desires,” is how he seemed to answer my demand, when I said, “Francis, you have to tell me what to say.”
We know that as Franciscans we must, if we are sincere in our calling, practice the spirit of poverty. What does this mean? Everyone who talks about it says in effect, it doesn’t mean we have to give up our worldly possessions. It means we have to strip ourselves of worldliness, sin, avarice, and anything that comes between us and Christ. That’s very good, but wait a minute, aren’t we holding back something from Christ? What are we holding back? Let’s look at that again — “He discarded his second garment.” I thought about it a long time.
When I was a candidate we had as spiritual assistant, the scholarly and very St. Francis-like Franciscan priest, Father Stephen Hardtegan, O.F.M. He told us not once but several times, “Poverty is to share.” Here is one example: Give away the garments that are hanging in your closet, things that you are not using now but are keeping with the vague notion that you might want them some time. “Give them to the poor,” he said. “Now!” It doesn’t make any difference if they are practically new, expensive, or you have a soft spot in your heart for them — give them away.
That applies to all the other things in our life that are dear to us as well. Let us seriously think about those other things. It is for us to decide what we should do, whether it is to take that extra helping or give it to someone else or the desire to do what I want or to attend to the needs of someone else.
In our Rule, it says, in regard to charity, if we have a surplus above our own needs, there is not merely the choice but the duty of sharing . The rule of moderation and charity to which a Secular Franciscan pledges himself inclines him to take less than he may take; and in giving, to give more than he need give. This attitude opens up the way to various degrees of moderation and charity, all of which are a matter of choice and not of commandment. This is not the way of the world, it is true, but it is a Franciscan way of fostering the spirit of poverty.
This brings us back to the statement made in the beginning that most people say that it is the spirit of poverty that counts. And we agree that this is true, but the spirit of poverty is not just a spiritual thing; the spirit of poverty is fostered and begins by “doing something.”
In a Christian’s striving for perfection, you can’t separate the physical aspect of it from the spiritual any more than you can separate the love of God from the love of our neighbor.
St. James said: “Suppose there are brothers or sisters who need clothes and don’t have enough to eat. What good is there in your saying to them, ‘God bless you! Keep warm and eat well!’ — If you don’t give them the necessities of life?” (James 2: 15-16)
So, what is St. Francis telling us when we point to the words, “He discarded his second garment?” Let’s turn to our Rule again which states: “…Let them share these things (temporal goods) with their neighbors, bearing in mind that all temporal things — private property included — have been given to them by God not only for their own advantage but also that they may be administered well for the good of society. Moreover, let them in good time, will their property, with due regard for justice and charity.”
This reminds us that nothing we have is really our own. In the manner of worldly thinking, things that we have are considered ours; our property is in our name and we buy and pay for things with our money. Can we call it ours — will we be able to take it with us when we die? If it were truly ours we would be able to take it with us. Remember, everything we have belongs to God and He kindly lends it to us for our needs while we live on this earth. Since it is His, we have an obligation to take good care of it and not abuse it; to share it with others, generously, as He is sharing it with us and finally, like the words of Christ in the Gospel, show Him on the day of judgment that we discarded our second garment.