Br. Massimo Fusarelli OFM, Minister General, reflects on the profound union that united Francis and Clare in the wounded heart of Christ.
May the Lord give you peace!
This year, the Feast of our Mother St. Clare occurs during the Eighth Centenary of the Stigmata of St Francis — the culmination of his path of following the poor and crucified Christ. I have pondered at length about how this event in the life of Francis resonates in Clare’s human and spiritual experience.
The link is their individual relationship with the Lord Jesus.
For Francis, the mysterious encounter at La Verna can be seen as a blazing coal that prepared him to become conformed to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in his encounter with “Sister Death.”
For Clare, instead, the encounter with “her” Lord was the raison d’être of her entire existence as a woman, expressed in the sign of her total belonging to Him...
The encounter with the Beloved becomes a song of praise — consequently, Francis, following his encounter with the Crucified, composes the Praises of God. This is a prayer that springs from a heart that is in love, entirely centred in the divine You: “You are the holy Lord God Who does wonderful things. You are strong. You are great. You are the most high.”
Clare’s life with her sisters was immersed in silence, which safeguarded her following of Christ, whom she recognised as the “Poor Crucified” to be served “with a passionate desire.”
Clare’s prayer was nourished by this interior “vision”, maturing in the praise and joy of contemplating Christ, the Bridegroom of those who have chosen to follow him. We can say, then, that throughout her life Clare lived out the same sequela Christi that led the Poverello to receive the gift of the Stigmata in that loving and painful encounter with the poor and glorious Christ.
It is here, I believe, that her experience corresponds with that of Francis in a unique way. Of course, this correlation remains mysterious, and we can only try to intuit it from their writings. However, one fact remains; after the Stigmata, Francis stayed for a long time at San Damiano, and certainly was cared for by Clare and her sisters.
Both of them were very reserved, as we know, but at the same time, we can imagine that something of the love and pain that her brother was experiencing was communicated to Clare. The Canticle of the Creatures that emerged precisely at that time is an echo and an unforgettable sign of that love.
