Ask anyone what is characteristic of Franciscan spirituality and the likely answer is poverty.  Though this is not wrong, there is yet another aspect of Franciscan spirituality that the Poverello of Assisi had left as a legacy to his followers: an intense reverence for the Body and Blood of Christ, also known as the Eucharist.  In his letter to the Order; St. Francis urged “I implore all of you brothers to show all possible reverence and honor to the most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus.” (12)

In the Eucharist, St. Francis found the ideal form of poverty- Almighty God in the humble form of bread and wine.  The Eucharist is poverty made manifest.  It was a form of Incarnation of God’s Son that St. Francis found inspiration for his own way of life.

To appreciate the uniqueness of this spirituality, we must first understand the historical background of medieval Europe and its predominant spirituality.  At the time prior to Francis’ birth, monastic spirituality predominated.  This spirituality was usually centered on the Risen Lord.  It reflected the grandeur and glory of the triumph over death and sin.  Hence the beautiful hymns which reflected the heavenly liturgy; the huge ornate churches reflected the wonders of heaven on earth.  The ideal of medieval religious life was the monk, practitioner of the contemplative life, free to meditate on higher things, set apart from the world and its temptations.  But it was far removed from the majority of the people who suffered poverty.  The realities of medieval life were backbreaking labor for the majority of the population.  At the same time, an intense debate and reflection of the Eucharist developed.  Transubstantiation was declared at the 4^th Lateran Council in 1215.  Pope Urban IV established the feast of Corpus Christi in 1264.  Thomas Aquinas wrote his classic statement on the Eucharist in his summa Theologica in 1272.

But Francis saw Christ in the grime and sweat of daily medieval Italy, beyond the walls of the monastery and theology.  Hi experience of poverty found all around him convinced him that Christ was equally among the poor people.  From his knowledge of the Scriptures, he was convinced that Jesus lived a poor itinerant life.  Drawing inspiration from Paul’s letters.  Francis saw the incarnation as the pivotal point of poverty- almighty eternal God humbling himself to be among his creatures.  This self-emptying is known as kenosis in Greek, a term St. Paul uses to describe the Son of God humbling himself and taking upon the lowly form of a creature to live among his creation.

For Francis, this self- emptying into poverty was manifested in 3 ways: (1) when the Son of God took flesh to become like one of us, (2) when the Son of God took the form of Scriptures, and (3) when the Son of God took the form of bread and wine.

With regards to the first event, the incarnation was a moment of poverty for the Son of God for He left his eternal image to embrace a life of a human.  As Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God experienced poverty in his daily life.  This prompted Francis to create the crib for Christmas in Greccio.  He celebrated the frail, poor baby of Bethlehem as Son of God made manifest.  “The Most High Father in heaven announced the Word of the Father… in the womb of the holy and glorious Virgin Mary, from which He received the flesh of humanity and our frailty.” (2EP.F.)

A second moment of poverty is when the Son of God expressed himself as the Father’s Word.  Basing on the Gospel and Letters of St. John, Francis understood that the spoken Word and the written Word were but manifestations of God’s divine will.  Francis heard the Word of God preached with delight, he committed those words to memory, he meditated on it with great devotion, and whenever he did not understand it he would ask the priest to explain it.  As written Word, the Son of God was manifest as a book, humble and poor, at the mercy of the hands of men.  St. Francis would not allow nay written word to be left on the ground for it reflected the Word of God incarnate as book.  He wrote in his Testament “Whenever I come upon His most holy written words in unbecoming places, I desire to gather them up and I ask that they be collected and placed in a suitable place.”  His love for the Scriptures was admirable.  He constantly referred to the Written Word for inspiration and direction in his life- “The Most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the form of the Holy Gospel.”  He made the Scriptures the Rule for his brothers.  Francis’ reverence for Scriptures was extended to reverence for those who preached the Word “We should honor and respect all theologians and those who minister the most holy divine words as those who minister spirit and life to us” (Testament 13).  “Whenever the written words of the Lord may be found in unbecoming places, they are to be collected and kept in a place that is becoming” (Ep. Cl).  “When His sacred written words are sometimes left to be trampled underfoot” (Ep. Cl). 

Finally for Francis, the third moment of poverty was manifested in the Bread and Wine of the Eucharistic celebration.  In his letters, Francis urged utmost reverence to the Poor Christ as Bread and Wine.  “See, daily He humbles form, daily He comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the altar in the hands of the priests;… He reveals Himself to us in the sacred brad”, St. Francis wrote this in his Admonitions (1:16-19).  The Eucharist became a symbol of minority, service and humility.  The more St. Francis contemplated this Eucharistic incarnation, the more he realized that Christ continued to live in all things and events of his daily life, no matter how poor and humble.

This understanding of poverty manifested in the consecrated Bread and wine, is the source of Franciscan adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  Like other Eucharistic theologies of the 12^th to 13^th centuries.  Franciscan Eucharistic Theology was preoccupied with the real presence of Christ in the form of bread and wine.  But it differed from the Eucharistic theology of other Orders which understood the Eucharist as the glorious and triumphant manifestation of the son of God.  This understanding of Eucharist eventually expressed itself in the glorious and triumphant processions of Corpus Christi established in 1264 and promoted by the Praemonstratensian Order.  There was a threefold purpose behind these efforts.  They are directed to the Eucharist (1) as a source of our growth in holiness, (2) as a force for building up the communion of the Church through love, (3) as the ever deeper experience of salvation through participation in the sacrifice of Jesus and his resurrection.

The essential aspect of Franciscan Eucharistic adoration was different:  it understood the consecrated Bread read and Wine as poverty made manifest.

Franciscan theology is fundamentally Incarnation theology.  The Incarnation is poverty made manifest.  For Franciscans throughout the world and down through the centuries, the Eucharist is the basis of a Christ centered spirituality manifesting absolute poverty.  When Franciscans adore the Blessed Sacrament, it is the poor Christ that they adore; in it they see their vocation and ideal to be poor.  To contemplate the Blessed Sacrament is to contemplate the source and inspiration of Franciscan poverty.

Franciscan meditation

Here are some words from Francis and Clare for us to reflect when we adore the Blessed Sacrament.

“See, daily He humbles Himself, daily He comes to us in the humble form, daily He comes down from the bosom of the Father upon the altar in the hands of the priest” (Adm 1).

“The Son of God reveals Himself to us in the sacred bread” (Adm 1).

“Let everyone be struck with fear, let the whole world tremble, and let the heavens exult when Christ, the son of the living God, is present on the altar in the hands of a priest” (Ep. Ord.).

“O admirable heights and sublime lowliness!  O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation, He hides Himself under the little form of bread!” (Ep. Ord.)

“Look brothers, at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him!  Humble yourselves as well, that you may be exalted by Him.  Therefore hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally.” (Ep. Ord.)

“The Good Lord offers Himself into our hands and we handle Him and received Him daily with our mouths” (Ep. Cl.).

“When the Body and Blood of Christ is sacrificed upon the altar by the priest and carried to any other place, let all the people on bended knee praise, glorify and honor the Lord God living and true.” (Ep. Cust.)

“I implore all of you brothers to show all possible reverence and honor to the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in whom that which is in the heavens and on the earth, is brought to peace and is reconciled to the all- powerful God” (Ep. Ord.).

“How holy, just and worthy must be the person who touches the Body of Christ with his hands, receives Him in his heart and mouth and offers Him to others to be received.” (Ep. Ord.)

“Give us this day our daily bread, which is your own beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ” (P.N.).