St. Clare
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Clare. She was born around 1193. Little is known about her childhood. When she was eighteen she heard St. Francis preach the Lenten sermons at the church of St. Georgio in Assisi. She was so inspired by him that she later ran away from home to the Portiuncula, where St. Francis lived with his community. She determined to take upon herself the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. St. Francis had no nunnery of his own so he placed her in the Benedictine convent of St. Paul near Bastia. Her friends and relatives tried to induce her to return home but they did not succeed. St. Francis soon removed her to another nunnery, Sant Angelo di Panzo. She was joined by her sister Agnes, who also received the habit. St. Francis eventually placed them in a house next to the church of San Damiano on the outskirts of Assisi. St. Clare was appointed as the superior. Within a few years she had founded other communities in Italy, France and Germany.
St. Francis did not wish his order to possess any rents or property held even in common, preferring that they subsisted on daily contributions. St. Clare fully shared this vision. When Pope Gregory IX suggested relaxing the severity of her rule of life, she persuaded him to leave her community in its first rigorous establishment. In 1228 he formally approved that they might not be constrained by anyone to accept possessions. The convents of Perugia and Florence also received this privilege, but others thought it more prudent to adopt a mitigation. Pope Innocent IV (who succeeded Gregory IX after his death) published a recension of the rule, which permitted the holding of property in common. He also stated that he did not wish to force this rule on any community that was unwilling to accept it. St. Clare was unwilling and therefore drew up a rule which declared that her sisters should possess no property, either as individuals or as a community. She governed her convent for forty years, facing many trials and tribulations. There was conflict about the relation between the Poor Clares and the Friars Minor. She suffered from years of ill health. She died in 1253.
It is always difficult to achieve the right balance between having clear principles and being pragmatic about what is realistically possible in a given situation. If we insist on making everything a matter of principle we will find ourselves always in conflict with others, even over relatively minor issues and this will in the long term often result in our being unable to achieve anything very substantial in practice. On the other hand, if we are prepared to be pragmatic and compromise over everything, even major issues of principle, for the sake of a temporary peace in the short term, we will in the long term find we have achieved little of lasting value. It is therefore necessary to have clear principles that guide us, but also be pragmatic about what is realistically possible in practice. This will enable us to achieve our long term goals without being involved in continual conflict over relatively minor issues.
Thus, the religious life loses any purpose without a certain ascetic detachment from conventional worldly standards. But the asceticism of a religious community can become so severe that it proves impossible for people to live in it in practice. St. Clare had a clear vocation to a life of rigorous asceticism and was convinced that her sisters should possess no property, either as individuals or as a community. She maintained this standard for herself, but had to recognise that some relaxation had to be accepted for others. The temptation is always to impose rigid demands on others, but relax them for ourselves. The more excellent way is to accept a strict rule of life for ourselves, if that is our vocation, but recognise that it is not necessarily for everyone, and accept some relaxation for others.
The Gospel of St. Matthew (which we heard today) records that Jesus told his disciples a parable in which he compared the kingdom of heaven to ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom and their bride. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones did not take oil with their lamps, but the wise ones did. The bridegroom tarried and they all slumbered and slept. At midnight the cry went out that the bridegroom was coming and they should go out to meet him. The foolish asked the wise to be given oil, for their lamps had gone out. The wise answered that that might lead to their not being enough for both of them. They should therefore go and buy oil for themselves. “Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last came also the other virgins, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answering, said: Amen I say to you, I know you not. Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.”
St. Gregory the Great states: “Look well to it, that, when ye work righteousness, ye do it not as seeking the praise and admiration of men, for if the lust of praise do once creep in, that which seemeth so fair without, loseth its reward within… He calleth them all virgins, yet entered not all of them into the door of blessedness, for there were some of them who sought outwardly the honour of virginity, but would take no oil within their vessels with their lamps… For if the kingdom of heaven be such that there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsover worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, how can it be like the five virgins which were foolish?.. In that kingdom of blessedness, wherein peace shall have her perfect reign, there shall be nothing found that offendeth for the angels to gather in.
The body of every man doth consist of five senses, and five being doubled is ten. Forasmuch, therefore, as the whole body of the faithful doth consist of two sexes, the Holy Church is likened unto ten virgins. And for as much as in the Church the good are for the present mingled with the bad, and the reprobate with the elect, it is therefore rightly said that, of the ten virgins, five are wise and five are foolish. There are many who have self control, which do keep themselves from lusting after things outward, whose hope beareth to them things inward, who chastise the flesh, who long with intense home sickness for their Fatherland which is in heaven, who seek an eternal reward, and who will not to receive from their labours the praise of men. These are they, who reckon their glory, not in the mouths of men, but in the testimony of their own conscience. And many there be likewise who afflict the body by self control, and yet who seek for their self control applause from men.”
Let us pray for grace that we will follow the example of St. Clare and be faithful to our calling in our time and place.
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Leave a Reply