Jesus and Francis: Letting Go of What We Do Not Need
"We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way" (St. Francis of Assisi).
Forty years after St. Francis of Assisi died, the young German monk Meister Eckhard was born. Later in his life, Eckhard wrote: “God is not found in the soul by adding anything, but by a process of subtraction.” I cannot help but think that Francis and Eckhard would have been spiritual comrades as each of them practiced a spirituality of subtraction.
Like Jesus’s life, their lives had much more to do with relinquishing than with accumulating. Jesus calls us to do the same: to give away, not accumulate. Authentic spirituality is about letting go of what we don’t need anyway.
The Christian Paradox
Jesus’s life was full of paradoxes. He was born into poverty to immigrants, not a royal family. He was not exalted like the King that He was, but mocked, scourged, and murdered. When He died, He first descended to the realm of Gehenna to free the souls waiting for Heaven’s gates to open, then He ascended. Even as His followers, we enter into His family first through death. Baptism is a small death: descending into water, dying to our former selves, then rising to new life as a new creature.
St. Francis noticed this paradox in the 13th century. Man’s desire to accumulate wealth and use it as status was going on long before the modern era. Even in business, we say we want to climb the corporate ladder. No one is saying: “Let’s take the path to the basement.” Jesus Himself taught us the way downward – the way of the Cross – and Francis understood this.
Francis’s Conversion
Several years ago, the pope wanted to host a symposium with all the religious leaders of the world to have an inner-faith dialog. The only city they could agree to meet in was Assisi because the memory of Francis didn’t offend anyone.
Assisi wasn’t always a city known for peace. When Francis was born in Italy in 1181, the first and second crusades had ended with Jerusalem falling to the Muslims. In 1189, when he was eight years old, the third crusade began. Then when Francis was 20, the fourth crusade began. Francis was taken prisoner during a conflict between Assisi and Perugia. He spent a year in captivity during which an illness caused him to re-evaluate his life. However, upon his return to Assisi in 1203, Francis was ransomed and returned to his carefree life. (For those of you reading who are familiar with the story structure of the Hero’s Journey, you can probably plot out how the rest of the story will go.)
In 1205, Francis enlisted in the army. What came next changed the trajectory of Francis’s future – and the landscape of Christianity – forever. Francis had a strange vision and returned to Assisi where he lost interest in worldly life. He began to avoid the sports and feasts of his former companions. Previously, he had taken part in this same violence, bragging and being crude about what cruelty had been done to women and making games of torture. But now, as a new creature, he looked back at his former self and felt repulsed.
A friend asked him whether he was thinking of marrying, to which he gave the obscure answer: “Yes, a fairer bride than any of you have ever seen.” He was speaking about Lady Poverty. His friends must have thought he’d gone mad.
Francis spent time observing the wealthy culture that he’d been born into. Francis had a poor relationship with his father who was preoccupied with property ownership. He believed his father’s obsession over property had destroyed his soul.
Ownership Creates Conflict
Francis looked around and saw conflict happening at every level. He realized the connection between violence and ownership. If we own it, we will feel the need to protect it. Protecting it usually includes violence. And we become driven to get more of “it.”
Wanting to possess material things seems rooted in our human nature, yet Jesus showed – and Francis modeled – the idea of letting go. Jesus said: “If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.” (Matthew 5:40)
In Luke 12:33-34 Jesus told the disciples, “Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.”
Francis knew he couldn’t live the way the Lord asked and still remain part of the social structure. The only way he saw to accomplish this other way of living was to commit to a life of voluntary poverty – what he called non-possession. When Francis started his order of brotherhood, he told his brothers: “We do not want to possess anything in this world.”
Practical Application
Francis had a vision from the Lord, which was the impetus to his metanoia. Just reading about giving our possessions away is not usually enough to inspire a person to actually practice it. We require an encounter with the Lord, a mystical experience. But until that time comes, we can let our desire to be more like Jesus allow us to take baby steps in the right direction. What do we possess that we are ready to let go of? This isn’t only material things – we carry around memories, thoughts, old hurts, a scorecard of offenses that are just as heavy as property and fine things.
Both Jesus and Francis showed us not how to climb but how to descend. Practically speaking, what might that look like for us? Think of ways you can take the lowest position. This means when you enter a room of people – maybe it’s at your mother’s nursing home, maybe it’s a conference room at work, maybe at your next family gathering – you are unassuming. You take the lowest seat, are the last to talk, serve yourself last, offer to do the cleanup, stay and listen to the lonely woman parked in front of Mayberry re-runs in the common area.
As long as you are the decider of what you want – to do, to wear, to consume, to think – then you are not free. For Francis, freedom from self was the primary freedom. He learned that from Jesus. We can practice detachment not just from material goods, but from our own desires to be right or from the inclination to judge others who aren’t like us.
We have the opportunity to practice this spirituality of letting go – of relinquishing over accumulating. When acting more like Jesus is the goal, we set our aim and begin the journey of small steps in the right direction. And because we need all the help we can get, we can pray:
St. Francis, be by our side as we confront the temptations of material things. Nudge us toward the mindset of giving away rather than acquiring. Compel us by your example to let go of assumptions, desires, and possessions that weigh us down and lead us from the aim of being more like Jesus. Let us find joy in the wonder of the created world. Amen.
Natalie Hanemann is the founder of Be/Wilder Writer, LLC, a company exploring the intersection of creativity, wilderness, and spirituality. Since 2000, Natalie has worked in book publishing as an acquisitions editor, developmental editor, and ghostwriter. In 2024, Natalie expanded her business to include her love of the outdoors through retreats and meditative adventures. Learn more at www.youbewilder.com.