The Priority of Fraternity

St. Francis of Assisi is arguably one of the most attractive of Jesus’ followers. For over eight hundred years men and women throughout the world have been drawn to his way of Gospel living. That magnetic dynamism began working its spell shortly after the life changing experiences which transformed Francis from Assisi’s prince of playboys to become the little poor man, the Poverello. At the very core of Francis’ conversion was the radical awareness that the Most High God was not only Creator and Source of all that is, but that God was preeminently “Father” and, consequently, all of reality was essentially a brother or a sister.

Francis solitary journey in the footsteps of Jesus became a shared one when Francis, recalling his first steps, said, “The Lord gave me brothers.” That band of men who followed him would be called the Order of Friars Minor, or the order of lesser brothers. The title denotes our stance vis-à-vis the Church and world. Though we come from every walk of life and ethnic origin, though we come from families of privilege and those of humbler means, we have voluntarily made a preferential option to stand with each other with and for the poor and those who account for little in the eyes of our Church and our world. That title also connotes how we see ourselves – we are lesser brothers and foreswear positions of dominance and power over others. Francis called us to be servants of all and subservient to every creature out of love for God. We are brothers in name and in fact and, therefore, despite the roles we may play in the Church and world as ordained or professional persons or skilled laborers we make no distinctions among us. All are equal in dignity and importance.

While Francis affirmed each and every brother to be equal in dignity, he recognized that each individual brother was a unique gift from the Lord and uniquely gifted as well. These variously gifted brothers enable the fraternity to fulfill its mission in the Church and in the world. This is brought home in an ancient Franciscan text wherein Francis describes the perfect Friar Minor not in abstract terms but by citing the qualities of various brothers. The perfect Friar Minor is a man of faith and love of poverty, simplicity and purity, courtesy and natural good sense, a mind upraised to God, virtuous and constant in prayer, patient, and possessed of bodily and spiritual courage, a loving and prudent man. No single friar possesses all of these qualities, but they are to be found in the fraternity gathered together and living the Gospel.

It is this priority of life in fraternity that gives shape and direction of our mission of proclaiming the Gospel.

This is who we are as Franciscan brothers of Sacred Heart Province in the Order of Friars Minor.

Robert Pawell OFM