Letter of Pope Francis to the General Minister

Dear Father Mauro,

I was happy to see you recently, together with the brothers of the Franciscan Family. I was also very grateful for the Christmas wishes that you sent with the charitable gift that I marked right away for our suffering brothers and sisters and for the marginalized. Christmas raises up in us the urgency of extinguishing the thirst of the love of Jesus by means of service to the poorest of the poor as St. Francis teaches us when he contemplates the mystery of the Love that is not loved.

As I reply to your letter, I look up towards the nativity scene and I think of how you are moving towards a General Chapter and how this journey is marked by your shared reflection on the Ratio Formationis Ordinis. Looking at the littleness of the infant Jesus I contemplate obedience in him and the words of Paul to the Philippians resound in my heart: Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. (2: 5-8)

We read something similar in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus: True obedience does not look at the person but to the motive, and if this is none other than our Creator and Lord, then it is the Lord of all that is obeyed. (84). Here St. Ignatius deduces a reflection already proposed by St. Bonaventure in the Major Legend of St. Francis: [This] is someone truly obedient, who doesn't argue about why he's being moved; he doesn't care where he's placed, he doesn't pester you to transfer him. When raised to an office, he keeps his usual humility; the more he's honored, the more he considers himself unworthy. (VI:4)

The consecrated life is therefore grateful to you Franciscans for this, your charism that expresses itself in obedience to the Gospel sine glossa and in drawing meekness, poverty, and humility from the mystery of the humanity of Christ for the sake of living the joyful fraternity that transfigures the world. May minority therefore become the compass for orienting you on the path you are taking. There is no poverty without obedience, and no humility or chastity either. Obedience allows us to go out of ourselves in order to live true gospel freedom. This is the way to be prophetic against the seeds of anarchy which, in our time, the devil is sowing unrelentingly.

I offer my wish that you and the whole Franciscan fraternity live the mystery of the Nativity of Jesus as the shepherds understood it, in that night, when they went in haste (Luke 2:16) to adore the Lord.

I bless you from my heart. And please, pray for me.

Franciscus

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