Doctrine of St Francis #1, I am the Greatest Sinner

He knew he was the greatest sinner in the world!

Basilica of St Francis in Assisi way back when.

In one of the legends about him, there is a famous dialogue between St Francis and one of his disciples or Franciscan brothers, who asks him who is the greatest sinner in the world. In response, St Francis boldly states, “I am the greatest sinner in the world.“ The disciple, astonished, murmured against him, saying, “Surely you’re not serious., You work miracles, and there are so many signs of God's good blessing over your life and vocation. You must be saying this out of some affect, to appear holy or that this is what you think you should say.” To this, St Francis replied, “If the worst criminal in prison had been given the graces I had been given, I must think he would have made more out of them, or wasted less than I, and be more righteous than I. Thus, I truly believe I am the greatest sinner.”

This is such a wonderful thought and guard against a host of evils! It's a truly marvelous, razor sharp litmus test people can use to see if they are walking in God´s Spirit. It’s remarkable to consider that there have been excellent theologians who wrote volumes and volumes about God and spirituality and virtue but never could summarize the basic spirituality of the Christian life so succinctly and powerfully in one sentence: “I am the greatest sinner in the world.”

At the outset, one must say, St Francis lived this. He wept so intensely over his sins that his grief left him blind. He did penances like none other because of this conviction. Now, contrast this with someone like Martin Luther, who affirmed a doctrine of total depravity about not just himself but of all mankind. Luther expressed a similar sentiment but one that only seemed to rest at a theoretical level. If Martin Luther truly believed he was a great sinner, and despite him saying so, his actions betrayed this belief. He never ceased being a drunk,having a filthy mouth. He never did penance. St Francis said, “academics blather, lovers act.“ And while it doesn’t take much to claim one is the greatest sinner in theory, St Francis truly acted according to this belief.

In one terse response, St Francis revealed the fundamental interior disposition of the just. What is this disposition? How could he say this with earnestness? Here are a few principles that help elucidate the reasoning behind his sincere conviction.

(1) Your objective righteousness in comparison to others should play no role in your subjective assessment of yourself.

‘Objective,’ in the sense of being observable. ‘Subjective,’ in the sense of being non observable inner thoughts or feelings. Objective is what other people can sense, hear, or see. Subjective is what is going on within you that they cannot sense hear or see. Subjective means according to ones interior inner conversation with oneself, one’s interior intentions, feelings, and desires. So objectively, to lie is not as bad as to murder.

So a liar might try to excuse himself, in his interior monologue he may say, “hey I am not so bad at least I haven’t murdered anyone.“ This would be an attempt to derive his value, worth, or moral standing based on objective comparison. This is always false—God sees things differently. And ultimately, God's point of view is all that matters. Perhaps the murderer had horrible parents, never learned to control his anger as a result, and got unlucky that he killed someone in a bar fight. Maybe God's plan for him was to convert his soul in prison so he could be a light in prison. We don´t know, Thus, we cannot know whether God sees us as inferior or superior.

In contrast, in the case of the liar, it could be that he had wonderful parents and great catechesis. And also his lying is significantly more offensive because God had planned for him to convert many souls. Thus the eternal consequences of his lies are worse than the murderer. We simply cannot derive our superiority over others due to objective comparison. Comparison with others should only work toward our humility and low estimation of ourselves for the following reason:

(2) Participation in the Good increases freedom and responsibility, and consequently,the gravity of our fault as well.

Let’s consider three perspectives on St Francis’s life that help us make sense of how his sins are far worse than anyone else’s. Firstly, he knew Jesus Christ deeply, as Christ had visited him many times, granting him countless signal graces and an intimate knowledge of Himself. This comes with risk, as he can wound Christ more deeply with his sin because of this intimacy. For example, a wife can hurt her husband through a small betrayal by lusting after another man. This act is almost infinitely more damaging than a work colleague who, through gross disloyalty, stole millions of dollars from him. Thus, St Francis knew his small betrayals and sins would hurt Jesus more than anyone else. Secondly, because he had such an enormous vocation and influence, he knew his “small” sins would harm souls more than the “great” sins of normal people. Millions, perhaps even billions of souls were on the line. So his small sins were much more consequential.

Thirdly, St Francis was almost totally animated by God's Spirit. And God is omnipotent, his spirit engendered in St Francis great wisdom and fortitude, so he shared in an incredible amount of freedom. And with great freedom, comes great responsibility. Indeed, as our Lord says, when much is given, much is expected (Luke 12:48). And the greater the responsibility, so much graver the sin. Yes, there is only one St Francis, but maybe there has only been one because he realized this simple truth. All of us are called to be Saints, and so we are all called to understand ourselves as great sinners. The greater the sinner, the greater the Saint. Saints leverage their relations with acquaintances and friends—who often pain them with their sin or unbelief—to further lower themselves. And objective difference between them and their neighbor, whether their neighbor is far superior or inferior objectively, works to the increase of thier humility.

(3) Charity assumes what is best about our neighbor, given how little we know about him.

Suppose you know that someone is doing something wrong. If they don’t know this, how do you know you weren't responsible for stopping them? Simply by knowing more, you are more free to pursue what is good. Thus, while they are responsible for their actions, you might be more free to help them than they are themselves. Maybe by speaking up, or setting a better example, or even praying for them more you would have helped pull them out of ignorance or sin. The upshot of this reality is that any impulse to criticize others is just as much or even more a reason to criticize oneself. Indeed, in the words of Christ, we are called first to remove the speck in our own eye before we attempt to remove the speck in our brother’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5).

St Francis knew how much grace he had wasted more than anyone else. This is the reason he gave for why he truly believed he is the greatest sinner. He leveraged the epistemological privilege we have regarding our subjectivity—regarding our own case, our inner thoughts, and intentions—to lower himself. We have access to a lot more information regarding ourselves through our subjective experience, though many choose to disregard it. The prideful use this excess of self-knowledge concerning to excuse themselves. They know all the things that led up to their sin—all their misfortunes, trauma, feelings, etc. The humble, in contrast, use this privileged self-knowledge to accuse themselves. They know how much they have wasted, they know their evil intentions that no one else can see.

In contrast, concerning our neighbor, we simply cannot know what is going on to the same degree. We do not have access to the mind-space of our neighbor. What they have been through or are currently going through remains a mystery to us. Maybe they suffer from trauma, abuse, bad parenting, or some other ailment. In many cases, we cannot see their intentions. Consider also: bad people perform many good actions with bad intentions. Like giving to the poor in front of others to appear generous. And: good people often do bad things with good intentions. Like offering unsolicited advice. Because intention is crucial for judging character, and its something that is often difficult to see, charity assumes the best in others. In contrast, with the case concerning ourselves, where we know so much, here our ignorance of our neighbor is, in charity, an opportunity to assume the best intention. Whereas the prideful or envious person, their ignorance lets them assume the worst to inflate their own egos.

Assuming the best about someone, it is an act of benevolence, a desire to wish them well. Of course, it is motivating when people think well and have high expectations. Love does this. Love makes things grow this way. In contrast, it’s demoralizing when others judge you negatively or when they, without justification, expect the worst from you. This false judgment actually makes people worse. Charity tends to see the good in our neighbor and hope that this good might grow if he is loved or lives according to God's Spirit. And conversely, Charity sees the subjective evil in ourselves out of love for God and our neighbor. It knows how we have often rebelled against God, his graces, laws, and plan for us.

This is the fundamental psychology behind St Francis’s statement. Saints love themselves objectively, i.e., as creatures. They care for their soul, mind, will, heart, virtue, and care for their body to the extent it supports these things. Without this good self-love, they could not love others as themselves. But in contrast, Saints hate themselves subjectively, seeing their own self-will, self-love, and their capacity for disobedience or the rejection of God’s will as the source of all evil in them. They are aware of their own self-will better than anyone else— so that alone is their focus.

(4) Those animated by God's spirit will be more preoccupied with their own failure to perform their duties to perfection and ascend in virtue, than with criticizing others.

It is in fact our preoccupation with our own defects that should leave us little time or opportunity to even think about criticizing others. Instead, those animated by God's spirit will,in humility, tend to notice the ways in which others objectively exceed our righteousness, rather than how they fall short. The wonderful combination of the second and third principles is that anytime we see our neighbor sin, it could be our fault. Had we become the person God called us to be, maybe millions would have already converted, including the neighbor we see sinning. Thus, we should examine ourselves to see if we aren´t responsible. It is edifying to find the exact same flaw in ourselves, even if it be less noticeable to others, as we tend to notice the things we justly dislike about ourselves in others. If we see pride in our friend, rather than simply terminating the thought with criticism of them and their problem, think instead: “maybe if I had truly lived out humility and set a better example, he would have been drawn to humility. Where can I find a similar pride in myself and eradicate it, hoping I might be a better influence on him?” Thus, we should err on the side of criticizing ourselves and seeing the good in our neighbor. We should muster all our attention to doing the work God set before us, rather than getting distracted by how others fall short.

(5) Our subjective conviction of our own sin or sinfullness binds us to Christ and His Work on the Cross.

In this sense, St Francis’s claim is also his boast. The greatest sinner, he does not claim it without true contrition in his heart— but to claim this is also to claim he is the most loved by God. This was also true! As we hear in the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd loves the lost sheep more than all the rest! The greatest sinner has also received the greatest gift, the greatest redemption from Christ, and has more reason to love Him the most. Christ wants to save everyone and loves a challenge, so He is thankful for the hard cases where He truly shows His strength, patience, and love.

But truly, by thinking ourselves better than we are, we sever our connection from Christ´s redemptive work.and this should strike fear into us. Indeed, for then we consider His sufferings—at least for some of our sins—as unnecessary. Christ hangs on the cross—suffering for even the tiniest of white lies—and we say, “Really, was it that bad? Are you serious? you have to suffer so much for such a small trifle? Please, no!” This is not the position we want to find ourselves in when we die and meet Christ Our Judge, wishing against His Sacrifice for us. He will abide by our wishes. He gives us free will. In contrast, the Saint errs on the side of perceiving his sin as greater and more consequential than it is—not only that he may not be confounded at his judgment, but also because this is how one comes to love Jesus Christ and the gift of salvation He offers. Through confession and contrition we are covered in the Precious Blood of Christ, and are healed and made righteous—but only if we want it and to the extent we want it.

Therefore, increasing in righteousness or becoming better persons necessarily translates into an increasing awareness of the gravity of our sin. And an increasing awareness of the gravity of sin is what binds us to Christ and His precious Body and Blood more completely. If we think we are good based on comparison with others, what need do we have for Jesus to atone for our sin? It was not without reason that Christ went to the outcasts,tax collectors, and public sinners. For those who considered themselves righteous, it was superfluous and a non-starter. They didn't need Him and what He wanted to offer, His Healing, His Sacrifice. As heartbreaking as our sin is for Christ, more heartbreaking is when we hide it from him, when we minimize it, when we refuse to let him cover our sin with His Blood through confession. Thus, we can observe that there is magnanimity to what St Francis claims here. for at the same time he says, “I am the greatest sinner,” to the extent he has repented of his sin and done sufficient penance, this translates into: “I am the most loved by God. I have received his greatest gift. Through my great sin, I am the most united with Christ.”

City Wall of Assisi. A Narrow Gate…

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Others in the Series:

Doctrine of St Francis #2: Poverty is A Most Fecund Lady

Doctrine of St Francis #3: Justice and Mercy are Inseparable

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