Doctrine of St Francis #3: Justice and Mercy Are Inseparable
Against the heresy of the age
One of my favorite legends from i fioretti, or The Little Flowers of St Francis (ch. 26), is the tale of three notorious thieves who were so hungry one day they came to the door of the Franciscan brothers in Portiuncula, while St Francis himself was begging for food for the day in Assisi.
One of the Franciscan brothers refused to help the thieves, recognizing them as notorious criminals. Instead, he preached a stern gospel of repentance to them, warning of the coming chastisement for criminals and thieves, rather than heeding their request.
Upon returning to the dwelling with bread and wine won from his own begging for the day, St Francis heard the story recounted by the brothers who were impressed with the courageous preaching of the brother that corrected the thieves and called them to repentance.
St Francis was displeased. He said this action was against their call to abide by the Gospel and example of Christ who corrects sinners with mildness and love, rather than undue sternness. He handed the bread and wine he collected for the day to the brother who had rejected the thieves, and told him not to return until he had found the thieves, apologised, and given them the bounty. St Francis then began to pray for their conversion.
After a few days' search, the brother found the thieves in the forest, apologised, asked for their forgiveness, and gave them the bread and wine. The thieves were at first jubilant on account of their luck and began to feast on what was brought to them. Yet, after a few minutes passed and the bottle of wine was empty, the scene became dour. One of the thieves began to speculate on how strict God must be. This Franciscan brother, out of a holy fear of God, had sought them out for three days to right his wrong when, in their sights, he had done nothing wrong at all: they knew every reproach he had levied against them in his original diatribe was on target.
A terror settled over the thieves about Godˋs justice and the strict judgment they too would receive. They began to despair over whether they could be saved that day. As they reflected on the terrible crimes they had committed, they wondered if there was any way open to them to right their wrongs and be saved. They suspected not, but they decided the only way to settle the matter was to talk to the man himself, St Francis.
St Francis told them of God's infinite mercy and welcomed the three in the Friars Minor and a life of penance, where they each lived out years carrying out severe penances. One was even known for only walking barefoot! And they became holy friars and messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What can we learn from this story?
Justice and Mercy Work Together
Just as the Crucifixion reveals the unity of God´s Strict Justice and Abundant Mercy in one act, so do we also see mercy and justice drawn together as we approach God and His Eternal Wisdom.
And we find this cooperation of mercy and justice so often in the life of St Francis. If one tries to follow the key actions of this story, it's hard to discern which could properly be motivated according to a standard of justice or mercy in the mind of St Francis. There are constant reversals in the play between justice and mercy, and how they play off each other.
The reproach of the brother itself was just, but it was also a work of Mercy, as is confronting a sinner. Yet, St Francis treats the matter as a grave injustice against mercy itself that the thieves request was not heeded. And, along with the bread and wine, justice´s demands for mercy greet the thieves—who did not comprehend God's mercy—with a terror about God's justice. And this terror about God's justice led them to Divine Mercy and the Franciscan life of penance.
However, without St Francis’ strictness and reproach, the generosity of the Gospel would not have appeared, and this generosity itself appeared to the thieves as a terrifying standard of justice. This story exemplifies the interdependence and mutual support of justice and mercy. While they can be distinguished conceptually—i.e., if a man owes me a hundred dollars, justice demands this exact sum, while mercy would accept less than 100 to settle the debt.In the spiritual life they often are more difficult to distinguish as they so often work together in our anticipation of eternity.
Consider the following cases:
Mercy can take the form of a Just Punishment.
If we think of this brother who reproached the thieves—and we should first stop to admire what he did do in fulfillment of his duty as a Christian in confronting the sinner, something no one does today—we see that, because his vocation was Franciscan, and he was called to a high degree of perfection, he certainly appears to St Francis to be missing the heart of the Gospel. The Gospel desires mercy and not sacrifice,calls sinners and not the righteous, and converts souls with mildness rather than hardens them through sternness. Thus, for St Francis, this wasn't merely about the soul of the thieves who were not entrusted to his care, but the soul of the brother who was.
What would wake this lost brother up? In this case, St Francis issued a very severe punishment. The brother must have been totally shocked and even perturbed by the command to search these men out. Yet, after seeing the splendid fruit of his labor, of the three souls converted and becoming his brothers on account of his labor, surely the brother himself must be counted as a fourth soul converted in this tale.
Thus, like the Franciscan brother, if we are trapped in grave sin, or are missing the point of the Gospel, and if the only thing that would wake us up would be strict punishment, we must grant that it would be merciful for God to punish us rather than let us continue on a false path, just as it was merciful for St Francis to give such a strict punishment to this brother. Please note: it´s good to avoid being in this position! You may spend a few days or even years wandering and wondering what God was trying to teach you with such severity.
Had St Francis not given such a strict sentence, had he simply told the brother to confess the error, would the Franciscan brother have learned anything? Well, perhaps something——but would he have discovered the genius of the Franciscan spirit, of the Gospel itself? Well no, he might have never found it without St Francis´ severity. “See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of God, if thou abide in goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Rom 11:22.
Justice can take the form of a Merciful Gift
The brilliance of the story, Eucharistic in its significance, is that the bread and wine delivered to the thieves—this extraordinary work of mercy, to feed the hungry at such great effort—this merciful gift summoned a terrible dread of justice in the hearts of the thieves. And when Catholics consider the great mercy extended to us through the Eucharistic Sacrifice at Mass, we should take these thieves as exemplars; this severe mercy raises the standard. It’s edifying to think—as Our Paschal Feast is extended to us at the hands of the priest—God is this Merciful, going to such great lengths to deliver His Very Heart to us. What sort of strictness, then, are we dealing with here? Oh no, can we too be saved, given what we have done? St Paul says this mercy is consumed as punishment for those who “eat and drink unworthily…not having discerned the Body” in 1 Cor 11. Those who do so are condemned by their abuse of the most extraordinary Mercy.
Another legend exemplifying this dynamic, and one particularly pertinent in this time when so many religious souls don't seem to carry themselves with the dignity proper to their state of life and high calling, recounts how St Francis brought a wayward priest to repentance. As St Francis was on a mission walking through the Italian countryside, villagers caught wind of his presence and begged him to come correct their wayward priest who was having an affair with a townswoman. Reputed for his sanctity, the townsfolk thought he would rebuke the priest with words and harsh preaching. They thought St Francis would put the priest back on the straight and narrow, which he did. But not with justice, with mercy. When St Francis saw the priest he knelt before him, and asked to kiss his hands, as was customary (and still is in TLM communities) in the first Masses following priestly ordination. The real solution to the pandemic of the religious wanting to act and dress like laity is to honor them to the hilt and, in doing so, remind them of the difference and give them the esteem so far as justice permits. This excess in mercy helps them realize their dignity and helps us realize our dependence on their sanctity. But this simple, humble, and merciful gesture from the Saint evoked in the wayward Priest a great shame, bitter compunction of heart, and sincere repentance.
Some sin while presumptively thinking they may be punished for it, but few sin presumptively, fearing the blessing that might befall them for which they find themselves unprepared. But this is what happened to the thieves. They were unprepared for the Blessing of God as their sins nearly caused them to despair rather than receive the Good News. In the spiritual life, sinners often find themselves in the same position: wishing against God´s rich blessing and rejecting Godˋs grace and mercy either out of a focus on deserts or a lack of preparedness.
In any case, sin doesn't simply make us fit for misfortune, just as the Fransiscan brother must have thought misfortune befell him in his days-long search for the thieves. Rather, sin also makes us more likely to reject blessings or to perceive it as a punishment. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you wanted it not!” Matt 23:37
True Penance Unites Fear of Justice With Hope in Mercy
Godˋs Mercy is extraordinary, but it also raises and extends the standard of Justice. There is a Satanic sort of counterfeit Mercy that lowers the standard of Justice and expectations for believers. Jesus contradicts this false conception over and over again in his public teaching, “before it was said, eye and eye, but I say do not resist the one who is evil…turn the other cheek, go the extra mile.“ The great outpouring of mercy in the fullness of time is conjoined with the revelation of a higher standard of justice. The command to love is the most difficult of all: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you.” This command asks our very lives of us, just as He loved by offering His life for others.
The trick is desiring both Justice and Mercy. St Catherine of Sienna, at the very start of her famous Dialogue, speaks with God the Father and asks to receive the temporal punishment for all the sins in her mortal life so that she could become a Saint and convert as many souls as possible. She knew that to desire that God's justice be applied to oneself is also to solicit Godˋs mercy at the same time. Likewise, to seek to flee Godˋs Justice takes one outside of the scope of His Mercy as well, and to seek to escape Justice only adds to the offense.
One of the hardest things for contemporary readers of the life of St Francis to grasp is his self-hatred, his derision of his body, and at times the brutal penances and fasts he subjected himself to. Like the thieves, a starting point for penance is the fear of Divine Justice, though sorrow and contrition are certainly more perfect complements and necessary for true penance. In repairing the offense to God by seeking to remove the problem (e.g., avoiding the occasion to sin or making right the wrong committed) penance acknowledges, fears, and desires to appease God's Justice. But it also hopes in His Mercy at the same time, and if penance can begin in fear of Godˋs justice, it should lead to a confidence in Godˋs abundant mercy. Without the thought of God's Goodness and Mercy, there is no life changing contrition, the deepest sort of sorrow over sin isn´t available to us. And without thought of His Justice, there is no grasp of the offense in the first place, nor of the imperative to repair it.
St Francis hated himself and his body as he says over and over: “My body is my worst enemy”; just as St Paul speaks of sarx, or the flesh, as the seat of diabolical self-love. But this hatred was a by-product of the grace and mercy God was bestowing on him. It terminated in his great confidence and hope in God and God's promises for him, wonderful glories and honors he wished to prepare to receive. Lest he, in his pride, find himself unworthy, he sought to destroy his pride with humiliations, lest his rebellious body reject the crosses given him. He declared a brutal war against his body, but the focus was the sublime end which he anticipated with great zeal and joy.
Thus with St Francis, excess with penance corresponds with the excess of Mercy he was experiencing and anticipating—and so it could be with us all. No one can carry out penances as he did, sustained only by the thought of justice alone. St Francis was moved to excess by Godˋs Mercy, because it is Godˋs Mercy that raised the standard. It was God´s Mercy that led Francis to prefer the company of lepers to kings. The thought of God's Justice should lead us to penance, but the knowledge of His Mercy overwhelms our hearts.
The Measure You Give will Be The Measure You Get. Mercy for the Merciful, Justice for the Just.
In this story, we see St Francisˋs strictness with his brother and his generosity to the thieves. Just strictness with oneself and one's own is a font of generous Mercy for others. Reserving strict Justice for others is a sign of undue and false Mercy given to oneself and one's own.
For denizens of the therapeutic, who pamper and coddle themselves in moments of weakness while at the same time they are hard on their enemies, the example of St Francis is heretical and his self-hate shocking in their eyes. The reason for this is because our worldly cult of the self sees in him rejecting their all in all, sees him profaning their sacred temple of self-love. What they are unable to grasp is that his whole mission and even his love of poverty was a part of a strategy to shrink his own self in order to make room for God and God’s Wisdom and Joy. So what St Francis hates is something that is quite small in comparison. The self he hates is an almost completely deflated balloon submerged in a sea of Divine Love. For the therapeutic to triumph, their project is an attempted liberation from the sea of Divine Love by way of the maximum inflation of the ballooned self.
The absence of penance in the contemporary spiritual landscape is due equally to the near and total absence of any mention of God´s strict justice in catechesis, just as the near total absence in preaching of the depths and character of the mercy we must desire to be moved by, and in which we hope to reach our exalted final end in eternity. What is missing in both cases is the end: Eternal Wisdom, Jesus Christ Crucified, a place where justice and mercy meet. What is present are our inflated balloons. Our false mercy trivializes the destination to accommodate the comforts and satisfaction of the self. Our false justice that seeks to merit heaven on one's own by concealing sin and the need for mercy has the same exact object of devotion. But those drawn by mercy to mercy practice its sweetness with others, as St Francis did. It's impossible to persist in practicing the works of mercy without the awareness of oneˋs urgent need for it. Those preparing to meet God's Justice practice it as well, blind to their poverty.
The Lordˋs Prayer, the 5th Beatitude, and so many of Jesus’ Parables focus on exactly this point: those who forgive will be forgiven, the merciful will be treated with mercy, Those who insist on justice after being shown mercy will be punished justly for their hard-heartedness. “For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” (Matt 7:2)
When the brilliance and splendour of our end comes in sight, a little violence done toward ourselves to satisfy the demands of justice seems a paltry thing and a mercy itself en route toward the merciful gift of eternal life with the Saints and of beholding the beatific vision of God in eternity. Poenitentiam agite!
Checkout others in the series:
Doctrine of St Francis #1: I Am The Greatest Sinner in the World
Doctrine of St Francis #2: Poverty is A Most Fecund Lady
Thank you, Stephen. Beautiful read. St Francis is something of a patron to our family, but I had not heard this story before. I'm glad you shared it and generously expounded on it. Bless you ✌️
This is excellent! I've learned so much here. Interested to read more.