Today is the Memorial of Saint Clare. She was the close companion of Saint Francis of Assisi. They had a very special and unique relationship. Clare was the first woman to practice the life of entire poverty as taught by Saint Francis.
It was Francis who made her the prioress of a few women in a small convent at San Damiano. She remained head of that community until her death forty-two years later. And so, she is credited as the foundress of the contemplative Order of Poor Clares, which exists to this day.
At the time of its implementation, the Rule adhered to by the Poor Clares consisted of austerities and penitential practices previously unknown in monasteries of women. They went barefoot, slept on the ground, kept perpetual abstinence (i.e., were effectively vegans) and made poverty the basis of their lives. We observe Clare’s memorial today because it was on 11 August 1253 that she died.
Remarkably Clare, whose name in Italian is Chiara, meaning “light,” was canonized two short years after her death. Even in the days prior to the Church's current canonical process for sainthood this was remarkably quick. In the old Breviary it was noted:
Following the example of St. Francis, she distributed all her possessions among the poor. She fled from the noise of the world and betook herself to a country chapel, where St. Francis himself sheared off her hair and clothed her with a penitential garb (this happened on 18 March 1212, when she was just eighteen)Our Gospel today picks up the theme we’ve been exploring the last few Sundays, namely the eternal unimportance of worldly wealth and status. Saint Clare certainly lived this most of her life in this awareness.
In our Gospel, Jesus telling of His own passion and the incident of finding in the fish the coin for the Temple tax are not unrelated. Both express what, in the end truly matters: to live for God, as a citizen of God’s kingdom. And doing so in full realization that this often makes us strangers and foreigners in this transient world.
Our reading from Deuteronomy states it well because it is in the form of a question:
what does the LORD, your God, ask of you but to fear the LORD, your God, and follow his ways exactly, to love and serve the LORD, your God, with all your heart and all your soul, to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD which I enjoin on you today for your own good? (Deut 10:12-13)Often the trouble is recognizing that living and serving God with your whole being is how you realize the good you seek because the passing allure of this world is enticing.
Especially in our culture, it is easy to think “I can have it all!” But following God requires making choices. These are different for each of us. The essence of being a Christian is discerning and then doing God’s will. Saint Ignatius of Loyola described three kinds of people: “the postponer, the compromiser, and the free person” (Taken from Tim Muldoon, "Three Kinds of People")
A postponer has some interest in imitating Christ but thinks there are more important things. By contrast, a compromiser, while at times following Christ, places conditions on God- this person can’t really bring her/himself to trust God. Finally, the truly free person is the one who, knowing God’s will, freely and unconditionally does it. In doing so experiences not only true freedom but genuine happiness.
It is probably not the case that God is calling you or me to the same vocation to which He called Saint Clare. Then again, especially for younger people, He might. To rule something out a priori is to fall into being a postponer. As Pope Saint John Paul II taught, there is only one vocation. We all received it at Baptism: follow Christ no matter one's state of life.
No matter what God calls you to, it requires some sacrifice. And so, the question we all must face is “Am I willing to make the sacrifices heeding God’s call requires me to make to answer His call?”
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