Sultan Maleek Al Kameel (during the V Crusade): "Your Lord taught in his gospels that evil must not be repaid with evil, that you should not refuse your cloak to anyone who wants to take your tunic, etc. (Mt 5,40): All the more Christians should not invade our land!".St. Francis of Assisi answered: "It seems to me that you have not read the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in its entirety. In fact it says elsewhere: "if your eye causes you sin, tear it out and throw it away" (Mt 5 , 29). With this, Jesus wanted to teach us that if any person, even a friend or a relative of ours, and even if he is dear to us as the apple of our eye, we should be willing to repulse him, to weed him out if he sought to take us away from the faith and love of our God. This is precisely is why Christians are acting according to justice when they invade the lands you inhabit and fight against you, for you blaspheme the name of Christ and strive to turn away from his worship as many people as you can. But if you were to recognize, confess, and worship the Creator and Redeemer, Christians would love you as themselves instead"."
["Verba fratris Illuminati socii b. Francisci ad partes Orientis et in cospectu Soldani Aegypti", Codex Vaticanus Ott.lat.n.552] -- First posted 12/13/07
4 comments:
Your blog is inspiring...
These words of St. Francis are so out of character from the animal loving peace-nik image of Francis from today's popular culture. We need strong voices such as his to strengthen the Church in these times of battle.
Like St. Francis, it seems to me that we should be conciliar yet firm in the truth claims of the Church and the Christian faith, charitable yet vocal in carrying out the Great Commission of Our Lord, bold yet not pugnacious - unless chivalry and legitimate defense are called for.
We must remember that there are millions of souls who want and yearn for the good news; dying of thirst in the parched wastelands of secularism and scimitar. Our motive is not preserving our image of "the Christian West," but bringing other lost sheep into the Fold of the Good Shepherd.
Mind you, if some of these "sheep" look and act like ravenous wolves, we have the right to defend ourselves and loved ones, so St. Thomas told us, echoing Our Lord ('innocent as doves, wise as serpents'), just as St. Francis says in this quotation.
Dear Ath,
The myths abound and around Saint Francis and when a quote such as this apprears it may be helpful to back up our sources. For the English speaking among us the following link will take you to the reference for this quote "Volume III of Saint Francis Early Documents: The Prophet" page 799. I assume the reference given in the Italian (or Latin) version are good, it is just very difficult to track down for those of inquiring minds, and I hope or wish that we would have more minds seeking to explore the truth of evangelization as well as desiring to live their life as a saint, maybe following in the footsteps of St. Francis.
The Catholic Online Forum picks up the same stick, Aramis, with its WDSFOARS - What Did St. Francis of Assisi Really Say?
Scroll down when you get there to WDSFOARS # 1.
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