The
Testament of St. Clare is an immensely rich document. Its tone is strong,
tender, reflective and exultant. One can almost detect a note of triumph
when the Seraphic Mother proclaims the essence of her Gospel form of life:
The Son of
God became for us the Way!
These few words are the key to Clarian
spirituality and the foundation of St. Clare's hidden life of prayer and
penance:
The Son of
God became for us the Way! They
tell the reason for Clare's material poverty. These words explain why,
though she lived enclosed for forty-two years, she was always "on the way;"
without ever becoming narrow or self-centered. The Son of God became for us
the way! -- HER Way, to life, to love, to union with the Trinity, to
communion with the members of Christ's Mystical Body.
No longer will your Teacher hide Himself, but
with your own eyes, you shall see your Teacher,
while from behind a voice shall say in your ear:
"This is the Way; walk
it."
Is. 30:20-21
The Divine Teacher uses human instruments
to point Him out. St. Clare declares that it was the
blessed
Father Francis, His true, ardent lover and imitator,
who had
shown and
taught her the Way which is Christ
by word and
example. Every word in this
acknowledgment is important. The Way, which is Christ, is learned from
teachers who, like St. Francis, are true and ardent. Jesus IS Truth, and His
best witnesses are those who know the Truth, act in the Truth, and live in
the Truth.
But Jesus is not merely doctrinal knowledge
or dogmatic certainty. He is Love; and the flame of His Love, enkindled by
the Holy Spirit, is passed on by
ardent
hearts, hearts that are burning with love for Him, for His Kingdom, for the
souls whom He has redeemed. These
ardent
lovers naturally become Jesus' most
faithful
imitators.
They make real His love in a world grown
cold with indifference, hemmed in by its self-sufficiencies, weighed down by
its sins. Knowing Christ, loving Christ, imitating Christ,
these
ardent lovers and imitators say
by word and
example:
"Christ is the Way; walk it!"
They make real His love in a world grown cold with
indifference, hemmed in by its self-sufficiencies, weighed down by its sins.
Knowing Christ, loving Christ, imitating Christ,
these
ardent lovers and imitators say
by word and
example:
"Christ is the Way; walk it!"
The Son of God became for us the Way!
But where does this Way, which is
Christ, lead? St. Clare again supplies the answer when she urges her
followers to strive to imitate the way of holy simplicity, humility and
poverty and the integrity of a holy way of living in the same way that we
were taught by our blessed Father Francis.
How long and often Clare's gaze of faith lingered on the Lord Jesus as the Way of holy simplicity! How deeply she beheld Him as the fullest expression of the Truth which is humility! How fully she understood that Jesus Himself IS the exalted Way of the highest poverty! And, in beholding Jesus, the Son of God become her Way, Clare studied the integrity of the holy way of living which her Seraphic Father Francis taught and entrusted to her to pass on to others.
