FRANCISCAN CHARISM

The capuchin charism is basically Franciscan. It means that it is, as Francis envisaged, christo-centric, evangelical, ecclesial, existential, devotional, prophetical and practical. Francis, after his conversion, was known to have just one desire in life, namely, to follow the teaching and the footsteps of Jesus Christ poor humble obedient, a ‘suffering servant’ who died and rose for us. He aspired to follow Christ and his gospel even literally and radically, although he was neither a fundamentalist nor a literalist. To him love alone was the reason why god became human and redemption was the way God’s love overcame the evil in this world. Francis therefore developed a tender devotion to the humanity of Jesus who made himself our ‘brother in the flesh’. For this reason he looked as well upon all creatures as brothers and sisters united as one in the vast ‘friary of the universe’. He campaigned  thereby for all that is moat liberal and sympathetic to human especially of today, namely “the love of nature; the love of animals the sense of social compassion; the sense of the spiritual danger of prosperity and even property”. To live such a life of the gospel however, he did not want any rule, written by someone else. Scripture and liturgy were to be his sole guides. Gospel in fact was his only rule and he desired to model his life upon it. According his life is seen to be characterizes with the pure gospel wisdom, i.e. surrender to truth poverty and humility prayer, and penance, ministerial service, especially to the poor, helpless and downtrodden and love for one and all after the example of Jesus Christ. This in brief is the ideal of Francis’ spirituality.

              The rule of Francis that enclosed this spirituality is evidently to be understood as the unalterable pattern of life for all his followers. However it had to be also interpreted now and then in the light of Francis’ own life and testament as well as the practical demands of the order and its apostolic purpose. The capuchin reform may therefore be said to have been born out of the continual struggle over the practical interpretation of this Franciscan ideal of spirituality. Included in the struggle were the constant efforts to return to gospel way of life initiated by Francis and to make adaptations and adjustments necessitated to incarnate it. Knowing the reform and growth of the capuchin order down the centuries therefore are of utmost importance if we are to recapture our particular capuchin charism and re-established our specific identity. A thorough investigation of this charism would certainly require a far longer amount of time and space than right away available. For the present it is restricted, among other things, to including a few of the most salient features or characteristics of the capuchin reform and spirituality.