Saint Clare, Virgin – Readings

Commentary on Philippians 3:8-14; Matthew 19:27-29

The Gospel reading comes from the end of the story about the rich man who approached Jesus and asked what he should do to gain eternal life. Jesus said he should keep the commandments. The man asked which ones he should keep. Jesus then listed a number of the Ten Commandments. Significantly, all those mentioned by Jesus refer to relations with other people; commandments relating to God are not mentioned.

The man said that he had been observing them all since he was young. He then asked if there was anything still lacking. Jesus then told him that, if he wanted to be perfect, he should sell all his possessions, give the money to the poor and then become a disciple of Jesus. On hearing this, the man:

…went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
(Matt 19:22)

The question one could ask is, did he have possessions or did the possessions have him?

The man had thought perfection consisted in observing certain legal requirements. But Jesus was pointing out that observance of law was not enough. There had to be love, compassion and sharing. His life needed more than keeping commandments; it had to be modelled on the life pattern of Jesus himself.

After this, Jesus then told his disciples how difficult it was for rich people to be part of God’s Kingdom, a Kingdom of truth, of love, of justice, of compassion, of sharing. Their very possessions in a world where there were so many in need was a negation of everything that Jesus, stood for. The disciples were quite shocked on hearing this because, in their book, wealth was something to be sought after and was indeed a sign of God’s blessing.

It is at this point that today’s reading begins. Peter, beginning to see the light, says to Jesus:

Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?

In other words, we have given away all hope of ever being materially rich. Is there anything else for us to look forward to?

Yes, said Jesus:

…everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.

This is not just an empty promise, because when everyone surrenders what they have to the community, everyone benefits. No one has more than they need; no one has too little. And this is the road to eternal life—exactly the thing the rich man was looking for.

Clare, filled with the spirit of Francis, took this text very seriously indeed and lived a life of radical simplicity in community. In doing so, she was enormously enriched as were all her Sisters and many others besides. In these days of gross inequality, if not to say irresponsibility in our world, it is a message we need to listen to very carefully and take very seriously.

The First Reading, taken from the Letter to the Philippians, complements the teaching of the Gospel. Paul says that to have Christ and his Vision is to have everything:

I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

And he continues:

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ…

To have Christ, to be in Christ, to be with Christ, that is supreme wealth.

And at the conclusion of the passage Paul says:

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Clare would certainly have totally identified with this prayer. For her, too, Jesus was everything. With him she had all that she needed. Can we, even in a small way, walk in her footsteps?

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Saint Clare, Virgin

Clare was born on 16 July, 1194, in Assisi, Umbria, Italy, the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, and his wife Ortolana. Ortolana was a devout woman who had made pilgrimages to Rome, Santiago de Compostela and the Holy Land. Later in life, she entered Clare’s convent. Stories explaining that Clare heard Francis of Assisi preaching in Assisi about his new mendicant order (recently approved by Pope Innocent III), and was deeply moved by his words, cannot be firmly established. In 1212, her parents had decided she should marry a wealthy young man, but Clare fled from her home and sought refuge with Francis, who received her as a nun.

Clare lived for short periods, first, at a nearby Benedictine convent, San Paolo della Abadesse, and then at a house of women penitents, Sant’ Angelo on Monte Subasio. Clare was joined here by her mother and two sisters, as well as by some of the wealthy Ubaldini family from Florence.

They then moved to the church of San Damiano, which, in response to a vision, Francis had restored. Here other women joined Clare and they became known for their austere lifestyle. They were at first known as the “Poor Ladies”. San Damiano emerged as the most important house in the order and Clare became its undisputed head. They followed a life of extreme poverty and austerity, believed to be more severe than other nuns of the period. Like the Franciscan friars, Clare’s nuns rapidly spread to other parts of Europe. Spain saw 47 convents already in the 13th century and there were others in Bohemia, France and England. Four convents were established in England in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Unlike the Franciscan friars, whose members moved around the country to preach, Clare’s sisters lived an enclosed life. It would be much later before nuns could move round freely in public places. Their life, like monks, consisted of manual labour and prayer. In 1216, the order came directly under Francis, and Clare was given the title of prioress. In this role, she resisted attempts by church officials to impose a Benedictine rule rather than Francis’ more strict way of life. By the papal Privilegium paupertatis of 1228, three convents, including San Damiano, would live entirely on alms, renouncing all income from rents or other property.

For her part, Clare also played a significant role in encouraging Francis, whom she saw as a spiritual father figure. During his illnesses towards the end of his life, she took care of him until his death in 1226. After his death, she continued to promote the growth of her Sisters while still resisting Church efforts to lessen her commitment to an austerely simple way of life, in spite of experiencing long periods of poor health up to her death. On 9 August, 1253, the Papal bull Solet annure of Pope Innocent IV confirmed that Clare’s Rule would serve as the governing rule for the Order of Poor Ladies. Two days later, on 11 August, Clare died at the age of 59.

On 15 August, 1255, Pope Alexander IV canonized her as Saint Clare of Assisi. In 1263, Pope Urban IV officially changed the name of the Order of Poor Ladies to the Order of Saint Clare, now commonly referred to as the Poor Clares.

On 17 February, 1958, Pope Pius XII designated her patron saint of television, on the basis that, when she was too ill to attend a Mass, she had been miraculously able to see and hear it on the wall of her room.

In art, she is shown carrying a monstrance or pyx, in commemoration of the time when she warded away attackers at the gates of her convent by raising the Blessed Sacrament over the wall.

Clare herself never left her convent at Assisi. She was regarded as one of the great medieval contemplatives, committed to serving her community with great joy and closely following Franciscan ideals, including Francis’ love of nature, long after his death in 1226. Although her body is no longer incorrupt, her skeleton is displayed in Assisi.

After her death, there was much controversy among the Sisters about the observance of poverty until Colette reformed the Poor Clares in the 15th century.

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