The Freedom to Embrace God

Dear friends, on August 11th, the Church remembered St Clare of Assisi. I would like to share the homily I preached at the daily Mass at 8 a.m. last Tuesday.

St. Clare of Assisi longed for the freedom to embrace God.

The life she undertook of living in absolute poverty freed her from the expectations of her father, a wealthy nobleman, and from the restrictions placed on women of status in medieval Italy.

St. Clare divested herself of all worldly things like money, privilege, and social position, which we often think will give us the freedom to do what we want.

She was 18 years old when she did this, but she understood well that true freedom and happiness do not come from “having it all,” but from having nothing but friendship with Jesus Christ – because He is our everything.

St. Clare would later become the abbess of a community known as the Poor Ladies of San Damiano (today the Poor Clares), which gave her the authority to write her Rule, the first religious rule of life written by a woman.

The religious life of poverty that St. Clare and her sisters freely embraced was inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, Clare’s lifelong friend and spiritual mentor. For this reason, St. Francis is considered the founder of the Poor Clares, this would be the second Order he founded.

St. Clare’s religious life symbolizes freedom, self-determination, and divine blessings for herself and her nuns. These women, the Poor Clares, chose to live only for Christ and the Gospel.

Thus, St. Clare said she would have only Christ as her husband. In the language of her time, this means that she belonged to God and not to any earthly person. Kings, bishops, and countless others came to her, seeking her prayers and her counsel because her holiness and wisdom were recognized in her life.

The result of St. Clare’s prayers is well known. On two occasions, in 1240 and 1241, when Assisi and her convent were threatened by a Muslim army, St. Clare prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, carried the Eucharist in a monstrance, and placed herself on the city walls facing the army. “Do not be afraid. Trust in Jesus,” she told her sisters, and thanks to her prayers, both times the city was protected.

Last Tuesday, on her feast day, we blessed the new images of St. Clare. One is the new mosaic on the front wall of our parish church, and the other is in the parish center, in front of the image of St. Francis and the leper. We ask St. Clare to intercede for us and protect our parish community, our families, our children, and those who visit this place every day.

By the intercession of St. Clare, we pray that we will always desire the goods promised by God, which are the ones that are truly worthwhile in this life. As she said, “Love God, serve God; everything is in that.” Because, just as she once said, “We become what we love, and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing.  Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ; rather, it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.”

Saint Clare of Assisi, intercede for us and our parish.

May the Lord always give you His peace.

Fr. Lalo Jara, OFM
Pastor, Mission San Luis Rey Parish