Because of Christ, I consider everything as a loss so that I may gain Christ and be found in him. The Church commemorates today St. Clare of Assisi, a disciple of St. Francis of Assisi whom she imitated in the virtue of poverty and penance.
To the general public, St. Clare doesn’t project a popular face as St. Francis of Assisi, her compatriot and friend, does. This might be because St. Clare, as a woman, was not allowed to lead a life that would allow her to interact with people as St. Francis did. But this doesn’t mean that she did not become famous herself. She is certainly a household name in her native Italy, within the Franciscan family, as well as among the scholars of the twelfth century. As a woman, St. Clare attained a feat that only few, if any, before her managed to attain. She founded a community of women who were to live in abject poverty and begging in imitation of Jesus and his poor mother. It was a move that cemented her place in history.
Born of wealthy parents, St. Clare was seduced by the simple, poor lifestyle of Jesus and the apostles who had nowhere to lay their heads (cf. Luke 9:58). She became determined to respond to Jesus’ call to leave everything behind and follow him (cf. Mark 8:34). And when she saw the joy and freedom with which the small band of men gathered around St. Francis of Assisi embraced a life of poverty, she became convinced that it was her lot and portion to lead such a life. In their own medieval understanding, St. Clare and other medieval saints embraced a life of poverty as the perfect way of conforming oneself to Jesus Christ (wrestling naked with the naked Christ). In her writings, we see St. Clare glowing in the riches that came from detaching the self from worldly possessions. The only possession that was worth having was Jesus Christ, the poor and naked son of God. This is the content of the section of St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians that we read in the first reading.
The coming to the knowledge of Christ frees one from unnecessary burdens that might lay claim to a believer. Such burdens of life often serve to clutter a believer’s life to an extent of him/her losing his/her grip on Jesus. While St. Clare saw wealth as a burden, there are many things that can end up competing for the space Jesus occupies in our lives. Such burdens will come to us as things that we can’t do without or as things that will make our lives more meaningful. He/she who has been possessed by Christ must be keen to filter everything through Christ. Anything that fails the Jesus test by competing for the space reserved for Jesus must be let go.