January 24, 2009: Feast of Saint Francis de Sales: Mark 3:20-21

WHEN HIS RELATIVES HEARD HOW OCCUPIED HE WAS WITH PREACHING THEY SAID “HE IS OUT OF HIS MIND”. This is the translation we have just heard.  It reflects a common understanding of the original text. However, a literal  rendering of the Greek  states that it was “those with him” who sought to intervene because he appeared “outside himself.” It is possible that it was his relatives, but it could have been others who were close to him. There is no necessity to think his mother was one of those who reacted so unbelievingly. Later on in his ministry our Lord was to tell his followers that the members of their own families would prove to be enemies in so much as they would have expectations and form attachments that his follower could not be guided by. Detachment from natural ties is essential to discipleship. The kingdom of heaven, the cause of the Gospel, and readiness to obey the Father’s will are integral to being Christian.

At the same time, by his own example our Lord showed that loving friendship founded on the shared desire to grow in the knowledge, service, and love of God is the normal fruit of faith in his teaching. Saint Francis de Sales, whom we commemorate in today’s liturgy, presents us with an outstanding example of this feature of true discipleship as the basis of pure and fruitful friendship. He deliberately cultivated a gentleness of manner while maintaining a firmness of purpose and directness of  speech that made him a model of true brotherly relations and a loyal, warm friend.. He exemplified the old Roman adage in his spiritual direction and pastoral ministry: “leniter in modo, fortiter in re”:, that is, ‘gentle in manner, strong in substance’. His friendship with Saint Jane Frances Chantal proved a source of immense fruitfulness to religious life in the Church of his time that continues to bear fruit and gives inspiration today.