A certain community having had their Superior taken from them on account of
their complaints of the severity of his rule, and having a new one set over
them in his place, came to Blessed Francis to pour out their grievances on
the subject of their recently appointed head. They declared that he was an
ignorant man. "What is to be done with you?" cried our Blessed Father, "you
remind me of the frogs to whom Jupiter could not give a king who was to
their taste. We ought certainly to wish to have good and capable Superiors,
but still whatever they may be we must put up with them." One of the
complainers was so wanting in discretion as to say that their one-eyed
horse had been changed into a blind one. Blessed Francis suffered this jest
to pass, merely frowning slightly, but his modest silence only unchained
the tongue of another scoffer who presumed to say that an ass had been
given to them instead of a horse. Then Blessed Francis spoke, and, rebuking
this last speech, added in a tone of gentle remonstrance, that the first
remark, though far from being respectful, was more endurable because it was
a proverb and implied that a Superior had been given to them who was less
capable than his predecessor, and that this was expressed in figurative
terms, as David speaks of himself in relation to Almighty God in one of
the Psalms when he says: _I am become as a beast before Thee._[1] "The
second sarcasm, however," he added, "has nothing figurative in it, and is
absolutely and grossly insulting. We must never speak of our Superiors in
such a manner, however worthless they may be. Remember that God would have
us obey even the vicious and froward,[2] and he that _resisteth the power
resisteth the ordinance of God_."
Then taking up the defence of this much-abused Superior, "Do you imagine,"
he said, "that it is not within the power of God to exalt in a moment one
who is poor in spirit by bestowing on him the gift of intelligence? Is not
He the God of knowledge? Is it not He who imparts it to men? Are not all
the faithful taught of God?
"The science of the Saints is the science of Salvation, and this is a
knowledge more frequently given to those who are destitute of the knowledge
which puffs up. In what condition think you was Saul when God raised him to
the throne of Israel?
"He was keeping his father's asses. On what did Jesus Christ ride
triumphant on Palm Sunday? Was it not upon an ass?"
Again, in his eleventh Conference, he says: "If Balaam was well instructed
by an ass, we may with greater reason believe that God, Who gave you this
Superior, will enable him to teach you according to His will, though it may
not be according to your own."
He wound up his remarks on the subject of the new Superior by saying: "I
understand that this good man is most gentle and kind, and that if he does
not know much he does none the less well, so that his example makes up for
any deficiency in his teaching. It is far better to have a Superior who
does the good which he fails in teaching, than one who tells us what we
ought to do, but does not himself practise it."
[Footnote 1: 1 Peter ii. 18.]
[Footnote 2: Rom. xiii. 2.]