JESUS YOUTH | KAIROS GLOBAL | SEPTEMBER 2026

Author: Dr Edward Edezhath

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Live with Less, Radiate Joy: The Radical Challenge of St Francis

Saint Clare of Assisi fell in love with Francis, not romantically, but in the deeper sense the word can carry. She saw in him something so radiant that she devoted her life to following it. She once said, ‘We become what we love, and whom we love shapes what we become.’ Clare knew the Bernardone family well. She came from the same small town and had watched Francis grow up wealthy, admired, and destined for a comfortable, ambitious life. So when he walked away from it all – from money, from his father’s name, and from every worldly security – to embrace Christ’s poverty, she was astonished. Then she followed him.

Francis had fallen deeply in love with Christ and wanted to imitate Him in every way. At the heart of Jesus’ way of life, Francis discovered deep joy in embracing simplicity and being content with very little, what we today call minimalism. That, in itself, had an indescribable magnetism. It drew Clare, her sister, and many others to follow his example and, in the process, change the world. More than 800 years later, the question before us is: What is Francis calling us to today?

His Call Came at a Most Chaotic Time

I found myself thinking about Francis again recently, this time as a student rather than simply as a devotee. I am back in the classroom, working through an MA programme in theology and Church history. A course on the medieval Church immersed me in the world of mendicant orders – the wandering, begging friars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It was not a comfortable period to study.

The Church of that time was in trouble on more than one front. From within, it had grown burdened with luxury, and too many of its leaders were pursuing position rather than caring for souls. This led to serious criticism and the rise of movements such as the Albigensians and the Cathars. From without, the rapid expansion of Islam had opened a long period of conflict, culminating in the Crusades. It was, in short, an age of deep confusion.

The popes sincerely sought reform. Pope Innocent III convened the Fourth Lateran Council to find ways to respond. Armies were sent to confront military threats. Organised preaching campaigns were launched against heresy. Yet two much smaller, grassroots responses accomplished what councils and campaigns alone could not.

One came from St Dominic, whose Order of Preachers we know as the Dominicans. The other came from a man whom we in Jesus Youth already cherish as our patron – Francis, the poverello, the little poor man, and the joyful band of little brothers who gathered around him.

Two Ways of Being Faithful

Dominic and Francis were both remarkably effective, and both left Europe and the Church visibly changed. Yet they were not doing the same thing. Dominic was a priest working within the Church’s structures. His mendicants lived and travelled in simplicity, but they preached as representatives of the Church’s official teaching.

Francis was neither a priest nor, in any official sense, part of the Church’s institutional structure. What moved him was not office or strategy but a direct, overwhelming encounter with the Gospel that transformed him from within. He did not reason his way to poverty. He responded with his whole life to what Christ was asking of him.

In 1209, Francis and Brother Bernard went to the Church of Saint Nicholas in Assisi, prayed, and asked God to speak to them. When Francis opened the Bible, the first passage he saw was Matthew 19:21: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. He immediately recognised it as a personal call and chose to follow it literally.

His radical witness spread like wildfire and transformed countless lives. It sparked renewal in towns and villages, parishes, dioceses, and even universities. Councils, reforms, and preaching all contributed in different ways to addressing the challenges of the time. Yet nothing proved more compelling than the lives of Francis and his brothers, who made Christ’s simplicity and poverty visible in flesh and blood through their deep love for the Lord and joyful witness.

Francis’ path, however, was not easy. Could such simplicity really work? Doubts came not only from outsiders but also from some of his closest companions. Even Cardinal Ugolino, later Pope Gregory IX and one of Francis’ greatest supporters, wanted to bring greater order and material stability to the movement. To work effectively with the organised Church, many argued, the movement needed more structure.

But Francis could not be persuaded. He remained determined to simplicity, avoided unnecessary structures, and stayed completely faithful to the charism God had entrusted to him – even when compromise would have been easier and safer.

The Root of Simplicity: Finding Joy in Littleness

So where did all this come from – the poverty, the minimalism, and the reluctance to become heavily organised?

Not from a hatred of the world. Francis loved the world wholeheartedly. He delighted in its beauty, rejoiced in people, and, by every account, lived one of the most joyful lives in Christian history. His poverty was not asceticism for its own sake, nor was he trying to imitate the monastic life. Rather, it flowed naturally from his love for Jesus, who called His followers to let go of everything for the sake of the Gospel. Francis discovered the true joy of selfless giving.

He did not withdraw from the world. Instead, by embracing the joy of a simple life, he entered more deeply into the world to bear witness to Christ’s beauty and joy.

In Simplicity and Littleness

Jesus Himself lived a life of simplicity and challenged His disciples to do the same. Whenever He sent them on a mission, He warned them against carrying unnecessary burdens. He knew that accumulating too much and seeking position and greatness could hinder the freedom to go wherever the Gospel called.

Francis, without analysing or theorising about it, simply followed Christ’s example. He gave up everything to follow Him.

In a world that measures success by wealth, status, and prosperity, Jesus Youth is called to become a missionary movement that radiates the joy of simplicity and selfless giving. Francis continues to challenge us with that same invitation. We are also blessed with many living examples of men and women who embody simplicity and joyful generosity. Their witness inspires us to follow our Master and our patron saint in a deeper and more meaningful way.