Instructions to Sick Brothers

Francis was not ashamed to obtain meat for a sick friar in the public places of the cities, yet he warned them that lay sick to bear want patiently, and not to rise in scandal when they were not fully satisfied.  He wrote in the first Rule, “I beseech my brethren that in their infirmities they grow not angry, nor be disturbed against God or their brethren, nor demand medicines too eagerly, nor desire too greatly to set free the flesh that so soon shall die, which is the enemy of the spirit.  But let them give thanks for all things, and desire to be such as God would have them to be.  For those, whom the Lord hath preordained to life eternal, He teaches with the stings of scourges and infirmities, as He himself says, ‘As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.’”

                        -Section IV, Chapter 42

Growing up, it was a tradition that any of the men of the house (there were three of us), when we were sick, that we would be miserable and attempt to share that misery with those around us.  We would whine and complain, both about how we were feeling and about how we were being ignored.  Well, of course everyone ignored us.  We were awful.

Francis wisely points out that just because we are sick, we don’t forget that Jesus main command was to love one another.  We do not have permission to ignore this command just because we are sick, or weak, or mentally ill or poor or under other limitations.  Our weakness may limit our capacity to give love, but we never, for any reason, have to make others miserable.