Admonition XX. The good and vain person

Francis contrasts the person who finds his or her pleasure and delight in the words and deeds of the Lord and the person whose delight is in idle and empty words. At first these words of Francis seem to be severe. Can a person find delight only in the words and deeds of the Lord and, on the other hand, don't we all need to relax now and then with idle talk and gossip. Francis' words have to be understood as an echo of the Gospels. Our Lord said that unless we hate our father and mother, our brothers and sisters and even life itself we cannot be his disciples [Lk 14:26]. This is more severe language than the words of Francis. Our Lord meant by these words the same thing as he had said a little earlier in Luke's Gospel: For where your treasure is, there your heart will be as well [Lk 12:34]. If the Lord is truly our treasure, the pearl of great price for which we sell everything else in order to buy it, then our heart will be centred on the words and deeds of the Lord. Francis adds other reasons for his statement. He says that if our delight is in the words and deeds of the Lord, then 'with these we lead people to the love of God with gladness and joy'. But if we put our treasure, our heart, into idle and empty words, then we 'lead people to laughter with them'. It is good to make people laugh but this good thing is not to become our treasure, our goal, the thing on which we set our hearts.