Admonition XXV: True love
This Admonition deals with the same topic as the preceding Admonition, namely, how to love one another, but Francis applies it to a different aspect of what love demands. Francis had an ability to pick out basic human weaknesses and warn us about them. In this Admonition he warns us of how easy it is to speak of others behind their backs and to say things we would never say in their presence. Francis at times spoke strongly to his brothers when he felt they were betraying Lady Poverty. Once when he was absent from Assisi the people and authorities in Assisi built a large house for the needs of the brothers. When Francis returned to Assisi and saw the building he was so annoyed that he got on the roof and started to throw down the tiles off the roof as he felt the building betrayed his ideal of poverty. He only stopped destroying the building when the authorities in Assisi assured him that the house belonged to the commune of Assisi and not to the brothers. But one searches in vain in all the early writings about Francis to find any instance when he spoke against brothers who were absent. So Francis' advice to us is: 'Blessed is the servant who loves and respects his brother as much when he is away from him as when he is with him, and who would not say anything behind his back that he would not say with charity in his presence'.
