Admonition XXVI: Let servants of God honour the clergy
The vision given to Saint Paul on the Damascus Road has many similarities to the meeting of Francis with the leper. Saint Paul realized from the vision that the Lord identifies with every Christian for whom Christ is the head and they the members of the body. Francis experienced the Lord in the leper and so was made to realize that Christ identifies with the poor and the disadvantaged. From then on, when Francis left the world his concern was to seek the Lord. He found the Lord in a special way in the Eucharist because he saw nothing bodily of the Most High Son of God except His most holy Body and Blood in the Eucharist. As Francis stated in his Testament this fact made him consider his attitude to priests and especially to priests who sin. Francis did not shut his eyes to sin in priests because he says in this Admonition: 'even though priests be sinners, no one should judge them because the Lord alone reserves judgment on them to Himself'. It would seem that the reason why Francis could say this is because of his overwhelming sense of wonder at priests being instruments through whom we have the presence of the Lord among us. For Francis the important thing is to have faith in what the priests do a t the altar provided they follow the rites of the Church. So he says: 'Blessed is he servant who has faith in the clergy who live uprightly according to the rite of the Roman Church'.
