This Sunday's long passage from Matthew's Gospel deals with various themes.

Among these is the urgency of overcoming the legalism of the scribes and Pharisees, doing God's will with care.

Almost without realising it, Francis was a great spiritual teacher.

By Grace, he was convinced that justice always goes hand in hand with mercy.

A justice that is far removed from blind rigidity, eager to express itself in the fulfilment of God's will, in respect for one's brother always.

The Franciscan Sources teach much on the subject.

"If it sometimes happened that a brother missed a word capable of hurting, the remorse of conscience would not let him have peace, until he confessed his mistake, throwing himself down humbly and begging the offended one to put a foot on his mouth.

If that brother refused to make that gesture, when the offender was his superior, he would command him to put his foot over his mouth; when it was a subject, he would have the person in charge order him to do so.

In this way, the brothers strove to banish all rancour and incompatibility, and to keep exchangeable love intact.

They did their utmost to replace every vice with the corresponding virtue, inspired and assisted in this by the Grace of Jesus Christ" (FF 1449).

Justice and Mercy to be sought, to be asked of God first and foremost in prayer and silence, for a new heart is a gift from the Lord, a continuous exodus.

In the Rule of the Hermitages, written by Francis, we read:

"And let these [the brothers] have a cloister, in which each one has his own little cell, in which he can pray and sleep [...] and get up for matins, and first of all seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (FF 137).

In the same Praises of God Most High, Francis emphasises that God is Justice:

"[...] You are justice,

You are temperance,

You are all our riches enough" (FF 261).

The Poverello, knowing that the Lord-justice called for more than justice, worked tirelessly for the kingdom of heaven, and sought to teach his brothers to do likewise.

Never forgot that mercy always prevails, in judgement before God.

«For I tell you, unless your righteousness abounds more [than that] of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven» (Mt 5:20).