Today we celebrate one of the most beloved saints in the Church: St. Francis of Assisi. What makes him admired and imitated in so many varied ways and forms is the fact that he went right to the heart of the gospel to find what he was looking for! We know that Francis was searching for something more than what the wealth of his family could provide. And so, quite literally he gave up everything, including his clothing, to begin a life that could be labeled as a “love-affair” with the Crucified Christ!
As Saint Paul told the Galatians that he never wanted to boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ - so too Francis made the same claim. And in fact, he meditated so profoundly on the cross and wounds of Christ Crucified that he was granted the extraordinary privilege of bearing the marks of Christ’s own Passion in his own body: the stigmata.
Though Francis meditated to the extreme on the depths of Christ’s love in giving his life on the Cross - he did not do so without also considering Christ’s subsequent resurrection from the dead! Francis knew that the excruciating suffering of the Passion led to the astounding joy and glory of the resurrection! Francis, then, was a joyful servant of the cross!
Jesus told all of us that to be with him in eternity would involve carrying our own cross while here on earth - preferably, willingly and joyfully! Because we make up what is still lacking in the sufferings of Christ, for both we and our brothers and sisters, and the whole world continue to sin day after day - and in a very real sense still contribute to the suffering of Christ on the Cross!
Francis had a deep insight into sin - because of the innocence and purity of his life. The more humble he was - the more he saw that of himself he was nothing at all - without God, and his grace and his love! He also knew that the way he saw things as a human being was for the most part exactly opposite of the way God sees them. But Francis also knew that the gospel message of Jesus turned everything on its head. Jesus was a man of contradiction - though, for those with faith, it all makes perfect sense.
The gospel calls us to do what we do not want to do: bring love where there is hatred, pardon where there is injury, union where there is friction, truth where there is error, faith where there is doubt, hope where there is despair, light where there is darkness, joy where there is sadness! These are not easy things to do by any means! On our own we cannot do any of them! With God we can do all of them - and the more we pray for the light and strength of the Holy Spirit the easier and lighter the tasks become!
Francis had child like faith. That is why he so easily went to the heart of the gospel message - that is why he understood the contradictions of the “Jesus Way” - and that is why he was called upon by Jesus to preach to all creation what had been revealed to him at the foot of the Cross of Jesus! Francis wanted only one thing: and that was to be happy with God’s own happiness! And God wanted to give him this happiness. He found out that to be happy he had to give it all away to and for his brothers and sisters - especially the poor! and together with them live like the flowers of the field and the birds of the sky! trusting God for everything! He did and they did and we can too if we choose to - and one day, with Francis be born to eternal life! Amen.
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