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October 4
St. Francis
of Assisi
(1182-1226)
Francis of Assisi
was a poor little man who astounded and inspired the Church by taking the
gospel literally—not in a narrow fundamentalist sense, but by actually
following all that Jesus said and did, joyfully, without limit and without
a sense of self-importance.
Serious illness
brought the young Francis to see the emptiness of his frolicking life as leader
of Assisi's youth. Prayer—lengthy and difficult—led him to a self-emptying like
that of Christ, climaxed by embracing a leper he met on the road. It symbolized
his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: "Francis!
Everything you have loved and desired in the flesh it is your duty to despise
and hate, if you wish to know my will. And when you have begun this, all that
now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter, but all
that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding
joy."
From the cross in
the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano, Christ told him, "Francis, go out and build up my house, for it is nearly
falling down."
Francis became the totally poor and humble workman.
He must have suspected
a deeper meaning to "build up my house." But he would have been
content to be for the rest of his life the poor "nothing" man
actually putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up all his
possessions, piling even his clothes before his earthly father (who was
demanding restitution for Francis' "gifts" to the poor) so that he
would be totally free to say, "Our Father in heaven." He was, for a
time, considered to be a religious fanatic, begging from door to door when he could
not get money for his work, evoking sadness or disgust to the hearts of his
former friends, ridicule from the unthinking.
But genuineness
will tell. A few people began to realize that this man was actually trying to
be Christian. He really believed what Jesus said: "Announce the kingdom! Possess
no gold or silver or copper in your purses, no traveling
bag, no sandals, no staff" (see Luke 9:1-3).
Francis' first
rule for his followers was a collection of texts from the Gospels. He had no
idea of founding an order, but once it began he protected it and accepted all
the legal structures needed to support it. His devotion and loyalty to the
Church were absolute and highly exemplary at a time when various movements of
reform tended to break the Church's unity.
He was torn between
a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good
News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always
returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in
Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases. He did try to
convert the sultan of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade.
During the last
years of his relatively short life (he died at 44), he was half blind and
seriously ill. Two years before his death, he received the stigmata, the real
and painful wounds of Christ in his hands, feet and side.
On his deathbed,
he said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun,
"Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death." He sang Psalm 141, and at
the end asked his superior to have his clothes removed when the last hour came
and for permission to expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his
Lord.
Comment:
Francis of Assisi was poor only that he might be Christ-like. He recognized
creation as another manifestation of the beauty of God. In 1979, he was named a
patron of ecology. He did great penance (apologizing to "Brother
Body" later in life) that he might be totally disciplined for the will of
God. His poverty had a sister, humility, by which he meant total dependence on the
good God. But all this was, as it were, preliminary to the heart of his
spirituality: living the gospel life, summed up in the charity of Jesus and
perfectly expressed in the Eucharist.
Quote:
"We
adore you and we bless you, Lord Jesus Christ, here and in all the churches
which are in the whole world, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the
world" (St. Francis).
Patron Saint of:
Animals
Ecology
Italy
Merchants
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