By Tom Thomas –
“ So there were Christians before Christ. For that we should be grateful. The unfortunate thing is that there have been none since. I make one exception, St. Francis of Assisi.”
― OSCAR WILDE, De Profundis
October 4th is the Feast of St Francis This diminutive man who was not ordained a Priest has had a far reaching impact on Christianity and indeed the entire world since the 12th Century. Our current Pope, a Jesuit, in facts chose his name ‘Francis” on election.
Many of the practises of St Francis seem counter cultural. In his life beginnings growing up as the son of one of the wealthiest men in a small nondescript Italian town of Assisi, he chose to give away all the trappings of the world and embrace Lady Poverty. “Preach the Gospel. If necessary use words.” Is a saying attributed to St Francis and the Order he started the Franciscans encompass the Globe today and the Franciscans are also given the responsibility of looking after the Churches in the Holy Land since the middle ages.
This short article attempts to go into one aspect of this great Saint. That of building bridges with other communities. It seems specially relevant in these times where we have even some of our own Bishops recently sometimes being perceived as not following this example of building bridges with other communities, maybe with their remarks taken out of context. In this backdrop, let us dwell more on an incident that occurred more than 800 years ago.
It was the height of the Crusades and the Crusaders who fought with Muslim forces near Damietta, Egypt. The Crusaders wanted to gain control of the Holy Land and it was the Fifth Crusade. Peace negotiations were going on . It was in this tense atmosphere that St Francis ventures out into hostile and uncharted territory desiring to meet Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil and expressed his faith in Jesus Christ to the Sultan. In those days, such a mission would normally result in sure death but the Sultan’s forces were also vastly more powerful than the Crusader’s forces.
Anyway, cutting a long story short, St Francis made his way over the Sultan’s court thereby encountering many difficulties on the way. We are informed by some accounts that he was captured by Saracens on the way to whom he boldly proclaimed: “ I am a Christian, lead me to your lord.” We have no detailed record of this encounter , other than the many accounts in existence (in fact an eye-witness account from the writings of Jacques de Vitry in 1220) telling that both men came away from the meeting with deep respect for the other. For several days Francis preached to the Sultan and his entourage about the faith of Christ . Moved by the faith and conviction of St Francis, the Sultan could recognise the greatness in St Francis. It is said that the Sultan even asked St Francis to pray for him, in order that he may follow God more closely. Pope Francis himself by his many trips to the Middle East also has striven to build bridges with our Muslim brethren like his namesake did. Pope St John Paull II chose the city of Assisi as the place to launch the historic World of Prayer for Peace in 1986.
What can we learn from this encounter that took place more than 800 years ago? We learn that we must attempt to reach out and engage in inter- religious dialogue with our brothers and sisters of other faiths. We have to respect people of all faiths and communicate with them so our mutual understanding grows. . We are living in a multicultural and multi-religious country and having an approach always of building bridges with other communities is the path to peace and harmony. In ending, let us ponder upon these timeless words of the great St Francis:
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today”
― St. Francis Of Assisi