By Br. John Sekar, OFM –
It is said, “The kind of life that you live on this earth is seen in the number of people who attend your funeral” and for the funeral of St. Francis, the whole city of Assisi rushed in throngs and the entire region made haste, the multitude of people from the neighboring towns spent the whole night on which the holy father died in praising God. The people of Assisi and the neighboring towns knew for sure that one who died on 3rd October 1226 was no ordinary man whose life and death could not be ignored. If we, even after nearly 800 years, we know for sure, that St. Francis is no ordinary man whose life and death cannot be ignored even today!
Francis leaves behind a life that knew only one thing, to love God and to love God in every creation. As he was on his death bed, St. Francis said, “…I am hastening to the Lord, and am now confidently going to my God, whom in my spirit I have served (the entire life) with (love and) devotion.” From the moment of conversion, when he discerned according to the promptings of the Spirit to embark on a new way of life, Francis committed himself to love the lord more than anything on this earth. It was the Love for God that at the root of everything that Francis did.
Francis’s love for Jesus was so explicit that believed that we had to do everything that Jesus taught us and there was no choice. If the one you love asks you to do something, you do it without questioning it. That is what true and sincere love is all about. It was the same with Francis. He loved Jesus and He did what Jesus asked. He never for once searched through the demanding teachings of Jesus, a path of convenience to escape the hard realities of living the Gospel Life. With joy he embraced the Gospel life in its reality because love for God was the driving force.
The marks of the crucifixion on the body of the saint – the Stigmata – is a visible sign that he so conformed his life to that of Jesus, that he was so committed to embodying the Gospel, that he was so open to being transformed by the love of God, the saint became like who he loved: Jesus. Francis mirrored Christ. St. Francis invites us to love God the Father Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit totally holding back nothing – because this is the only way to persevere in our Franciscan and Religious Vocation.
Francis leaves behind a Gospel way of life which he lived without glossing over it, without trying to find loopholes by interpreting it this way or that way! In 1208, in a church in Assisi, he heard the Gospel verses: “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give it to the poor. . .” and: “Do not take anything for your journey, neither staff or knapsack, nor bread, not money. …” Listening to this, he was overwhelmed with joy, “This is what I wish, what I want, what I long to do with my innermost heart”. St. Francis did not set out to found an Order. He simply wanted to follow the Gospel literally. As a result, men and women were inspired by his lifestyle of early brothers and within a short time, approximately twenty years after he set out to live this radical Gospel lifestyle, and before he died at approximately forty four years of age, thousands of men and women were following in his footsteps.
Presenting a realistic view of the saint, Cunningham, a biographer of Francis argues against common stereotypes that sentimentalize Francis as a “blesser of animals,” as a “church rebel,” or as a precursor of the “spirituality” movement. According to Cunningham, Francis’s originality derived from his success in articulating the “ideal gospel life”: his message and actions were a kind of “acting out” of the scriptures. So, we will miss the point if we just make Francis into a romantic saint; that he was radical follower of Gospel is not to be brushed aside! Francis tells us the same: “Go and put into practice the teaching that you have heard from the Lord.”
Francis leaves behind a prophetic witness to care for creation which is so urgent today more than ever. Pope Francis writes in his encyclical Laudato Si, “I believe that St. Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology.” Ecological conversion is what the world requires today and it has to begin in our individual lives and in our communities. St. Francis loved all of God’s creation; animals and plants, humanity, rocks, wind and the entire universe. For him, all of creation is filled with the abundant goodness of God, manifests the presence of God, and deserves respect and care. Expressing his attitudes through a simple and peaceful lifestyle, Francis models an ecological consciousness that we are all brothers and sisters! Francis admired for his attitude towards creation. Admiration alone bears no results. Concrete actions alone can bring in positive outcome.
We are called on to translate our love for creation into concrete ways of thinking and acting that are more respectful of creation. For example, the document Laudato Si says: “avoiding the use of plastic and paper, reducing water consumption, separating refuse, cooking only what can reasonably be consumed, showing care for other living beings, using public transport or car-pooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, or any number of other practices. Pope Francis continues, we must not think that these efforts are too small to improve our world. They “call forth a goodness which, though small unnoticeable steps, inevitably spread and encourage a prophetic lifestyle. St. Francis calls for a serious examination of conscience and confess our sins against the Creator, against the creation – air, water, earth and for the conversion of hearts and minds.
The celebration of the Feast of St. Francis is an invitation to embrace the legacy that St. Francis leaves behind as he passed away.