By Fr Glen Fernandes, OFM –
The “Canticle of the Sun”, also known as the “Canticle of the Creatures” or “Laudes Creaturarum” (“Praise of the Creatures”), is a religious song composed by Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis’ turning to God unfolded and he was gripped by the fact of the Incarnation, nature became holy for him. He was enthralled by God’s presence in the created order. Francis calls out to all of creation as brother and sister, revealing the core of the Franciscan worldview: that God is the source of all being; that the Creator God is the Parent; that all creatures therefore are brother and sister to one another; hat everything deserves love and respect.
Francis saw God in everything and so do we. We look upon the earth with humility and with an open and grateful heart, aware of the divine goodness in all things.
Herein lies Francis’ true humility, that all living creatures, the air they breathe, the water they drink, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, are regarded by him as brothers and sisters. All creation is precious and valued, all elements and beings are sibling children of the loving Father God, and no one creature is superior to others.
In the Canticle of Brother Sun St Francis articulated in words the theology which determined how he lived, in loving relationship to God the Creator, the incarnate Son – his Brother Christ, the creation and its creatures.
By his use of the titles Brother and Sister, Francis gave literary expression to that belief in the unity and equality of all creation which impelled him to live in such a way that he would be forever remembered for his love and compassion shown to wolves, birds and wild flowers, trees and stones.
For me, the most significant feature of the Canticle of Brother Sun is the way in which it expresses, through the use of the titles ‘Sister’ and ‘Brother’, Francis’ perception of his own – and all others’ – relationships at the deepest level with all ‘creatures’, that is everything that is created whether animate or inanimate. He saw plainly the interdependence of those creaturely sibling relationships, and how that inter-dependence was part of the all-embracing love of God who relates both to the whole family of creation and also to each individual member.
LIGHT: Jesus Himself says in John 8:12 that He is the light of the world and in John 9:5 that as long as He is in the world, He is the light of the world. As the creature with Whom the Most High is ‘especially’ praised, Sir Brother Sun occupies a special place between creation and the Creator. As the One Who ‘bears a likeness’ of ‘ the ‘Most High’, in radiance and splendour, He is, ‘the image of the invisible God’ as in Colossians 1:15. As the One ‘through Whom’ God gives us light, Brother Sun can be recognised as the truth that enlightens our minds (Jn 14:6), the Mediator (1Tim 2:5) between God and creation.
CONCLUSION: We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos. I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea. My soul knows that I am part of the human race, my soul is an organic part of the great human soul, as my spirit is part of my nation. In my own very self, I am part of my family. There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters.
Ecological Conversion: As well as being a model for interpersonal conversion, I think The Canticle provides direction for human beings in relation to the rest of creation, pointing us towards an ecological conversion. I would like to focus on the stanza concerning ‘our Sister Mother Earth’ in this context. ‘Praised be you, my Lord, through our Sister Mother Earth, 9 who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruit with colored flowers and herbs.’
St. Francis of Assisi: Why He’s the Patron of Ecology
The saint who composed the Canticle of the Creatures, preached to the birds and prayed in the woods can teach us about caring for creation.
Francis recognized, ,that the world of God and the world of nature are one. Francis did not build an artificial wall between the natural world and the supernatural, the secular and the sacred. For Francis, every creature was sacred. The world in which he lived was not something evil to be rejected but a sacred ladder by which he could ascend to his Creator, as his biographer St. Bonaventure noted more than once.
St. Francis of Assisi addressed creatures as “sisters” and “brothers,” that is, as equals, not as subjects to be dominated.
Pope John Paul II proclaimed St. Francis of Assisi the patron of ecology in 1979. The pope cited him for being “an example of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation…. “St. Francis,” he added, “invited all creation—animals, plants, natural forces, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon— to give honor and praise to the Lord.”
Francis of Assisi is honored by the Catholic Church as the patron saint of people who promote ecology.The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.
Picture Courtesy: Sisters of St Francis