Saint Francis of Assisi (2001/10/04)

On October 4, we celebrated the feast of one of the most popular saints, -popular among both, Catholics and non-Catholics: St. Francis of Assisi (1181 - 1226). It’s worthwhile to ask ourselves: what is the secret of this popularity, how can we explain his enormous success? Francis was the son of Pietro Bernardone textile merchant, the wealthiest man of the city of Assisi, and of his wife Pica who came from France. The child’s original name was Giovanni, but, because of his French wife, Pietro called his son Francesco, little Frenchman. In his early years, Francis lived the life of a rich young man of his times, was a soldier, fought in the little wars of the city-states, was looking for entertainment, but when in one of those wars he was captured, in his captivity he started to think about the deeper meaning of life. His conversion was not a one-shot event, it was protracted for a couple of years. One night, in a dream, he heard God telling him to rebuild the church. He did not realize that this was a call to renew the big, world-wide church: he thought, he had to reconstruct one of the local church buildings, and when he found such a dilapidated church outside the city, San Damiano, he recruited a number of friends to repair the damaged structure. Then one morning, during Mass, he heard in the gospel reading the words of Jesus in which He sent His disciples to preach, and instructed them not to take with them any money, any traveling bag, any shoes, any staff, any spare clothes. Francis said: “This is what I was looking for!”

He gave up the life of the rich, abandoned everything, left behind all property, he became the “poveretto”, the pauper of God, poverty became his great love: the desire to possess nothing but God. His radicalism worked as a magnet: first just dozens, later hundreds of young men followed him in his life style. Soon a wealthy young girl, Claire came to him begging to make this new way of life available also for women, and so Francis started his “second order”, the female branch called “the poor Claires”. From here on, there was no stopping of the growth: the Pope, Innocent III, approved his rules, and soon the Franciscan Order became the largest religious order of the Christian world.

If we ask, what was the secret of this phenomenal success, we can answer the question saying: the paradoxes of his life made him and his teaching so irresistibly attractive. Paradoxes are an essential part of Jesus’ good news: the last will be the first, the lowly will be lifted up, the dead will rise, the defeated will ultimately conquer. Several of such paradoxes were realized in Francis’s career, - we can find in his short life at least five of them

1. he became poor, owned absolutely nothing beyond the sackcloth on his back and the rope around his waist, - and, as a result, he became the richest man of the world: the entire universe belonged to him;

2. he left everything and everybody behind, he became free as a bird, - and, as a result, he attracted everybody to himself, everyone wanted to share in his freedom;

3. he was a rebel, boldly going against all the conventions of his times, - and yet, he was humble and obedient, and subjected himself to church authority;

4. he suffered a great deal during his life, not only from the poverty (which he did not mind) but also from the infighting of his Franciscan brothers, from lack of understanding, from physical illness, - and yet, he always radiated joy, and his philosophy was exactly that true joy can be found only in misfortune;

5. he lived as a madman, as a person who lost his mind, someone whose way of life goes against all common sense and human reason, - an yet, he proved, that his was the only reasonable life style

Ultimately we can say that Francis’s secret was his universal, all-encompassing love which did not exclude anything or anyone: it extended to the whole world, and that’s why his personality worked as a magnet, drawing everyone to himself, not only people but even animals: birds listened to his preaching, he made a deal with a wolf, and wrote a wonderful ode to the entire universe, including the “Brother Sun” and the “Sister Moon”.

Francis lived truly as if Jesus had come back to the Italian province of Umbria in the 13th century. Jesus approved this similarity with the special gift that, toward the end of his earthly life, He imprinted on the body of Francis His own five wounds, the stigmata.

Let’s try to learn from Francis: let’s realize the relative value of earthly riches, - and let’s draw from it the practical consequences; let’s try to practice his universal love by excluding nobody from the circle of our care and consideration; let’s try to make Jesus present on the spot where we live: in our homes, in our workplaces, in the school.

Amen.

Rev. Julius Leloczky, O.Cist