This week the church celebrated the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. He has become one of the most popular and best loved of all the saints. Statues of him adorn many garden bird baths and his name is invoked when a yearly blessing is offered to our cats and dogs, birds and rabbits and the occasional police horse!
However, there is much more about this remarkable man that we can admire and try to emulate. Francis was born in about 1181 to a family who had made a great deal of money in the silk trade. He was indulged by his parents – enjoying expensive clothes, rich food and the company of amusing friends. However, disillusionment with the world that surrounded him came fairly early in his life. The story goes that when he was selling cloth on behalf of his father in the marketplace, he was approached by a man in rags asking for help. The contrast between his own charmed life and that of this beggar moved him towards compassion. He gave everything that he had in the business cash box to the man. It did not matter to Francis that his father was livid and his friends mocked him. He had begun to understand something of the Gospel call to see Christ in the poor and powerless.
Like many young men, Francis was fascinated by things military and enlisted in the army. He was involved in a military expedition against Perugia, delighting in the romance of battle, the strategy of campaigning and the camaraderie of other bellicose men. However, the reality and horror of warfare came home to him when he was taken prisoner at Collestrada. He was held captive for over a year in appalling conditions, becoming extremely ill. During his recovery, he spoke about the insanity of resorting to armed conflict as a way of settling a dispute.
These two “conversions” led him to a point where he was ready and willing to change his life completely. He built himself a wooden hut in the hills behind Assisi and attended the little chapel of St Mary of the Angels. One day in February 1208 he was at mass and the Gospel for the day was the commissioning of the twelve from Matthew. Francis immediately saw this as a summons to devote his life to the proclamation of the Kingdom of God. He donned a coarse woollen tunic (the dress then worn by the poorest Umbrian peasants) and tied a knotted rope around himself. He went throughout the countryside exhorting the people to the two things that had become the foundation of his new life – reaching out to love and support those in need and accepting the vital importance of peace. He soon attracted others to his way of life and he built a small community based in the deserted leper colony of Rivo Torto near Assisi. This is now, of course, regarded as the origin of what we now call the Franciscan Order.
May this remarkable man inspire us and pray for us.
Fr. Neil G.
Click here to find the Liturgy at Home for Sunday, October 6, 2024.