On Oct. 4, our Church celebrated the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most popular figures in the pantheon of holy men and women whose lives give witness to Jesus Christ.
Something about this man — who gave up everything and embraced a life of prayer, preaching, and poverty — captures our hearts. We want to embrace him and join with him in praising God and giving thanks for all Creation.
St. Francis was a lover and a peacemaker. He was a true proponent of Christian ecology, and he proclaimed the joy of the Gospel in both his words and his actions.
At the same time, St. Francis longed to participate in the sufferings of Christ and, so, was given the gift of the stigmata — marks corresponding to those left on Jesus’ body by the crucifixion. Paradoxically, Francis was a man who was known to be joyful and fun-loving, yet he also desired to share our Savior’s pain.
In the person of St. Francis of Assisi, we learn how important it is for every baptized Christian to have a personal encounter with Jesus. Our faith is not primarily a collection of religious teachings or ethical principles — as important as these are.
We believe in a person, not a code of conduct, and we trust that our salvation is found not simply in religious practices, but in surrendering our will and our lives to the One in whom we see the face of God revealed to us individually and in communion with all our sisters and brothers.
St. Francis recognized everything as united in God’s family. In the Creed, we acknowledge that all things visible and invisible are one in Christ, and the profound insight of St. Francis of Assisi is that all created things are sisters and brothers, united as members of the one family of God.
Catholic social teaching is rooted in this profound understanding. God saw that everything in creation was good, and he entrusted to our first parents (and all of us) the responsibility for stewardship of everything, especially the earth, our common home.
St. Francis of Assisi was a powerful witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. For St. Francis, the words, “Go and repair my church, which, as you can see, is in ruins” were the spark that ignited his radical commitment to poverty and his passionate embrace of the joy of the Gospel. He fell in love with Jesus Christ, and he recognized his Lord and Savior in every person he met and in all God’s creatures great and small.
St. Francis was a childlike figure who introduced thousands of followers during his lifetime (and millions of people since his death in 1226) to the person of Jesus Christ. Especially during this Jubilee Year of Hope, let’s look to Francis for inspiration and encouragement as we seek to encounter Jesus face-to-face.
Daniel Conway, a member of Holy Trinity Church, is a writer, consultant and stewardship educator.
