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Francis
of Assisi inspired the Church
by taking the gospel literally. He actually did this by
following all that Jesus said and did - with a sense of joy
and without being self-conscious. Serious illness brought
the young Francis to see the emptiness of early pleasure
seeking ways. He prayed hard to understand what Jesus wanted
him to do.
Francis
embraced a leper he met on the road; this symbolised
his complete obedience to what he had heard in prayer: From
the cross in the neglected field-chapel of San Damiano,
Christ told him: "Francis, go out and build up my
house, for it is nearly falling down." And so Francis
became a poor and humble worker. |
He must have suspected a deeper
meaning to "build up my house" but he would have been
content to be the poor worker for the rest of his life actually
putting brick on brick in abandoned chapels. He gave up every material
thing he had, placing his clothes before his father so that he would
be totally free to serve Jesus.
He was considered to be a a bit
of a religious eccentric. He begged from door to door when he could
not get money for his work. He brought sadness or disgust to the
hearts of his former friends and was a laughing stock to others.
He revered nature and preached
to the birds and the animals. A few people gradually began to realise
that this man was actually trying to be Christian. He really the words
of Jesus:: "Proclaim the kingdom! Have no money in your purses,
no travelling bag, no sandals, no staff."
People started to listen to him
and follow his ways and eventually he founded the Franciscan Order.He
was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of
active preaching of the Good News. He decided to preach, but always
returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in
Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both
cases.
He did try to convert the sultan
of Egypt during the Fifth Crusade. During the last few years of his
short life (he died at 44), he was very ill and he received the
stigmata, the wounds of Jesus on the cross.
On his deathbed, he said over
and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun: "Be
praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death." As his moment of death
approached, he asked his superiors to have his clothes removed when
the last hour came and for permission to die lying naked on the earth,
in imitation of his Lord.
Pope John Paul II made him
Patron Saint of the Environment in 1980.
The
Peace Prayer of St Francis
