10/4/2013 – St Francis of Assisi – Friday of 26th week in Ordinary Time – Luke 10:13-16

      This first week of October, we’ve had an interesting week in our daily masses in celebrating some important saints who have made significant contributions to our Catholic faith.  Monday, we celebrated St Jerome, a hermit, theologian, and Scripture scholar from the 4^th century.  Tuesday, we recognized Therese of Lisieux, a 19^th century Carmelite nun who died at the age of 24, but is now a Doctor of the Church and a patron saint of the missions.  We end the week with St Francis of Assisi, one of the most popular saints of any age. I was reading an article about St Francis that said that he is much more than a popular lawn ornament. I think we tend to domesticate and tone down the saints, making them these quaint, pious examples of faith and ignoring their flaws, their true radical nature, and the true reality of their lives.  It is well-known that Francis lived a very wealthy pampered life, but then an encounter with a leper while one a journey changed his life and helped him look at God in a different way.  He started giving away his worldly riches and proclaimed a very radical Christian message that got back to a lot of the heart of Christ’s teachings. The way he saw God in all creation, the way he reached out to the poor, his love for animals – many people of our modern world can relate to a Franciscan spirituality.  In fact, in 1986, when Pope John Paul II called a peace conference of world religious leaders, he held it in Assisi, the hometown of Francis. Jesus wishes woe of those cities in today’s Gospel who did not recognize God’s presence in his miraculous deeds or the truth contained in his proclamation of God’s kingdom. Today, we can also recognize that if we do not see ourselves as stewards of the earth’s resources, if we don't recognize God in the beauty of creation, a message that was carried by Francis of Assisi, then perhaps we are denying Jesus in the same way that the towns in the Gospel did. When Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, Argentina became pope earlier this year, he had a special place in his heart and his ministry for the poor, for the disenfranchised, for those living on the fringes and facing injustice, which is why he chose his name for pope after Francis of Assisi.  For so many throughout the world, both Catholics and non-Catholics alike, that name symbolizes poverty, humility, simplicity and a rebuilding the Catholic Church. We have a lot to learn from Francis of Assisi.  And I have a feeling we are going to learn a lot from Pope Francis as well.