by Father James Rodriguez
Eight hundred years ago yesterday, a man nicknamed Francesco died. Unremarkable in the ways that don’t really matter, this simple man renounced wealth and influence during the prime of his youth. He found the pearl of great price and never looked back.
There are many stories, miracles, and quotes attributed to him, but his life as a whole has captivated people for exactly eight centuries, and today we join the universal Church in honoring St. Francis of Assisi. Most will be celebrating the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, but the significance of this 800th anniversary led Bishop Robert Brennan to allow us the option to celebrate this great saint’s feast day with Sunday prayers and readings. To that end, we will look at Micah 6:6-8, Psalm 16, Galatians 6:14-18, and Matthew 11:25-30.
The prophet Micah offers us a glimpse into God’s heart with breathtaking simplicity. We often look up to the saints for the marvels they perform, and rightly so, but what look like peaks to our untrained eyes are really punctuation marks on humble lives built on love of God and neighbor. These remarkable people made the daily choice to love, which led them to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with the King of humility, the Lord whom they allowed to shape their lives.
The humility of St. Francis was not merely external, his tattered robes and renunciation of earthly wealth, but interior. He is well known for his love of nature, but his greatest love was the supernatural gift of the Eucharist. He stared with awe as the hands of priests consecrated the bread and wine, the true sacrifice acceptable to the Lord.
He saw with the eyes of faith what the Psalmist calls my chosen portion and cup …because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Indeed, all the saints remind us that there is a world beyond that which we take in with our senses, and the more we seek it, the more we find and inhabit the kingdom of God.
For today’s second reading, we take up St. Paul’s farewell to the Galatians. He speaks of the fading allure of this world in light of the truer, deeper world to come. His heart carried a love for Christ that determined the very direction of his life and set the pattern for every missionary saint to follow. St. Francis did not travel far, but the Gospel shook him to the core, and its impact was far-reaching. He was one of a privileged few to bear the stigmata, or the marks of the crucified Christ, like his spiritual son Padre Pio would 700 years later. It is unclear if St. Paul had them as well, but in the reading he makes a passing reference to the marks of Jesus branded on my body. All Christians are called in some way to do that, to resemble the suffering Christ in the way we live.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus gives thanks for simple souls like Francis, infants … to whom the Son chooses to reveal the Father. Jesus invites us all to come to him with our burdens, and live the spiritual poverty that made St. Francis great.
May we heed his words, for he is truly our God and our all.
Father James Rodriguez reflects on the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s death and how his humility, faith and love of the Eucharist still speak to Catholics today.