On the 4th October, much of the Christian family celebrates the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the saint for whom our chaplaincy building was named.
Born in around 1181, Saint Francis lived in the Umbrian town of Assisi. The playboy son of a silk merchant, he experienced the slow turning of his heart towards God until one day, while praying in front of a crucifix in a tumbled down church he heard God command him to ‘repair my house.’ At first, he took the instruction literally and set about rebuilding the church building, even taking cloth from his father’s store to fund the project. For this he was punished. In an act of renunciation, he stripped off his all his clothes before the Bishop and assembled company – relinquishing his father’s patrimony to live the Gospel as a beggar and travelling troubadour. He became an inspiration to those who had ears to hear his stories and songs, gathering followers who wished to live the Gospel as he did. They became the Order of Friars Minor. St Clare, a wealthy young lady who was also inspired by Francis’s teaching, left her home and with Francis began a women’s order that became known as the ‘Poor Clares’.
Francis has inspired generations of men and women around the world. In Franciscan theology Christ is not some kind of afterthought, or rescue package for sinful humanity, but instead was always part of the plan. All creation began in Christ. And because creation began in Christ, all of creation is from goodness. As one of his followers, St Bonaventure, said of Francis:
In things of beauty, he contemplated the One who is supremely beautiful, and, led by the footprints he found in creatures, he followed the Beloved everywhere.
Francis was not dazzled by fame, power or wealth, rather, he thought that they dulled our senses to the wonder and beauty of the world and to the needs of the poor and the vulnerable. And that was tragedy. It stopped us from seeing that all of creation was the outpouring of God’s abundance and love; that we belong to the same family as ‘Brother Sun’ and ‘Sister Moon’ as well as our sibling flora and fauna.
Perhaps it has been in this forgetting that we have lost sight of our duty of care for the earth, for our brother plants and sister animals, as well as our human brothers and sisters. As we remember Francis, I pray that we may all follow the Beloved, alive to the glorious, overflowing abundance of God’s love.
Pax et Bonum
Sharon - Anglican Chaplain