Many Catholics and even non-Catholics have heard of St. Francis of Assisi. The saint clearly has a strong presence in popular culture as director Franco Zeffirelli's motion picture "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" proves. In this scene Francis discovers the Chapel of San Damiano, which God commands him to rebuild.
At first, he thought the Lord was asking him to fix the dilapidated chapel. In time, he realized the command was to rebuild the Church, the people of God, that was suffering amidst scandal and power struggles and crusades:
Roberto Rossellini along with Federico Fellini who co-wrote the script were also inspired by the life of Francis of Assisi. They created the film "Flowers of St. Francis". During this scene the saint meets and hugs a leper. This simple act changes his life to one of acceptance and love for all.
The two scenes give us only a taste of what it means to live life the Franciscan way.
Therefore on October 4th - the Feast of St. Francis - we have the opportunity to better understand il poverello. His life and his spirituality turn out to be strikingly relevant to our 21st century lives. A follower of Christ, Francis strove to imitate Him as much as possible
with particular devotion to the poor humble Christ and Christ crucified. Francis was enamored with the humility of God in becoming incarnate and the charity of God in choosing to save us from our sin.
Such devotion lead to a life of being humble, charitable, and detached from all material things (as this clip outlining Francis' life from the Liliana Cavani film "Francesco" demonstrates):
Imagine how these ideals of humility, charity and poverty can be applied to our lives today.
For Francis, the only thing we can call "our own" is our sin. Everything good is a gift of God. With such a perspective in a consumerist culture, we can look at things differently. Instead of gloating about some physical object, we can thank God for His blessing, and use the object to help others less fortunate than ourselves. Or perhaps when we are in the mall ready to shop we can put down whatever is in our hand, ask ourselves if we really need it, and then if we actually do not need it, walk out of the mall and rejoice about the beauty of the natural world.
Francis and Creation
Yet our world is fraught with violence and hatred. St. Francis of Assisi - by imitating Christ - worked for a world dominated only by love. Sarah McLachlan's song "Prayer of St. Francis" emphasizes how necessary the power of love is in today's world:
Besides influencing our individual behavior through his spirituality, Francis also influenced the way we function as communities. In the term community one includes all of creation. Francis believed that we are brothers and sisters not only to our siblings or even other human beings
but to every creature especially the most poor and vulnerable and to every object created by God. He outlined this idea in The Canticle of the Creatures.
We must naturally also care for one another, aiming to create a stronger, more interconnected community. Franciscan Friars and Sisters and Secular Franciscans today attempt to create stronger bonds of community by living fraternally and seeing Christ in one another. Francis' early followers were very attracted to this sort of loving, egalitarian lifestyle. They worked to make sure that everyone in their midst was well and not in need. In our world, the need is great.
Internationally, there is a lot of work left to be done towards creating a community from the entire human family. Francis has already laid the foundations for this unified human family. He had never believed in war, preferring dialogue instead. In 1219 while on a pilgrimage in Egypt, he met Sultan Malik-al-Kamil. The two men talked about their faiths openly and without pressure. They learned from one another. Dialogue, after all, leads to understanding "the other". It breaks down stereotypes and brings the Franciscan ideal of universal fraternity one step closer to reality.
