Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi
Walking into a room recently, I was struck when the person greeted me with the question "Can you sin when you look at me?" Many things struck me all at once. Is the person perceiving something in how I am looking at this person? Did they have something they needed to get off their chest? In sharing that I try to only see Christ in the person, he probed further wondering if there was a sin that I was carrying that I needed to share. In reflecting for the readings today, this interchange came to mind immediately.
A quote attributed to St. Francis, “Preach the gospel always if necessary use words”, reminds us that lessons can be learned from our actions and even our emotions can communicate without saying anything. The king simply looked at his servant and new that something was wrong. The kings perception led him into a journey with his servant that granted him permission and helped to return in his homeland and rebuild around the place of his ancestors burial. The servant laid everything on the line in order to rebuild the temple.
Rebuilding can also be a transformative process that might seem more like forsaking. The gospel demands that in order to be a true disciple one must leave everything behind freeing oneself to move forward. If we look at the life of St. Francis we see a person who took these words today very seriously, to the point where he renounced everything he had a presented himself naked to the bishop.
Our response is probably more like: “what do you mean I can’t finish my very long to do list before I follow you Lord?” Following the Lord completely does not mean that everything we are doing or have must be given up. Certainly there is room for this radical approach, and indeed it led Deacon Francis to follow Christ in a way that drew many to the Lord, even his friends and family thought he was being foolish.
The challenge of the readings is that we are to help rebuild the church with a simplicity of heart that puts the Lord first in all the ways we think, talk, and act. Lord reveal to us a way in which you are calling each us to make your Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
- Deacon Michael Montgomery
Thank you Fr. John Turnbull, O.F.M