St Francis
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
St Francis: 3rd October 2010: 5pm: Revd Alison Camplin
- Galatians 6:14-18
- Matthew 11:25-30
St Francis is one of the most popular and well known of all the saints. He is a guiding light for past generations and for generations to come, a prophet for our day, pointing out to all who dare to imitate him a way to fulfil the great commandment to love God and to love others and to do it all with great passion.
He lived over 800 years ago and I am sure that you have all seen pictures of him surrounded by birds and animals. The prayer that we most associate with him”Lord make me an instrument of your peace” is one of the most popular prayers. St Francis is the patron saint of animal lovers, peacemakers and ecologists. He is known for his work among the poor, the outcasts and marginalized.
This gives St Francis super saint status. Someone who always got it right and we would find it hard to copy the perfect life. But this was not all of St Francis. He was not a person who got it right all the time. Francis was an ordinary person whom God used and worked through. A person who did make mistakes but they did not stop him modelling Christian living in so many ways.
As a young man Francis enjoyed the life style of the wealthy. He enjoyed the parties, adventures and a busy social life. His transformation and conversion did not happen overnight.
Francis disliked anything that was not perfect and especially disliked the smell and sight of lepers that lived outside Assisi. But God was working on him. One day when Francis was riding his horse he encountered a leper begging on the side of the road. Francis immediately jumped off his horse, ran to the leper and kissed him.
After this encounter with the leper Francis had a vision he heard the words of Christ speaking to him. “Build my church” . Francis heard this message and started a building campaign selling his father’s cloth and horse without permission to pay for it. His father was furious and demanded the money back so Francis returned it plus the clothes of his back.
From that day on Francis gave up his wealth and lived among the poor. In his poverty he celebrated life and was filled with constant joy. Francis had nothing…and yet he had everything.
Living among the marginalized Francis learnt about love when he had previously hated, he learnt about forgiveness, He learnt about sacrifice. He learnt what it meant to love others. What stirred Francis to love others was that in everyone’s face he saw the face of God.
Francis encouraged people to live the gospel in their daily lives. People were drawn to the Christ in him. He followed Christ’s example of inclusiveness by ministering to the poor and outcasts of society. He knew that we don’t need great intelligence or education to be close to God. He recognized that there are two Bibles, the written Bible and the Bible of our lives. The Bible stories are meant to connect to our story. They are supposed to come alive as we live them out and not just read them. We remember Francis as being extraordinarily active and deeply contemplative at the same time showing us that there is room for both.
Francis is relevant to us today as much as he was to the people of his own time. He challenges our love of the materialistic world, where the meaning to our life is often measured by the things we own, by the money we make, by the experiences we have. He challenges us to enjoy the simplicity of life and creation and to abandon our lives in complete obedience to something bigger than ourselves. To have an attitude of and practice of profound gratitude and humility equally towards God, and the world.
The prayer, “The Prayer of St. Francis”, is a prayer for a forgiving heart. It is also there in the reading from Matthew. Jesus said “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Many of us work hard to carry our emotional and physical heavy loads. We remember the harm and damage done to us better than the joy and affirmation we have met. We struggle to totally forgive and this causes pain and heart ache. But God has given us spiritual tools to carry those heavy loads of life. We need to ensure that we have the faith to believe that God is with us at all times.
Francis knew what it meant to be yoked to Christ He daily followed the command “come to me” and understood the total peace that comes from forgiving and receiving forgiveness.
Today we celebrate his radical uniqueness as we follow his example to celebrate and know the Good News of Christ, to worship God; serve our world and our community and strive to be instruments of peace.
A challenge Francis has left us with is to serve beyond these four walls and get out into our community. Letting ourselves be open to the Spirit of God working through us. We are Christ hands and feet in our community, expressing the compassion of God throughout creation. To do this we need to be in active relationship with God. Like Francis we will have to risk touching what is unclean, risk the inconvenience of being there for others, risk the financial implications, and risk not hearing a word of gratitude.
On his deathbed over 800 years ago Francis left a final and most important message for us all. He said ’’I have done what is mine to do; May Christ teach you what you are to do.’’
