Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, on the 800th anniversary of his death

Porch on the friars' Sacra Convento
in Assisi. 

 Readings for the Feast of Saint Francis

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Francis with the joyous Spirit of Jesus and his "penitents from Assisi" aroused the Church from its medieval lethargy. Despite some minor challenges from heretical movements, the Roman Catholic Church of the early 13th century held universal authority over all Europe. The reigning pope, Innocent III, has been called the most powerful Pope of all time because the Church wielded enormous religious, political, military, economic, academic, and social power over every institution in Europe. Even the crown of “Holy Roman emperor” meant nothing without the Pope's personal blessing. He could -- and did -- withhold it on occasion.

But Pope Innocent also knew, as any astute politician would know, that corruption ran deeply throughout every layer of the Church's hierarchical leadership, and every phase of Catholic life. Despite the supremacy of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church, the threat of complete collapse was very real. There were heretical threats from within Europe, and militant Islam had already gained control of much territory in Greece and eastern Europe and in the west, the Iberian peninsula. Muslims might soon cross the Pyrenees mountain range into France and northern Europe.

When a seedy, unwashed Assisan appeared in his Vatican audience, Pope Innocent ignored him at first; but suffered a dreadful nightmare that aroused his curiosity. He saw the papal chapel -- the ancient basilica of Saint John Lateran -- tottering and collapsing until a single man began to force its massive walls back into place. The man was Saint Francis. Awakened, Pope Innocent insisted that he be found and brought back to the palace. That was 1209, and Francis requested only one thing – papal permission for him and his friars to live as Jesus had lived -- in poverty and chastity; without money, buildings, or territory. 

Jesus was born in a stable, laid in a manger, driven into Egypt, and brought back to Nazareth when Joseph's hometown of Bethlehem was still too dangerous. After a forty-day sojourn in the wilderness, Jesus took up the life of a homeless preacher. As he said, "Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head." In the end, he was stripped and fastened by nails to a cross, where he died; and was buried in a borrowed grave. 

Francis wanted with all his heart to live like that. He was especially fascinated by the Cross on which the Savior died. If he would follow in the footsteps of Jesus he must also suffer the cross. "This is what I want with all my heart!" he declared.

He adopted a habit which would remind him of the cross when he put it on. He prayed before the San Damiano cross, with its image of a crucified, glorified God. He wept whenever something reminded him of the cross. Even two sticks lying crosswise on the road, or the sight of a lamb among goats, might arouse intense sobbing, weeping, and crying. Finally, two years before he died, Francis received as a gift from heaven the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus Crucified on his hands, feet, and side. They seemed to be God's seal of approval despite their intense pain.

In 1209 the Pope, recognizing the universal corruption and the need for reform in the Church, commissioned mendicant friars to preach wherever the bishops allowed them. And most bishops did because the people recognized the prophetic voice of God in their preaching. The Cross, as Pope Innocent and Saint Paul knew, still leads the Church; and we should boast of nothing else:

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

In this 21st century, 

• as the people of the world face universal warfare with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction; 

• as the demands for power, security, and freedom threaten life on our planet; 

• as we experience an ever-widening catastrophic gap between wealth and poverty; and 

• as we fear the intrusive, manipulative rise of "artificial intelligence:"

Christians must invite the world and all its people to embrace the cross of Jesus Christ for the Lord grants no peace to those who hate his cross; and there is no other sign under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved.” Acts 4:12