Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - FEAST OF OUR HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
[Job 9:1-12, 14-16 and Luke 9:57-62]Foxes have dens and birds of th e sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.
Around the country, perhaps around the world, people will bring their pets or animals to have them blessed on this feast of St. Francis. He is certainly a universal figure. In churches we will sing, "Make me a channel of your peace....." or "The Canticle of the Sun" or something attributable to St. Francis. The charism of the Franciscan family is based on poverty - detachment from material possessions, perhaps even from certain spiritual ones. While this may fit the picture in the motion picture, BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON, with its dramatic scene of Francis stripping before the local bishop, it has an impact in our modern culture that can be very challenging indeed. What culture could be more materialistic than the one we live in here in the United States? Francis' poverty is not simply material. Nor is it a hatred of that which is material. It represents the priority of God and the danger of idolatry of that which is material wealth. The garden statue of St. Francis may be decorative but it represents a person who has nothing left to him/her but God's creation! True poverty should not be romanticized. It should be recognized and redressed. The Franciscan charism is freely chosen and is lived in solidarity with the truly poor. Those who intentionally follow in the footsteps of St. Francis as members of the Franciscan Family serve as reminders to the rest of us of the social nature of poverty. No matter what they and rest of us "give up" we must still act on behalf of the poor, and not act as if we are poor. Behind all the fuzzy romanticism that devotion to St; Francis includes, is the hard reality of the economically and physically poor. If we miss this on his feast day, we miss the meaning of his life. AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
68 ms
4
