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A meditation on our patron Saint by the Very Rev. Fr. Austin McCormack, OFM, Spiritual Director of the Guild.
Imagine you had everything: money, clothes, fast cars, holidays abroad, lots of friends - and then suddenly found that having all these things did not bring you happiness. If you can imagine this, then you can imagine something about St Francis of Assisi. Francis had everything but the one thing he did not have was happiness.
Most people know that St Francis was rich but became poor; that he gave up everything to follow God; and that he loved animals. The question is, how did he change, or more importantly, why?
Francis himself says that the decisive moment came when he met a leper. Now, the lepers of St Francis' time were treated much the same as the lepers of Jesus' time - everyone hated them, despised them, feared them. They were outcasts, what we would call today "non-people". Francis hated them too and could not bear the site or smell of them; they made him sick and he was afraid of catching their disease. There was a leprosarium just outside his home town of Assisi - and he used to drive three miles around the town in order to avoid passing it. The fine, trend, hip and cool Francis did not even want to smell a leper, let alone see one.
But things do not always work the way we plan. One day while riding, Francis got off his horse. Nothing strange about that, except he got off his horse so that he could embrace a leper!!
What??
Yes, so that he could embrace a leper. So that he could actually take into his arms that thing he despised and hated most.
Why would he do this? Sometimes it is hard to tell why we do anything, save to say that Francis was impelled to do it, he had to do it. He had to do it because his life was changing. There was a slow process of change beginning in St Francis - and it began with this embrace of the leper.
After this embrace the lepers were no longer hateful to him. He left his rich lifestyle and dedicated himself to them. He actually lived among the lepers, he worked with them and for them and as he did so he learned. He learned about sacrifice, he learned about forgiveness, and he learned about love. Nothing was the same any more. Francis says that what was once a disgusting sight for him, became something sweet. In a sense, when the leper embraced Francis he changed his whole life; what was important was other people and their needs and their suffering and how best Francis might love them in all that hurt and pain.
The young Francis (he was in his early 20's when this happened) discovered something that afternoon: that God and only God was the richness worth having and if it meant giving up everything that Francis originally thought was riches, then so be it. This is exactly what he did. So in a sense, in having nothing, Francis had everything. He had that intimacy with God and creation to such an extent that he could cheerfully and deeply call Jesus his Brother and God his Father.
We can reflect on St Francis' meeting with the leper and say "Thank God for the leper", for without that great moment in his life, St Francis would never have been known to millions of people the world over as someone who loved God, loved the poor and loved creation. |
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