Yesterday was St Francis’ Day. As a Franciscan, my rule of life asks me to do various things like live a simple life and to preach one sermon per year on St Francis or the Franciscans.
Francis is one of the most popular of the great saints. People who don’t know much about other saints will have heard of St Francis of Assisi and his friendship with all of God’s creation, by reading some of the many books written about him or seeing some of the many films made of his life.
He was the son of a wealthy fabric merchant and never had to do a day’s work in his life. With his similarly rich friends, he had a great life, painting the town red: he was completely selfish.
He joined the army when war broke out and got a fever which nearly killed him. He began to think about how pointless his life was and started to pray. He had a vision where the figure of Jesus on the cross came to life and called on Francis to “Rebuild my church”. He thought this meant a little broken-down chapel in the valley nearby Assisi, and when he was well, he began to rebuild it with his own hands. To finance the work he sold off a deal of his father’s stock of cloth. His father caught him, charged him and disowned his son.
The Francis realised that God was rather calling him to devote all his youthful energy & talents to rebuild the church to what it was before it became worldly and rich. The HS truly converted him and he devoted himself to a simple life of poverty dedicated to serving the poor – both those who had nothing of the world’s good things, and those who didn’t realise their need of God. His lifestyle transformed the church.
He wrote plays and acted them out. He composed music & poetry such as “Make me an instrument of your peace” and the Canticle of the sun which has come down to us as the hymn ”All creatures of our God and King” (AMR). He invented the Christmas Carol service and Nativity Plays which we now take for granted.
Within 3 years he gained 5,000 followers of his new way of poverty, chastity and obedience, all wearing the simple brown tunic and living a Gospel life of faith and simplicity. In the process he made many enemies, especially those who were getting rich within the church. But uncountable thousands besides those who joined him, discovered the joy of putting Christ’s principles into practice in their own lives. He was truly rebuilding the church as Christ had challenged him.
The church, as well as society, always needs such a challenge. People today are longing for a living faith, to be delivered from a sick and violent society, for an escape from corruption, self-indulgence, hypocrisy and double-standards. In a way, we all long to be Franciscans. We long for our own renewal, and the renewal of church and society.
Not all of us are called to be set apart as monks and nuns like St Francis. But we can try to adapt his ideals – which are the ideals of the Gospel and our Lord Jesus Christ – to our own situations. Our whole church and society needs the Franciscan challenge and new life in the Spirit. We can all try harder in the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the church. Jesus says to us just as much as he did to St Francis “Rebuild my church”. Amen.
