Every so often the Lord raises up men
and women who live their faith in an exceptional way. It
usually seems to be at a time when people really need to be inspired
and often when the Church is in crisis. At the end of the 13th
century God called a man called Francis, to live in a
radically different way. He was from a town called Assisi in
Italy. Francis was from a wealthy family, but he felt that God
was calling him to leave everything and follow him and so he did.
To the horror of his father who strongly objected, Francis renounced
everything and in front of everyone he stripped off all his clothes
and any belongings he had and went off to live on his own as a poor
man, living only for God. Soon afterwards while he was praying
alone in a broken down church he felt God speaking to him from the
cross and saying, ‘Francis, rebuild my Church, which as you can see
is falling down.’ So Francis started to collect stones and
reconstruct that building. However, God had a much bigger
project in mind. God was talking about the whole Church. Around
the same time pope Innocent III had a dream of a poor man holding up
the Church which was collapsing. It was a sign of the role that
Francis was going to play.
Not long after Francis began to live in
radical poverty others began to see the kind of simple way of life
that he was living, one by one they began to join him. They
spent their time looking after the sick, the lepers, praying
together, preaching the Gospel and most importantly… inspiring
people by the way they lived. Eventually when they had been
living this way for a while Francis went to Rome to get permission
for this new group to officially become a Religious Order. When
some of the bishops were discussing this with the pope one of them
said, ‘It is not possible to live in this kind of extreme way.’
But one of the others pointed out that if it wasn’t possible to
live that way, then it wasn’t possible to live the Gospel, since
all he was doing was living the Gospel literally. So Francis was granted permission to form this new Order called the Friars Minor. Our current Pope Francis took his name after this wonderful saint.
Today, over 800 years later, people are
still inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, because we still need to be
inspired. Through people like Francis God continues to help us look beyond our own immediate needs and reminds us that the world is not just about me. There have been others like him too, a modern day
example being Mother Teresa of Calcutta, soon to be St. Teresa of
Calcutta. What is especially important about these people is
not so much the work they do as the effect that has on others.
These kind of people usually become renowned all over the world because they
inspire us and we need to be inspired. Otherwise there is the danger that we just become cynical and no longer make an effort to improve our world. People such as Francis and Mother Teresa preach about God by the way they live more than
by anything they could say. St. Francis of Assisi had the
lovely saying, ‘Let us go and preach the Gospel and if necessary,
use words.’
The Missionaries of Charity (the Order founded by Mother Teresa) spend a lot of their time in India at
least, bringing people in off the street
who are dying. They clean them up as best they can and allow
them to die with dignity. Most of these people would be Hindu
or Muslim, but they don’t try to convert them. That is not
what they are called to. They are called to bring the love of
God where they find themselves among the poorest of the poor.
In fact they really say more about their faith in God by what they do
than by anything they could say.
There is a story of one man
they found who was in a particularly bad way. It took them
several hours to clean him up and then he said to them: ‘All my
life I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going
to die like an angel, loved and cared for.’ Mother Teresa went on
to say: ‘It was so wonderful to see the greatness of a man who
could speak like that, who could die like that, without blaming
anybody, without cursing anybody, without comparing anything. Like an
angel - that is the greatness of our people.’
In the first reading today we are
called to look out for those around us who are in need and there are
always plenty around us in need, often hidden. Looking after those who are in need is how we shine. By doing this we point to God who has inspired us. Recently I got
talking to a man in Sarasota who is homeless. He told me that
he had served in the military, he had also done time in prison and
now he was homeless. He also said: ‘You know doing time in
prison is one thing, but trying to survive on the streets of Sarasota
is quite another.’ It’s not what you would expect.
While helping the poor materially is really important, respecting the
dignity of each person is just as important. The way we look
after people and treat people is how we tell the world what we
believe in. It is not even about giving great amounts; it is
about giving what we can with great love and treating those around us
with great respect, whether we like them or not and regardless of
what they believe in. That is how we tell others about God.
Your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.
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