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 Francesco
or 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 literally living the Gospel.
Today, over
800 years later, people are still inspired by St. Francis of Assisi,
because we still need to be inspired. 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. They usually become renowned all over the world because they
inspire. They 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 in India at least, spend a lot of their time
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.
Some time back I was 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.
Let me finish with this prayer which I always find helpful when I find myself getting cynical about the world around us.
Anyway
From a sign on the wall
of
Shishu Bhavan,
the children’s home
in Calcutta.
People are
unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them
anyway.
If you do
good people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good
anyway.
If you are
successful you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed
anyway.
The good you
do will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good
anyway.
Honesty and
frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and
frank anyway.
What you
spent years building, may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really
need help, but may attack you if you help them.
Help people
anyway.
Give the
world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You
see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It
was never between you and them anyway.
(from the book, ‘A
Simple Path’)
Your
light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds
and
glorify your heavenly Father.
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