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| The Portiuncla, where St. Francis began his work. |
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 ended up having a show-down with his father in front of everyone on the street. His father gave him an ultimatum. So Francis stripped off all his clothes and walked away naked. Any belongings he had he gave away 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 and 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. And so he was given permission for his order, which he called the Order of Friars Minor, better known as the Franciscans. Today there are over 12400 priests and religious throughout the world.
You might wonder what difference could one man make, in a little known town in Italy, to the whole Church, which was going through a time of terrible corruption. But what he did was inspire, which is more important than any physical work that he did.
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 St. Teresa of Calcutta. What is especially important about these people is not so much the work they do, as the effect they have 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. The saying, ‘Let us go and preach the Gospel and if necessary, use words,’ is attributed to St. Francis.
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The Missionaries of Charity in India at least, spend a lot of their time bringing people in off the streets 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 wherever they find themselves, among the poorest of the poor. They 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 of people 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 love and treating those around us with great respect, whether we like them or not and regardless of what they believe in, where they come from, even if they are legal or not. The first thing we are called to do is to take care of the person standing in front of us. The political side comes second. That is how we tell others about God.
In this Gospel Jesus says, ‘You are the light of the world… the salt of the earth.’ When we live by the teachings of Jesus, we give hope to the people around us, because we show them that they are not forgotten. We become a light in the middle of a world of darkness and selfishness, which tells us only to take care of ourselves. Our world tells us that the only one who matters is me, that I am satisfied and have all I want. God teaches us the opposite. It is not all about me, it is about giving of myself to others. There is nothing wrong with having wealth. In fact it is a great blessing, but the Lord expects us to use it properly.
Think of how small grains of salt are and yet they can bring out the flavor of a meal. They affect their surroundings. We affect our surroundings, for better or worse. Is my focus only on myself and my family? If it is, I am not living the Gospel. That doesn’t mean we have to give away everything we have, but the Lord is telling us that we must also remember those around us who are in need. When we have enough, God is giving us the opportunity to share with others and if we don’t, we will be asked why we ignored them, because we are accountable for our actions and for using all that God has given us. ‘Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me’ (Matt 25:40). If we ignore the needs of those around us, we are ignoring Jesus. His words.
You may argue, ‘I worked hard for my money.’ I’m sure you did, but who gave you the intelligence, the opportunities, the health, the success?
Last week I was talking to a good friend of mine, who is quite wealthy. He was telling me that he had given away a large amount of money to a particular university. He said he couldn’t get over how much joy it gave him to do that. Not many people are in a position to do that, but that’s not the point. The point is that all of us can do a certain amount and we have an obligation to do so.
I’d like to finish with this prayer which sums theis message:
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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