Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Francis, the 13th century saint who did much more in his life than he’s usually remembered for. He worked in a leper hospital. He wrote hymns, including our hymn for today. He founded and administered what even in his lifetime became a large religious organization, the order of the Franciscans. He built and repaired small struggling churches. He even fought in the crusades before his conversion, an experience that inspired his message of peace and non-violence.
So there’s much more to St. Francis’ life than his love for animals, and yet these are the stories that move us the most - stories like how he once stopped along the road so he could teach a large flock of birds how to praise God. How he called animals his brothers and sisters. Perhaps the most famous one is the story of St. Francis and the wolf in which he persuaded a wolf living just outside the small town of Gubbio to stop harassing the townspeople, and, for their part, taught the people a few lessons about how to love animals. He is also supposed to have staged the first live manger scene to help people better understand the Christmas story. And finally, according to his earliest biographer, his donkey wept at his death.
I’m not sure but what St. Francis himself might be a bit surprised that he’s remembered for these stories rather than for his other achievements. But to me, that says as much about us as it does about him - us, and our need to hear someone telling us we’re not the center of things. That there’s a whole world full of creatures that God delights in quite apart from us.
Plenty of Christians over the years have talked as if we’re far more important to God than everything else that exists, and, even worse, that we can do what we want with God’s creation. But, thankfully, every now and then saints like Francis come along and put us in our place - right alongside the birds, wolves, donkeys, dogs, cats, hamsters, squirrels, turtles, whatever other animals we might have here today - and all creatures great and small.
So today we give thanks for them, and for the life of this gentle, humble soul, St. Francis.
So there’s much more to St. Francis’ life than his love for animals, and yet these are the stories that move us the most - stories like how he once stopped along the road so he could teach a large flock of birds how to praise God. How he called animals his brothers and sisters. Perhaps the most famous one is the story of St. Francis and the wolf in which he persuaded a wolf living just outside the small town of Gubbio to stop harassing the townspeople, and, for their part, taught the people a few lessons about how to love animals. He is also supposed to have staged the first live manger scene to help people better understand the Christmas story. And finally, according to his earliest biographer, his donkey wept at his death.
I’m not sure but what St. Francis himself might be a bit surprised that he’s remembered for these stories rather than for his other achievements. But to me, that says as much about us as it does about him - us, and our need to hear someone telling us we’re not the center of things. That there’s a whole world full of creatures that God delights in quite apart from us.
Plenty of Christians over the years have talked as if we’re far more important to God than everything else that exists, and, even worse, that we can do what we want with God’s creation. But, thankfully, every now and then saints like Francis come along and put us in our place - right alongside the birds, wolves, donkeys, dogs, cats, hamsters, squirrels, turtles, whatever other animals we might have here today - and all creatures great and small.
So today we give thanks for them, and for the life of this gentle, humble soul, St. Francis.
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