Editorial

St. Francis of Assisi and personal encounter with Jesus Christ

Tomorrow, Oct. 4, our Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, one of the most popular figures in the pantheon of holy men and women whose lives give witness to Jesus Christ.

Something about this man who gave up everything and embraced a life of prayer, preaching and poverty captures our hearts. We want to embrace him and join with him in praising God and giving thanks for all creation.

St. Francis was a lover and a peacemaker. He was a true proponent of Christian ecology, and he proclaimed the joy of the Gospel in both his words and his actions.

Paradoxically, Francis longed to participate in the sufferings of Christ and so was given the gift of the stigmata—marks corresponding to those left on Jesus’ body by the crucifixion. Francis was a man who was known to be joyful and fun loving, yet he also desired to share our Savior’s pain.

In the person of St. Francis of Assisi, we learn how important it is for every baptized Christian to have a personal encounter with Jesus. Our faith is not primarily a collection of religious teachings or ethical principles. We believe in a person, not a code of conduct, and we trust that our salvation is found not in religious practices, but in surrendering our will and our lives to the one in whom we see the face of God revealed to us individually and in communion with all our sisters and brothers.

The late Pope Francis chose his name out of deep respect for his patron’s love for the poor, his passionate commitment to peace and his reverence for all God’s creation.

In his encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care of Our Common Home,” Pope Francis wrote that God’s creation is like a sister, to be treated with reverence, respect and loving care. God sees everything that he has made as worthy of his love, and he invites us to be responsible stewards of the world we live in, our common home.

In Archbishop Charles C. Thompson’s recently published letter, “Peace and Unity: A Pastoral Reflection,” he writes that “Care for God’s Creation is not simply a political, economic or even scientific cause. It is a profoundly spiritual concern that is deeply rooted in the way we see ourselves and our world in relationship to our Creator.”

The archbishop goes on to say that St. Francis recognized everything as united in God’s family. All things visible and invisible, as we acknowledge in the creed, are one in Christ. The profound insight of St. Francis of Assisi is that all created things are sisters and brothers, members of the one family of God.

Catholic social teaching is rooted in this profound understanding. God saw that everything in creation was good, and he entrusted to our first parents (and all of us) the responsibility for stewardship of everything, especially the Earth, our common home.

Unity and peace are themes that are emerging as prominent in the teaching of our new Holy Father Pope Leo XIV as he carries on the teaching of his predecessor whose namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, was such a powerful witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Archbishop Thompson’s pastoral reflection stresses the value of a personal encounter with Jesus as essential to achieving unity and peace in our personal lives, in our families and in society.

For St. Francis, the words, “Go and repair my Church, which, as you can see, is in ruins” were the spark that ignited his radical commitment to poverty and his passionate embrace of the joy of the Gospel. Francis of Assisi fell in love with Jesus Christ, and he recognized his Lord and Savior in every person he met and in all God’s creatures great and small.

In the Gospel reading for the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, we read:

“At that very moment [Jesus] rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him” (Lk 10:21-22).

St. Francis was a childlike figure who introduced thousands of followers during his lifetime (and millions of people since his death in 1226) to the person of Jesus Christ. Especially during this Jubilee Year of Hope, let’s look to Francis for inspiration and encouragement as we seek to encounter Jesus face-to-face.

—Daniel Conway