On October 4, our Church celebrates the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis is 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.
Saint 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 Saint 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’, Pope Francis writes 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.
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 and 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, Saint Francis of Assisi, was such a powerful witness to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. For Saint 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.
Saint 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
