October 4, 2007

Feast of Saint Francis

As we celebrate the feast of Saint Francis we have a great deal of joy and gratitude. At the same time, I think all Franciscans feel a tinge of guilt because his life is certainly a tough act to follow! For example, Bl. Bernard of Corleone, a holy and colorful 17th Century Capuchin from Sicily, stated on his death bed, "I have no fear of death itself, but only of our father, Saint Francis!"

Saint Francis certainly has a universal appeal. As you may have picked up from this website, he was indeed a "man of the Passion". His passionate personality has earned him the title of being "the most Italian of saints and most saintly of the Italians!" His natural generosity developed into a supernatural sign of the poor, humble, and totally self-emptying love of Christ. His joy and simplicity have captured a longing in the heart of Christians in every age and place. His response to the Holy Spirit bore fruit more than a hundredfold in renewing the face of the earth.

He has also been misrepresented frequently over the centuries. Particularly unfair are the claims made by the 19th Century Romantics and others in their own time that place him in a rebellious stance against the authority of the Church. His sense of solidarity (brotherhood) with all of God's creatures in no way diminished his sense of the Lord's abiding presence in His Church. He trusted that God's will for his order would be made clear through the Office of Peter. He had a great reverence for priests and encouraged his friars to be deferential to bishops. More than any other topic in his letters he urged everyone to have a greater reverence and care for the Body and Blood of the Lord in their churches.

This is why Pope Leo XII wrote confidently a century ago that "Saint Francis of Assisi was called to reform the Church not in the way other saints had done, nor only for his own time, but for all time to come. Whenever society strays from the right path, no other remedy is needed but to revive the spirit of the orders founded by Saint Francis."

Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
Most Blessed Sacrament Friary
Newark, NJ

(note: reprinted from archives)

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