CALLED TO BE REBUILDERS

by Fr. Andrew Apostoli, C.F.R.

This may come as a surprise to many people, but I believe there are great similarities between the age of Saint Francis and our own. I don't mean to imply that the "little poor man from Assisi" or any of his contemporaries knew anything like our "high-tech" society. Computer chips, jumbo jets, and microwaves were yet to be thought of, let alone invented. What I do mean, however, are the similarities which exist in the broad strokes of human experience. Technology has changed, human nature has not.

Saint Francis lived in a time of many changes in society. Social classes and economics were developing differently through the emergence of a powerful new class of merchants, which sapped the nobility of their traditional position of power and prestige. Moral values, or the evident lack of them, were far from noble. Saint Francis was born into a markedly violent and greedy age. Yet, at the same time, there were those who desired reform in society and in the Church. The little community gathered around Saint Francis was one of many religious groups seeking to live the Gospel more authentically. Our society today bears a striking resemblance to his own, with its changing structures, declining moral values, and movements of reform in the Church.

The popular song of the 60's "The Time's They Are A Changing" certainly describes well the fast-moving pace of our lives. Our moral values have changed drastically in the past 25 years. Abortion is a tragic reality, while euthanasia and assisted suicide are being promoted as "death with dignity." These are nothing more than three legalized forms of murder. It is no wonder that many sincere Christians and other people of good will are clamoring by prayer and protest, by self denial and social action to change society for the better, not the worse.

The task at hand in both Saint Francis' day and our own is essentially the same: we need to REBUILD. Saint Francis received this task from the Lord Himself, who spoke to him the well-known words from the crucifix at San Damiano, "Francis, go and rebuild my Church which you see is falling into ruin." Rejoicing that the Lord had spoken so graciously to him, St. Francis enthusiastically set himself to fulfill his divinely given mission. At first, he rebuilt little stone chapels, such as St. Damian's and St. Mary of the Angels. Later on, moved by the Holy Spirit, he began to rebuild the "living" Church, renewing faith and love in the hearts of God's people by his good example, in his preaching, his works of mercy to the poor, and eventually through the establishment of his three religious families: Friars, Sisters, and Secular Franciscans.

We too have all received a call in our day a mission to "rebuild." This call did not come from "on high" by miraculous words from the Lord, but from His Vicar at the "mile-high" setting in Denver, Colorado. The call is the same for each of us, young and old, to join with the Holy Father in rebuilding "a new civilization of love."

Many of the friars and sisters were privileged to be present to hear this challenging call from the Holy Father addressed to thousands of young people from across the country and the world. We were inspired when he told us our beloved country was in danger of losing its soul, the moral character and inner strength that have so typified our nation. Pope John Paul II fervently declared that a return to prayer and concern for the most helpless and innocent are the only answers to America's self-inflicted spiritual suffering.

His Holiness gave us the direction we must move in when he said, "Building an authentic civilization of love must include a massive effort to educate consciences." No doubt, the Holy Father's most recent encyclical, entitled "The Splendor of Truth," and the Church's new catechism are the result of this personal effort to accomplish this. Only by knowing Divine Truth can we stir up a renewed sense of our Christian calling, which rests on recognizing once again the sacred dignity of each person made in the image and likeness of God. We must work again to see that the inalienable God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are restored to every person, from the unborn to the elderly.

Since Saint Francis successfully carried out his mission of rebuilding the Church, we should look to his example to see if we can learn from him how to succeed at our own. His approach was simple: he focused on the God-made-man, Jesus Christ, Who said He came that we all might have life, and have it in fullness (John 10:10). In the redemptive mysteries of Jesus' birth, life, Death, and Resurrection, he found the hope needed to renew himself first, then others. From Our Lord's own example, Saint Francis learned the virtues that would be his tools needed for the rebuilding process!

Finding hope again in the redemption Jesus has won for us, we must learn from Him the virtues that will be the tools we use to rebuild a civilization of love. Jesus' humility will teach us how to become servants rather than proud and domineering people. His poverty will teach us how to be grateful for what we have received as gifts from God and how to share with the poor and less fortunate, rather than being ambitious and greedy, or envious of what others have. His purity will teach us not to make the pleasures of the flesh our aim in life, but rather to respect our own bodies and those of others as temples of the Holy Spirit, Who lives within all of us. His mercy will teach us how to forgive because we have been forgiven, rather than build up barriers of resentment and bitterness toward those who have hurt us. His patience will teach us to bear with the faults and shortcomings of others, as He bears with our own. Finally, all these virtues will be fulfilled in His commandment that "we are to love one another as He has loved us" (John 15:12)!

This was St. Francis' sure way of "rebuilding the Church" in his own day as Our Lord had commissioned him. It will be the same way for us to fulfill the commission we have received from Pope John Paul II to "rebuild a new civilization of love" in the world today!