ST. FRANCIS: PATRON SAINT FOR PRO-LIFE

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

I once heard a Franciscan preacher tell the following story about St. Francis. One cold day in very early Spring, the saint was standing in front of an almond tree. The tree was still dormant and leafless from the long Winter. St. Francis gave a command: "Almond tree, speak to me of God"! According to the story, the almond tree immediately burst into full bloom.

I must confess that I have never come across this story in my reading of Franciscan literature. However, I have often thought about its meaning. To me, it makes two things very clear. The first is that the beauty and majesty of God are reflected in the wonderful gift of life. The second is that St. Francis saw God and praised Him as the Author of all life. Literally, life spoke to him of God.

Allow me here to share some brief reflections on these two points. First, let us look at life as God's gift to us. All life, we believe, comes ultimately from God alone, the living God. This is expressed simply in the Nicene Creed we profess each Sunday. Speaking of the Three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity, we say: "We believe in... the Father, the Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth... in one Lord, Jesus Christ... through Him all things were made... in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life.

The life-giving hand of God extends to all His living creatures, beginning with the plants and animals, for they live and grow and reproduce. But it is especially in every human creature, every man and woman, that life as God's gift is most wonderfully reflected. "Then God said: 'Let us make man in Our image, after our likeness'... God created man in His image; in the Divine image He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:26-27).

The dignity of every man and woman is rooted in the fact that they are made in God's image and likeness. What elevates every human creature above all other creatures is that we possess an immortal soul, with its exalted powers of intelligence and free will. "The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7).

St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure, two great Doctors of the Church, taught that because of their immortal soul and its powers, man and woman possess a "capacity for god,'' an openness to God, an ability to know and love God and share in His eternal life forever. This gives to each human person their God-given dignity and rights, including the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now the right to life is the foundational right, if a person is not guaranteed and given the right to life, how call he or she enjoy any of the other God-given rights!

St. Francis stands as a perfect example of one who recognized God as the Giver of life. His prayers reflect this. For example, in his "Praise of God," written on Mount Alvernia after he had received the Sacred Stigmata, he prays: "You are Good, All-Good, the Highest Good, Lord God, living and true ... You are our eternal life, great and admirable Lord God almighty, merciful Savior." He understood Jesus' teaching that God "is the God of the living" (Mark 12:27), and that Jesus Himself had come that we "might have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10).

St. Francis' recognition of the dignity of each person can be seen in a sort of ascending order. It was said of St. Francis that he Contemplated God "in every creature, especially in man, and more so in the Christian, but above all in the priest, and in a very singular manner in the Supreme Pontiff, who is the Vicar of Christ our Lord on earth and head of the whole Church" (Capuchin Constitutions of 1536, #7). He recognized the reflection of Christ in each one of them.

St. Francis then translated his thoughts and words into actions as he worked to uphold the God-given dignity and Christ-likeness of each person. He cared for the poor and the hungry, he sheltered the outcasts and visited the lepers, he preached peace and forgiveness between hostile neighbors as well as warring armies, he consoled those who suffered and preached the Gospel message to the spiritually poor. He wanted everyone, all his brothers and sisters from least to greatest, to share in that fullness of the life Jesus came to bring us. St. Francis was thoroughly "Pro-Life," and as such, he played a great part in transforming the society of his day.

At our time in history, a great Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has called us back to living out "the Gospel of Life." He reminds us that we must all, in our way, work to counter a veritable "culture of death," as he calls it, which is threatening to engulf the world with its materialism and immorality and its total disregard for the dignity of human life, and replace it with the God-given "culture of life." We do this through prayer as well as through various expressions of Christ-like charity, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, counseling the doubtful, consoling the sorrowful, forgiving injuries. In a word, as St. Francis did in his time, we must become "heralds of the Great King," working to establish His Kingdom by a love that shows itself in deeds of justice, truth and charity. We must begin with the first step, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it may appear. As Mother Teresa, our outstanding model today of Pro-Life love for Jesus and others, often states of her work with the dying destitutes in the streets of Calcutta: "If I did not pick up the first dying person, I would never have picked up 50,000 dying persons!"

Brothers and sisters, let us begin again our efforts to live the "Gospel of Life," with St. Francis as our "Patron for Pro-Life."