Below I am sharing an essay I wrote for a class I took on St. Francis of Assisi. After learning about this saint, I am inspired to learn not only more about his life but the lives of other saints.
How has this course influenced your comprehension of the Spirituality of Saint Francis and what do you perceive as the fundamental message for our world of today that you would like to implement in your own life and communicate through your own ministry?
St. Francis of Assisi
Prior to taking this course my image of St. Francis was much like that of many other people in this world - a stone statue of a man surrounded by animals. While this is a nice image, it barely touches on who he really was. This seems to be the case with so many saints of the Catholic church. They seem to be so far away from us. As a result many people in this day and age do not consider the saints relevant and certainly do not strive to become saints as it seems to be an impossible task.
This, to me, is the great irony of sainthood. While there are definitely examples of pious people who are saints, the reality is there are many more who were sinners and struggled with fighting and overcoming sin. Francis seemed to take this struggle to a whole new level. In learning about who he was and how he lived his life, I recognize how, for many, sin has become a relative thing. By this I mean that people in the modern world seem to measure themselves against each other. “I’m not as bad as that guy, so I’m a pretty good person.” Rather than measure himself against others, Francis truly measured himself against Christ. To many, it might appear that he took his beliefs to extreme levels. It is easy to view him as extreme when we are so immersed in this world. Only when we fight the blindness caused by sin can we recognize that Francis was so conformed to Christ that he was not “of this world” in a spiritual way.
The message for our world today is to be aware of what this world is: temporary. By striving to remind ourselves of this fact, our perception of worldly things begins to change. Our goals and purpose begins to change and as a result our daily activities begin to change. This is so evident in how Francis lived his life. He recognized the world for what it was and was so fervent in his desire to share that vision with every aspect of creation that he encountered.
What amazed me about him was how he never appeared to grow tired. In my own faith journey, I find myself experiencing hills and valleys whereas there are times where I feel so on fire for God that nothing gets me down and I just want to shout my love for Him from the rooftops. Then there are times when I get emotionally tired and I begin to let myself fall victim to the strategies of the devil. Francis recognized the areas of life that could be potential danger zones for allowing evil in and he fought them. This is key because it is something we have to recognize and instill in our own lives. We have to be on guard. I don’t think many people are aware of the strategies of Satan. Things that appear harmless like idle time or being alone. Francis recognized how these were occasions for Satan to get at us.
In my own ministry, my goal would be to educate others about the strategies of Satan and the strategies of Francis. He truly lived what he professed and that is why people trusted and followed him. So often we see people say one thing and do another and I think it hardens people into expecting that everyone has an agenda. Francis could have easily fallen victim to pride and power and wealth like so many other good people, but he recognized what those things do to us and he fought them. By living a life of poverty, he was free from the things of this world that so often enslave us. By humbling himself and teaching his brothers that they were to serve others, he did become “another Christ.” By fighting his own will and recognizing the struggle of his will against God’s will, he lived a life of true obedience. All of these things made him so much like Christ that he became united with Christ not only spiritually but physically. He experienced union while still living on this earth. Only someone who is so conformed to the will of Christ could take on the stigmata.
Overall, I feel so humbled by his life. I see how I need to make changes in my own life and work harder at being a child of the most high God. He makes me want to be a better person and in the end, that is what a saint should be.
Here are some great books on St. Francis of Assisi:
St. Francis of Assisi: A Biography
Visit www.parishbookclubs.com for book picks, reviews, and discussion questions.
Visit www.parishbookclubs.com for book picks, reviews, and discussion questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment