Homily for Saturday, 4 October 2014– Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi

Saturday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Galatians 6:14-18; Psalm 16:1b-2a, 5, 7-8, 11; Matthew 11:25-30

When we think of St. Francis of Assisi, what images come to mind? Do we think perhaps of a nature and peace-loving saint who boldly (some in his time would have been less charitable) put aside his family’s wealth; his inheritance to take up a life of simplicity; poverty?

St. Francis loved nature and animals. Based on this characteristic of St. Francis, we have the tradition in many parishes of blessing pets on his feast day. This brings me to my plug for our blessing of pets at St. Kateri: I invite those of us with pets to bring them to this church this afternoon to be blessed on this feast day of St. Francis of Assisi!

St. Francis is a lover of peace; a lover of God’s creation. Possibly the two most renowned prayers of St. Francis are his “Canticle of Creation” or “Canticle of Brother Sun” and his prayer for peace, often called the “Prayer of St. Francis.” But there is more to St. Francis than a lover of peace and of nature. As important as peace and nature (rightly) were to St. Francis of Assisi, there is more to him than love of peace and nature; something more that makes Francis one of the most beloved saints of the Church even now, almost eight hundred years after his death.

I am drawn to the phrase in our reading this morning from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians in which St. Paul says that nothing has meaning for him except “a new creation.” In this way I think St. Paul and St. Francis of Assisi are similar. St. Francis was famously called in a vision of the crucified Christ to rebuild the San Damiano Church near Assisi. While the church building of San Damiano became in a way “a new creation,” this encounter with Christ crucified changed St. Francis forever. He, more than a building, became “a new creation.”

Yet are we not all called to become “a new creation” after St. Francis of Assisi; after St. Paul? We may not have the ability or the opportunity to build a church or any building. Unlike St. Francis or St. Paul, who may literally have borne “the marks of Jesus” crucified on their bodies, we probably do not. Some of us may be more or less wealthy; not called so much to give up our wealth if we have it, as St. Francis did, but to use it to benefit one another. Some of us are not so nature-inclined.

None of this has meaning so much as our becoming “a new creation” in Jesus Christ. How do we become “a new creation” as God calls us; as St. Paul speaks about in his letter to the Galatians; as St. Francis did by his lived example? With God’s grace we become “a new creation” by our daily small acts of kindness; by our welcoming new members or those who are lost or lonely into our communities; our parish. When we serve selflessly as so many of us already do here at St. Kateri; when we pray and work for peace; when we care for God’s creation we show that we are people of God. We show that we are “a new creation” in Jesus Christ.