This year the Franciscan Family celebrates the 800th anniversary of St. Francis receiving the stigmata. Sister Myra Jean Sweigart reflects on this event in the lives of us all.
A common image of the young Francis is that of a partier, a son favored by his mother, a citizen who longed for the prestige of knighthood. Seemingly a typical young man from a rather well-off family, he went his merry way, enjoying life and thinking mostly of himself. A later image is built on God’s desire for Francis. This portrait of the Poverello was rooted in love for others, marked by the care of those in need, and fed by the richness of God’s word in the Scriptures. He certainly did not think mostly of himself. Francis portrays a sacred image.
A simple and yet profound glance at God during the time of Francis’ illness and pain, isolation and despair led Francis to the sacred act of offering himself, without reserve, to follow the will of the God. The journey from that glance at God to the full embrace of God’s intimate love is wrought through suffering. Francis’ lack of enjoyment when with his merry friends, the kissing of the leper, the time hidden away from his father, the denial of his inheritance before the Bishop, the later rejection by his own; each is one moment of suffering that builds the bridge allowing him to cross from the common to the sacred.
Yet, in the midst of such suffering, the saint is known as a man who praises God, who gives glory and exultation to his Lord. At the height of his bodily misery, when nearing death, he composes The Canticle of the Creatures in which he repeatedly cries out, “Praise be you, my Lord.”
So, let us look back and change the word suffering to sacrifice. Sacrifice: to make holy. We are challenged to take on the sacrificial attitude of St. Francis. We are called to turn suffering into sacrifice, making holy that which is difficult, that which calls us out of our old patterns and walks us across the bridge from the common to the sacred.
Hebrews 13:15, speaks of a sacrifice of praise. How do sacrifice and praise even fit in the same thought? Praise is rooted in humility, born of the truth that I am not God, I am not the greatest, even among the least I am lowly. I am a loved sinner who, undeservedly, has been given the gift of a glance at God. When we are aware of the greatness of God, we come to know how little we are. Francis was profoundly humble. In his Letter to the Faithful he writes, “…we are all wretched and corrupt, disgusting and worms.” Prayer taught him to recognize perfect joy in sacrifice, suffering and rejection.
Today, we seem to do all we can to avoid suffering. We are offered convenience and efficiency on every level. Has this led us to forget the humbling truth that we are loved sinners, called to give glory to God? Do we fully join Francis in a sacrifice of praise and say, “My God and My All”?
