Saint Francis of Assisi, just say his name and it evokes different images, encounters and prayers. People the world over recognize this saint, our founder, and connect with him. They are inspired and encouraged by this medieval saint. Our own bishop of Calgary chose this day a year ago to launch the renewal process for the diocese and again chooses this year to launch year two of the Diocesan Renewal. Saint Francis captures the attention of many, because he points to Jesus and challenges us with the famous tagline, he heard from the cross, “Go rebuild the church.”
This sense of rebuilding can only take root in each one of us if we consider this saint not as an icon set aside but a common man set in motion open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. This common man who was so in love in with Jesus the Christ; he saw him in the leper, in his brothers and in the church. This common mas who was in awe before God because God had created all as siblings calling them to return praise to God.
This common man, this saint, this brother of ours invites us to pay attention to the here and now. As the church enters the final stages of the Synod on Synodality, as we prepare for the 2025 Jubilee, as we mark centenaries of the Franciscan world, and in this diocese continue the Renewal Process, Saint Francis calls us to rebuild the church sharing who we are, what we offer and to do so in union with each other both the least and the great.
The often-unheard text from Sirach (Sirach 50.1,3-4, 6-7) evokes the image of St. Francis rebuilding the church. We can easily imagine him holding up the church in the dream of the Pope. The Pope knowing he must respond and not simply let it pass by. Do we ever consider how we rebuild the church by the way we rebuild our lives in each season?
In each season of life we must choose to continue to build on the foundation who is Jesus. Francis did this, and in doing so he was able to say, “I have done what is mine to do… may you do what is yours.” He built and then continually rebuilt his foundation on Jesus.
This building and rebuilding comes with the responsibility to “carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body,” as St. Paul says (Galatians 6.14-18). “To carry the cross” knowing in each trial, in each burden, and in the weight of the cross, there is also the hope of the Paschal Mystery. When Jesus calls those who are weak, wearied, and burdened; when he gives God praise for those who see with simplicity and don’t loose sight of their childlikeness we are invited into the movement of the Paschal Mystery and the life of the resurrection. We can see these movements in the life of St. Francis. He both delighted and was frustrated with brothers returning from mission, his time spent sharing with St. Clare, a Christmas moment at Greccio, the caves and crevices at La Verna, his Canticle of Creatures bursting from his lips, in his desire to know Christ so intimately so as to be branded with his wounds and his desire to be laid naked on the naked earth as he died speak to the renewal of the Paschal Mystery. These movements in the life of this common saint are invitations for us to consider how we also rebuild the church. Francis had to learn it was not a physical rebuild rather this rebuilding is about being relationship with fraternity, the ordinary and Jesus the Christ. So do we.
St. Francis trusted in the words of Jesus, he lived the gospel and calls us to do the same. If we consider the gospel for this feast (Matthew 11. 25-30) paying attention to the words of Jesus, we know St. Francis trusted and believed Jesus was present to him in his weariness and burdens and was revealing to him a way to live. He may not have known in full what this all meant and yet he believed he could reveal Jesus to the world. Do we? Do we trust and believe we also reveal Jesus to the world? On the good days yes, on the challenging days maybe not so much…regardless of where we are today let us trust we are met and renewed with the same love and presence of Jesus the Christ. Let us trust and believe our Brother Francis points the way to this moment and each moment of rebuilding which follows.
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