October 4 2023 - St. Francis of Assisi & the Wolf of Gubbio

 In the Italian town of Gubbio, some 130 miles north of Rome, sits the church of San Franesco della Pace — the Church of St. Francis of Peace.” 

The church is large and old, and its white stone exterior is nondescript. Walking inside, you’ll find an inscription in the stone above the main entrance. It reads “dedicated to God and Francis, the peace bestower.” And next to the inscription is a carved image of a wolf.

The Church is built on the spot where, according to legend, St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) made a peace pact with a wolf that had been terrorizing the town of Gubbio.

Back in the early 13th century, 800 years ago, a ferocious wolf began to stalk the countryside surrounding the town looking for food, preying on woodland creatures, but soon he began to prey on livestock. And then, his hunger brought him closer to town. He began to attack the villagers if they dared to venture outside of town. The ferocious wolf’s reign of terror gripped the townspeople with fear. Eventually, it got so bad that no one would even dare step outside the walls of the city. 

A friar from the neighboring town of Assisi heard about the attacks and traveled to Gubbio to meet with the wolf. Legend has it, the wolf rushed at the friar, teeth bared, ready to attack. The friar made the Sign of the Cross, and suddenly the wolf slowed, and became docile. He laid his head in the friar’s hands.

The friar spoke to the wolf gently. He called him “Brother Wolf.” He scolded the wolf for terrorizing the town and for killing so many people, but offered the wolf deal: If the wolf promised to never again attack any person or animal, the townspeople of Gubbio would feed him and make sure he never went hungry again.

And the wolf agreed. The friar, of course, was St. Francis.

Legend has it the wolf lived near Gubbio for another two years. He would peaceably go from door to door, and the townspeople would feed him. And when the wolf died of old age, the townspeople mourned him.

The story teaches us a few things. Firstly, the power and love of God and the cross of Jesus Christ works to bring order in our lives. St. Francis was not a magician or a professional animal tamer. His life was filled with the love of God, and thus he was able to become an instrument of God’s peace. 

But Francis did not become an instrument of God’s peace overnight. It came through prayer, penance, forgiveness, gentleness, humility, turning away from the ways of the world, in order to follow Jesus Christ. Again, he wasn’t a magician, rather, he became like Jesus by imitating Jesus in being devoted to the will of God. 

May we follow his example, and know the power of his intercession, that we may be instruments of God’s peace in calming the ferocious wolves in our world, by being filled with the life of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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For Holy Pope Francis on this his patronal feast, for the grace to bring renewal to those parts of the Church which are crumbling—especially, a renewal of true faith, where faith has diminished or been corrupted.

For blessings upon all members of the Franciscan Orders, for vocations and that their witness may bring renewal to the Church.

For hope for the despairing and all those who suffer.

For the grace of perfect charity to fill our hearts for those in need.

That all God’s Holy People will be filled with the wisdom and discernment needed to know and obey God’s Holy Will.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

15th Sunday of OT 2019 - Good Samaritan Saints and Sinners

Biblical scholars and preachers usually interpret today’s Gospel passage, the parable of the Good Samaritan in one of two ways.  The first is to read it as Jesus’ answer to what Christian compassion, mercy, and neighborliness looks like.  The scholar of the law asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor”, “who should I care about” and Jesus answers: your neighbor is everyone, even the person that you would normally overlook, even the person that the rest of the world considers unclean, that’s your neighbor, and you need to pick him up when he has fallen, you need to see past your preconceived notions and stereotypes and prejudices, and you need to treat him with mercy and compassion and tenderness. So that’s the first interpretation.

The second way of interpreting the Good Samaritan parable is to see in this parable an allegory for what God has done for each one of us in Christ Jesus.  God has raised us up when we fell upon robbers and have been “half dead” because of sin.  We’ve been raised up, tended, cared for, restored to life because of Jesus’ saving death.  No human power could do what God has done for us—restoring our souls to life through baptism, healing us through grace.

Before I was ordained a priest, a group of seminarians one Sunday afternoon after attending Mass in the morning, decided to visit one of these non-denominational Mega-Churches that had become somewhat popular, you know, to see what all the fuss was about.  In fact, a lot of former Catholics end up at these Mega-Churches for various reasons. 

So that morning, there were about 800 people gathered, we sat in chairs up to a stage filled with drums and guitars.  The service opened with about 20 minutes of Christian Rock music, smoke machines, and laser lights. 

The pastor then took the stage and performed a dramatic retelling of this morning’s Gospel, the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

Afterwards, he gave a sermon, basically interpreting the parable in that second way, that we are the man fallen amongst robbers; because of our own free-will given over to sin, we were lying on the road, half-dead, where no human power could help us.  And then, out of His infinite love, God sent his son to die for us and redeem us, to raise us up to new life. 

Then the pastor asked the congregation to close their eyes, and asked, “Have you fallen amongst robbers, have you been struggling in sin, are there choices that you’ve made against God’s commandments, have you pridefully rejected God’s grace, have you been selfish with the time you’ve been given? If so, raise your hand”  And I’m thinking to myself, sure I have, I’ve struggled with sin, I’ve fallen, I’ve been prideful, I’ve been selfish towards my neighbor, and so, I raised my hand, I didn’t think twice.  All of a sudden, he says, “Oh, I see someone with their hand up”.  I open my eyes and look around and thought, “oh no, that’s me!”  My classmates said I looked like a deer in headlights.  So I quickly shoot my hand down, and try to hide in my seat.  But I start to think, how am I the only one in this room of 800 people that is guilty of sin?   

And I’m thinking, you know, this is one of the big differences between the Catholic faith and a lot of these non-denominational groups.  They believe that you only have to raise your hand once in your life. Once you raise your hand, and go up to the altar, and profess that Jesus Christ is your personal Lord and Savior, your saved, you never need to raise your hand again. Catholics, on the other hand, we raise our hands daily. At every Mass or at the end of the day in our examination of conscience, we take sin seriously, we take our hands and we beat our breasts and see even those smallest acts of selfishness, for what they are, acts of free will contrary to the Love of God and Neighbor and we repent, daily.

And when those sins are of a serious nature, they cause a serious disruption in our relationship with God, we brings those sins to the ear of a priest, and to confess them and to be absolved from them in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Scripture and the lives of the Saints show that only when we acknowledge ourselves as sinners, do we truly begin to love God and neighbor. The second way of interpreting the parable, is a sort of key, to unlocking the first. The humble acknowledgement of my own need for a savior, my need for conversion opens us to truly love as we are made to love—to love God with our whole hearts, minds, souls, and strength.

I’ve been told that I sure talk a lot about sin and confession. But that’s only because humble repentance is the most important key to loving God and neighbor authentically.  We see this so evidently in the lives of the Saints. The saints, who become charged and changed by God’s presence living within them, recognize and acknowledge themselves constantly falling short of the love of God, and so they strive to love more perfectly day after day. The Apostle St. Paul calls himself the “chief of sinners” after his initial conversion. He saw himself first and foremost as a sinner, who has unworthily received the new life of Grace. And he lived his life as a response to that grace.

St. Francis of Assisi, most beloved of saints, looked upon himself as a sinner, too.  In fact, he believed himself the greatest of all sinners. Our most beloved of saints, thought himself the greatest of sinners. “He was accustomed to say that if the mercy shown him by God had been given to any other sinner, the latter would have become ten times holier than he, and that to God alone must be attributed whatever was found in him of goodness and beauty.

Saints are not the opposite of sinners. Rather, saints ARE sinners who acknowledge the truth about themselves and about God, and live in loving and grateful response to mercy through lives of grace and service. Saints allow themselves to be saved by Jesus the Good Samaritan, and go to become Good Samaritans for others.

Francis of Assisi once told his monks that if they were in the midst of the Beatific Vision and a beggar knocked at their door asking for a cup of cold water, turning away from the heavenly vision to help the beggar would be the real heaven, and turning away from the beggar to keep the blissful vision would be turning from God's face.

Daily we do well to ask the Holy Spirit to help us acknowledge and repent rightly of our sins, and to help us identify the times that we turned away from those opportunities to be the Good Samaritan. Daily repentance leads to daily conversion and daily acts of charity for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

October 04 2018 - St. Francis- Widely Admired, Greatly Misunderstood

St. Francis is probably the most popular, widely recognized saint in the history of Church. Yet that has also come with great misunderstanding of the real man and his real values and sanctity. He is known as a great lover of animals, so his likeness is placed on birdbaths and garden statues. His respect for God’s creation has led him to be co-opted as a patron of climate change initiatives, even vegetarianism. Yet, Francis once berated a friar for wanting to abstain from meat on a feast day and said that on Christmas he would “smear the wall with meat.” Some invoke Francis’ poverty to condemn ornate liturgical furnishings. The real Francis, however, was meticulous in the ceremonials of the Mass, insisting that every sacred vessel and vestment be the best. Sometimes, Francis is invoked to condemn the institutional aspects of the Church. But the real Francis wrote in the Franciscan Rule that any friar who parted from the Pope on the slightest article of Faith was to be dismissed from the Order.

St. Francis and the Sultan of Egypt

A recent author wrote: Selective hagiography (biographies of saints) has reduced St. Francis to a sandal-wearing, animal-loving pacifist, but the real man was a stern defender of the faith, preaching obedience to God through His Church. Far from an aversion to active proselytism—forthrightly calling non-Catholics to convert—St. Francis traveled to Egypt to confront the Muslim sultan and preach the name of Christ at the risk of martyrdom. At the same time his letters attest to his insistence on honoring God in the liturgy with precious and beautiful altar furnishings (Marcantonio Colonna).”
On this, his Feast Day, we should seek to love what Francis loved: poverty, chastity, obedience to Church teaching, beautiful liturgy, his prayer for the authentic reform of the Church, and most deeply his ardent love for Christ.

Saint Francis had a deep interior life, who meditated upon the wounds of Christ constantly, who pushed himself to offer his own life for the spread of the Gospel. For this, he was given the gift of the holy stigmata, bearing the wounds of Christ in his hands and feet. His stigmata was a sign of his holiness—a willingness to suffer for the spread of the Gospel and the good of souls.

Here is a man whom the world called a fool, in whom we, however, recognize great courage, great zeal, and great faith.  Francis reflected the self-offering of Christ to the Father through his own embrace of poverty and humility. May the prayers and example of St. Francis help us to conform our lives to Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For Pope Francis, on this his patronal feast day: that he may know that constant assistance of the angels and saints in his ministry.

That the work and ministry of all Franciscan organizations and charitable institutions may bear fruit for the spread of the Gospel.

For the purification of our minds and hearts from the errors of the culture and from the lure of worldly attachments.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, immigrants and refugees, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord