On September
17 I offered a spiritual workshop to the Sisters of the Third Order of St.Francis at their motherhouse in Peoria, IL.
While the universal Church remembers the Jesuit St. Robert Bellarmine in
the liturgy that day, Franciscans celebrate a feast in remembrance of their
holy founder’s receiving the stigmata.
However, there is an interesting connection which Fr. John Hardon, S.J.has noted:
“St. Robert
Bellarmine had a great devotion to St. Francis of Assisi, and was especially
devoted to honoring Francis' stigmata. Bellarmine urged that there be a special
feast in honor of the five stigmata of St. Francis. Bellarmine had an important
position in the Vatican and he made sure that the feast was introduced in the
Church, despite strong opposition. As Providence arranged, Robert Bellarmine
died on the feast of the stigmata of St. Francis, September 17.”
The readings
for the Franciscan feast are Galatians 6: 14-18 and Luke 9: 23-26 and the
following is the homily that I offered to the Sisters.
As
Providence would have it, today, as we reflect on the Jubilee Year of Mercy, we
are celebrating a feast in honor of St. Francis of Assisi’s stigmata, a gift
that he received in the year 1224. The Year of Mercy and St. Francis’ stigmata
go together quite well. For if mercy is
the greatest expression and embodiment of God’s love, and if the Church is the
Body of Christ, then we are to embody God’s mercy and show it to the world in a
visible way. The greatest act of mercy
is the Passion—the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
In his
Message for the 2015 World Mission Day, Pope Francis wrote: “Mission is a passion for Jesus and at the
same time a passion for his people. When we pray before Jesus
crucified, we see the depth of his love which gives us dignity and sustains us.
At the same time, we realize that the love flowing from Jesus’ pierced heart
expands to embrace the People of God and all humanity. We realize once more
that he wants to make use of us to draw closer to his beloved people and all
those who seek him with a sincere heart.”
Isn’t this
what St. Francis did? He prayed before
Jesus crucified and experienced the depth of his love. He shared Jesus’ passionate love for his
people so much that he received the wounds of Jesus into his body. He embodied
the Passion, the mercy of God.
On October
4, 1673, several months before Jesus appeared and revealed his Sacred Heart to
her, St. Margaret Mary had a vision. Here
is how she described it: “On the feast of St. Francis, our Lord let me see in
prayer this great saint, clad in a garment of light and unspeakable brilliance.
He had been raised above the other saints to an extraordinarily high degree of
glory, because his life was so like that of the suffering Redeemer who is the
life of our souls and the love of our hearts. His glory was the reward of his
great love for the Passion of our Lord, a love which rendered him worthy of the
sacred stigmata and made him one of the great favorites of Jesus’ heart.”
In our first
reading, St. Paul wrote that the world had been crucified to him and he to the
world. What does this mean? I think it means that he shared Christ’s
passionate desire for the salvation of the world. This also describes St. Francis who took up
the cross of poverty and labored for the salvation of souls. He even risked his life in 1219 by going to
Egypt to speak with the Sultan about Jesus.
Christian Crusaders were attacking the Sultan’s city and Francis was
concerned as well for them because of their immoral life style. Francis shared Christ’s passionate concern
that no one be lost.
The ultimate
meaning of St. Francis’ stigmata is that he shared the desires and concerns of
Jesus’ Heart so much that his body revealed the merciful wounds of Christ. He was so configured to Christ that he embodied
the mercy of God in a visible way.
We too are
called to be configured to Christ. When
we share his concern for the world and labor with him for the salvation of all,
we embody the mercy of God.
We do so,
always, with joy. St. Francis once said:
“It is not right for a servant of God to show a sad or gloomy face to anyone.” More recently, in “The Joy of the Gospel,”
Pope Francis said that Christians cannot be “sourpusses.” The mercy which we embody is joyful. Being “merciful like the Father,” as the
motto for this Extraordinary Jubilee Year tells us, means sharing God’s joy in
being merciful. In the parables of Luke
15, Jesus tells us that there is great joy in heaven when the lost are found,
when sinners repent and receive the mercy that God always has in store for
them. May our celebration of this feast
and our ongoing Jubilee celebration help us to embody the joyful mercy of God.
