ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
St. Francis of Assisi is one of my favorite saints. The example of his very simple, humble and generous life leads us straight back to what is essential in the Gospel: to trust in God’s providence, praise him for his gifts, love him and our neighbour with all our heart and soul, and respect and protect all living beings. It takes us back to what is genuine and wholesome in our beautiful world.
The son of a rich merchant, Francis had a moment of great spiritual awakening when he was 26 years old. Inspired by the great poverty of Jesus and dissatisfied with his own frivolous, partying lifestyle, he decided to follow Jesus’ example and practice his teachings fully. He went all in and laid it all on the line, giving away everything he owned, right down to his clothes. Talk about a bold step!
Following that decision, Francis first lived as a hermit, trusting in God for his survival. Then he sought out needy people and helped them in every way he could, starting with the ones in his hometown. He cared for the sick, the poor and the outcasts. He even developed a special bond with animals and nature because he saw them as his brothers and sisters, and treated them with great respect and compassion. He imitated Jesus as much as is humanly possible, so passionately in fact, that he received the stigmata – the wounds of Christ – on his hands, feet and side, miraculously. Despite suffering greatly from those wounds, he was filled with great joy and gratitude all the while for the beauty and goodness of God’s creation.
Though he had been mocked at first, there was something about what he was doing that some people, both rich and poor, found strangely appealing. For them, his example was like a breath of fresh air in a world tainted by greed, pride and trickery. Some of them even felt compelled to join him and follow his example, and they soon became a religious congregation, the Franciscans.
But what is it exactly about St. Francis that, eight centuries later, many of us are still stirred by his example? What is it about him that inspired people to build monuments and name great cities like San Francisco in his honour, and got him listed in 1992 on Time Magazine’s top ten most influential people of the second millennium, alongside Galileo, Mozart, Jefferson, and Einstein? What is it about him that led Pope Francis to choose his papal name in his honour?
In reading the life of St. Francis we see that he never tried to achieve some “higher state of mind.” The lifestyle he embraced was instead the result of one – the outcome of a beautiful, humble mind sustained by the divine grace of God. All he did was simply – but passionately – follow the teachings of Jesus in total abandonment to God’s will. The simplicity of it all is striking. It can inspire us to find our way back to what is essential, to reconnect in our hearts and minds with what is most important, wholesome, and true in the world the way it was first taught to us by Jesus.
By his example, St. Francis reminds us that genuine joy can never be bought, but it’s ours for the taking anytime we want it, provided that we want it badly enough. He found a secure base for his happiness in our reliable, loving God, and by doing so he showed the rest of us that we won’t know how much joy we are capable of until we decide to find out.
Through such inspiring people as St. Francis the world is renewed, as in a kind of “Christian Renaissance.” May he inspire us by his example to be of humble service to others and modern-day instruments of God’s peace and love.
Eugene Aucoin is a retired human resources director and university professor. He spoke around the world about nurturing human potential, but his passion is sharing his love for the teachings of Jesus. His first book Has Science Killed God? won Asia’s best Catholic book of the year in theology in 2020. His next book, with Novalis, will focus on the Beatitudes for inner peace and happiness. Eugene also gives seminars about faith.
