St Fracistide
Ordinary Sunday 27: 7th October, 2007
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
When is a medieval saint who celebrates and honours the wild beauty of the natural order and who rejoices in the dignity of all creatures under God going to find a resurgence of interest? Now is one such time. Obviously this generation finds that Francis speaks to them. Francis was someone with something to say. He had an approach to life and to the world that was inspiring and yet somehow on the edge of the institutional Church. He was also appealing to those who were simply of goodwill.
The most popular representations of Francis are with animals or birds. He is placed in gardens or in secluded places of great beauty. He is seen to rejoice in all the created order. There is a joyful, evident care in all that he did.
It is easy to move from there to the broader concerns of the contemporary environmental movement. This very powerful intellectual movement could find an ally in Francis, if they felt so inclined. The theology of it all is simple. Everything is equally under the care, concern and providence of God. The Christian will show love and respect. In our humanity, we ourselves are part of the wider greater ecology. If the birds are worthy of a sermon, then how much more are our fellow human beings worthier of even greater attention? Then there is the wind, the rain, the snow, the plants, the animals, the cold hard earth, our fellow human beings: rich or poor, sick or well, of the faith or not. We are all in this together.
In 1986 there was a major meeting of the leaders of the major world faiths and leaders of the environmental movement. The Worldwide Fund for Nature and religious leaders saw the point of calling such a meeting in Assisi. And they considered that the message of the Christian saint was a message that had broader appeal across the traditions of faith, and around the world. The impact of the truly radical nature of Francis' insight into the relationship of all created things with God, is powerful. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was said to see the Lord in the dying poor. She had the ability, as Francis did, to see God not only in all people, but in all.
There is a striking aspect of Francis' own life however that takes Francis well beyond warm and fuzzy animals and adds a whole new dimension to his example.
Like most other devout believers of his time with the resources to do it, Francis was keen to go to the Holy Land. He took a dozen brothers with him, to extend the work there. He was to attract many new brothers. But this was in a particularly grim part of the Fifth Crusade. By 1219 only a few isolated outposts remained in Christian hands. Francis and his brothers found themselves immersed in the pastoral care of the troops - nursing and preaching. They were if you like army chaplains - by then Francis himself was a deacon. They went with the crusader forces besieging a key Arab port city on the Nile delta. Damietta had a population of some 80,000. In the end almost all were to die and the survivors were to be sold into slavery. Meanwhile, disease, floods, and slaughter in battle were taking a terrible toll on both sides. The Christian forces had just suffered a humiliating defeat, and the city remained untaken. The stalemate continued, at appalling human cost.
It is a matter of record that Francis and one other brother walked through the drawn-up battle lines. Francis wished to speak to the sultan. His intention was to convert him if he could and in any case to stop the fighting with an agreed truce. The mission was so improbable and the pair of brothers so simple and tattered in their appearance that they were not killed on the spot, but taken through to the sultan's headquarters, not far from the city. Francis and the sultan were each to see in the other, one who was 'just, civilised and a man of peace.' As a result, Malik al-Kamil, the Sultan of Egypt, received Francis with respect and dignity over a period of several days. A pointless decade of fighting later, access to Jerusalem for the crusaders was to be successfully negotiated with this same leader. By then Francis had died. In that first contact, Francis had failed either to convert the sultan or to bring about an end to the fighting. But he had offered another way. This has never been forgotten.
The name and message of Francis is invoked every time what is known as the 'Prayer of St Francis' is said or sung, in whatever version or language.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
The whole prayer is about contrasts. But just as in the Gospel of John, darkness cannot overwhelm the light, so here pardon and faith, hope and comfort, joyful giving and forgiveness, will result in life where otherwise there is death. In this prayer there is a complete pattern of living, offered up in thanksgiving.
Twice Pope John Paul II called the leaders of world religions to Assisi to speak together, to share hospitality. The first had been for the care of the environment, in 1986. The second time in January 2002 was to offer prayers for the peace of the world and for peace between the followers of different religious faiths, as well as the traditions within Christianity itself. In the later gathering, John Paul II urged all believers to be 'lights of peace'. There was a sense of growing urgency and need, which was clearly acknowledged, and the immediate reason was quite apparent. Significantly, this was just months after the events of September 11, 2001. The world had suddenly become a much more uncertain place for many more people and there was a growing fear that a new phase of war and violence on a world scale was about to begin. A peace lamp was lit and passed around. A joint prayer was offered at the saint's tomb.
It was the tomb of Francis where this hope was so earnestly expressed, and from where the photographs of all those various leaders of the world religions, against the familiar backdrop of that great basilica, went out around the world. It is hard to imagine a more appropriate site for such a gathering, or a more appropriate patron than St Francis.
In February 2003, just before the outbreak of the war in Iraq, Assisi was again the focus of international attention. The peace lamp was again lit and prayers were again offered.
Francis was invoked as the patron of inter faith dialogue and of peace. A key reason for this remains his own remarkable involvement in war and his own search for reconciliation. Even when it fails.
That simple tomb of a saint who died nearly 800 years ago then has become a world focus of prayer in three key areas: for peaceful and respectful reaching out across faith boundaries, for the care of the environment, and a continuing celebration of our place in the context of all God's creatures. These remain fundamental issues for our time. Francis then remains a saint for our times.
The Lord be with you.
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