What does Saint
Francis's witness tell us today? What does he have to say to us, not merely
with words - that is easy enough - but by his life? 1. His first and most
essential witness is this: that being a Christian means having a living
relationship with the person of Jesus; it means putting on Christ, being
conformed to him. Where did Francis's journey to Christ begin? It began with
the gaze of the crucified Jesus. With letting Jesus look at us at the very
moment that he gives his life for us and draws us to himself. Francis
experienced this in a special way in the Church of San Damiano, as he prayed
before the cross to venerate. On that cross, Jesus is depicted not as dead, but
alive! Blood is flowing from his wounded hands, feet and side, but that blood speaks
of life. Jesus' eyes are not closed but open, wide open: he looks at us in a
way that touches our hearts.
This decision of Saint Francis was a
radical way of imitating Christ: he clothed himself anew, putting on Christ,
who, though he was rich, became poor in order to make us rich by his poverty
(cf. 2 Cor 8:9). In all of Francis' life, love for the poor and the imitation
of Christ in his poverty were inseparably united, like the two sides of a coin.
What does Saint Francis's witness tell
us today? What does he have to say to us, not merely with words - that is easy
enough - but by his life?
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