We hear one of the greatest prayers in the whole of Sacred Scripture this weekend ‘Lord, increase our faith!’ We all need that don’t we - an increase of faith. This past week we were blessed in a particular way with a profound example of faith in the feast of Saint Francis.
Francis shows us the way to live out that simple prayer. Now it’s probably safe to say that most people know something about St. Francis - most people know his love for animals - and while it’s great that we think of Francis loving the cute fuzzy little bunny rabbits - we can get stuck there and miss the point of St. Francis’ life.
In all the stories of him, from giving up his wealth and choosing poverty, to his being gifted the marks of stigmata, the wounds of Christ - I find that the story of his death is perhaps most profound. When Francis was getting ready to die, he asked his brothers when the moment came, to help him to die completely naked laying on the ground - in one final act of complete and total surrender of his entire life to Jesus. That’s what motivated him.
How about us? Do we desire like Francis to be unprofitable servants of God, to be faithful to God with all that we are, holding nothing back, completely emptying ourselves of everything and serving Christ and His Church with our whole self? Loving the cute and fuzzy bunny rabbits is easy - but that doesn’t get us to heaven. Only complete and total surrender to Jesus does. Which is why we pray - Lord, increase our faith. God help us all. +
Comments
There are no comments yet - be the first one to comment: