Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5/Psalm 139/Luke 10:13-16
Today we celebrate St. Francis of Assisi, arguably one of the most popular saints out there. My guess is that the thing he is most well known for is his love of animals and nature, right?
He believed that nature itself was the mirror of God. He called all creatures his “brothers and sisters,” and even preached to the birds. He is often depicted as holding a bird or two, in fact, I have a stole that has a picture of him and he has one bird in his hand and many others flying around him.
Also is says on here Pax et bonum which means “peace and all good.” It was a common greeting and farewell for him.
St. Francis became so acquainted with nature because he wanted to live a life of poverty in imitation of Jesus Christ. Jesus mentioned in the Gospels that He didn’t have a home or a bed, when he was doing His public ministry at least, He would just go from place to place and would stay outside if He had to do that.
Francis of Assisi grew up in a wealthy merchant family who sold clothes, and at some point he decided to give all his money to the poor and become poor himself, which forced him to live outside and get really familiar with nature.
This week the 5th Graders are participating in School of the Wild. Did all of you do that program? It sounds pretty cool, I will have to go see it at some point, there is a lot to learn about nature and it is pretty amazing how it all works together.
Nature is amazing. Nature is beautiful. I know many people who say they really experience God in nature, I do too. This makes sense to me, God created everything, He controls nature as we heard in our first reading, so it makes sense that we would experience God in nature.
My hope for “people that experience God in nature” is that it leads them into the Church. When we see something so amazingly beautiful it is so easy to make the connection that there had to be a Higher Power that created it all.
This was Job’s realization in our first reading, God created and controlled the world, and He didn’t understand it all, but He trusted in God.
Like a mountain pointing us up to Heaven, so Nature points us to God, and even though Job heard speak from a storm cloud, that is not a normal experience. People don’t usually hear God speak from clouds or burning bushes or anything like that, but they do hear Him speak in the Church, in the readings, in the music, in the prayers, in the homily hopefully too.
God speaks to us especially during Mass, so while we all can experience God in nature, where we really hear Him is right here. Jesus said to His apostles: “Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me.” That was true then, and it is true now, which means whoever listens to my preaching listens to God, Jesus continues to work through His disciples today.
The disciple St. Francis of Assisi was known for his love of nature, he was also known for his love of the baby Jesus, he was the first one to do a living Nativity scene, but he was also known for his love of the Eucharist.
One of his famous sayings about the Eucharist was that the “Son of God so humbles himself that for our salvation he hides himself under an ordinary piece of bread.” That was from St. Francis of Assisi who wasn’t a priest but loved priests because they could bring him Jesus in the Eucharist in which the “Son of God so humbles himself that for our salvation he hides himself under an ordinary piece of bread.”
The God that created the Universe “hides himself under an ordinary piece of bread” - it’s pretty amazing too if you think about it, that He has figured out a way to be so present to us here, supernaturally.
Every time we come to Mass this great miracle occurs right before our very eyes, but yet we don’t fully see it, it is hidden in a way that respects our free will.
Although occasionally God gives us these big miracles, like Carlo Acutis documenting all of these Eucharistic Miracles on his website, or Francis of Assisi who had the Stigmata, meaning he had the wounds of Jesus on his hands and his feet, these miracles point us to the supernatural presence of God.
These are the “mighty deeds” that Jesus was talking about too. In our Gospel, Jesus was saying woe to the people of the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum because they saw the supernatural mighty deeds Jesus did and they still didn’t repent, they still didn’t change their ways, despite being witnesses to the supernatural.
God is being more subtle with us here today, He is allowing us to go into nature and realize His presence, but He isn’t forcing us to love Him, He lets us choose.
We have all the evidence we want, if we want to see it, if we want to choose God and trust in Him to provide for us. When we do, God will keep blessing us with more faith, just like He did with St. Francis of Assisi. So today we ask for His intercession to help us grow in our belief.
We can find God in the natural ways, we can find Him in the supernatural ways also, but the point is He is trying to be found in ways that respect our free will as much as possible.
St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us. Pax et Bonum.