Following Francis

As we remember the life of St. Francis today, I’ve been wondering what we are meant to take from his particular example of following Jesus. When it comes to remembering and celebrating the saints, there are often a few anecdotes from their lives that come to mind first, stories about their lives that serve to encapsulate the kinds of things that made them so extraordinary. With St. Francis, we remember him for his love of animals and of all creation, and for his belief that every living thing is created to be a revelation of God’s love. And so, we have stories of him wandering through the forest, stopping to preach to the birds along the way. This is why we often find sculptures of him in gardens or even made into bird baths. There is also a story of him defending a town from a wolf that had been terrorizing it, killing even children in the town. St. Francis went out to meet the wolf, and according to the legend, made the sign of the cross over him as he charged toward St. Francis, and addressing him as “Brother Wolf”, he commanded him in the name of Jesus to do no more harm to the people. The wolf, of course, stopped in his tracks and lay at the feet of St. Francis, never to trouble the town again.

In addition to his love for all of creation, we also remember St. Francis for his voluntary poverty and renunciation of all possessions. So we have a story of him in his younger years wanting to be a Knight but being thwarted in his endeavors when he gave away his horse and his armor to someone going to battle who had neither, and a story of him drawing the anger and frustration of his father when he gave away many of his father’s possessions, and we are told that he died with no possessions at all after he gave away even his cloak in the days before he died.

Although the legends that are built up around the life of a saint do a great job of communicating to us what their life was all about, what their unique and extraordinary gifts were, they do not do a lot for us as listeners to imagine how we can follow in their footsteps. Their examples can be pretty extreme. It is as hard to imagine taming a wolf as it is to imagine giving away all of our possessions. Hearing stories like these, I’m often left wondering how we could ever approach such a standard. St. Francis seemed to understand this. When he began to attract followers and after he had been asked by many people how they could live a life like his, he was said to have turned to the Bible for guidance about how to form his community. He took three verses at random as instruction. The first verse, Matthew 19:21 says, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give your money to the poor.” The second verse, Luke 9:3 says, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money – not even an extra tunic .” And the third verse, Matthew 16:24 says, “‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” These verses are often condensed and combined to describe St. Francis’ way of life as, “give all, take nothing, and follow me.”

But, of course our way of living that out will not look like St. Francis’ way. As with all the saints, we are not called to imitate his particular execution of these commands, but his dedication to listening for them, and his commitment to following them. In our own lives, “Give all” may lead us to consider, “What or where does God call me to give my all?” With my family, how am I called to give my all? At work, at church, how am I called to give my all? There is a lot to reflect on there. Similarly, “take nothing,” may become, “What does God call me to leave behind?” This list could get lengthy: pride, bitterness, convenience, the accumulation of more and more, fear, the arrogance that I know what God’s purpose is, really this could be a very long list. Together, these are questions to frame a lifetime of discipleship. What is my all and where can I give it? What can I let go of? The more we find ourselves wrestling with these questions, the closer we come to following Jesus. Amen.