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Francis was not the first saint to have encountered God during an illness. There’s something about serious illness that forces us to confront our mortality and then to question our priorities.
Those who worry about whether there will be enough find it difficult to give freely. Those accustomed to giving it all away find it easier to accept God’s grace.
In spite of his radical commitment to live the Gospel, apart from many of the cultural institutions that had influenced the Church by the thirteenth century, Francis still remained a faithful, obedient son of the Church.
Francis so identified with the poor outside the walls of Assisi that he desired to be buried there. The Basilica of St. Francis stands outside the walls he knew.
Servant leadership continues to be a difficult concept, perhaps because so many business and political organizations elevate power and authority to ends in themselves.
One of the iconic moments in Francis’s life was when he stood before the bishop and people of Assisi and stripped not only of the clothing that belonged to his father, but of his very identity as his father’s son.
Jesus reserved his harshest words in the Gospels for those who thought they were spiritually superior to others.
