Francis loved the larks and wanted by his singing to make larks of all people, to lift them up and free their spirits so they could fly with him and all the larks above. In the blue freedom of God’s love, even a sparrow became a lark and fantasy and joy made everyone’s dream come true. Yet it was more than fantasy. It was the promises of Jesus fulfilled here and now for those who would dare to believe.
To those who left all things, Jesus had promised eternal life and a hundredfold besides—now! Being a lark was a part of the hundredfold; and on a spring morning, lifting his eyes from the red poppies and yellow buttercups of the Umbrian valley to Mount Subasio in the east, Francis wondered if being a lark might not be the whole of it. What greater beauty and grace could there be? For surely a lark was the resurrected Christ on wings of celebration.
—from the book Francis: The Journey and the Dream
by Murray Bodo, OFM
