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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.
This week we mark the third Sunday of Lent and hear the Gospel story of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple.
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.
In today reading Daniel prays in the name of the people. They are ashamed of what they have done. Yet they know that God is compassionate and forgiving.
The transfiguration was an extraordinary moment. Such moments don’t happen very often. But when they do, they change everything.
The need for peace and understanding is as great in our time as it was during the Crusades, and sometimes as little valued.
Jesus and Francis both know that often the evil that we see and hate in others reflects some shadowy part of our own attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors.
“Lent is not an intellectual exercise, but an affair of the heart,” says this author. By centering ourselves in prayerful silence, we open ourselves up to a deeper engagement with this holy season.
