Francis of Assisi: evangelizer and peacemaker

MARY IAPALUCCI
A statue of the Saint
at St. Francis of Assisi Church,
Greenlawn

Live lovingly, proclaim joy and hope, care for creation, be living instruments of peace. These are some of the core values that guided St. Francis of Assisi in his role as evangelizer. For Francis there wasn’t a master plan. His simple living rooted in the Gospel and his genuine love for the poor would earn him the title “Mirror of Christ.”

Francis was not born a saint. Like each of us, it was a journey, a transformative experience. In his youth, he was the life of the party. The son of a wealthy cloth merchant, he wanted for nothing. Like many of the young adults of Assisi, he became a knight to defend his home town and woo the young women of the town.

His road to transformation began in the chapel of San Damiano when he received the message from the Lord: “Francis, go and rebuild My Church which has fallen into ruin.” He responded immediately with brick and mortar repairing the chapel. His society had many of the same issues we face today: poverty, war, scandals, secularism, and materialism. Francis gradually realized that it was more than rebuilding a chapel brick by brick but rather, rebuilding the Church person by person. Francis did not set out to found a religious order but the Lord sent him many followers who wanted to join him in his love of Jesus and service to the marginalized.

Pope Benedict calls us to be evangelizers and our own Bishop Murphy to “Belong More Deeply.” St. Francis modeled for us values we can use as practical guidelines to do so. Francis encouraged his brothers to “Preach often, when necessary use words.” Today more important even than preachers and teachers, we need witnesses to Jesus (Pope Paul VI). We need the world to see the vitality of our faith, the impact of the Gospels on daily living, the nourishment we receive from the sacraments and prayer, the necessity of reaching out to the poor and the reality of witnessing to the moral and social issues of our day through the lens of the Gospel.

The starting point is always a focus on Jesus. Francis said: ”The Gospel is my life.” Each of the four values being proposed  are rooted in “action” words to assist us in developing our own personal action plan to be evangelizers.

“Live lovingly.”
Scripture tells us that “God is Love and he who abides in Love, abides in God and God in Him.” We need to deepen our relationship with Jesus and others. Francis embraced the lepers, the marginalized. Who are the lepers, the marginalized in our lives? How do we live lovingly? We will evangelize through our love for all God’s children.

 “Proclaim joy and hope.”
Francis’ joy influenced his prayer life, his communal life and his ministry to the poor and outcasts. We need to proclaim and live joy in our families and in all our daily encounters. Proclaim not only joy but hope. Many are losing hope  in our leaders, our country, the economy and yes, some even in the Church. We continue to lose hope as we face terrorism, war, joblessness, poverty, secularism, and materialism. The decay of the moral fiber of our country concerns us. Joy and hope must be the virtues, the tools, we use to overcome all these issues. It will be by trusting in God, Our Father, and being filled with joy and hope in our daily lives that we will evangelize and give hope and joy to others.

“Care for creation.”
St. Francis wrote the beautiful Canticle of Creation embracing all of God’s creation as Brother and Sister. Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind and Sister Air, Brother Fire and Sister Water, etc. Francis’ love of the Infant Jesus and the Crucified Christ calls us to care for all life issues from the womb until we embrace Sister Death. His love of all creation given to us by God challenges us to care for our environment, a gift from God. It is our duty to care for God’s creation and provide a healthy environment for the children of the future.

“Be living instruments of peace.”
Witnessing to peace, by living each day in peaceful relationships helps us to be credible witnesses of the Gospel. Whether it be in our family, among friends or colleagues or the language and attitudes we use, we will evangelize when others witness us and are able to say, as Scripture tells us, they will know you are my followers by your love for one another.

St. Francis was more than a lover of animals, more than a statue in a bird bath. His life witnessed to a deep love of Jesus, a mirroring of Christ, a life of penance and sacrifice being blessed with the stigmata, a deep and personal holiness and spirituality lived out in community. This prayer and witness was concretized through his love for the poor and marginalized. He was a peacemaker between the bishop and mayor in Assisi, by encouraging his followers not to bear arms, through his meeting with the sultan in the Holy Land as he walked through the streets saying peace and all good. His being a peacemaker was one more example of how he evangelized not always with words but with actions.

United with Our Holy Father Benedict and Bishop Murphy, we look to St. Francis and all the saints living among us to be evangelizers and belong more deeply.

Taken from “Evangelization and the Lives of the Saints: St. Francis of Assisi,” produced by the diocesan Office of New Evangelization. For the complete pamphlet, visit the Office of New Evangelization at www.drvc.org.