not nature but creation - 26th week thursday st francis

St. Francis of Assisi followed this command of the Lord to his disciples to preach the gospel almost literally.  As a mendicant he went around preaching the gospel with no money bag, no sack and no sandals.  And except maybe for the Prayer of St. Francis, we remember none of what he preached, only what he did and how he lived his life.  This is because the attraction of so many people to St. Francis is not so much on what he said but on the way he followed Christ in his life – his simplicity of life, his joyful disposition, his trust on God’s providence, his love for Jesus, his passion for the church and his respect for the works of creation.

Today, because of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si, more and more we have equated St. Francis in our love for pets, our dogs and our cats, and generally in our care for the environment.  I believe it is wrong to merely simplify and narrow down the love and passion of St. Francis to these concerns. You see St. Francis has a unique way of looking at the world.  For him everything in the world is creation, not just nature but creation - planned, designed, molded and created by God.  His respect for everything that is in the world comes from this perspective – whether beggar or noble man, whether a leper or the pope himself, saints or sinners, whether trees or animals, wind or water - all of these were created lovingly by God.  And this is where his reverence and respect come from – from the fact that God is creator, and as it is written in the book of Genesis, God looked at everything that he created and pronounced them very good. 

Hopefully this is what we will also learn from St. Francis – to look at everything and everyone as God’s masterpiece of creation – always with reverence and respect.