St. Francis of Assisi, religious founder


Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:

Jonah 1:1-2:1,11
Jonah 2:2-5,8
Luke 10:25-37


A reflection on today's Scripture:

In today's gospel Our Lord accepts the words of the scholar in answer to the question of inheriting eternal life:

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart,
and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength,
and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.

Later in John's gospel, we hear Christ tell his disciples: "This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you."

Meditation on words as these are quite right on the day we remember St. Francis of Assisi. This great saint would, upon entering a village, go straight to the Catholic Church and prostrate himself before the doors, extending his arms toward the altar, and he would pray for many minutes in this position, before arising and entering the Church.

This act indicated his complete belief in the Real Presence of Christ on the altar, reserved in the Tabernacle, for this is how Francis would have acted if the "bodily" Christ was seated thereon for him to see with bodily eyes.

We, as mere mortals, are unable to love one another as God loves us without the help of God. But Christ has given us that help - that great grace - by giving himself to us in the Eucharist, in Holy Communion.

This is the greatest miracle on earth.

- Allen O'Donnell, SFO