Brother Sun

Today is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan spiritual movement.  Francis is best known as the “patron saint of animals,” and many churches have special services today to bless pets and other creatures. 

Francis is a more complex individual than the one-dimensional “bird-feeder” image so often seen in popular culture.

His philosophy, on which Franciscan spirituality is based, was radical in its simplicity:  Follow Christ’s invitation when he said, “If you wish to be perfect, go and sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

Monastic orders at the dawn of the 13th century were generally very wealthy, and monks and nuns lived comfortable lives behind the walls of their generously endowed monasteries and convents.  The leaders of these orders were equal in rank to bishops, and lived lifestyles equal in luxury and deference as any secular lord.  Francis envisioned a different kind of religious life, one of intentional poverty in service to the poor and the needy of all kinds.

Francis saw God in all creation, and in all things created, calling them brother and sister.  It is tempting to view Francis as a medieval John Muir, celebrating the natural world and establishing the spiritual and moral philosophies behind the environmental movement, but this is an anachronism.  Medieval men, including Francis, did not view the world as we do.  Nevertheless, Francis was keenly aware of the presence of God in everything around him, and strove to live his life in the moment and in the place where he found himself.  Because, by living in the moment, he transcended time and touched something that lives outside all moments—God himself.

It is for this reason that I so love Francis’s Canticle of Brother Sun.  When I recite that prayer, it touches me on several levels.  First, it connects me to a very here-and-now series of images grounded in God’s creation; next, those images evoke memories of specific moments when each of the creations praised (sun, moon, air, water, fire, earth, goodness, and death) touched my life; and finally, it takes me outside those moments and into a very deep reflection of how each of them has shaped, guided and directed the course of my life.  And that leads me back to God, the dimly perceived motive force behind it all.