Make Me a Channel of Your Peace October 4

God is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who has withstood him and remained unscathed? He removes the mountains before they know it; he overturns them in his anger. He shakes the earth out of its place, and the pillars beneath it tremble. He commands the sun, and it rises not; he seals up the stars. Job 9:5-8

“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Luke 9:58

Piety



Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/100406.shtml

On this the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Jesus speaks of the difficult, rigorous and unconditional nature of Christian discipleship. Even family ties and the obligations of children to their parents, such as burying one's parents, cannot distract one no matter how briefly from proclaiming the kingdom of God.

This is a path that St. Francis knew well – a path that he trod in founding his order of men. Francis embraced the leper, gave away the contents of his purse and took up the clothes of the beggar. Through this denial of his wealthy family roots, he was able to make his life open to missionary work for the Church.

In addition, Francis’ journey to God was a journey inward that was helped by contemplation of the natural world. So, on the one hand, St. Francis recognizes that man-made material wealth must be renounced because it is an obstacle to God’s friendship. However, St. Francis, like Job in today’s reading from the Hebrew Bible, sees the power of God reflected in the awesome nature of the world around us. Rather than fleeing the world, the Franciscan seeks to find God in the world, including all of creation.

Jesus, not being of this world, does not even have a place to lay his head or a nest like the birds. The conditions He sets forth for discipleship are reflected in those that were later embraced by Francis. Matthew expands on the conditions noted by St. Luke. In Matthew 10:35-38, Jesus says: For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

He challenges us to deny our lives and to take up our cross. How will we respond?

Action

According to an article in the St. Anthony Messenger and posted at Catholic.org:
“St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and ecology, respected the links among all of God’s creation. Following a rebirth experience, Francis, whose feast day is Oct. 4, made a drastic change in his lifestyle, striving for less so that Christ could become more in his life.

The article goes on to say, “No doubt, he would take the warnings about global warming seriously and find additional ways to simplify his life.”

http://www.catholic.org/views/views_news.php?id=21450&pid=0

Read this thought-provoking article at the link above.

Think back to July when the price of gas exceeded $3.50 per gallon.

In honor of St. Francis, consider what Christians can do to start living a more simple life (and maybe use less of the limited supply we have of fossil fuels).