Find ing God in All Things, In All Places and in Everyone

October 4, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi

I love St. Francis of Assisi.

As a kid, I used to admire him all my life. Plus the fact that I was raised by a Franciscan-Capuchin school. Whenever the month of October comes, there is the usual contest about St. Francis. And I used to join every contest about St. Francis of Assisi namely: essay writing, drawing contest, quiz bee about the life of St. Francis. Luckily, I haven’t won in any of those events (name it, I lose it.)

But even if he has been my idol for my whole life, I’ve live long enough on this planet to realize how different my life from his.

One of my favorite stories of Francis was when he was walking through a filed of flowers and he ended up screaming, “stop talking to me! Stop talking to me!” He later explained that he was so overwhelmed by what each flower was declaring to him: “God made us bloom because He knew that you were going to pass by.

Wow.
I mean, Woooowwwwwwwww!

When I walk through a filed of flowers, all I end up screaming is, “stop giving me allergies!” and about seventeen haaaaachooos per minute.

St. Francis was the same guy who called everything brother and sister. I don’t mind calling the sun as “brother sun” and the moon as “sister moon”. But I think calling rats as “brother mice” and roaches as “sister cockroaches” is a little bit too far. I just squash those crawling things without any permission from God.

St. Francis was also the man who kissed lepers and embraced them. Simply because he saw God in them. Honestly, the first time I met a leper at Tala Leprosarium when I was working as a student volunteer for a day, I didn’t know whether to wave “hi!” or pretend I was a Japanese and clasp my hands in my chest and give them a reverent bow – just so that I wouldn’t touch them.

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order. He was a man of vision, man of faith and a man of God. He values the virtue of humility, poverty, generosity, and simplicity. He went out to preach the word of God to all people. In our Gospel today, Jesus reproaches to unrepentant towns, and a call of repentance that is part of the proclamation of the kingdom that brings it with severe judgment for those who hear and rejected it. Francis heard the call from the God and kept it in his heart. He found God in the beggar that asked for alms; when his conscience talked to him and went out again to seek the beggar and gave him money. He set aside his desire to become a soldier, and in a dream he heard the call of God to follow his footsteps and carry his cross. He saw God in an unfinished church where a cross talked to him (it was the cross of St. Damien) and said “come build my church, its failing into ruin.” He heard the call of God and kept it inside his heart and goes forth to spread the good news, share the love of Christ and lift up high the cross of Christ. He went out and sell everything that he had. He went out and begged for alms and for food. He followed God regardless of the humiliations, of what other people may think. He followed God amidst of the oppositions from his family and his peers. He followed God despite of pain and suffering that he has faced. In the end, he received a gift from God, a very beautiful gift: the wounds of Christ or the stigmata.

You and I need lesson from St. Francis of Assisi who saw God in every place, in everything and in everyone.

I am learning. I remember one day when I was in college, after giving a talk to a quite large number of Freshmen College at UST for their recollection, and that I thought it is extraordinarily inspiring, I stepped off the stage feeling very proud of myself. I was immediately greeted by a female participant and expecting the usual praise like, “your words blessed me so much!” or “you were terrific!” I bent down towards her so that I can hear the adulation above deafening applause. Her words had an impact.

She said solemnly, “your zipper is open.”

After overcoming my desire to die that instant and after mentally selecting what remote island I could hide for few hundred years, I begin to laugh. Because I saw God in that situation. I may had missed speaking to me in the field of lowers , I may not had seen Him in rats and roaches (well, I still don’t), and I may had miss him in the first time I met a leper (I embrace them now!) but I didn’t miss Him in that humiliating experience. He was telling me, “You’re just my mouthpiece, kid. Humble yourself and loosen up.” Oh yes, I believe that God wants me to zip up too.

We need to learn that every situation is a window where one can see the workings of heaven. And everything is a self-donation to God, an explosion of His love that cannot be contained. And every person is sacred, bursting with His presence, His wisdom, His beauty.

St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us.