Saint saw link among creatures

A friend of the animals ... that’s all I was taught and knew about St. Francis of Assisi when I was a child.

But what a complex, if not eccentric, individual hid behind that simple caricature.

My spiritual journey has given me a much greater appreciation of this gentle man who has not only been a personal inspiration, but has helped affirm my Christian view.

So when the new pope, former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, took the name of this beloved saint, saying he did so because St. Francis was “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation,” I was excited.

But the announcement also created a big question for me.

In 1182, Francis was born into wealth but later renounced his family’s riches, actually coming to abhor money to the degree that he literally would not touch it nor would he let the monks within his order touch it. Francis thought that if his monks accepted payment for their services, they would then want to accumulate it, which would ultimately lead to a desire to take up arms to protect it.

Understanding the danger of being spiritually “imprisoned” by money or possessions, he asked God for only his “daily” bread but not an overabundance.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus wanted to help the less fortunate, even telling a wealthy man to “sell all your possessions and give them to the poor” (Matthew 19:21).

St. Francis did exactly that by ridding himself of all possessions, taking a vow of poverty, then spending the rest of his life serving the “least of these.”

Historians also credit Francis for popularizing the Christmas manger display, but which differed greatly from today’s sanitized figures of Joseph, Mary and Jesus on the front lawn.

Wanting his contemporaries to truly experience the birth of Jesus, Francis brought live sheep, oxen and donkeys indoors, which, of course, resulted in a mess. It was in this enclosed room that Francis wanted people to sense the stench and squalor where Jesus lay. He wanted them to understand a deeper message — that God became incarnate in this world not as a rich and powerful king but, rather, as a child with very little who then grew into the role not of ruler but as servant.

Finally, there is a reason why Francis is so much associated with animals.

When he read Mark 16:15, “And he said unto them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,” Francis took it literally. So, in addition to humans, he really did preach to animals, who were on occasion a more attentive audience.

His understanding of the natural world was, well, different than most. Believing that God “birthed” all creation, Francis felt everything in the universe thus had the same “father.”

He expressed these thoughts beautifully and poetically in his Canticle (Song) of the Sun treating “brother” sun and “sister” moon as our relatives. It can be argued that Francis was the very first conservationist. Roman Catholics recognize him as the patron saint of animals and ecology.

A deeper knowledge of St. Francis gives us an appreciation of what being a Christian meant to him.

He is considered the archetype of the “Holy Fool” because of his unusual and sometimes shocking behavior. Even though he paid some respect to orthodoxy, he was also a mystic whose thoughts took him to a spirituality beyond the established church. The pope no doubt honored Francis by taking his name.

At the end of his life, St. Francis said, “I have done what was mine to do; now you must do yours.” Can the pope, or any of us for that matter, even begin to meet the Christian challenge exemplified by St. Francis?

Tom Bresko, retired from Mill Creek Metro Parks, is a Christian on a spiritual pilgrimage.