St Francis of Assisi left his mortal coil on 3 October 1226; within two years he was made a saint. He is the patron saint of ecology and the environment, and is most famous for his prayer, “Lord, make me a means of your peace“. St Francis of Assisi is honoured as a Saint and a beacon of world peace in many religions. Bishop Philip Huggins reflects on what it means to be human, to Christian – or indeed a person of any faith – and to move past the cycle of revenge into the cycle of forgiveness. Each day when the Sun rises, we can begin again, with love.
“Today we begin again”, say the saints so wisely.
This week we are remembering St Francis of Assisi.
His timeless word is that ‘the love of God who loved us greatly is greatly to be loved.’
Living a true and beautiful life means that, as Franciscan Richard Rohr reminds us ,in each new day we are given,we seek to grow in our willingness to be loved and to love.
Richard Rohr conveys St Francis’ eagerness to love and reminds us that if our only goal is to love, there is no such thing as failure.
We just begin again and again,in a giving and a forgiving spirit.
In the process,the love of God keeps drawing us deeper, as we let go of far less helpful ways of living.
It’s risky, as it was for the Creator to come amongst us,a baby in that Bethlehem manger,born of Mary.
But what happens if we don’t?
A year ago, we were thinking of St. Francis and blessing pets as terrible things started happening in Israel and Gaza.
I wrote a diagram on our big Church blackboard, facing Bay St. Port Melbourne. It was a version of the diagram we had placed in our little ‘Forgiveness’ book.
As I finished, an old man stood watching. He said quietly to me, quoting Gandhi, ‘an eye for an eye will just turn the whole world blind.’
Transitioning from the Revenge cycle to the Forgiveness cycle is never easy.
There are no short cuts. We just begin again and again.
To help us sustain our choice, we meditate and pray.
On the in-breath ‘Jesus’.
On the out-breath ‘have mercy’.
In this month of October, especially praying as St. Francis prayed:
Guided by the Holy Spirit, we each find further motivation when we need it. This week, for me, it is the innocent face of a granddaughter on her birthday. I pray she and all children can grow up in safety and in peace. There is much, therefore, to be done. As St. Anthony said each morning, around 300 AD near the Red Sea, “Today we begin again.” AMEN.
BISHOP PHILIP HUGGINS
Bishop Philip Huggins is a bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, Patron of Australian Religious Response to Climate Change, and member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Interfaith Liaison Committee. He is also a member of the National Executive of Religions for Peace Australia.
