October is an important month for Franciscans. Perhaps none more than this year. There will be prayers and liturgies, as well as the raising of glasses in unity and celebration, culminating a year of pilgrimages and special events.
This Oct. 3, friars and their friends around the world will mark the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. A little thought might make one think this is odd. Why, one might ask, would friars be celebrating the death of their founder?
The short answer is that Francis viewed his own death, in the light of Christian faith in the resurrection, as a new beginning rather than an ending.So much earthly good has transpired since Francis’ death, and his life has inspired so many to commit themselves to Jesus, the Divine Master. In the past 800 years, friars have devoted themselves to fraternal community and the wider church, as pastors and teachers. From a small corner of Italy, friars spread their message of solidarity with the poor and forgotten from the Holy Land to the Americas. Following the example of Francis, friars continue a special focus on ministry to those on the margins.
Francis showed the way. He was raised amid wealth but became famous for seeing those living in involuntary poverty as his brothers and sisters in Christ.
A leper changed his world.
While still a cavalry soldier, Francis rode by a forlorn, diseased man, seeing in him the face of Christ. Francis embraced the leper, seated the man on his horse, and gave him a ride to where he wanted to go.
This spontaneous act of affection ran counter to what Francis had always believed. He had kept lepers at a distance, only knowing them from observations miles away. The lepers were part of Francis’ community but were left apart. They were outcasts, seen as physically grotesque, carriers of contagious disease. Francis grew up comfortable with keeping poverty and distress at a distance.
But something inspired Francis that day to see a particular leper as a brother.
“What had previously nauseated me became a source of spiritual and physical consolation,” the saint later wrote, noting how that encounter inspired his own conversion.
After he left the world of wealth, Francis was determined that no man would be poorer than he. The once-wealthy young man became unafraid to beg alms for the poor. He taught the friars that begging on behalf of the poor was a noble and holy gesture. He called upon the friars to live in constant search of Lady Poverty, a condition to be loved and cherished rather than feared.
Today’s friars from the Our Lady of Guadalupe Province follow that tradition. In a modern world, saturated with the quest for material comfort, they strive to remain examples of simplicity.
The friars regularly embrace the needy, ministering to them in places often forgotten. Today’s friars can be found in a soup kitchen in Philadelphia, feeding the urban poor; ministering to Native Americans in the Arizona desert; and in the hills of Jamaica, providing education to families left behind in the world economy. Friars witness at the U.S.-Mexico border to the needs of migrants fleeing poverty and violence in their native countries.
More than 800 years of ministry to the poor began because a single man, galvanized by faith, saw in the outcast and the needy the face of Jesus. The work continues, thanks to the friars and those who support them.
Franciscan friars serve around the United States and the foreign missions, with many leading ministries vital to families in poverty seeking a way out of difficult circumstances. To learn more about how you can give a legacy gift to Franciscan Friars Charities and leave behind an enduring kindness, contact Bro. Paul O’Keeffe, OFM, via email at pokeeffe@friars.us or by calling 646-278-4699.