04/10/2022

The psalm today is what we all have to encounter when we first come to a consciousness of our living being. We are created by God whom we come to know as the self-revealed Father Son and Holy Spirit. 

God also reveals his will for the way we should live our lives. Not many of us come close to living the way of Jesus and his Apostles. Their lives are the perfect example of total obedience to the Will of the Father and together with Mary they are our first Church. We can all aim to live like them but most of us fall short. 

Today's Feast of St. Francis celebrates the Glory of God revealed in two human lives lived more than a millennium apart. St Paul's mission to the gentiles is a complete wonder. In the first place his conversion was accepted by those who had lived with Jesus and had suffered at the hands of Saul the persecuting Pharisee and secondly his teaching is the theology out of revelation that we read in our daily prayer cycles and masses. 

St. Francis was so captivated by the Love of God that he took Our Lord's words completely literally and for the whole of his life he tried to divest himself of everything that did not lead him closer to the Jesus who had had nowhere to rest until finally he bowed his head and died on the Cross. 

"Modern life" that scapegoat for much of my sinfulness is essentially no different than life known to Jesus. Martha was righteously busy and at work. Mary stayed at the foot of the Lord and listened to the Word of God. St Francis remained in Holy Poverty all his life. For him even the Spiritual riches of priestly ordination were too much wealth and he remained in the clerical state as a deacon.

Dear Lord let me live in your Love this day. Let me be conscious of your Glory and let the things and worries of this world have no more than their rightful place in my life. May your mother Mary, St. Francis and the sister saints Mary and Martha together with all the saints continue to pray that holiness will again be seen in your Church on earth.