Skip to main content

BECOMING GOD'S DREAM

God created us with an inner thirst, desire, longing to want to be someone, to want to make a difference.  As a youth, Francis of Assisi possessed a yearning to be a knight.  His first experience as a knight resulted in becoming a prisoner of war.  Francis continue to hang on to his dream of being a knight. Right before he joined the Papal Army, he had a dream where a guide led him into a palace of unspeakable beauty, filled with military arms. Its walls covered with shinning shields emblazoned with crosses.  Francis inquired: “To whom does all this belong?”  The guide told him: “All this belongs to you and your knights”.  For Francis this dream was a confirmation of him becoming a famous knight. 

On his way to join the Papal Army, he had another dream in which he heard a voice asking him: “Who can do more good for you – the master or the servant?”  Francis replied: “the master.”  The voice, then, asked: “Why are you abandoning the Master for a servant?”  Francis asked: “Lord, what do you want me to do?”   And the voice answered him: “Go back to your home and you will be to told what to do.”  At this point, Francis had to learn how to listen and discern who God was calling him to become as a Herald of the Great King, a Knight of Christ. 

Francis, driven by his inner thirst, desire, longing to do God’s will, led him one day to pray in the dilapidated chapel of San Damiano.  While praying before the crucifix, he heard Jesus tenderly calling him by name to “go and repair my house which, as you see, is being destroyed.”  This life changing experience gave Francis a new purpose and direction for his life. 

At first, Francis interpreted Jesus’ words literally.  He rebuilt three dilapidated chapels.  It was while he was rebuilding the chapel of St. Mary of the Angels that Francis discovered that Jesus was not talking about repairing and rebuilding a physical building, it was the Body of Christ, the living Church. 

This insight came about while he attended Mass on the Feast of St. Mathias in St. Mary of the Angels chapel.  This passage from Matthew’s Gospel, about Jesus sending out the disciples to share in his mission, resonated with Francis’ desire and longing to live a life unencumbered by material realities and to live a life dependent on God’s loving care as Christ lived his life. 

“Provide yourselves with neither gold nor silver nor copper in your belts; no traveling bag, no change of shirt, no sandals, no walking staff.  The laborer is worth his keep.  Look for a worthy person in every town or village you come to and stay with him until you leave.”  (Matthew 10:9-11)  

After the Mass, Francis asked the priest to explain the meaning of the Gospel.  At that moment, Francis proclaimed: “This is what I want.  This is what I seek.  This is what I desire with all my heart.”  At this point Francis becomes the great Herald of the King, Christ’s knight, to rebuild the Church by calling people back to living a gospel life and being the Body of Christ in a wounded and broken world.

So what initially appeared to be a shattered dream for Francis was gradually remade into a new dream. 

Francis' story is our story. Are we listening and pursuing our deepest thirsts, desires, longings, even though we do not know where they will lead us, what they will call forth from us, and how they will form us into the particular image of Christ we are called to make visible by our life? 

God, definitely, has a dream for each one of us to actualize so that we are, like Francis, building up the Body of Christ in light of our times. So let us strive to serve the Master and not the servant.  Christ is counting on us.

John Doctor, OFM
Quincy University




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THREE TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCES

There are three experiences that profoundly shaped St. Francis of Assis’s life. Two were early: one year spent as a prisoner-of-war (from 1202-1203), and subsequent homelessness living among lepers outside Assisi’s walls (likely 1205). The third, Francis’ journey to Egypt (in 1219), occurred seven years before his death in 1226. Each unfolded differently than Francis anticipated. Seeking fame, Francis joined Assisi’s ongoing fight with its neighbor Perugia. The son of a wealthy cloth merchant went off to war well equipped with horse and armor. When the battle turned against Assisi, Francis’s life was spared because his equipment revealed he came from a family capable of paying a ransom. His poorer, fellow soldiers who survived the battle were likely executed or if wounded “dispatched” on the battlefield. Strangely, Francis wrote nothing about his year-long imprisonment. Released from captivity, he was shell of his former self. Having witnessed men killed in battle, others executed as...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE MANGER & THE MONSTRANCE: WHAT ST. FRANCIS’ MANGER SCENE CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE BREAD OF LIFE IN THE YEAR OF EUCHARISTIC REVIVAL

The manger scene evokes our memories of Christmas: sharing delicious holiday dishes with family members, sitting around a Christmas tree with hot cocoa, or roasting chestnuts on an open fire. However, on this night, St. Francis did not partake in the feasting typical at Christmastime in the Middle Ages. Instead, he desired to “…enact the memory of that babe who was born in Bethlehem: to see as much as is possible with [his] own bodily eyes the discomfort of [Christ’s] infant needs, how he lay in a manger, and how, with an ox and ass standing by, he rested on hay”. Thus, the manger scene was born. On Christmas Eve in 1223, St. Francis of Assisi had the first live manger scene created in the town of Greccio. He gathered the townspeople from near and far to celebrate Mass and recall the origins of Christ’s humble birth.   Francis saw Our Lord’s birth as fundamental. His Birth is intimately tied to His Death. The two bookends of Christ’s Life on earth form the basis of Francis’ spiritu...
Post a Comment
Read more

BE WHERE YOUR FEET ARE!

Be where your feet are! The first time I remember hearing this phrase, I was juggling many responsibilities and was struggling to keep my head above water. I immediately cringed as I realized that I was not being mindful. I was not recognizing the beauty of every moment or appreciating the reality that I/we are always in the presence of our God. Be where your feet are has become a mantra for me … a call to presence and prayer. This phrase leads me back to Saint Clare’s method of prayer and contemplation. In her second letter to Agnes of Prague, Clare suggests that one should “Gaze upon Christ, Consider Christ, Contemplate Christ, as you desire to Imitate Christ.” What a powerful and challenging message this is! Be where your feet are! When I gaze, I am called to be mindful of the people and events that are happening around me. As I slow down to gaze, does that change my perception of what is important? Does gazing challenge how I spend my time, talent and treasure? Be where...
1 comment
Read more