FRANCIS OF ASSISI, LOVER NOT OF THE ENVIRONMENT BUT THE EUCHARIST

This morning at Mass on the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, in the Prayers of the Faithful which Father reads from a book, we had the usual incantation of St Francis, patron saint of the environment,  climate change, global warming, indigenous peoples and endangered species.

St Francis was anything but. Oh yes, he may have talked about 'Brother Sun' and 'Sister Moon' and maybe he talked to the birds. And if he hadn't been concerned for the poor and underprivileged he'd never have become a saint.

But for Francis, nothing mattered as much as the Eucharist, and nothing concerned him so much as disrespect for the Blessed Sacrament.

In his first extant letter, he is outraged at "the great sin and ignorance some have towards the most Holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and his most holy names and words that consecrate his body".

Nothing got Francis going like the use of dirty or inappropriate vessels or containers, or the Sacrament being left "in dirty places, carried about unbecomingly and ministered to others without care".

What would St Francis of Assisi say about the use of common wooden 'patens', paper towels as purifiers, ripped pyx bags, and so-called 'Ministers of the Eucharist' who leave the Host lying around while they get on with other stuff, or chatting with people, pyx bag casually in hand, before leaving the church to take Holy Communion to the sick?

Francis insisted to priests and  his unordained brothers that "in every sermon you give, remind people about penance and that no one can be saved unless he receives the most holy Body and Blood of the Lord. When It is … carried anywhere, let all peoples praise, honour and adore on bended knee the Lord God, living and true.

He was determined to encourage the more dramatic and humbling act of kneeling  before the Sacrament in place of the older bow.

"We must be Catholics. We ought to visit churches frequently and venerate clerics, not so much for their own sake, for they may be sinners, but on account of their office and their administration of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ."

I beg you not to forget the Lord … for those who leave him in oblivion and turn away from his commandments are cursed and will be left in oblivion by Him.  The wiser and more powerful they were in the world, the greater will be the punishment they will endure in Hell.

 - Francis of Assisi, A New Biography, Augustine Thompson, OP (considered the definitive biography of the saint and now used in the formation of Franciscans).