St. Francis Got the Connection (Reflections on Pentecost 20, Year B 2024)

 

So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. (Genesis 2:19)

Divorce is a nasty subject. I know. I’ve been divorced. It’s not really the kind of thing you want to think about on a pleasant Sunday morning even if it happens to be the subject of the gospel reading in the Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost 20, Year B (Mark 10:2-16). Since my congregation is now comprised more of widows than divorcees, I think I’m going to dispense with this subject as quickly as I can. So here goes:

In Mark’s gospel Jesus lets the Pharisees and the disciples know that divorce, however legal it might be, is only legal because of humankind’s “hardness of heart.” He’s shooting pretty straight when he tells this crowd that breaking your promise to someone so you can hook up with someone else is still breaking a promise (You’ll remember the flack John the Baptist gave Herod about shacking up with his brother’s ex.[i] ).

In the world of this text, women didn’t have a whole lot of rights. If you were a woman and your old man decided he didn’t want you anymore, he could write you a letter of divorce and you’d be on the street. You’ll notice in the passage the Pharisees say a man has a right to divorce his wife, but nothing is mentioned about her having a right to get rid of him if he’s abusive to her. Jesus is actually standing up to protect the women from poverty when he speaks these words about divorce and adultery.

Our Roman Catholic brothers have been getting their shorts in a knot over the subject of divorce for a long time. I think they’re rather missing the point of this gospel lesson. They may be stuck like obsessed barnacles to the letter of the scripture, but they’re missing the intent. Jesus cares for the weak and the vulnerable. He also cares that we honor one another. It’s very true that two perfectly lovely and amiable human beings might discover they just can’t be lovely and amiable living under the same roof. There can be many good and legitimate reasons why couples split up. Nevertheless, a necessary separation should not negate the mutual responsibility to forgive and care for the wellbeing of the other.

Everything in the universe exists in relationship to everything else. There’s a divine interconnectedness all things share. Our gospel writer juxtaposes Jesus’ teaching about broken relationships between adults with his welcome for children—the weakest and, in the society of his day, the least important. Jesus welcomes the children as being an essential part of the whole.

I love that this gospel text is paired with the reading from Genesis 2:18-24. In this well-known and fanciful story, the first man recognizes the first woman as being a part of himself. She is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” He recognizes, as God says in verse 18, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” We are created for community and relationship.

The lesson from Genesis also stresses the human being’s relationship with the natural world. Before Adam meets his intended bride, God (showing a great sense of humor if you ask me!) has him encounter a bunch of unsuitable “partners.” In doing this, God creates a relationship between the man and all the other living creatures. How? The man gives them names. It is so important that we know each other by name, don’t you think? And don’t we even nickname or rename people who are closest to us? Sometimes nicknames are meant to be insulting and oppressive,[ii] but even this labeling defines a relationship. Lovers often have secret pet names for each other which only they know. To know by name creates a bond.

So bottom line? It’s not too deep a thought: we’re all in this together. We all have responsibility for each other. We are all called to see God in one another—even in the little children and the beasts of the field.

Saying this allows me to segue into a few words about the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi which is celebrated on October 4. If ever there was a fellow who understood the interconnectedness of all living creatures, it was Francis. He lived in the late 12^th and early 13^th centuries, the son of a wealthy Italian cloth merchant. As a young man he joined the army of his duchy which was waging war on its neighbor—something which was not at all uncommon in 13^th century Italy. He was taken prisoner and held for ransom for about a year. Following his release, he started to have a change of heart about many things.

Although Francis was wealthy, he slowly began to lose interest in his father’s enterprise and began to devote himself to a life of the spirit. Sometime around 1205 it is said that Francis had a divine vision which ultimately led him to renounce his father’s business and wealth. He began to spend more time alone and in prayer. After encountering beggars while on a pilgrimage to Rome, Francis determined to enter into a relationship with them by becoming a mendicant himself.

Francis is said to have had a vision of Jesus who told him to rebuild his church. He spent a few years around the vicinity of Assisi repairing dilapidated chapels and nursing lepers. By 1208 he had developed a following of eleven disciples who were moved by his embrace of poverty and love for the poor. The following year he approached Pope Innocence III and requested and was granted permission to form a new religious order.

Francis is remembered and beloved for his relationship with all living things. This included his love for the poor and marginalized and his love for the natural world and the creatures which inhabit it. He is considered the patron saint of animals, and it’s not uncommon for churches to hold a blessing of the animals on the Sunday nearest his feast day. It’s said that Francis referred to all creatures as his brothers and sisters. Legend has it that he’d preach to the birds and ventured into the wild to encounter a vicious wolf which had been devouring the livestock of a local village. Francis, so the story goes, was able to convince the predator to give up attacking sheep and accept food scraps from the villagers instead. The animal lived with the people of the town for two years as something of a collective pet. In the late 19th century, the skeletal remains of a large wolf were discovered buried near the wall of the village church.[iii]

Francis is also credited for being the inventor of the Christmas creche in 1220. He celebrated Christmas mass by bringing a straw-filled manager into the worship space of the church along with some live donkeys and bovines so the worshipers could have an experience of the birth of Christ.

In an attempt to restore broken human relationships, Francis and some of his disciples traveled to Egypt in 1219, hoping to bring an end to the 5^th Crusade. During a temporary ceasefire, he crossed the lines to the Muslim camp and met with the Sultan of Egypt. His attempt was to bring peace or die as a martyr. He achieved neither goal, but the severe African sunlight damaged his eyes and claimed a portion of his sight.

We remember Francis today because he really seemed to understand that a goal of our human existence is to see Christ in each other and God in all things, to put away our selfish exclusivity, and love the world as a child might—with wonder and affection and joy.

Thanks for being connected to me this week. Please drop by again.

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[i] See Mark 6:17ff

[ii] Especially if Donald Trump is doing the naming.

[iii] Who knows if this story is true or not, but, if it isn’t, it ought to be. You can read the whole tale by clicking Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio.