A revised précis of a sermon delivered at the Liberal Catholic Church of Saint Francis, Gordon, New South Wales, Australia, on 27 April 2008, being the Dedication Anniversary of the Church of Saint Francis - published in Communion [The Magazine of the Liberal Catholic Church in Australasia (includes Indonesia)], Vol 26, No 3, Michaelmas 2008 – Copyright Ian Ellis-Jones 2008 – All Rights Reserved.

1. SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI
A Saint for Today’s Troubled World
A revised précis of a sermon delivered at the Liberal Catholic Church of Saint Francis,
Gordon, New South Wales, Australia, on 27 April 2008,
being the Dedication Anniversary of the Church of Saint Francis
Published in Communion [The Magazine of the Liberal Catholic Church
in Australasia (includes Indonesia)], Vol 26, No 3, Michaelmas 2008
By The Rev. Dr Ian Ellis-Jones
“Don’t change the world. Change worlds.”
- St Francis of Assisi.
Francis of Assisi was born at Assisi, in Umbria, a region of central Italy, on 26
September 1181 (some standard sources say 1182), and died on 3 October
1226, aged 46 years of age. Unlike the popular images that have penetrated the
consciousness of most people over time, Francis was very much a man of action,
and in his younger years was almost entirely devoted to hedonism in various
forms. He had dreams of becoming a knight, so in 1201 he took part in a military
expedition in the form of an attack on Perugia but was taken hostage for a year.
Around 12o5 he enlisted in another military expedition to Apulia. During this
period his health, particularly his emotional health, suffered greatly, and he
turned to religion.
Francis had a number of dreams in which he heard God calling him to service of
various kinds, so he returned to Assisi to care for the sick. In 1206 Francis had a
vision in which he heard the voice of Christ speaking to him from a crucifix and
calling upon him to “repair my Church”. At first Francis interpreted this vision to
mean that he was being called upon to repair the church of nearby San Damiano,
which had fallen into disrepair. Later Francis came to realize that he was being

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called upon to carry out repairs of an altogether different kind, that is, repairs to
the church as a whole. (The literal approach often gets us nowhere.)
Francis was never ordained a ministerial priest, nor did he wish to form an order
as such, even though in time one was formed. Francis decided to live by the rule
of poverty referred to in Matthew 19:21 (“… If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that
thou hast, and give to the poor … and come and follow me”). He gave away all
his worldly possessions including his shoes, his walking staff and belt, and began
to live a life of radical penance, manifesting itself in a deep spirit of poverty,
simplicity and humility. Francis said to his bishop, “If we had any possessions we
should need weapons and laws to defend them.”
Francis’s life of penance was almost evangelical in its fervor and purpose,
namely, to lead people to God in Christ. Now, the word “penance” is much
misunderstood, but it literally means conversion. It involves much more than
ascetic acts such as fasting. For Francis, a life of penance was a way of life,
involving a radical self-emptying and self-surrender, open to constant change
under the daily guidance of the Divine. It was also a life of service to the poor, the
disabled, and the marginalized in society, one of his first actions after his
conversion being to care for lepers. Francis believed that deeds were more
important than creeds. He said, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless
our walking is our preaching.”
Francis, who was canonized on 16 July 1228, in Assisi, by Pope Gregory IX, is
the patron saint of, yes, animals, but also ecology. In 1979 Francis was
proclaimed by Pope John Paul II as the patron of ecology, and was cited by the
Pope as “an example of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation”.
Further, in Renewing the Earth, a document published by the United States
Catholic Bishops in 1982, Saint Francis was praised for being ahead of his time.
The document declared, among other things:

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Safeguarding creation requires us to live responsibly in it, rather than managing
creation as though we are outside it.
Francis saw the Divine not only “in all the peoples of [the] earth” but also in all
created things, and he sought a reconciliation of all creation with both humanity
and with God. He said, “Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.” He
sought to render all things holy, even poverty. Part of Francis’s love for and
appreciation of the environment is expressed in his Canticle of the Sun, part of
which is as follows:
All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you have made,
And first my lord Brother Sun,
Who brings the day; and light you give to us through him.
…
How beautiful is he, how radiant in all his splendor!
Of you, Most High, he bears the likeness.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Moon and Stars;
In the heavens you have made them, bright
And precious and fair.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
…
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Water,
So useful, lowly, precious, and pure.
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Brother Fire,
Through whom you brighten up the night.
…
All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Earth, our mother,
Who feeds us in her sovereignty and produces
Various fruits and coloured flowers and herbs.
…
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility.
Francis not only recognized the sun, moon, stars, trees, birds and animals as his
spiritual brothers and sisters, he would talk to them lovingly and personally. He
saw himself as part of the ecosystem, and refused to entertain any silly notions of
there being some sort of supposed distinction between the “natural” and the so-
called “supernatural”. The very fact that he referred to all creatures and created

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things as “brothers” and “sisters” shows that he regarded them as equals and not
as subjects over which he was some sort of master exercising some sort of
dominion (cf Gen 1:26, 28). All creation, indeed all life, was sacred and holy …
and not something evil to be despised and rejected like many traditional orthodox
Christians have done. How very appropriate in these troubles days of global
warming and the like.
Like all the great “God-intoxicated” Christian mystics Francis was filled with a
deep reverence and awe for God as manifested in all animate and inanimate
objects. Nothing was mundane to him, rather the whole world is filled with the
wonder and majesty of God. Max Scheler, German writer and philosopher, wrote,
“St Francis saw even in a bug the sacredness of life.” The saint would often be
lost in religious ecstasy for whole days and nights, his only words being, “My God
and my All; my God and my All.” An interesting sidelight is that, according to
many sources, Francis believed in reincarnation. Whether that be true or not, he
certainly saw all creation as being a sacred ladder (cf Jacob’s ladder) by means
of which one could ascend to one’s Creator.
Finally, Francis was ahead of his time in ecumenism. This Church - the Liberal
Catholic Church - sees good in most, if not all, all of the world’s major religions,
sensibly interpreted, and seeks to embody reconciliation and peace in all its
endeavours. Francis did likewise. In the middle of a battle during the Fifth
Crusade Francis made a valiant attempt to stop the crusades by seeking out a
personal dialogue with a Muslim sultan in Syria, his aim being to make peace
and offer reconciliation and love. The sultan was greatly impressed … and
moved. He told Francis, “I would convert to your religion which is a beautiful one
– but both of us would be murdered.”
The beautiful prayer for peace traditionally called The Prayer of Saint Francis
was almost certainly not written by Francis, but it faithfully embodies all of his
spiritual ideals and values:

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Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
-oo0oo-