September 17 Feast Of The Stigmata Of St Francis

[cappie]

 

September.17

The Franciscan Order celebrates the Feast of the Stigmata of Our Seraphic Father Francis of Assisi

Francis imitated Christ so perfectly that towards the end of his life our Lord wished to point him out to the world as the faithful imitator of the Crucified, by imprinting His five wounds upon his body.

Two years before his death, when, according to his custom, Francis had repaired to Mt. La Verna to spend the 40 days preceding the feast of St. Michael the Archangel in prayer and fasting, this wonderful event took place.

 

St. Bonaventure gives the following account of it:

 

"Francis was raised to God in the ardor of his seraphic love, wholly transformed by sweet compassion into Him, who, of His exceeding charity, was pleased to be crucified for us. On the morning of the feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, as he was praying in a secret and solitary place on the mountain, Francis beheld a seraph with six wings all afire, descending to him from the heights of heaven. As the seraph flew with great swiftness towards the man of God, there appeared amid the wings the form of one crucified, with his hands and feet stretched out and fixed to the cross. Two wings rose above the head, two were stretched forth in flight, and two veiled the whole body.

 

"Francis wondered greatly at the appearance of so novel and marvelous a vision. But knowing that the weakness of suffering could nowise be reconciled with the immortality of the seraphic spirit, he understood the vision as a revelation of the Lord and that it was being presented to his eyes by Divine Providence so that the friend of Christ might be transformed into Christ crucified, not through martyrdom of the flesh, but through a spiritual holocaust.

 

"The vision, disappearing, left behind it a marvelous fire in the heart of Francis, and no less wonderful token impressed on his flesh. For there began immediately to appear in his hands and in his feet something like nails as he had just seen them in the vision of the Crucified. The heads of the nails in the hands and feet were round and black, and the points were somewhat long and bent, as if they had been turned back. On the right side, as if it had been pierced by a lance, was the mark of a red wound, from which blood often flowed and stained his tunic."

 

Although St. Francis strove to conceal the marks he was not able to keep them a complete secret. After his death they were carefully examined, and they were attested as authentic. To commemorate the importance of the five wounds, Pope Benedict XI instituted a special feast which is celebrated on September 17th..

 

At the heart of the Feast is a recognition that what appeared externally on the body of St Francis was reflecting  his interior conformity to the lived example of Jesus Christ.

 

So often we are people who judge from the exterior -- how someone dresses, how or what someone speaks, where someone lives, what someone does for a living, their sexuality, and so on. Yet, as the Scriptures continually remind us, God judges what is inside and in our hearts.

 

The Feast of the Stigmata is a celebration of a Christian life lived as fully as possible. The 'grace' that was given to Francis is a visual and corporeal representation of what only God can typically see -- a baptized man who lived as fully as he could bearing the resemblance of Christ.

 

Perhaps we won't receive the marks of Christ in the form of five wounds, but we could certainly -- and should certainly -- make visible the presence of Christ in every other way.

 

On this feast day, all of us -- Franciscans and others together can look within,and see how each of us does or does not bear the marks of Christ in our thoughts, words, and deeds.

 

[Amppax]

Alright, good, not going to Mass on campus today. Avoiding funky readings from the Franciscan Lectionary. 

 

Just kidding. St. Francis, ora pro nobis! Thanks for the post Father. 

Edited September 17, 2014 by Amppax