All of Creation was family to Francis
"Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste."
What is unique about St. Francis of Assisi that prompted Time magazine staff to name him one of the most significant people of the past millennium? In 1979 Pope John Paul 11 named Francis the patron saint of the environment. Francis is reputed to have told his brothers to preach with their lives and only in rare circumstances to use words. Although Francis didn't leave us much in his writings about creation, he wrote the first significant poem in the Italian language, "The Canticle of Creatures", an expression of his own mystical insight into the interrelationship and communion that exists in the whole of creation, with Jesus Christ at the heart of reality.
His Conversion
In a significant moment of Francis's conversion process he was praying in an abandoned church, 'San Damiano,' outside the walls of Assisi. As he prayed before the crucifix he heard a voice coming from the cross, telling him: "Francis, go and repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin." Francis was a literalist and he immediately began to rebuild the church, until he eventually realized it involved a more general call to rebuild the body of the Church. The Greek word for house is icos which forms part of the world ecology. Francis developed the ability to see the 'footprints' of God in the world. The whole of creation sang to him of a loving creator. Life on the planet in Francis' time was not in danger from human activity as it is today. I am sure that Christ's call to Francis to repair his house, perhaps understood today to be the house of creation, is directed in an urgent and new way to anyone willing to listen today.
Love for the Created World
There is ample evidence of Francis' closeness to nature. The biographer, Thomas of Celano, a contemporary of Francis, in the first of his two lives of the Saint tells us that "he could discern the secrets of the heart of creatures, like someone who has passed into the freedom of the glory of the children of God." He was gentle with earthworms and lifted them from the paths so they would not be crushed. In winter he had honey given to the bees, so they would not die of the cold. When he came across expanses of flowers he would preach to them, inviting them to praise the Lord. He also invited grain fields, vineyards, with rocks, trees, springs, orchards, earth, fire, breeze and wind to remain faithful to their love of God.
Circumstances surrounding the composition of the Canticle
The canticle was composed in 1225, a year before Francis died. He was suffering from a disease of the eyes and was practically blind, probably resulting from his visit to Egypt in 1219/20. Before going to have his eyes cauterized he visited his great friend St. Clare. He stayed in a tiny cell, with the shutters drawn due to a lack of tolerance to light and was tormented the whole night by a plague of mice. In pain, alone, marginalized, no longer in charge of the Order he founded- seeing most of what he held dear rejected by many of his brothers - unable to pray or sleep and facing near despair, he implored God for help. His prayer was answered: "be glad and rejoice in your illnesses and troubles, because as of now, you are as secure as if you were already in my kingdom." The next morning he told his companions he wished to "compose a new Praises of the Lord for His creatures. These creatures minister to our needs every day; without them we could not live; and through them the human race greatly offends the Creator..." Then after a moments reflection he intoned the Canticle of the Creatures:
The Canticle of Creatures
All praise be yours, my Lord, through all that you
have made.
And first my lord Brother Sun, who brings the day....
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 wateSo
useful, lowly, precious and fair.
All praise be you, 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 and produces various fruits
With colored flowers and herbs....
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility."
(An abbreviated and shortened form of
the Canticle.
For a copy of the prayer and other writings of St.
Francis Go to
http://www.friar.org/prayers/canticle_of_the_creatures.html)
The tone of the Canticle is set by Francis affirming that praise is due to God alone. This is followed by what is referred to as the Cosmic section in which Francis calls for praises from the firmament, that is, the sun, moon and stars; and from the elements: wind, water, fire and earth. He alludes to the mystery of Jesus Christ by using the metaphor of 'Brother Sun.'
The novelty of the Canticle
The great novelty of the Canticle is the use of the terms brother and sister to refer to creatures - "Brother Sun, Sister Moon, Brother Wind, Sister Water, Brother Fire, our Sister Bodily Death, and our Sister Mother Earth." This shows Francis's special relationship with creatures. For Francis men and women are brothers and sisters to one another and this fraternal relationship is extended to all creatures. Francis is unique in that he uses the term frater to refer to his relationship with the whole earth community. Even though Francis does not mention animals or plants in the Canticle, we know from other sources that he considered them to be his brothers and sisters too. He greets a cricket encouraging her to "sing, my Sister Cricket." He would ask the brother who took care of the garden to leave a space for wild plants so that in the proper season they would produce "Brother Flowers." As he grew into a deeper relationship with God, through his relationship with Christ as a brother, he became aware of his familial relationship with creation. To be family is to feel responsibility for and with the other which has profound consequences for our behaviour.
The key to his insight
There are several explanations why Francis felt such a deep kinship with creatures but I think the most convincing is that he saw, through the eyes of faith, cultivated by a deep mystical relationship with Christ, the presence of God in everything. Francis was so aware that he was a dependent creature, the ultimate basis for his radical poverty. He recognized that 'dominion over' others was the root cause of all evil and suffering in the world. For this reason he wanted his brothers and sisters to be subject to everyone, even to creatures. He did not treat creatures as if he owned them, but lived with them, respecting their independence. Francis probably spent more than half of his life after his initial conversion experience in contemplative prayer in solitary places of extraordinary beauty, in very close proximity to creatures, perhaps even more so than to humans.
A counter cultural man
Francis, was a man of his time and counter cultural in many respects. When the Church and society were trying to flee the world; to escape from the material, considered to be evil, Francis, through his relationship with Christ, who 'became flesh,' appreciated the value of the created world in itself and not just as a container for the spirit. He helped restore to Christian tradition love for the body and for the material Universe. Francis by his life and his loving relationship with creatures is a beacon of hope for an alternative way of relating to the whole of creation and a sign of hope for a sustainable way of life. For one who holds all life to be sacred, wanton destruction is unthinkable. We do not generally damage or consciously endanger family members. Francis challenges us to treat other creatures as family. However, he was not a sentimentalist and recognized that not every creature had the same value. The survival of every species depends on the nourishment from others, often at the expense of their own existence.
Challenge to creatively present a message
It is clear that knowledge is insufficient to bring about an 'ecological conversion'. Francis saw the goodness of God in the whole of creation. His greatest value for us today is how he allowed that insight to shape his relationship to creation. He wished to share his insights with others. His most powerful method was his life but the "Canticle of Creatures," composed to be sung, became a pedagogical tool at a time when few people could read or write. Perhaps, even today lack of knowledge of the environmental crisis isn't the problem, but imaginative ways of getting the message across.
Gearóid Ó Conaire ofm