The Call of the Incarnation

Dear Friend,

In the Gospel this week we again hear Jesus preparing his disciples for his impending suffering, death, and resurrection. As always in Mark, the announcement is stark, and the disciples simply do not understand it.

For Franciscans these themes are embedded in the signal event in the life of Saint Francis of Assisi which took place 800 years ago at a mountaintop hermitage called La Verna. As his biographer tells it, Francis saw “in the vision of God a man, having six wings like a Seraph, standing over him, arms extended and feet joined, affixed to a cross.” The account continues: “While he was unable to perceive anything clearly understandable from the vision, its newness very much pressed upon his heart. Signs of the nails began to appear on his hands and feet, just as he had seen them a little while earlier on the crucified man hovering over him.” 

Francis received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, a year after enacting the first Christmas creche in the village of Greccio, both events indicating the profound depth at which the humble love of God touched his heart through the person of Jesus Christ. Speaking to a group of Franciscans last April, Pope Francis called the stigmata “a reminder that a Christian is part of the body of Christ, not in name alone but in reality.” St. Francis, he said, “can be a companion on the journey, supporting Christians and helping them not to be crushed by difficulties, fears, and contradictions, ours and those of others.” 

The Gospel goes on to tell us that “Taking a child, Jesus placed it in their midst…” The call of the incarnation could not be clearer, our companionship marked by gentleness, vulnerability and holy newness.   

Gratefully,

Father Dan ofm, Pastor