What God Has Joined Together…

Dear Friend,

As I write this, our annual celebration of Saint Francis is four days away – including of course the celebration of Transitus on Thursday night, his passing to new life. It all speaks to me of “a bond of unity that helps us heal,” as my spiritual reading tells me this morning. I begin to feel again a unity with Francis, and with all the companions God has placed on my path here at the Mission founded by his followers in the wind and fog of the waning Spanish empire.

I say this because I was in my own fog of hesitancy and doubt when I received a message from my dear friends, Michael and Julia. They were married forty years ago (I was there, singing in the choir!) and they were now on a bicycle trek from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela. Their snapshot highlights: a “strenuous and hot” first three days - 250 kilometers; then wildfire smoke which forced them to board a train; then, back on the road for another week through rain and mist and goodness knows what else, and their final glorious arrival.

“What God has joined together…” is the phrase that comes back to me from this week’s Gospel. The odd-ball pilgrimage of St. Francis’s life, guided by the Holy Spirit (we see now), brings together companions – married, single, women and men, vowed religious, priests, laity – of every color and stripe. How do we stay together “through all kinds of weather” (remember that old song?) And, through it all, can we see Jesus Christ? “For a little while he was made lower than the angels,” we hear in the second reading, to bring “many children to glory” through his own suffering – oh yes – through all kinds of weather, violent storms included. What a transitus!

Gratefully,

Father Dan ofm