A Homily for Friday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Friday, October 4, 2024
Prince of Peace Catholic Church – 8:00 Mass
Job 38:1, 12-21; 40:3-5; Psalm 139:1-3, 7-8, 9-10, 13-14ab; Luke 10:13-16
Audio Recording
Today is the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis is the Patron Saint of animals, ecologists, families, lacemakers, merchants, needleworkers, peace, and zoos. He’s also invoked against dying alone and fire. He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228, just two years after his death.
Francis was a preacher, and a mystic. He is the founder of the Franciscan order of friars, which sparked a revolution within the Church. Many believe he was also a deacon, although it is not universally agreed that he was. It is certain, however, that he was not a priest. Renouncing familial wealth he lived a life of radical poverty and servitude.
In 1224, while on a forty-day retreat, Francis was gifted with the stigmata, the visible wounds of Christ in his hands, feet, and side. The final two years were also marked with much suffering from various illnesses and the loss of his sight. He died a holy and peaceful death in 1226 in Assisi, surrounded by his brother Franciscans.
We are reminded that many of our beloved saints suffered greatly for the sake of the Gospel. Paul tells us in our first reading that he would only boast in the cross of Christ, never boasting of his own accomplishments.
While Paul says that he bears the marks of Christ on his body, he is believed by scholars to be referring to the scars from the many lashings he endured for his faithful proclamation of the Gospel message. Paul is not known to have the actual stigmata, even though the Greek term for the”marks” Paul refers to is stigmata. In fact, it was St. Francis nearly 1200 years later who is the first known saint to receive these 5 wounds of the crucified Christ. Stigmata or not, Paul certainly suffered greatly for Christ, as did Francis.
On this first Friday of October, let us each reflect on how we might draw closer to the cross of Christ by joining our sufferings to his. Let’s pray about how we might show our love for Christ by intentionally making today and every Friday a day of sacrifice for our Lord.
While we here in the States are no longer obligated to abstain from eating meat on Fridays except during Lent, we may choose to do so as a sacrifice to help us recall what Christ suffered for us. Or, we may choose to give up some other small pleasure every Friday, or possibly take on a new Friday devotion. While we are not obligated to do so, the practice of making a small intentional sacrifice for Our Lord on Fridays, the day of his crucifixion, can certainly help us grow in holiness.
When we suffer for Christ, in both great and in small ways, we draw closer to him by joining these sufferings to his cross. When we do we will certainly come to better understand and experience what he promises at the conclusion of today’s Gospel reading, when he says:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
God bless you.