God & The Order of Creation

Giotto, Francis Preaching to the Birds (c. 1298), Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi

Every year, on October 4^th, the Church celebrates one of its most enduringly popular saints. He came from a prominent family, had a wealthy inheritance, and was a man of ingenuity at a time when society greatly helped those who helped themselves. But he gave up what he had – his political influence, his fortune, even literally the shirt off his back – in favor of helping others, to live a life of love and service.

Francis of Assisi remains one of the most beloved figures of our faith, a man who continues to inspire people of all faiths to this day, including our current Pope. People love and identify with St. Francis for a variety of reasons, but perhaps one of the most common is his love for the created world. Maybe you’ve heard the story of how Francis once preached to the birds about the glory of God or tamed a wolf that was terrorizing the inhabitants of a village. Francis felt closest to God in nature. He was the original outdoorsman, in a sense, because he found in creation a way of understanding life. He often preached and wrote about how everything in the world – ourselves, animals and plants, even the sun and the moon – exists in a relationship with everything else, in a communion that brings us together and puts in touch with God.

Today happens to be October 4^th, and although we celebrate the Sunday of Ordinary Time instead of the liturgy for Francis’s feast day, I think we can still honor St. Francis in a way. It just so happens that our readings today speak about creation, about the natural world as God has created it and of which we are a part. If we try to understand these readings with the mindset of Francis – of understanding creation as a lens by which we understand God and ourselves – I think we will draw close to what Jesus is seeking to show us.

In the Gospel, the Pharisees are trying to trip up Jesus. They ask him about the lawfulness of divorce, a hot topic and a common problem in the society of that day much as it is in our own. Divorce had been permitted by Moses, as they know, but they also expect him to demand something more. And Jesus does not disappoint – but he also appeals to an authority higher than Moses – pointing out how God created humanity as male and female, equal but distinct, and made for one another. Rather than referring to just a particular Mosaic law, Jesus is showing that the design of human love is written into who we are, who we have been created to be, and God’s plans for marriage are as part of the natural order of creation as the physical world that we see around us.

Creation, as St. Francis and Jesus both understood it, is not empty of meaning. Rather the very way in which the world has been created is something God has revealed to us – especially about who we are. Just as Francis understood our lives as humans to be intricately connected with the rest of the created world, so too Jesus is asking us to understand marriage and human love as part of the divine plan, as part of the way in which God has created our very natures. Love and marriage have a high ideal, for Jesus and for us, because they are given to us by God – they’re not merely social constructs but a path to communion with others, a path to holiness through love.

As in Jesus’s day, the reality though is often very different than the ideal. And while we are called to give witness to the truth – to acknowledge how the way in which God has created us is of great consequence – we also are called to speak the truth in love. Today, in Rome, bishops and cardinals from around the world are gathering for a synod – a fancy word for a meeting – about challenges that currently face marriage and the family. There has been a lot of discussion – maybe you’ve heard some of it – about various proposals for ways in which the Church might be able to assist those who are struggling in some way with living out the truth about human sexuality, the marriage, and the family. I hope you’ll join me in praying earnestly for the guidance of the Holy Spirit over the next few weeks – that we as a Church, as a Christian community, might understand how God wants us to speak the truth about who we are, who he has created us to be, but to always do so in love, with charity and mercy.

My friends, at the end of today’s Gospel, after teaching a truth that was hard – for the disciples and for us – Jesus draws their attention to the humility and love of a little child. Our salvation ultimately is not about solving some social or political question, but rather it rests on whether we are willing to humbly accept the kingdom of God. With the innocence of a child, with the humility of St. Francis, may we be open to allowing ourselves to be awed by the beauty and the majesty of the nature that God has given to us – the nature that surrounds us and the nature within us – and may we find there a reason to respond to one another always with mercy, and truth, and love.