Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and for ever.

Now we continue our series on Franciscan spirituality.

We spoke last time of how the fingerprints and the countenance of Jesus Christ can be seen in the things that God has made. That means, as we've noted before, that creation is like a book that you need to know how to decipher. 
It's a concert of voices that you need to know how to understand. The poets at times can understand this, but it's really the saints who get it. The poets often have the gift to intuit what's true and the sensible and the fragmentary things. 
The saints have the gift to intuit the divine and the supernatural by means of the natural world. So by a special gift and grace of God, St. Francis was both saint and poet. He glimpsed God the lover in the beauty of the physical world and in the sweet bond he had with God, he was able to establish living communication with other creatures. With every creature he sang or whistled or shouted, he joyed in them or suffered with them, whether they were inert or active.

With an exquisite sensibility, he glimpsed Jesus Christ in every humble being, Jesus who defines himself as light, John 8:12, as a spring of living water, John 4:14, as bread, John 6:51, as the vine, John 15:1, and as the morning star, Revelation 22:16. 
Thomas of Celano, one of his biographers, writes of Francis' love for flowers and how they made him think of our Lord. He says this, "How great do you think was the delight the beauty of flowers brought to Francis' soul whenever he saw their lovely form and noticed their sweet fragrance? He would immediately turn his gaze to the beauty of that flower, meaning Christ, brilliant in springtime, sprouting from the root of Jesse. By its fragrance, it raised up countless souls of the countless thousands of the dead. Whenever Francis found an abundance of flowers, he used to preach to them and invite them to praise the Lord just as if they were endowed with reason," says Celano.
In trees, St. Francis saw Jesus, the tree of life, Genesis 2:9, and for this reason he prohibited his followers from rooting them out when they were cut down because he wanted to give the tree the possibility of growing again. 
Francis walked with reverence upon the rocks because Jesus is the rock, the supernatural rock or the cornerstone. We read that in 1 Corinthians 10:4 and 1 Peter 2:6. He's a rock upon which every solid edifice is constructed.

St. Francis also loved fire, which illuminates, which as he said is beautiful and plays and is robust and strong because fire reminded him of Jesus, the light of the world, who came to cast fire upon the earth as he said in Luke 12:49. Francis forbade a friar from completely extinguishing a fire once, even when it indiscriminately began burning his clothes. He left lamps and candles burning because he didn't want to extinguish with his own hand that radiance, which is a symbol of the eternal light.

Francis also loved the water because Jesus is the source from which flows eternal life and he compared his grace to living water, John 4:10, and because water spreads life and symbolizes purification, symbolizes penance. So when he washed his hands, Francis at times didn't let the water hit the ground because he didn't want it to get stomped on. 

With the same exquisite sense of Christ, Francis would bend down the road and gather the little worms in order to bring them out of harm's way on the road, being on the road as they were. They reminded him of the words of the Savior, the psalmist who puts on the lips of the Savior saying "I am a worm and not a man," Psalm 22:6.

Francis also loved lambs because they reminded him of the humility and sweetness of the lamb who takes away the sins of the world, John 1:29. They reminded him of the sweetness of the Redeemer who was silent like a lamb being led to the slaughter in his passion, Isaiah 53:7. 

Francis was moved at the sight of a lamb wandering among the goats because it reminded him of Jesus meek and humble amidst the Pharisees and the priests. 
All this because in St. Francis there overflowed or there poured out a fountain of divine love which filled him from within for Jesus and Mary as Celano says and Celano adds, Francis was always with Jesus, Jesus in his heart, Jesus in his mouth, Jesus in his ears, Jesus in his eyes, Jesus in his hands. He bore Jesus always in his whole body.
The reality which St. Francis discovered in nature beyond the multicolored veil of the creatures is the reality of Jesus Christ. Francis' vision is Christocentric, centered on Christ. Because of the wound of original sin, this reality is revealed still by means of creatures yet especially by means of the cross. In his body, humiliation and pain and penance, even though concealed from everyone, Francis rediscovered the purity of the interior gaze, the brotherhood with all creatures and the simplicity that helped him to see Christ really everywhere. 
He loved to mark with the sign of the tau, the cross, on everything he wrote and he saw everything signed by the cross of Jesus. 
St. Bonaventure interpreted and imitated the spirit of his Seraphic Father when he prayed, "Lord, make that wherever I turn, I also see you crucified for me. Whatever thing I look at, show it to be turned red by your blood," prayed Bonaventure.
Nature, the work of God created for Christ, uncovers its secret and offers its gift only to those who are made similar to Christ, to those who are faithful friends of nature's Creator and Lord. 
Let's ask Our Lady for that grace to be made more similar to her Son so that we can see her Son in all things. 
Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.