29 September 2024 Feast of St. Francis
Today we celebrate the feast of St Francis, patron saint of animals and biodiversity. Jesus had a very strong relationship with animals, in the desert he was surrounded by them, he dwelt among them as a sign of humility and connectedness with God’s creation. He challenges us to learn from nature, asking us to trust God like the birds of the air and the flowers of the fields do. His life was interconnected with animals, and he also learned from them.
Jesus’ lifestyle challenges us to recognise our interconnectedness with creation. Most of us probably only connect with animals as pets or companion animals. Yet we are all part of the great community of creation. We were created on the same day as the rest of creation, and without animals we could not survive. We rely on animals for our food, we rely on pollinators for our crops. I once met a man who had moved to Brisbane from England, was living just outside the centre of Brisbane and complained to me about the ‘noisy birds’ that woke him in the mornings, he was not used to hearing birdsong so loudly and so early in the morning. If we are lucky enough to live in quieter suburbs or areas, as we retire at night we can hear the sound of crickets and other nocturnal animals. But we often do not give much thought to these animals, other than maybe complaining about the noise and destruction of geckos.
Francis grew up surrounded by money, and all the trappings of a rich lifestyle. Serving as a soldier, he was captured and imprisoned, and it was during this time that, it is said, God appeared to him in visions. And it was following one of those visions, while he was praying near a dilapidated church, that he made the decision to drastically change the way he lived. He walked away from his family and all that they offered, he chose to live among the poor, the marginalised, the suffering, and live with the animals of the earth.
In Genesis we are asked to be ‘stewards’ of creation, but Francis took it a step further and said that we are ‘kin’ with the animals, he called them his brothers and sisters. Few of us these days are able to ‘walk away from our lives’ like Francis did, but that does not mean we cannot still care for creation like Francis did. Francis offers us an example of genuine and deep respect for the integrity of creation. As a friend of the poor and someone who was loved by all of God’s creatures, Francis invited all creation – animals, plants, even Brother Sun and Sister Moon – to give honour and praise to God. Francis gives us a striking witness that when we are at peace with God, we are more able to devote ourselves to building up that peace with all creation which is inseparable from peace among all peoples.
Scripture tells us the ‘tress of the forest shall sing for joy before the Lord’, yet our current lifestyles mean that forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate to make room for ‘us’. Our demand for ‘cheap’ meat has seen large swathes of land cleared to accommodate our farming practices. We ‘house’ thousands of hens in areas that give them little more than a square meter each, yet we call them ‘free range’ when their eggs are packaged. We are reminded of Jeremiah’s words “I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.”
Let us do all we can to restore our common home. Let us follow the ways of Francis and care for creation as if it were our brothers and sisters, our family and our future. Because actually, it is. Amen.