Thursday evening I listened to In the Footsteps of Francis: Awakening to Creation the CD of a webcast by Father Richard Rohr, OFM. After Fr. Richard finished talking, he answered some questions. One question had to with St. Francis conversion. Fr. Richard said that Francis, by his own admission, did not like lepers and did everything possible to avoid them. However, one day Francis found the courage to embrace a leper. That embrace was Francis moment of conversion.
I thought about that and, perhaps for the first time, really understood that I, like Francis, have been avoiding lepers. Now I don't mean that I know people with leprosy and have refused to interact with them. But there are people I know, people I see on a regular basis, whom I have not been able to love unconditionally, whom I have not been able to always show kindness and patience. They irk me, aggravate me, drive me crazy. Ah, that "me" word, like the "I" word, focuses on me and not them, causes me to judge them and not myself, allows me to see their leprosy but not my own.
If I want to be converted, to grow spiritually, to love as God, Jesus, Mary, Francis and Clare love, then I must embrace the lepers, too.
"Holy Mary, Mother of Creation, bless us that we may experience God as Love in praise of all creatures, in love of all of creation. Amen."
Father Michael Adams - www.livingrosaries.org
Peace and Blessing!
Sister Pat, FMT
