In so many gardens around the world, one might find a statue of a man in a long robe, with a tonsure haircut, a bird on his shoulder and several animals at his feet. This man we all recognize as St. Francis of Assisi. For the vast majority of even faithful Catholics in our contemporary Church, this conception of St. Francis is familiar. He is the saint of the animals. If you went to a Catholic grade school you probably remember a pet blessing on October 4 each year.
Hopefully, if you’ve read any of the articles in this series, you’ve realized by now that the animal-loving part of St. Francis was only a direct consequence of his deep and abiding love for Jesus Christ, the one who created the animals. St. Francis loved Jesus, and he loved poverty. His love for Jesus and poverty was lived out, as I covered last week, in an authentic piety – a compassion, care, and love for God and for all those St. Francis met.
The animals, in some supernatural way, responded to the piety of St. Francis. Maybe they saw in him some resemblance to humanity before the sin of Adam and Eve. Maybe they saw in him a resemblance to their own innocence. As even the scriptures note, all creation praises God. These animals praise him essentially automatically, simply by living according to God’s design.
Well, St. Francis lived his life as far according to God’s design as possible. Every fiber of his being sought to serve the Lord. This was his piety, and it was noticed by the animals.
St. Bonaventure includes so many stories about wild animals like rabbits and birds that came to St. Francis to be near to him. One bird came near and would only leave after St. Francis turned and gave the bird his blessing (Life of St. Francis, 8.8). St. Francis once told a sheep to praise God, and it would enter the Church the brothers were praying in, bow down, and seem to pray (8.7). St. Francis would speak to them calling them, “brother,” or “sister,” in a loving way, and they responded with something near friendship.
What lesson can we take from this?
It is somewhat difficult, in our current culture, to understand the perspective that St. Francis had toward these animals. Why did he love them? He loved them because they were loved by Christ. He loved them in reference to Christ. And they loved him because of his love for Christ. He didn’t simply have a knack with animals. He didn’t have a special superpower to commune with nature. No, he lived an active love toward them as a part of God’s creation and because of God’s love.
It is very common in our culture to idolize our pets and to love our animals inordinately, for their own sakes, and even at times above other human beings. St. Francis’ love for animals is actually a very good model for all of us – a model of truly indifferent love for these creatures of God. He did not love the animals simply because they were animals or because of anything they did for him; he loved them because they were loved by God. He did not love them for their own sakes; he saw their place in creation as the servants of God and the servants of human beings.
May St. Francis pray for us that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit’s gifts of wisdom and understanding in order to properly see the design of the universe. May he pray that we would be filled with piety, to draw near to our creator with love, affection, and the innocence of the animals!