Francis was not his real name:

The other lads called him "Frenchy"

(It was his mother's land and tongue) -

"Francesco, Francesco!"

 

Francesco, Franziskus, Francis:

The saint's name echoes now

in many tongues, in myriad lands,

echoes even in Rome,

upon the chair of Peter -

an unlikely place, indeed,

for this Little Brother, advocate

of poverty, opponent

of all pomp and power.

 

Fragile in faithfulness, most of us,

we admire Francis from afar,

do not embrace the leper 

nor  give the shirt off our back

to any passing beggar.

Saint Francis had no 401(k),

but we check our balance

of stocks and bonds more often

than we sing to Brother Sun or Sister Moon.

 

Fragile in faithfulness,

Francis is not our name, either,

but still our hope, our inspiration,

       Francis has long been standing, attentively aware of the critters -- and of the whole of creation -- on our back deck, offering a slight bowl of morsels for the visiting birds. One recent Sunday morning Francis awoke to the dawn flat on his face, probably knocked down by that mama possum who stole the hamburger buns Bill left on the BBQ shelf  

Saturday night.

       Time went by and nobody pickup up Francis. I thought Bill might do that, especially when he trimmed the tree limbs above Francis and he picked up little limb chads at Francis' feet. Then I remembered Bill is a high "P" on the Meyers-Briggs which means completing any task is somewhat unlikely. So as I look out my study window at Francis on his face, I accept the grace of patience and forbearance -- good graces for me to have since I, a "J", tend to stay on one project too long in order to finish it completely.

       Someone Tweeted this morning: "#Pope Frances: Those who reduce God's gift of salvation to human efforts to follow rules 'make God's love teeny tiny.'" The Francis who lived in Assisi was big in God's love and love of all creation. To stand on that hilltop in Assisi in awe of God's wideness of love reflected in the beauty of the ever-present breeze and all of creation lifts our horizons and makes us realize the futility of the teeny tiny, like who's going to stand up the statue of Francis on the back deck. There are bigger things to tend to today.