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Prayers and Reflections
Embracing the Leper
Experiencing the
Goodness of God through Conversion
Opening
Prayer:
God of
all goodness and mercy,
You hold us in our broken-ness
and walk beside us through our desert wanderings.
Keep us ever aware of your loving presence.
Let us with courage and humility
allow your light to reveal our own dark and hidden brokenness
which is in need of your healing embrace.
May we in peace and freedom follow in the footsteps of
Jesus,
the Christ,
and of Francis, our Brother. Amen.
Focus Point:
Since it is Lent, we think
about our own conversion – our own need to be once more turned
towards God. It seems appropriate to reflect on the encounter
of Francis and the Leper.
Francis’ embrace of the leper stands out as a major event in
his lifelong conversion to union with God. Francis never wrote
down any method or way of achieving union with God. We
learn it through reading the stories of his life as they are recorded
by him and those who knew him. These stories teach us the
theology of Francis, that is, his experience of God. Francis’ words
and actions reveal who God is. So now we review the story
and pray in response to the theology of Francis contained in it.
The Attitude of the Young Francis to Lepers:
Francis, moved by the appeals of the poor, did not hesitate to take
off his rich clothes and give them to an impoverished nobleman, but
he could not conquer the disgust aroused in him by that dark house
where the lepers lived, outside the city of Assisi. He
never went anywhere near it if he could avoid doing so. Sometimes
that was not possible, for the road on which it stood was the shortest
route to the family property in San Pietro della Spina.
When he did go by the hospital on horseback and saw on its doorstep
the emaciated faces of the lepers and their sores and deformities,
the sunken eyes … he fearfully turned his face and held his
nose, not able to bear the stench of their diseased flesh. He
did indeed send alms to the patients by asking others passing along
the road to deliver them, but he did not dare to go close to the place.
So the embrace of the leper was an action
that Francis performed against his nature.
The Story of the Leper as Francis told it:
The Lord granted me, Brother Francis, to begin to do penance in
this way: While I was in sin, it seemed very bitter to me to
see lepers. And the Lord himself led me among them and I had
mercy on them. And when I left them that which seemed bitter
to me was changed into sweetness of soul and body.
There are three points to draw out of this story:
- Francis struggled all his life with a revulsion towards lepers
- He embraced a leper and kissed him
- Only after the action was done did he feel the “sweetness” which
he recognised as the presence of God.
Points of Franciscan Theology: Ponder and Pray
- The very life of God is one of goodness expressing itself
generously, fully. This divine goodness lives in personal
communion with all of creation. God is interpersonal
and relational.
Mother of God obtain for me
the grace to relate to God
as Father, Mother, Brother and life-giving, joyful Spirit.
- God’s desire to share goodness is expressed as creation:
God holds back nothing, gives all generously.
Creator God, help us to develop a consciousness
of your goodness and generosity;
to recognise, to be grateful for and to rejoice in
the many gifts given to us daily.
- In his well-known love of creatures Francis acts out his
recognition of God’s presence. He respects and loves
all people, he delights in the world of creation calling every
creature ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ and showing
towards each of them, not simply interest or curiosity, but a deep
respect and even a tender affection.
Most High and Glorious God enlighten the darkness
of my mind
so that I may recognise, be comforted by and delight in
your presence in all of creation – animate and inanimate.
- The complete generosity of God is revealed in the Incarnation – nothing
held back, nothing is ‘property’ to God, all is given – even
his beloved Son. God’s true identity is communicated
as poverty – holding on to nothing.
Lord God, you gave us your all:
teach us to be generous, to give of ourselves and of what we
have;
to spend our lives reflecting your generosity and goodness.
- The circle of giving, in which the Creator and creatures
give all and receive all rests on a single premise: that
one does not hold back what has been given. In Franciscan
terminology the definition of sin is this: refusing to give
away the gifts one has received. For Franciscans sin is
the will to possess.
God, Creator, you hold all things in ‘being’.
Heal us of any desire we have
to accumulate wealth and possessions above what we need;
lead us to be more open to practical ways of sharing what we
have.
- Francis tells us that the Lord God himself led him among
the lepers. He attributed the ‘leading’ to the
Lord alone. And he says: “What was bitter to
me, became sweet”. Francis found among the lepers a
quality of sweetness which he identifies as the presence of God.
Lord, lead us as you led Francis
to overcome what keeps us from experiencing in our lives
the ‘sweetness’ which is your tangible presence in
and among us –
the source of joy, peace and contentment
that we all so much desire both to have and to give.
 Now comes the practical part! Consider
this question:
Who/what is the Leper for YOU?
Prayer:
Grant Lord
that embracing the leper
in the other and in ourselves,
we may experience the ‘sweetness’ of the
divine in our lives
and be able to share something of the joy of that with
others.
We make this prayer through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sketch by Sr Maria van Galen fmm
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