April 14, 2014 - "The Stigmata"

In 1224—eight hundred years ago—St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata after he had withdrawn to the hills of La Verna (located in the Apennine mountains in central Tuscany) to pray and do penance. Earlier this month Pope Francis joined a group of Italian Franciscan Friars from La Verna and Tuscany to celebrate the 800^th anniversary of the “gift of the stigmata” (as Pope Francis put it). On this occasion, Pope Francis made a number of statements on which we should reflect.  Let me include several of these statements here:
 
First, he reminded the Franciscans that the wounds of Christ’s passion and death and the stigmata given to some Christians over centuries remind us of “the pain Jesus suffered in his flesh out of love for us and for our salvation.”
 
Pope Francis went on to say that the stigmata is also a reminder that through baptism Christians participate in Christ’s victory over suffering and death because “it is precisely through his wounds that the mercy of the Risen, Crucified One flows to us as through a channel.”
 
The Holy Father noted that the stigmata, or sharing of the wounds of Christ reminds us that a Christian is part of the body of Christ not in name only but also in reality.
 
“In the communion of love,” which is the church, Pope Francis stated, “each of us rediscovers who he or she is: a beloved, blessed, reconciled son or daughter, sent to give witness to the wonders of his grace and to be artisans of fraternity.”
 
For this reason, the Holy Father said, “Christians are called to address themselves to the “stigmatized” whom they encounter: to those who are ‘marked’ in life, who bear the scars of the sufferings and injustices they have endure or the mistakes they have made.”
 
St. Francis of Assisi can be a “companion on the journey,” Pope Francis remarked, supporting Christians and helping them “not to be crushed by difficulties, fears and contradictions, ours and those of others.”
 
Receiving the stigmata was, for St. Francis, a call to return to what is essential.  For that reason, the celebrations marking the eight hundredth anniversary of Francis receiving the stigmata should be a call for Franciscans to bring to the church and the world a little of that immense love that drove Christ to die on the cross for us.”
 
At the end of his address to the Franciscans, the Holy Father offered a prayer to St. Francis that included the following words:
 
“May our wounds be healed by the heart of Christ to become, like you, witnesses of his mercy, which continues to heal and renew the life of those who seek him with a sincere heart. O Francis, made to resemble the Crucified One, let your stigmata be for us and the world resplendent signs of life and resurrection, to show us new ways of peace and reconciliation.”
 
Until next week,
Fr. John