Which Was the Greater Miracle?

(St. Francis of Assisi)

“Francis [of Assisi] fell in love with God,” said Don Matteo. “He saw the heart of God radiating from the beauty in all creation. One day he was riding on the plain of Assisi. He met a leper whose sores were so loathsome that Francis was struck with horror and desired strongly to flee. But this spoiled young man, the son of a wealthy cloth merchant, had gradually come to understand that spiritual warfare for Christ begins with victory over one’s self. He dismounted, and as the leper stretched forth his hands, begging for alms, Francis embraced him and kissed him. His revulsion was overcome by love welling up within his heart.

“Some traditions have it that when Francis remounted and turned back to the leper to say good-bye, the poor man had disappeared. The leper was Christ in disguise, you see. It is sometimes said that this last detail may be a pious embellishment. Nevertheless, it is theologically insightful.”

“Don Matteo, do you think he was Christ in disguise?”

“I am certain of it.”

“Why are you certain?”

“Because I have seen more wondrous things than that with my own eyes. And because it is so much in the character of our Lord to hide Himself, that men may learn to love ‘what no eye has seen’.”

“A love that springs from an interior seeing?”

“Sì. That encounter was only the beginning for Francis. One day he stopped to pray in this very church. It was in a tumbledown state, uncared for. Francis knelt before the cross, probably right here where we’re standing. As he prayed, he heard a voice speak to him from the image. It said to him three times, ‘Francis, go and repair My church, which is falling into ruins.’

“Francis was overwhelmed. But he resolved to do what the voice had asked of him. He thought the Lord meant that this building must be repaired. He returned to his home and took a cartload of cloth from his father’s warehouse and sold it, along with the horse, to raise funds for the repairs. He took the money to the poor priest of San Damiano and asked if he could be allowed to stay with him. His father, hearing what the boy had done, came in a fury, dragged him home, and locked him up until he was restored to his senses. Francis ran away again. The bishop intervened in favor of the father and declared that the Church could not profit from stolen goods. Francis returned the money, then stripped himself of his fine clothes, naked, and handed them to his father.

“He went forth from that place dressed only in the rags of a laborer. He became a beggar and a pilgrim. Considered mad by all who had known the rich young man, he was everywhere reviled as a scandal and treated with contempt as a son who had brought shame upon his father’s house. He returned to San Damiano and began to repair it with his bare hands, stone by stone. He next did the same for another old church, then for a little chapel called the Portiuncula, which was also in ruinous condition. The boy grew in holiness. One by one, other young men came and joined in his work. They lived on scraps of food that the townsfolk threw to them. Francis was given the gift of prophecy and miracles. A man in Spoleto was afflicted with a cancer that had disfigured him quite hideously. He heard about the holy young man and came to see him in the hope of obtaining prayers. He met Francis and was about to throw himself at his feet, when Francis prevented him and kissed his diseased face, which was instantly healed.”

“Father, is this detail an embellishment?”

“Ah, you mean is it romantic hagiography?”

“Do you think it happened just like that?”

“I do,” the friar said simply.

“Because you have seen wondrous things with your own eyes?”

“Once again I tell you, I have seen more wondrous things than that. But I will add what Saint Bonaventure once wrote about this incident. He said, ‘I know not which I ought to wonder at, such a cure or such a kiss.’”

Elijah nodded. Bonaventure’s insight was the concise summation of the whole problem. Which was the greater miracle: The suspension of natural law for the sake of physical healing, or the conversion of the human heart by absolute love?

~Michael O’Brien (from Father Elijah: An Apocalypse)