KNOWING THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE GOD

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Job 38:1,12-21,40:3-5; Ps 139:1-3,7-10,13-14; Lk 10:13-16

The Knowledge of the Incomprehensible God

There is no better way to introduce us to the celebration of the Saint Francis of Assisi than to contemplate God’s incomprehensibility. St. Francis revelled in this knowledge of God’s almightiness and floated around the world with little or no care about himself, for he understood that the world and all it contains are from the loving Father in heaven. God's work in Job through the multi-dimensional afflictions was to instil this knowledge of himself in Job. But, like many of us, Job was hindering the divine work within him by struggling to understand instead of assenting in faith. Hence, God spoke to him to quieten his unrest. “Have you ever in your life given orders to morning or sent the dawn to its post, telling it to grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it, when it changes the earth to sealing clay and dyes it as a man dyes clothes; stealing the light from wicked men and breaking the arm raised to strike?”

By these questions God put to Job, he led him to understand how ignorant he was about so many things run by divine ordinance and providence. If God directs all these intricacies of the operations of the universe without failure, why are we afraid of his divine providence failing us? The uselessness of human anxiety over life is what Job realized and admitted. “My words have been frivolous: what can I reply? I had better lay my finger on my lips. I have spoken once… I will not speak again; more than once… I will add nothing.” It is only in silent contemplation of the word and works of God that we arrive at a deep knowledge of God who is incomprehensible. St. Francis attained this deep knowledge of God, such that he saw God in every creature, and each revealed God to him. The Lord urges us to do this in the words he addressed to Job. We are to contemplate God through his creatures and in the events of each day, which come about by his divine ordinance. Indeed, this book of creation leads us to contemplation of God in ourselves. A prayerful contemplation of creation makes us realize that God is within us, for he made us for himself. The Psalmist testifies to this: “O Lord, you search me and you know me, you know my resting and my rising, you discern my purpose from afar. You mark when I walk or lie down, all my ways lie open to you.” If God has this comprehensive knowledge of us, why are we anxious about our lives?

This realisation is the groundwork of the spirituality of St Francis of Assisi. He came from a wealthy home and had a dramatic conversion. The story goes that he sold his father’s property to raise money to restore a church following a dream, where God asked him to help rebuild his Church. When his father objected to having his goods sold without his consent to pay for the restoration of a church, the bishop commanded Francis to repay the money. He did. He also renounced his father and gave back everything he had ever been given, even his garments. He began a life of perfect evangelical poverty, living by begging and even then only accepting the worst food that people had to give. He preached to all the love of God and the love of the created world; because, having renounced everything, he celebrated everything he received, or saw, or heard, as a gift. The above is from what is written about him in the introduction to the celebration in the Universalis. His joyful celebration of everything God made is opposite to the attitude of the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum which is condemned by the Lord in the gospel. “Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.” The Seraphic Father invites us to celebrate the providence of God in our daily lives. God has ordered everything in our lives for his good purpose and for our salvation, let us receive everything from the loving Father in heaven and dwell continually in peace which characterised the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

Let us pray: O God, by whose gift Saint Francis was conformed to Christ in poverty and humility, grant that, by walking in Francis’ footsteps, we may follow your Son, and, through joyful charity, come to be united with you.