Crown Court Service

Today we celebrate the life of St Francis of Assisi.

I well remember this day in 1983, when I enjoyed the privilege of being in the town of Assisi on this very day. I remember a sumptuous mass celebrated in the square outside the basilica of St Francis presided over by a wonderfully named Cardinal Casseroli.

In the evening we attended vespers held inside the basilica which contains the tomb of Francis. At the end of the service whist a choir sang the words of Francis’ prayer make me a channel of your peace the whole congregation processed to the tomb and each of us were given an Olive Branch symbolising the peace for which St Francis prayed. A reminder to us that we are called to bring God’s peace to the world. Peace with God, in our hearts and in our lives and in our relationships with other people. Indeed with all of God’s creation. Truly Francis is a man for all seasons and his message as vital today as when he first gave it.

Francis was born in the year 1181. Born into a rich and well to do family. For his first twenty five years Francis earned a reputation as a self indulgent playboy. He lived the life of Riley on his father’s money and became something of a leader of the rich young folk of Assisi. But he was also a dreamer of adventurous dreams. He  became involved in the war between Assisi and the neighbouring rival cities during which he was taken prisoner. All of this disturbed Francis and caused him to question the values of his life so far. God was working on him. First he felt called by God to live as Jesus lived – in poverty and simplicity and total reliance upon God. Francis life was a life of radical imitation of the life of Jesus. An event in Francis life that had a profound effect upon him and really began to change him was his meeting with a man suffering from Leprosy. Hitherto Francis had had an almost pathological repugnance and fear of lepers. The disease of leprosy was disfiguring and dehumanizing and it was incurable.

Lepers were ostracised because of the fear of contagion and because they were looked upon as cursed. Francis like everyone else would avoid them like the devil – only he more so than most. Until one day, he saw a leper walking towards him, he felt an inner compulsion not to run away but rather to go to the leper. Not only to approach him but to embrace him. Not only to embrace him but to kiss him. Francis' biographer Thomas of Cellano who reports this incident tells of the effect not just upon Francis but also upon the leper. At last someone had treated him as a fellow human being – a person who matters. Francis had performed the greatest act of service and of homage in that embrace and that kiss. It transformed the leper’s life. And it was the beginning of a radical change in Francis. In his character. In his life. In his experience of God. In his ideas about the world and its people he began to see everyone and indeed everything as brothers and sisters – equal as Gods children. So what was it about that incident that had such a profound effect upon Francis?

Over time as Francis reflected upon what he had done he came to see that what had drawn him to the leper was not an it but a who. It was Jesus. In the disfigured features and body of the leper Francis saw the image of Jesus. In serving that leper in the way that he had he  knew that had also had also served Jesus. It was an act of worship to embrace a leper. This led Francis to see that all of us are brothers and sisters in that each of us bear the image of Jesus. And so the call to serve the Lord is the call to serve each other – our fellow brothers and sisters. And in serving each other we are serving the Lord all bear the image of Jesus.

In as much as you did to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters say the Lord you did it to me’.

That incident changed Francis forever. It drew him closer to God and closer to his fellow men and women at the same time for the two are one. He saw all people as brothers and sisters with him of Jesus Christ.

Service is transforming. It makes a difference. Service changes people. Both the one who serves and one who is served. Loving humble service changes communities. It is what we need in our lives in our society in our nation.

In his visit to the UK last year the Pope called us to a renewal of those Christian values which have held us together as a society. He was reminding us of the call to the exercise of Christian virtue, which is doing good when no-one is looking. In other words doing the right thing because it is the right thing. In particular in our dealing with other people. Recognising in each other the image of Christ and the innate dignity of everyone as a child of God with an eternal destiny. And in light of that building community, serving one another. Sadly those Christian values have been eroded in family, national, commercial and political life and nothing has replaced them. Shared values especially around the dignity of each person hold us together and make us a community rather than just a network of individuals.

Francis' encounter with the leper points to the particular insight which Christian faith brings to our life together and the call to serve each other. Each and every person bears the likeness of Jesus Christ no matter how hidden that may be beneath the disfigurement of suffering or sin. Because of that we are to understand that every person who stands before us is loved unconditionally and eternally by God.

And so the Lord says ‘Whatever you do or not do for each of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine you do or do not do to me’.

Simon, our High Sheriff,  was telling me the other day of how during his first few months in office he has been moved by the self-giving service of people to people that he has seen and witnessed these past months. He spoke especially of one or two groups of people who give so much of themselves freely and generously to help other people and to enrich the lives of other people. It is a great privilege of the office of High Sherriff to work with such people and to encourage them in all that they do. Because your presence and the interest and the concern which your presence conveys is a great encouragement. If we are to find our way again a people a society and as a nation we need to restore those values of human dignity and willing service to the centre of our lives.

Those values begin and are based upon a Christian understanding of the dignity of every person created lovingly in the image of Christ. Loved by God and with an eternal destiny. May those values be renewed in us and in the life of our nation. So that with  St Francis we may  reach out to each other and build a community based upon respect and service.

Lord make us channels of your peace.