The Sermon Your Animal Companions Are Preaching

Both here and in all your churches throughout the whole world; we adore you, O Christ, and we bless you. Because by your Holy Cross [+] you have redeemed the world. AMEN. 

(Franciscan prayer upon entering or departing from a holy place)

 

Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery, Naperville, IL 

Today we celebrate the feast day of the second most beloved saint in the Christian tradition. Behind Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Francis of Assisi has been the most widely venerated holy figure in western Christianity ever since his brief but tumultuous life in the north of Italy in the 13^th CE. 

Perhaps the greatest example of such veneration came from the current Pope, a Jesuit who bypassed all the possible icons of his own religious community as well as many previous popes to choose the name Francis for his papacy. Given the radical nature by which Francis of Assisi sought to live out the humble life of Jesus, it is hardly surprising that in a hierarchy noted for its focus on power and prestige this would be the first time that Francis has been used as a papal name.

 

A Balance of Action and Contemplation

 

Francis and his companion Clare would become the founders of a world wide movement called Franciscanism. Francis represents the active side of the order, the folks in the soup kitchens and running the many Franciscan hospitals, many named after the Franciscan Saint, Elizabeth. Clare, on the other hand, represents the contemplative side of the order. She and her cloistered sisters spent their days praying for the world and their brothers and sisters who engage it. Franciscans recognized from the beginning that both the active and the contemplative are needed for spiritual balance and healthy faith communities.

 

Historically this movement has had two focuses. The first was on those Jesus called the anawim, the little ones. This term referred both to age as well as power. Jesus followed a long tradition of prophetic focus on the orphans, the widows, the aliens and the poor – the powerless in the lowest strata of the society. And for the Franciscans, this has played out in their work among those very same populations.

Paul Granlund, “Dancing Francis,” 

Viterbo University, LaCrosse, WI (1987)

 The second focus of Franciscanism has always been on the Good Creation. It was here that Francis insisted that the image of G-d could be seen all around us all the time if we were just willing to see it. Franciscans speak of the natural world as the First Testament that had been here for eons before the Second Testament of canonized scripture arrived. And contrary to the majority view within our theology, Franciscans have always been clear that Jesus did not come because of human sin, it was always G-d’s intent to send Jesus to us out of G_d’s deep love for the Creation.

 

The Stories That Reveal St. Francis

 

There are a number of stories about the life of Francis that have been collected over the years. Like the life of Jesus, those stories took on mythical and legendary qualities as they developed in the imaginations of the story tellers. The Little Flowers of Francis is the primary collection of those stories and there are two stories in particular that speak to us on this day we pronounce G-d’s blessings on our animal companions.

 

Francis and the Wolf, Gubbio, Italy

 The first is about a wolf in the town of Gubbio an hour’s drive north of Assisi today. The wolf was terrorizing the town and had killed some of its inhabitants. The villagers were afraid of the wolf and asked Francis to save them. Francis came to Gubbio and quickly found the wolf. He confronted him, admonishing him for his terrible misdeeds. But in the process he discovered that the wolf had been abandoned by its pack and was hungry. He was simply trying to remain alive. In the end, Francis made the wolf promise he’d never attack the townspeople or their flocks again. In return, he required the townspeople to promise to feed the wolf and not harm him. It is perhaps one of history’s first examples of restorative justice

The second is about Francis preaching to the birds, something he loved to do. Many of us admire the beautiful fresco Giotto painted of this story on the upper walls of the basilica. Note, Francis presumed that the birds could understand him and that they, in turn, had something to communicate to Francis as well. Indeed, the birds would fly away only after Francis had blessed them. 

Note how different these behaviors are from that of our ordinary lives. We human animals tend to believe that it is only our fellow humans who have anything to say worth hearing. That, my Brothers and Sisters, is the sin of anthropocentrism. But what might we learn if we, like Francis, paid attention to the animals that grace our lives? What sermons might they have for us?

 

The Sermons Our Animal Companions Are Preaching

 

Saidy the Beagle

Our dogs are living lessons in loyalty. The common name Fido means I am faithful in Latin. They provide us companionship and protection. In return, they desire our attention, our care and, yes, our snacks. So what might our lives look like if we treated one another the way our dogs treat us?

 

 

 

 Magdalena and Willow

 Our cats are living lessons in independence. They have minds of their own and they are not shy about letting you know when you are violating their space. Autonomy and the willingness to think for oneself are treasures in a consumerist culture marked by group think with its tribalizing social media driven by algorithms. So what might our lives look like if we paid attention to the lessons our cats are offering us?

 

Anhinga, Lake Underhill

Our birds offer us lessons of fragility and a freedom those of us who are earth-bound can never quite attain. There is a reason that birds are so often associated with Spirit in the arts and in world religions. Birds require our care, particularly in assuring that the context in which they live is hospitable to life. So, what would the quality of our air be like if we lived there?

 

Gecko on the front porch

Our reptiles, amphibians and rodents are our most down to earth companions, quite literally. They remind us of the value of grounding ourselves daily, becoming aware of who we are, where we are and fostering a sense that we are OK here and now. Like birds, they, too, require habitats that permit them to survive. Many non-human animals around the world are now looking to their fellow animals, the human animals, to see if there will be a world for them on the other side of climate change. What lesson might these creatures offer a world facing mass extinctions?

 

Jerry the giant koi

Finally, our fish swim about in confined spaces containing water, oblivious of the world outside their immediate habitats. It is said that fish don’t understand the concept of water since without it, they simply would not exist. That is true of human animals, as well, as a number of our western states are discovering. Human caused climate change and fouling of water could render a number of places on our planet uninhabitable within our lifetimes. If our fish could talk, what sermon might they preach us this morning?    

 

 

A World Charged With the Grandeur of G-d

 

Lake Underhill Park, top of the street

Francis and his followers have always pointed us to what poet Gerald Manley Hopkins called a world “charged with the grandeur of God.” The question today is whether we will respond in gratitude and humility to that divine gift by listening to our fellow inhabitants of the natural world and heeding the alarm they are sending.

 Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that, following the way of blessed Francis, we may, for love of you, delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.      

(Collect, Feast of St. Francis of Assisi)

  

Note: All paintings are from the Basilica of St. Francis in Asissi; the animals are denizens of New Coverleigh

 [A Sermon preached on the Feast of St. Francis and Blessing of Animals, October 10, 2021, St. Richards Episcopal Parish, Winter Park, FL]

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  Harry Scott Coverston

  Orlando, Florida

 frharry@cfl.rr.com

  hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

 If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

 Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

 For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

 Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

  © Harry Coverston, 2021

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