The diakonia of Saint Francis of Assisi

As I prepare for the feast of St. Francis tomorrow, I began reflecting this morning on how Francis can lead me to be a better deacon.

It is probable that Francis was a deacon. But even if he wasn’t, his life shows the call to diakonia of all the baptized.

As I understand the diaconate, we are called to serve, to accompany, to be with those at the margins of our church and our world. In a special, sacramental way, we are called to bring the needs of the poor to the table of the Lord and the gifts of the table of the Lord to them.

We are called to make clear the bridge that exists between the church and the world. As Msgr.  Paul McPartlan wrote, “The deacon stands at the altar and prepares the gifts with clean hands, but he stands also where the practical need is greatest, getting his hands very dirty.”  I slightly revised this to reflect my experience, “The deacon serves at the table of the altar with clean hands because he has dirtied his hands serving at the table of the poor.”

We deacons do this not just at Mass, reading the Gospel, occasionally preaching, preparing the altar, and distributing communion. We do this in our daily work, in our daily contact with the poor and marginalized, in our preaching by lives of service, justice, and love.

When I think of Saint Francis, I see him among the poor, not neglecting to preach in the highways and byways of his world, not failing to enter and pray in churches.

For me it is interesting that his conversion is marked by two events – his encounter with the leper and the call to repair the church which he heard in the church of San Damiano. 

The church and friary of San Damiano

Then he began to repair any number of churches, but still in contact with the poor and the marginalized.  He also began to preach – not just by his words but by his deeds.

But he always had a soft spot in his heart for the marginalized, especially the lepers. In his Testament he pointedly wrote:

The Lord granted me, Brother Francis, to begin to do penance in this way: While I was in sin, it seemed very bitter to me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led me among them and I had mercy upon them. And when I left them that which seemed bitter to me was changed into sweetness of soul and body…

Face of a poor man. Detail of a statue near San Damiano.

And so, tomorrow I will renew my ministry. I will celebrate the feast in a Franciscan way, assisting at Mass in the morning and preaching and then having dinner with the Dubuque Franciscan sisters here in Honduras.

Francis, renew in me, the spirit of Christ the servant, who emptied himself and became flesh for love of us.