A Living Faith

Our stay in Rome happened to be in the Trastevere District, a lovely residential area filled with sidewalk restaurants, shops and the businesses of a typical Rome neighborhood where tourists and residents comingle. Walking down the street we passed this friar. He is a member of a fraternity of friars called Minor of Ripa and serves in San Francesca a Ripa, a church dedicated to Francis of Assisi who once stayed at an adjacent convent. The friars of this church pray for and serve those in distress in the local community. In the few moments I spent talking to him through his broken English on the street I could sense the peace of God in him. I found it curious that I felt as much spiritual gratification in those few moments talking to him as I did walking for hours through the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel the day before, looking at endless beautiful portraits and paintings. It is not to say that my faith was not stirred at the Vatican, because it was. I gazed at Michelangelo’s depiction of “the Final Judgement” and was moved at its detail and intensity. But this was different, and I wouldn’t understand why until a few days later when we visited the church where this friar serves, and we saw the portrayal of St. Francis of Assisi taking the body of Christ down off the cross after his crucifixion and death pictured below.

I do not think it is too much of a stretch interpreting this as St. Francis because it is in a church dedicated to him and there were many other likenesses of him in the church. I also think it was not an attempt to capture an actual event because St. Francis was not born until more than a thousand years after the time of Christ’s crucifixion. What I think is being portrayed is the nature and the compassion of St. Francis who was a “hands on” minister in doing whatever service confronted him. That is, he was driven by a personal accountability to be involved whenever faced with a need. In the case of the crucifixion of Christ, if Francis were present, he would have been involved in the removing of Christ’s body from the cross. Imagine participating in that scene…handling the broken, beaten body of Christ that scripture describes as unrecognizable. Scripture also makes it clear that the suffering and horrible death endured by Christ was for our sin. Imagine caring for the body of the One who died for our sins. I believe that is what this scene is portraying.

In other words, Francis lived a life of faith that would have required him to be involved at the moment of the crucifixion, just as the members of the order of friars serve the community today. A simple responsibility to stay in the community, to pray for them and to serve in whatever capacity is needed. As I stood in front of that sculpture my faith was moved to an understanding of what I call “a living faith.” A faith that is twenty-four/seven. A faith that occupies the center of one’s purpose of life. Not everyone is capable of that kind of faith. I am certainly not. But we all can appreciate and honor it. Thank you, Francis. Thank you, Jesus.