Following Francis of Assisi today: Who are our lepers?

This is the 785th anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi.
He is beloved by so very many people the world over, Christians and
non-Christians, believers and non-believers all admire the man who
sought simply to follow in the footprints of Jesus Christ, living out
his baptismal promise as one committed to living the Holy Gospel. From
popes of his day and the Muslim Sultan Malik al-Kamil, to the last
communist leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev (who, although maintains
his atheism, knelt in silence in front of St. Francis’s tomb in Assisi
for more than 30 minutes in 2008 — that’s longer than I’ve prayed
there!) and the philosopher Albert Camus, Francis of Assisi has captured
the attention of billions of people. He was a man of peace, but an
ordinary man who, in striving to live as closely to the Gospel way as
possible, became and extraordinary example of Christian living in our
world.

There is so much that can be said and done to commemorate this Saint
from Assisi, but I think it’s worth reflecting on some of his own story
and narrative of the emergence and meaning of the religious communities
that call him founder. In an important collection of remembrances of the
earliest friars called The Assisi Compilation, we read a selection that brings us back to the central charism and character of this way of life.

From the beginning of his conversion
blessed Francis, with God’s help, like a wise man, established himself
and his house, that is, the religion, upon a firm rock, the greatest
humility and poverty of the Son of God, calling it the religion of
“Lesser Brothers.”