How Franciscan Compassion Can Heal Our World

In the book I wrote in 2021, Crown of Thorns, I expressed my thoughts about how Jesus felt as they drove each thorn into his head, and what I felt each of those thorns represented.1 In the second half of the book, I asked readers to consider how those thorns were still painful for us in today’s world and what we might do to help remove the thorns of racial injustice, destruction of God’s Creation, political and social polarity, betrayal, loneliness, the unjustly accused, and despair. As I was asked to present an excerpt from this book at a recent class at my church, I concluded that these injustices still exist and maybe are even heightened in today’s world. But I also realized how the compassion shown by Saint Francis might help our world heal the wounds from these thorns.

Racial Injustice

Although we in our country and in our Church would like to believe that racial injustice is a thing of the past, reality tells us differently. In his book, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church,2 Father Bryan Massingale explains what racism looks like today and reminds us that is still very much alive even if is a different type of racial injustice than before the Civil Rights movement. I am old enough to remember segregation in the South and the sits-ins, protests, dogs and guns being used to quell racial disturbances. I will never forget Sister Thea Bowman’s stirring address to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1989, beginning with an emotional rendition of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” (had Mother Church even abandoned the black community?) She ended with a powerful moment, in which all the bishops stood with her to sing “We Shall Overcome Someday.”

But is that someday here yet? I don’t think so. 

Massingale reminds us that racial injustice is as alive today as it was when Jesus was persecuted by his own people and by the Romans. He reminds us of the day Barack Obama was elected and his inauguration day, which made him, and I am sure many others, cry for joy. And yet, the detractors were there to hang the President of the United States in effigy, and to question his citizenship. Massingale also notes that Obama received more death threats than any other president, and that in some places even second graders were chanting, “Assassinate Obama.” Even in the Church, there were leaders who were afraid to speak out of for racial equality and who did not understand “white privilege.”

And now, more than a decade later, we still have racial injustice in our country. The Prison Policy Institute reports that the taken as a percentage of total population, blacks are twice as likely to be incarcerated, followed closely by Native Americans and Hispanics. We will talk more about this in the section on the Unjustly Accused, but knowing the percentage of blacks in prisons is five times the percentage of whites tells us something about how far we haven not come.

We can ask ourselves two questions, “What Would Jesus Do,” and “What Would Saint Francis Do?” I suspect we can provide one answer to both those questions. Jesus showed us how little racial differences meant to him, by treating people of different cultures the same as he treated his own people—with love and compassion. The Samaritan Woman, the Gentiles, all were treated equally by Jesus, there was no “Jewish Privilege” in his vocabulary or his actions. And we can say the same for Saint Francis. You will hear more about this in the article on Franciscan Spirituality in Islam, but think about the people Francis reached out to with his amazing compassion—the leper, women, the poor. Although spending most of his life in Europe, he did not have as much opportunity to encounter people of different races until he went to Egypt, it is clear by everything he did and said, that he would have no room for racial injustice in his life or teachings.

In Peace and Good,3 we hear the story of Francis’ time as a prisoner of war in Perugia, where he reached out to an embittered man shunned by his fellow prisoners. While this man was also likely a fellow resident of Assisi, and Italian, there was something that set him apart just like a black man might be bitter and shunned by white prisoners. In my own prison ministry, I have seen how sometimes racial divides can tear us apart. Francis would have had compassion for all prisoners and would not have seen the color of a fellow human being’s skin. 

The Destruction of God’s Creation

It seems we cannot turn on the television, the radio, or look at social media without another dismal report on climate change, pollution, GMOs in our food supply, or some other way that that our Sister, Mother Earth is being destroyed. It is my contention was that one of things that must have wounded Christ most, was that he was killed on a tree, one of Creation’s most beautiful gifts, meant to give oxygen to humans and absorb our carbon dioxide, but here was used to take life rather than restore it. 

In Care for Creation, we are reminded that Bonaventure wrote, “The First Principle made this sensible world in order to make itself known, so that the world might serve as a footprint and a mirror to lead humankind to love and praise, God, its Maker.”4 We seem to looking at a muddy mirror and a soiled footprint. As Joan Chittester reminds us, the Earth survived for millions of years without humans, but humans cannot survive without the Earth for one minute. 5

We know from Saint Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures6 how he valued all of Creation and brought it to life for his followers. So how is this love for Creation still active in this world and how can we use Franciscan spirituality to save our world?

Many of us take our animals to be blessed on Saint Francis Day Oct 4. But this love for our pets would probably exist even if Francis was not the patron saint of animals. We must do more, and Franciscan spirituality can start us on the right path.

At my church, for example, we held a St Francis Day celebration on the Saturday closest to his feast day. We had musicians from our church sing and play Canticle of the Creatures and All Creatures Lament. We had selected parishioners read from some of Saint Francis’ prayers and writings, and then we asked people what things we could take to follow Francis’ guidance to protect and preserve Creation. We appointed a team to review our church’s policies on recycling and made some changes, we gave out a resource that provided people options for things they could do at home and at work to protect the environment, we appointed a team to work on book study groups to read and study Creation at the Crossroads.7 And we also appointed a team to plan our Earth Day celebration the following Spring. At this Earth Day event, we started with on our Labyrinth with guided meditations from Care for Creation, then adjourned inside to view The Letter, and wrapped up with a discussion featuring the people who attended the book study groups and what positive steps they agreed to take because of the book study discussions.

Political and Social Polarity

The excerpt that my friend, Father Tony Hughes asked me to read as alluded to earlier, was “How can we change this political polarity and turn our differences into a strength? It won’t be easy. Family members are disenfranchised from each other. Friendships have dissolved. The poor are against the rich; the rich are against the poor. Democrats hate Republicans, Republican hate Democrats. Christians hate Muslims., Muslims hate Jews. Even religion has become politicized. These are generalizations of course. Most of the people, I believe (I am the eternal optimist), can still be friends with those who have differing political and social views, different stations in life, but the exceptions are far too many. 

I am sure, like me, you have seen relationships with friends, maybe even relatives, be cooled, and possibly lost forever, because of this polarity.

One thing we can do is to try civil dialogue. I know it is not easy, and sometimes it is impossible. I have had the experience of trying to explain to someone that the mayor of Washington DC should not be blamed for the violence and death at our Capitol because she could not order in the National Guard to prevent the insurrection of Jan 6, 2021, since she does not have authority over Federal buildings. And dealing with someone who claimed you cannot be a Christian and a Democrat was exhausting for me. And perhaps you have had someone say to you that you can’t be a Christian and a Republican, which I am sure tried your patience as well.”

I think we can go back to the question, “What would Saint Francis Do?” He went to war with dreams of becoming a famous knight but was quickly disillusioned by the war caused by political differences. And he came back from that war a broken man, as many of our veterans do. He turned his life around after that experience. In a future article you will learn more about his peace-making attempts during the Crusades when we went to meet with the Sultan Malik al-Kamil. Like Christ he spent much of his life trying to live in peace and guide others to peaceful resolution of conflict. Perhaps Francis’ famous peace prayer can be the start of reconciling political differences.

Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (Prayer for Peace)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Would it not be amazing if political leaders, the news media, and all of us would try to live by these words of Saint Francis? Could we remove political and social polarity by sowing love, pardon, faith, hope, light, and joy as he did?

Betrayal

Most of us will not be put to death because one of our closest friends betrayed us with a kiss, and another good friend denied even knowing us, but we are betrayed in numerous small ways—a friend betrays a confidence or doesn’t stand up for us when we are being torn down by another person. Perhaps even a spouse betrays us by having an affair, or perhaps more commonly, refuses to stand up for us when family members tear us down. Or someone at work takes credit for a task we completed.

I cannot recall reading of anyone betraying Saint Francis, but if they did, I suspect his response would have been to go to that person and not only take forgiveness in his heart, for the person who betrayed him but would have asked their forgiveness for his anger at them, for whatever injustice he may have committed to make them respond with betrayal.

Could we be more Franciscan in our response to betrayal? Can we try to understand the reasons behind that betrayal? I suspect Judas felt he was doing the right thing, trying to force Jesus to show his hand, and make evident his real power. And Peter, by protecting himself from possibly being condemned to death along with Jesus—did he know he would soon be asked to “feed my sheep?” Perhaps there are reasons behind the betrayals we face—maybe that employee who took credit for our work fears dismissal from their job and has a family to feed, or maybe they just have such low self-esteem they feel they cannot get congratulated for their own work. Could we possibly add to St Francis’ Peace Prayer, “Where there is betrayal, let me sow forgiveness?”

Loneliness

Francis most likely faced periods of loneliness during his lifetime, just as Christ did when he asked his apostles if they could stay awake and pray with him for an hour. I think of the story of Francis’ death, when the brothers tried their best to take care of him and pray him to heaven. But the person who stands out most in my mind is Lady Jacopa who showed up at the door of the monastery with the ingredients to make Francis’ favorite almond cookies. The monks did not want to let her in—a woman in the monetary—heaven forbid. But Francis insisted they let “Brother Lady Jacopa” in and I must think she took away his loneliness at the end of his life.6 

How many lonely people cross our paths? The homeless person who will be sleeping alone in a cardboard box tonight. Have we thought to stop and share a conversation with them and maybe buy them a hot meal and sit down and enjoy it with them? The widow or widower whose life was devoted to their spouse and now they are alone and perhaps their family is scattered and can’t visit them. Sometimes just a visit or phone call could alleviate that loneliness. What about people in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and the homebound. Many times, the sickest of these people never get a chance to leave the nursing home for a day out for lunch or breakfast, to go to the park and feed the pigeons, or to attend church. My late husband spent the last four years of his life in nursing homes and while he was able to get out of the home on occasion, he was lucky enough to be in facilities which have outings for their residents. But I know many who are not this fortunate. My church provides communion service in several of these facilities, and the residents are so grateful to be able to able to come together and attend a church service.

How can you show Franciscan compassion to the lonely? Here are few examples I have experienced:

• A man in my church has befriended a homeless man, takes him to restaurants to eat, and also has part time job delivering meals for Grub-Hub, and will buy a meal and deliver to a homeless person frequently. 

• A woman in my church is her nineties and on 24/7 oxygen, but she calls the homebound people in our church to check on them and know they are loved.

• Another woman from my church, a talented artist, every week makes drawings for people in the nursing homes, which those of us doing the communion service deliver to the residents.

• At Christmas time, members of our church go Christmas caroling to the homebound and those in nursing homes, and other people write out Christmas cards to deliver to these lonely people, letting them know someone cares about them.

  
  

I think we are very fortunate to have a lot of “Lady Jacopas” in our parish. Maybe one of them will bring me almond cookies someday when I am lonely.

The Unjustly Accused

Christ was unjustly accused, tortured, beaten, and hung on a cross to die. St Francis was not martyred or unjustly accused, but I am sure he saw much injustice in his service to the poor and marginalized. Even the leper, who helped bring about his conversion, like all lepers of his time, was unjustly accused of being unclean and forced to spend his life in isolation until Francis’ embrace and kiss changed both lives forever. 

Today, as I serve in prison ministry, I can’t help but wonder (even though we are not allowed to ask or discuss prison sentences with the people we serve) how many are wrongly accused, and perhaps could not afford to hire a lawyer to plead their cause. I know the old saying, “There are no guilty people in jail,” is a sarcastic way of saying that no prisoner admits their guilt, but I also know from following the work of The Innocence Project, that there are many innocent people in prison, sometimes for years, sometimes on death row, sometimes even executed and subsequently found innocent.

One high profile case which affected the Church was the case of George Cardinal Pell from Australia, who was unjustly accused of sexually molesting two young boys. In his Prison Journal,8 he cited his day-to-day activities, but at the end of each day’s account of his activities, he writes a prayer. Nowhere in the book does he show any malice for his accusers, for the public, or about the utter humiliation he was forced to endure, including lengthy stays in solitary confinement. One of the things that, for some strange reason, really affected my thinking about life in prison, was his description of his toothbrush which had a short stub of handle, so it could not be used to make a shiv. I recall him saying how hard it was to brush his teeth—a simple thing we take for granted. I think his book gives us a small idea of what prison life is like.

Not all the unjustly accused face actual prison, but often their reputations and their lives are destroyed. I personally have a priest friend who was also unjustly accused of molesting a young boy, but after a six-month investigation was declared innocent, but the isolation he endured during his humiliating investigation was horrendous. Another friend was also accused and never officially declared innocent, and it was only after his death that he was somewhat vindicated when his bishop spoke at his funeral about that a wonderful priest he was.

Here is where Franciscan compassion is needed in our world. We need, first, to fight to correct the instances of wrongly accused men and women. We also need to have compassion for those who perhaps are guilty of crimes but are trying to turn their lives around. And even hardened criminals need our compassion to understand what drove them to commit a serious crime. We need to stand up to authorities that control our prison systems to assure that prisoners, innocent or guilty, are treated with respect for their humanity, and figurately embrace them as Francis embraced the leper. And finally, we need to fight to abolish the death penalty, in accordance with Catholic Social Teaching. Pope Francis recently quoted Amnesty International, “There is no humane way to kill a human being.”

Despair

Christ despaired on the cross when he called out to his Father, “Why have you forsaken me?” Therefore, it is not shameful to feel despair. I am unfamiliar with utter despair, and I am fortunate to have family and friends that never abandoned me. I cannot comprehend the depths of despair that some people experience, and I am not sure if Saint Francis was ever driven to this feeling of utter despair. But I often think of the scene after Christ comes down from Mount Tabor after the Transfiguration, when the rest of his apostles are trying to drive out a demon that Jesus tells them can only be cast out by prayer and fasting. 

Perhaps the demon of utter despair can also be cured only with prayer and fasting, but I would add compassion as well. Today many people suffer from mental illnesses, death, or loss of a loved one through severe illness or condition. May people struggle with gender identity issues and are treated like outcasts instead of being loved as a creation of God. These conditions and others that might lead to utter despair might be thought about as demons that need to be driven out. But before we can even pray for someone, we need to have that Franciscan compassion. We need to be able to walk with these people even if we can’t understand their state of mind. It is not enough to be compassionate as Francis was to the lepers, to his enemies, and to the poor and the desperate. That compassion must prompt us to act. If we can feel, and subsequently spread compassion, we can remove all these demons of our world.

1 Lysakowski, Linda, Crown of Thorns. Boulder City, NV: Linda Lysakowski. 2021.

2 Massingale, Bryan N, Racial Justice and the Catholic Church. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press. 2010.

3 McCloskey, Pat, OFM, Peace and Good. Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media. 2014.

4 Delio, Ilia, OSF, Warner, Keith Douglas, OFM, Wood, Pamela, Care for Creation. Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media. 2008.

5.Chittester, Joan, In Search of Belief. Liguori, MO: Liguori/Triumph. 1999.

6 Pryds, Darlene, The Spirituality of Presence.

7Francis of Assisi, Canticle of the Creatures, c. 1240.

8 Ciuba, Edward J, Creation at the Crossroads, Plainfield, NJ; Renew International. 2016.

9 Pell, George Cardinal, Prison Journal. Ignatius Press. 2020.