PLAYING  THE  PART 

OF  ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Playing the Part of St. Francis of Assisi.”

Today, October 4^th, is his feast day.

THE PLAY’S THE THING

One of Shakespeare’s most famous lines is in Hamlet - where he says, “The plays the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

That’s vintage Shakespeare because as playwright he would know that people watching a play - subconsciously or unconsciously - connect with the characters on the stage. Shakespeare would know what to do to try to catch his audience. He knew the tricks of the trade. He would know what to do to catch the attention, the spiritual life, the conscience, the reality of what it is to be a moral, a good, decent human being. So the audience would see good and evil on stage in front of them - and hopefully go for the good and to avoid the evil.

Those seeing a performance of Hamlet would discover that Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius killed his own brother, the king - Hamlet Senior. Then Claudius marries Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, the queen. Tough stuff for Hamlet Junior - to deal with, to get the facts, to makes sure he’s right and to get revenge on his uncle. So Shakespeare has Hamlet putting on a play within the play to catch the conscience of the king.

JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO

Cardinal Jorge Mario Begoglio of Buenas Aires, Argentina, went to Rome to elect a new pope.

He ends up becoming the new pope on March 13, 2013.

Now he has the choice to come up with a name.

He surprised so many by being elected. Then he surprised us all even more by the choice of a name: Francis.

He could have chosen Benedict or John Paul or Ignatius or Vincent de Paul or any name for that matter - even keeping his own name Jorge, George or even Mario his second name. Imagine Pope Mario,

Nope. He’s no dope. The new pope, A Jesuit chooses a Franciscan’s name. Pope Francis.

Surprise!

It ends up being a remarkable choice.

The story goes that a cardinal said to Bergogio just after being elected, “Don’t forget the poor.” So he chose the name of Francis - Poor Francis of Assisi.

I would assume that he was thinking about this long before that moment - that he had a great liking and got great inspiration from Francis of Assisi.

If you were named pope what name would you choose

The naming is just the first step.

It’s the next day that counts.

So from then on he has the choice to play the part of Francis - to be himself of course - but to play the part of Francis of Assisi.

We know the story.

We’re born, we get a name, and then in time we have the choice to be ourselves - to become ourselves. In Hamlet we also have the line, “To thine own self be true”. Polonius says that to his son Laertes.

So we’re called to be ourselves. There is only one of us - forever and ever.

But we also able to play as Shakespeare put it in his play, As You Like It, “All the world’s a stage,/ And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; / And one man in his time plays many parts.”

We’re called  to play the part of Jesus Christ, to be a Christian, to be a saint.  But we also imitate others - our parents, our pals, a nurse, a lawyer, a therapist, a salesperson, a teacher, what have you - and we watch how our parents loved one another, how teachers taught, how nurses cared for others - how fellow workers, work.

And so we play our parts. And hopefully we become the part - doing it with our personality - our gifts, our spirit, our learnings.

SO WHY THE CHOICE

So why did Pope Francis the First pick Francis as his name.

For starters - thinking of Hamlet - and Shakespeare - did Pope Francis pick that name to get us to look at the life of Francis and we too play that pert.

For starters - we know Francis was for the poor and lead a poor life. We’ll we’ve all read how Francis has tried to simplify, simplify, simplify - when it comes to shoes, clothes, space, travel.

For starters - we know that Francis of Assisi was called to rebuild the church and then did. And Pope Francis is certainly trying to do just that. and we can do the same every day.

For starters - we know that Francis of Assisi brings us back to Jesus Christ - the human Christ - the birth of Christ, the eucharist, the poor, the people, the death on the cross.

For starters, if we read the life of St. Francis we discover that he sang and glorified the beauty of creation - and we see the Pope has a whole big letter on that last year - Laudato Si’ - on the gift of this great home, garden, earth, which God has created for us.

 CONCLUSION

Be yourself - but be like Francis of Assisi - who brought Jesus to the poor - who renewed our church. Be like Pope Francis - reach out to everyone.

Smile. The pope certainly knows the power of a smile as walk down the miles of our life.

Pope Francis became Pope at 76. Wow. So lets hope all of us have much more life in our tank.