The Transfiguration, Humility, and St. Francis

The cornerstone of St Francis’ imitation of Christ, was simplicity, a wellspring found in the seeming desert of humility.

St. Francis longed to be transfigured by the Lord; a transfiguration by the work of divine poverty itself which renews and gives the hope of salvation. In particular, St. Francis calls his disciples deeper into this great treasure through the works of lowly labor and through acts of adoration and the partaking of the Holy Sacrament.

In his second rule, Francis calls out, “Brothers… should seek the most humble jobs so that they are on the lowest rung of the economic ladder. They should be servants rather than masters.”

Not long before he died, St. Francis summed up the source of all spiritual transformation when he beseeched his brothers, “to pay all devotion and honor to the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ…”

Encouraging his community to receive the Blessed Sacrament more frequently, St Francis was showing us a path to a new knighthood — that of holy service and adoration of the most noble of Kings, the transfigured Jesus Christ.