Just Curious

Brother Sun Sister Moon

I just finished watching Franco Zeffirelli's film Brother Sun Sister Moon. It is about the life and morals of Francis of Assisi, the great Christian mystic and founder of the Ordo Fratum Minorum (Order of Friars Minor, or simply, the Franciscans). The movie moved me to tears several times, and I could still feel how I was literally shaken by the simple pietistic faith of St. Francis. The Divine Love St. Francis lived in, and the Light of God he walked in were very real, and the Religion he practiced was not only a religion about Christ, but the very religion of Christ. My favorite moment came at the end, when he told the Pope and his Bishops, in all their splendid vestments, sitting in their palace:

Behold the birds of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature?

Therefore take no thought, saying What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Pagans seek.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in geaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

When Francis and his companions were dragged out by the guards, he cried,

No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and money.

These sayings, of course, has all be spoken by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount.

posted by James Chang @ 1:34 AM