Sermon

16th November 25

In this year leading up to the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis in October 1226, we will occasionally listen to one of the stories from the life of our Patron Saint.

The National Gallery has seven of eight panels, painted by Sassetta around 1440 as part of his great San Sepolcro altarpiece.  They all depict stories from the Life of St Francis.  One of the scenes is initially quite confusing.  
St Francis is shown shaking hands, or paws, with a wolf just outside a city wall.  In front of them sits a notary drawing up a legal document, whilst behind them in the contado, the countryside, you can see a corpse and a severed bleeding leg.  This is the story: 

A particularly fierce wolf was devouring some of the townspeople’s livestock at Gubbio, and it had also been killing some of the people.  Attempts to kill it had failed, and citizens lived in fear.  Francis visited and, hearing the problem, decided to speak with the wolf.  They met and he blessed the wolf with the Sign of the Cross.  Recognizing the Francis had come in peace and was not a threat, the wolf went to Francis and curled up next to him.   Francis proposed that if the wolf stopped menacing the townspeople, they would provide for him.  The wolf extended his paw, signalling agreement, while the townspeople watched from afar.  Francis and the wolf walked back into town, and wolf and townspeople accepted the agreement.  The wolf never troubled Gubbio again, and the citizens kept their bargain by feeding him.  He lived among them for two more years as an honoured guest.

Some commentators think that rather than being a literal historical account, this is rather about St Francis reconciling two different factions at Gubbio: perhaps the relatively rich city dwellers, and the poor agricultural workers in the contado, outside the city walls.

I don’t think that it matters either way.  For this is about reconciliation, bringing together opposing forces, be they God and humankind, or groups of people with widely different backgrounds, or even human beings and the environment.  Reconciliation is central to the Christian gospel, as exemplified in the life of St Francis who is supposed to have prayed: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred let me sow your love …”

We live in difficult times: so many wars, so much hatred, so much anger.  There is a mood of intolerance: we have lost the ability to disagree courteously.  Too many folk think that their views are the only ones that are right; they think that anyone who expresses a contrary opinion must be attacked.

Reconciliation is not uniformity.  Reconciliation is living with people who, although they may express different opinions, have an equal right to do so, assuming that they are within the law.  The life of Christ, the life of St Francis, the story of the wolf of Gubbio, call us to be reconciled with God and neighbour

Amen