Sermon

13th September 26

By Giotto di Bondone

Artists often show our Patron, St Francis, with the stigmata.  Those are the marks of the nails with which Jesus was crucified, and the wound in his side from the sword.  I’ve put an example of this on the website and WhatApp page, painted by the great Giotto late C13, originally for a Church in Pisa, but now in the Louvre.

We are told that on or around Holy Cross day in 1224, two years before his death, Francis was on Mount Verna, about 70 miles north of Assisi.  On this day, when the Church encourages us to reflect on the suffering of Jesus on the Cross, Francis was deep in meditation on the suffering of our Lord: a key part of his spirituality.  

There are varying accounts of what happened next: Francis received a vision, perhaps of the crucified Christ, or of a seraph (one of the highest order of angels) on a cross, bearing the same injuries.  He saw rays of light coming from those marks on that body, coming towards the corresponding parts of his own body, and leaving burn marks.  He experienced the pain of the nails and of the sword.  He was completely united with the crucified Christ.

What happens subsequently is equally ambiguous.  Some sources suggest that he retained those physical marks on his body until they were verified by reliable witnesses on his corpse after his death.  Modern scholars tend to move from such a literal interpretation, and emphasise rather the intensity of St Francis’ awareness of the suffering of Christ.  It won’t surprise you that, in the same way that I am happy about taking a literal interpretation of Scripture, I am content to accept the account of the stigmatisation of Francis as historical fact.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter.  Whether the experience on Mount Verna left physical marks on the body of Francis, or a profound spiritual experience in his mind, we have here a man who was so devoted to our Lord, that his life centred on meditating on his death.

I don’t think that we spend enough time thinking about the death of Jesus.  Of course, we do so on Good Friday.  But there is so much going on in Holy Week, and we are often too willing to get on to the joy of Easter.  We celebrate the Last Supper and the Institution of the Holy Communion on Corpus Christi as well as on Maundy Thursday.  In the same way, Holy Cross Day reminds us that we need to focus on the crucifixion of Jesus throughout the year and not just on Good Friday.

We need to follow St Francis in meditating on the death of Jesus: not just on Good Friday and on Holy Cross Day but constantly throughout our lives.  For we need to be united with the crucified Jesus in his death and suffering, in order that we may be united with him in his triumph over death and his ascension into heaven.

I want to add a postscript.  For since I finished writing that sermon on Monday, we have learnt of the deaths of two members of our Church family: of Philip Martin-Lawrence, and of Colin Newton.  

As I have been praying for them and for their families over the last few days, and no doubt with Holy Cross day in mind, I’ve been particularly conscious of a couple of verses from St Paul’s letter to the Romans.

Romans chapter 6, verses 4 and 5: “We were buried with Jesus by baptism into his death so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Jesus in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his”.

Paul tells us that the more we focus on the death of Jesus, the more we are carried beyond that.  For, in the same way that Good Friday leads on to Easter, and that the death of Jesus leads on to his resurrection, then those who are caught up in his death, are also caught up in his resurrection and, by implication, his ascension into heaven.

Our hope and prayer for Philip and for Colin, and for each of us when we come to our inevitable deaths, is that as we and they are united in the death of Jesus, so we and they will be united in his resurrection.

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon them. 

Amen.