To the Band of Brothers: October 4, 2024

Good afternoon!

I know that salutation is rare, but the desire to write only hit me an hour ago. I wanted to write because today is October 4th, and the Church is celebrating the feast of one of its greatest and most popular saints. And even though that great and popular saint was St. Francis Assisi and not St. Ignatius of Loyola or one of the thousands of other noteworthy Jesuit saints, the man had a very powerful impact on the Church and the world at large. Amazing how a non-Jesuit can actually do that!

I know you may be wondering why an S.J. is writing about and O.F.M. Is the world coming to an end that a son of Ignatius is going to write something that highlights the life of the founder of the Franciscan order? The answer is “yes,” believe it or not.

But before I do that, here’s a funny story… 

A Franciscan and a Jesuit are playing golf one Sunday morning at the Biltmore Golf Course in Coral Gables. They notice, after a couple of holes, the foursome in front of them is terrible. They miss the ball, shank it into the trees, walk around aimlessly, and take a very long time to hit their next shot. Frustrated with the slow play, they get into their golf cart and head back to the clubhouse to complain to the manager. When they find him, they insist he has to do something because the foursome is interrupting their game and they have Masses they have to celebrate in the afternoon. 

The manager, somewhat embarrassed, tells the two priests the golf course had started a new practice where once a month they were opening the course to the handicap and the foursome in front of them was composed of four blind players. The Franciscan, embarrassed, went down on his knees and offered a prayer to God, thanking Him for inspiring management to open their hearts to Sister Charity. The Jesuit, on the other hand, walked up to the manager and asked why the foursome couldn’t play at night.

Oh boy, obviously, that story says more about the Jesuit than it does the Franciscan, but at least the two priests were playing golf together. And why not? Their orders share so much in common. Even though they were founded at different times, in different countries, for different purposes, they share a lot in common.

One of the greatest commonalities is their passion for Jesus. Francis of Assisi is the embodiment of that passion. After his conversion, he wanted to imitate Jesus down to his very sandals. Francis wanted to be poor as Jesus was poor, he wanted to be holy as Jesus was holy, he wanted to be humble as Jesus was humble, and he wanted to suffer as Jesus suffered. As a matter of fact, Francis’ passion to imitate Christ was so intense, God rewarded him with a gift He has given to few. God gave Francis the opportunity to be wounded as Jesus was wounded. He gave Francis the stigmata, the wounds of Christ. Francis always felt he was unworthy to carry these wounds, but God thought differently and gave them to him.

This “other Christ” roamed the earth for forty years, preaching the love and peace that can only come from faith in Jesus Christ. This tree-hugging, animal-petting, grasshopper-eating (or was that John the Baptist?) saint left such a mark on the Church that 300 years later, it caused a stir in the life of a short Basque who, recovering from his battle wounds, read about his life and decided to abandon his sword and also take up the cause of Christ. The rest, of course, is history.

Since then, the sons of the saintly Italian and the sons of the saintly Spaniard have been working together to set the world on fire. Franciscans and Jesuits have built cities, founded universities, and established churches to help spread the faith. And yes, they even find time to play golf together.

Auspice Maria,

Fr. Willie ‘87