Unscrambling The Message of St Francis
Everyone puts a spin on things. Our media is good at doing that. Some advertisements exaggerate the benefit of their product. My favorite commercials are the ones sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies. Just taking a pill makes you fall in love and skip through Paris. The disclaimer at the end tells you of all the dangerous side effects. Is it hard to believe that the Catholic Church has been putting a spin on certain saints? Jesus had to be heroic enough in the eyes of a Roman Culture to put him on pedestal and worship him instead of the other gods in their culture. There are many good qualities these human saints had without the spin. Mary did not wear the perfect color of lipstick. But if she did wear a certain brand and color, I want stock in that company! There is always financial and political gain in whom the church decides to saint. Always.
I have been told by many psychics that I was St. Francis in a past life. I have been screaming ¨NO NO NO ever since hearing that. My personality is so very different. I have written about this before. I do not want to be ST. FRANCIS. Let me be so very clear about this, I am the girl that used to fart when she laughed (accidentally). My ability to be the class clown is much more in line with who I am. If someone said that I was Calamity Jane in a past life, cool, that I could believe except for Indian rampages. I am part Cherokee. There is one hitch, I came into this world with profound spiritual memory. I came in already knowing my powerful connection with God. I have soul memories of being ST FRANCIS that started when I was about 10 years old. Escaping it is not possible. But let me be very clear like Patton (general of world war II), He said, this is my destiny, to be here at this time and place. It is my destiny to unscramble the message of Francis. I am going to refer to him as Francis. I really want to leave the saint off of it. I am uniquely qualified to de-saint him.
What he got wrong!
There is quite a list of fuzzy thinking with Francis. He was inspired and had a strong charismatic personality, thumbs up. He was guilty of extreme black and white thinking. There was a class distinction. Francis was born to a wealthy family and they had political power. Think of the story of Romeo and Juliet. Italy had its ruling families. Francis was of course Catholic and was educated that way within that doctrine. He was a radical hippie for that day and age. Nancy was a flower child as well. He did not like to see human suffering. That gets a thumbs up! He decided to join the misery. That gets a thumbs down. I am in training to be a therapist. Can you imagine being so empathetic that you sit and cry and ruminate with your client for the whole session like in the movie ¨Harvey¨ saying ¨poor dear, poor dear?¨ NO, you cannot get sick enough to make the sick well, and you cannot get poor enough to make the poor richer. That is crazy circular thinking. Francis walked barefoot, feet bleeding, shivering in the cold, often fasting and hungry. Shoes were a status symbol. Most poor did not have them. Francis was making a statement with every defiant act. He was following the life of Jesus. He followed so well that he created the stigmata for himself. He never recovered from that experience. Francis died about age 45 with several infections going on. I believe he lasted as long as he did due to the robustness of his early life as a soldier and world traveler. I will say that he got quite a bit right. I will talk about that next (briefly)...he is already sainted. The lesson of significance here is that a person does not need to embrace poverty and suffering to be ¨holy¨ and spiritual. That is why I get nauseated when remembering his life time. When Francis was dying he said ¨I have been too hard on brother ass¨. He was referring to his near masochistic treatment of his physical self. I must tell you, Yes, he was way too hard on himself and God does not require that at all. Let us not start on the misconceptions about God...and the various religions. I can't go there right now.
What he Got Right
There is such strong evidence that Francis could really talk to the animals and listen. Nancy was born with that too. I had all the animals follow me home, and my brother sometimes threw rocks chasing them away. I remember sitting on the branch of our orange tree singing to the bees who were merrily sipping nectar from the white blossoms (age 4). Bees were buzzing past my nose and yet I did not endure one sting. To this day my respect for all life is as profound as it was with the life of Francis. I am not the only one...there are so many people who share this communion with nature and animals. This is only my strongest resemblance to Francis. Do I know how to heal animals? Yes I have done it so many times. I talk to trees and they answer back. This ability came prior to Francis' life. I have been a priestess and shaman many times...this is an acquired skill. Maybe we are born with it? Yes, but it is acquired because I broke through the 3D barrier with it. I carried it in like one smuggles dope across the border. I carried it within my DNA.
Francis made it clear that power and clarity of mind do not belong to a certain privileged class of people. There are some things that money can and cannot do. There are those credit card purchases and for everything else there is POWER OF SPIRIT. There are so many who have all that money can buy and yet they are not happy. Frances had an abundance of spiritual wealth, compassion, and true concern for the well being of others. He made his mark in history and it is a big mark. I am proud of him. In reading about him, I realized what an organizer he was. He was more like Paul than Jesus that way. Francis successfully organized several religious groups that thrive to this day in one form of charity or another. There is nothing more powerful than LOVE. He lived it and showed it. That continues in this life and colors my being with rosiness.
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