Scenes from Assisi: Where Heaven and Earth Kiss. March 22, 2013

The gospel today reflects the growing tension between Jesus and the religious leaders. It all books down to this: they have a deep problem with Jesus NOT because he does many marvelous acts and reached out to the poor but because he identifies himself with God the Father.
Blasphemy!! To believe that Jesus was a great prophet and a holy man in whom God worked miracles us fairly easy. To believe he is also God, here is where the problem begins and ends. It remains so even today.

I write this little homily sitting outside San Pietro, a small church in Assisi. As I have already mentioned , the presence of Francis is palpable. Francis became another Christ, receiving the Stigmata, which are the five wounds of Christ on his hands, feet and side precisely because he BELIEVED in the core of his being that Jesus was the Christ , the Son of the Living God.

Assisi, for me, is the most spiritual place I have ever been to. Yes, to use a phrase from the psalms, heaven and earth "embrace" here, but I would say "kiss " because of the deep intimacy encountered here. God IS our Lover. Once again, just read the Song of Songs in the Old Testament.
And he gave us the gift of Eucharist, the Sacred Meal that transforms bread and wine into his Body and Blood. We feed on his Presence and this Food draws us into the Trinity. We , too, are transformed , no less than Francis , if we allow, into Christ, Bread for the Poor.

When following Francis and being in Assisi it is so easy to believe that Christ is in the Father and the Father is in Him. And the love between them is the Spirit.
You are all in my prayers. Buen camino. Padre Francesco