{"id":27776,"date":"2026-10-04T20:50:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T19:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/?p=27776"},"modified":"2026-10-04T20:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T19:51:20","slug":"homily-for-the-800th-anniversary-of-saint-francis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2026\/10\/homily-for-the-800th-anniversary-of-saint-francis\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily for the 800th Anniversary of Saint Francis"},"content":{"rendered":"

19th Sunday after Pentecost<\/h2>\n

The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who made a marriage for his son<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God’s Liturgical Providence<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Saint Francis makes the first cr\u00e8che at Greccio sometime around 1297\u20131300<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By God\u2019s liturgical providence, this year we hear the parable of the wedding feast amidst the celebration of a week of great saints. This week began with the feast of Saint Michael and will continue over the coming days, and we find ourselves today between yesterday’s celebration of our secondary patron, Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, and today’s 800th anniversary of the death of the great Saint Francis of Assisi.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The parable of the wedding feast illustrates many truths that we see in the lives of both of these saints. If we begin at the very beginning of the text, we are told that “the kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who made a marriage for his son.” We heard Saint Gregory speaking to us at Matins this morning about this kingdom of heaven.1<\/sup><\/a> It is a phrase we shouldn’t pass over too quickly, although we hear it many times. What is this kingdom of heaven?<\/p>\n

Saint Gregory, like so many of the Fathers of the Church, looks at the words of Scripture and notes where those same words occur elsewhere in the sacred text. He connects various passages that we might not originally have thought to link; yet, in the mind of the Holy Ghost Who inspired all of Scripture, they fit together perfectly.<\/p>\n

Heaven is the Throne of God<\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Saint Gregory the Great<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saint Gregory looks first at the question: what is heaven?<\/em> Heaven is the throne of God<\/em>. The prophet Isaiah says in chapter sixty-six, “Heaven is My throne”. But what else can we say about the throne of God? Solomon says in Proverbs, “The soul of the just is the seat of wisdom”. And wisdom, of course, is Christ: Christ is the power of God and the Wisdom of God. And so, in saying that the soul of the just is the seat of wisdom, we mean that the soul of the just is the seat, the throne, the dwelling place of Christ\u2014of God Himself.<\/p>\n

Heaven is the Soul of the Just Man<\/h2>\n

If heaven is the throne of God, and if the soul of the just is also the seat of wisdom\u2014the throne of Christ, the throne of God\u2014then Saint Gregory draws the conclusion that, when we hear “heaven,” we are really hearing a reference to the soul of the just person. And so he goes on to say, “This is why the Psalmist says about holy preachers, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God.'”<\/p>\n

The Prayer of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity\"\"<\/a><\/h2>\n

This might seem a bit far-fetched, but is it really so? The saints have always been aware that God desires to make His dwelling, to make His heaven, in their souls. We can think of the prayer of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity: “Come into my soul, make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling, and Your resting place.” The Saints knew that while heaven certainly is a place where the souls, and one day the bodies, of the just enjoy the fulness of God’s presence, at the same time, heaven\u2014the dwelling of God\u2014is meant to be in us here and now. Eternal life, the life of heaven, begins in our souls when we are living in the grace of God.<\/p>\n

The Kingdom of the Heavens and the Kingdom of Heaven<\/h2>\n

And so Saint Gregory goes on to say that the kingdom of heaven, or rather ‘the kingdom of the heavens’ (regnum caelorum<\/em>), is the Church, the assembly of all the saints in Whom God reigns. And this kingdom of heaven, the Church, this gathering together of the souls of the just, is said to be like a king who made a marriage for His son.<\/p>\n

The Wedding Feast<\/h2>\n

The metaphor of marriage runs all throughout Scripture from beginning to end. From the first pages of Scripture, when God puts Adam and Eve in the Garden and says, “It is not good for the man to be alone,” until the very last page of Scripture, when the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, beautiful as a bride adorned for her husband. This mystery, this great mystery of the marriage that the Father wants to make for His Son and the Church, runs throughout all the Scriptures. Truly, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a king Who made a marriage for His son.<\/p>\n

A Mystery Recognised by the Saints<\/h2>\n

The saints all recognised that this was the deepest meaning of their lives. Saint Francis and Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se both recognised that their vocation to chastity was at the service of this great mystery of the spousal love of Christ for each of us. We see this in particular in the beautiful wedding invitation that Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se penned in preparation for her profession. She imitated the style of the wedding invitations that she had seen from friends of hers in the world, realising that she was giving herself to an even greater love, of which every earthly marriage was simply an image.<\/p>\n

Which God Desires for Us<\/h2>\n

This is what God desires for us: the marriage which is the kingdom of heaven. The parable goes on to show the tragedy of man’s rejection of the invitation of God’s love. These invited guests, who are too busy to come, even mistreat the servants who invite them. In the literal sense in which our Lord was delivering the parable at the time, He is addressing the leaders of the Jewish people, who would reject the Gospel just as they had rejected the prophets so many times in the past.<\/p>\n

A World Grown Cold<\/h2>\n

But the same tragedy takes place throughout history; it took place in the time of Saint Francis and in the time of Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se as well. Both of these saints lived in times when many Christians had grown cold and refused to respond to the love of God. Many had declined the invitation to the wedding feast. And both of these saints then experienced God’s response: His love, which desires to pour itself out, is not going to be frustrated by the refusal of the guests. Rather, He is going to go out and bring in any that He can find\u2014bonos et malos<\/em>, good and bad. He is going to go to the highways and byways and invite the poor. These are the poor like Saint Francis, and the poor like Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, who recognised herself coming before God with empty hands, not because of any merits of her own.<\/p>\n

Those Invited Were Not Worthy<\/h2>\n

He goes out and He invites those who know that they are unworthy. The same invitation is made to each of us\u2014poor and unworthy though we are\u2014to come into the marriage feast and thus to console the unrequited love of God, Who has had His invitation refused by so many.<\/p>\n

We must simply do our part to respond to the invitation, because the King does want to see that the guest has the wedding garment. He comes in, and He is grieved to see that the one whom He addresses as His ‘friend’ is there without a wedding garment. The ingratitude of the guest without the wedding garment is highlighted even more if we recognise that, at least in the view of some commentators on this passage, it was customary for the host of the banquet to give the wedding garment as a gift to the guests. And so, in finding this man without the wedding garment, the King finds that the guest has come into the feast, but has refused the gift of the wedding garment that He gave him. This wedding garment, of course, is the garment of grace, of charity, which covers a multitude of sins\u2014the love of God with which God wants us to be clothed, putting on the new man, as Saint Paul says in today’s Epistle. He gives this to us freely and gratuitously, but we have to accept it.<\/p>\n

To Share the Grief of the Saints<\/h2>\n

\"Photograph<\/a>There is all the more reason, then, to grieve with Saint Francis and Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se at the way in which the love of the King is neglected by those whom He has invited to the feast, who neglect to put on the wedding garment. We can think of the way in which Saint Francis lamented the carelessness with which the Eucharist was treated by the clergy of his day in his letter to them. We can think of the way in which Saint Th\u00e9r\u00e8se sorrowed at seeing the indifference and the unbelief of so many in her time.<\/p>\n

This is our call, dedicated as we are to reparation. This Gospel that we have just heard is the one that we hear every first Thursday of the month in the Mass of Reparation. It is a Gospel that invites us\u2014alongside the saints who knew that they were poor just as we are poor\u2014to accept our Lord’s invitation, to accept the wedding garment that He gives to us, and to respond to His offer of friendship.<\/p>\n

“Amice, quomodo huc intrasti non habens vestem nuptialem?”<\/em> “Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?” May we never hear those words addressed to us.<\/p>\n

Let us, as we receive Him today, ask our Lady\u2014whose Rosary we celebrate this week\u2014to help us to receive with an open heart the love of God, which is so often unrequited, and which invites us, the poor from the highways and the byways, into His feast. And so, may we say to Him with Saint Elizabeth: “Come into my soul, and make it Your heaven.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

1<\/sup>Homily by Pope Saint Gregory.
\n38th Homily on the Gospels<\/i><\/span>
\nI remember that I have often said that, in the Holy Gospel, the Church as she now is, is called the kingdom of heaven, for the kingdom of heaven is indeed the assembly of the righteous. The Lord hath said by the mouth of His Prophet: The heaven is My throne. (Is 66:1)\u00a0 Solomon saith: The throne of wisdom is the soul of the righteous. And Paul saith that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Cor 1:24) From these passages we may clearly gather that if wisdom be God, and wisdom’s throne be the soul of the righteous, and God’s throne be the heaven, then the soul of the righteous is heaven. Hence also the Psalmist saith, speaking of holy preachers: The heavens declare the glory of God. (Ps 18:2)<\/p>\n

The kingdom of heaven, therefore, is the Church of the righteous, even of them whose hearts seek not for anything upon earth, but who sigh so continually after the things which are above, that God doth already reign in them as He doth in heaven. Let it then be said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son. Ye already understand, my loving friends, who is that Royal Father of a Royal Son. It is indeed no other than He to Whom the Psalmist saith: Give the King thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the King’s son. (Ps 71:2)<\/p>\n

Which made a marriage for his son. God the Father made a marriage for God the Son, when He wedded Him to the manhood in the womb of the Virgin, when He willed that He Who is God before all ages, should in the end of the ages become Man. The marriage union is the union of two persons, but God forbid that we should imagine that the One Person of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, Who is both God and Man, is formed by a union of an human person with a Divine Person.<\/p>\n

We profess concerning Him that He is of, and in two natures, but we shrink from the blasphemy of saying that He is compounded of two persons. It will therefore be clearer and safer to say that the marriage which the Father made for His Royal Son was the wedding Him, through the mystery of the Incarnation, to His mystic Bride the Holy Church. The womb of the Maiden Mother was the marriage chamber in which this union took place. Hence it is that the Psalmist saith: In the sun hath He set His tabernacle, Who is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. (Ps 18:6)\u00a0<\/span>\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19th Sunday after Pentecost The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who made a marriage for his son. God’s Liturgical Providence By God\u2019s liturgical providence, this year we hear the parable of the wedding feast amidst the celebration of a week of great saints. This week began with the feast of Saint Michael <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":589,"featured_media":27779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,552],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homilies","category-saint-francis-of-assisi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vultuschristi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Francis.jpg?fit=517%2C415&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-7e0","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27776"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27806,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27776\/revisions\/27806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}