Francis did not see himself far removed from God’s love. Rather, he saw that the movement of the Father’s love for the Son, the reaching out of the Father for the Son, is the same movement of love that reached out to Francis and continues to reach out and embrace us humans and creation. The love of the Father for the Son is the same divine love for all creation. In his “Earlier Rule” he prayed:
All-powerful, most holy,
Almighty and supreme God,
Holy and just Father,
Lord King of heaven and earth
we thank You for Yourself
for through Your holy will
and through Your only Son
with the Holy Spirit
You have created everything spiritual and corporal …
We thank You
for as through Your Son You created us,
so through Your holy love
with which You loved us
You brought about His birth
as true God and true man.
This is quite an incredible insight—to realize that we are embraced by the Father through the Son. Our lives, according to Francis, are enveloped in the mystery of the Son for it is the Son who pleases the Father in everything. God is a God of prodigal love who longs for our return and reaches out with open arms, but the only way we can enter this embrace is through the Spirit who joins us to the Son who then leads us to the Father.
—from the book The Humility of God: A Franciscan Perspective
by Ilia Delio, OSF
