Death is the great mystery, provoking our fear and anxiety, as well as inspiring our courage and hope. Facing mortality, we are challenged to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom. For Francis, who sought to imitate Christ’s way in his living, the answer to death was in praising God in his dying, and in giving thanks for the gift of life and God’s fidelity in the future. Francis’s “Canticle of the Creatures” was written as his body was wasting away.
Francis realized that the antidote to fear is love, and that death is transformed through praising God for God’s wondrous creation, even creation embodied in aging and mortality.
—from the book Simplicity, Spirituality, Service: The Timeless Wisdom of Francis, Clare, and Bonaventure
by Bruce G. Epperly
