Francis had insight into this mystery of God. Maybe because of his own experience of God in the church of San Damiano or maybe because of God’s touch in his own life, Francis understood that God comes to us in a particular way, in the poverty and humility of Jesus Christ. His love of the poor is no secret to history.
Maybe because Francis was not an intellectual he could perceive the mystery of God in its pristine beauty—the extraordinary divine in the ordinary human. Too often we are wrapped up in lofty, intellectual speculations about God. We write books and also use abstract language and complex philosophical terms to describe God. In the meantime, God is present to us not only in the mundane but also in the poverty and humility of ordinary life. We do not usually gravitate to the poor and humble and therefore our heads are often in the clouds wondering whether or not God exists. If we truly recognized God in poor and humble fragile human flesh, we probably could not bear the weight of the mystery. We would find it overwhelming precisely because of its simplicity.
—from the book The Humility of God: A Franciscan Perspective
by Ilia Delio, OSF
