Let Us Be Captivated

 “I came that they may have life and have it in abundance…the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”  (John 10:10-11)

Recently, I was at a retreat for young girls and we were focusing on Our Heavenly Father and His gifts to us, His daughters. In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd there’s a beautiful and captivating presentation called the “History of the Gifts” that we used in the retreat. Little by little His gifts were recounted as the girls opened gift boxes containing examples of His creation: shells, an apple, and pictures of people – His many gifts for us. After each set of gifts I would ask, “Was that enough for God? Did He want more for us?” to which they emphatically answered, “No, it wasn’t enough. There’s more.”  Then the final gift was revealed. The gift of Himself. At this time in the presentation, we pulled a crucifix out of the gift box. You could have heard a pin drop. The girls became very quiet and focused on Jesus on the cross. One little girl asked to hold it, and once she had it in her hands, she had a look that said, “never make me give this up.”

  We recognize love. We desire the gift of life and in Jesus on the cross we see that gift poured out and we see the invitation to pour our own lives out in love. For St. Francis, the cross became more than the place to imitate his beloved Savior and Lord, more than the place to be the follower and servant of God. It became the place of union with his Beloved. Jesus tells the disciples just before his crucifixion, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32) The outpouring of Himself on the cross becomes the only way to draw us to His heart, to receive so fully His love and life, that very life that He came to give us in abundance. It says somewhere in the scriptures, “Draw me to Yourself.” This is the longing of the soul to respond in fullness to this awesome gift of God given totally to each one of us. St. Francis could do nothing but be drawn and let himself be united upon the cross with his Beloved in order to pour himself out in grateful response to the Great Lover of souls. On LaVerna, just before St. Francis received the stigmata, he asked,

“My Lord Jesus Christ,…grant me two graces…to feel the pain… you sustained… in your bitter passion and the second to feel in my heart…the excessive love with which you were inflamed…for us sinners.” (Little Flowers of St. Francis)

In response, Jesus imprinted upon him His holy stigmata and therefore granted him this two-fold grace. It was now only for St. Francis to stay in this union for love of God and love of souls, which he did until death, until Heaven

            As we come to the end of Lent, let us not give up on the cross that has been presented to us but redouble our efforts. Let us be captivated, like that little girl and like St. Francis, by God’s love – so captivated that we too, want never to put down the cross, so that we always may be in union with our Beloved, today and into Heaven forever.

Sr. John Paul, CFR