A Life Patterned on Christ

Homily for the Feast of the Stigmata of Our Holy Father, St. Francis

Today we celebrate the Stigmata of St. Francis, that mysterious moment when the Crucified Christ impressed upon Francis the signs of His own love. The Church gives us readings that draw our attention to the interior transformation that made Francis ready to receive those wounds — a heart shaped so deeply by Christ that it could bear His marks.

Paul tells us in Galatians that he will boast in nothing except the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, because through that Cross “the world has been crucified” to him and he to the world. Francis lived these words as a pattern of life. The Cross freed him from what diminishes life and freed him for what allows life to flourish. It freed him from grasping, rivalry, and self‑importance, so that he could love creation, love the poor, and love Christ with an undivided heart.

The response drawn from Galatians and Philippians deepens this movement of grace: “I live by faith in the Son of God… For to me, life is Christ.” These are the words of someone whose life has been re‑patterned by Christ — where self‑giving replaces self‑seeking, where gratitude replaces fear, and where compassion becomes the natural fruit of belonging to the Lord.

In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of the cost of discipleship: taking up the cross daily, losing one’s life in order to find it. Francis heard this as an invitation. To take up the cross is to allow Christ’s love to shape our choices, our relationships, and even our way of seeing the world. It is to let the Crucified One teach us how to live.

In this Season of Creation, the Stigmata offers a striking insight. When Francis received the wounds of Christ, his heart widened. He began to see creation not as something to use, but as something to cherish. The Cross opened his eyes to the suffering of the earth and the suffering of the poor — not as separate concerns, but as one shared wound in Christ. The marks of the Crucified turned Francis outward, toward all that God loves, and made his life a blessing for creatures great and small.

For us, this feast is an invitation to let the Cross shape our own relationship with creation. When we contemplate Christ’s self‑giving love, we begin to walk more gently upon the earth. We become attentive to the wounds of our common home. We choose actions that reflect the mercy we have received and the communion we share with all that bears the imprint of God’s goodness.

May this celebration renew in us the desire to live as Francis lived — marked by Christ’s love, grounded in Christ’s Cross, and committed to caring for all that God has entrusted to our keeping.