Geoff Stevenson

This week we begin a journey of six weeks wondering about God, pondering the meaning of our lives. More specifically, we will seek deeper illumination of what it might be that God wants to do with us – what is God’s will? It is a difficult and often complex question because the context is our life with all of its attendant pressures, stresses, expectations and demands. Some of us will be familiar with this question and for others it may be more remote.

The companion for our journey, beyond the God to whom all of this reflection points, is the wonderful Christian saint of the 12th/13th Century, St Francis of Assisi. Francis was born to a wealthy merchant, Pietro Bernardone and his wife, Pica. He was born whilst his father was away on business and was baptised Giovanni soon after his birth – a custom of the day. His father was dissatisfied with the name and called him Francesco (’Frenchy’) after his fondness for all things French. Pietro’s business was successful and he had various properties around Assisi, along with rich fabrics from his business and much other wealth. The young Francis lived well and somewhat wildly, squandering time and money. One day he volunteered to fight in one of the frequent wars between Italian towns but was captured before he fired a single shot. He was imprisoned for a year before his father paid a hefty ransom.

After his release, he attempted to fight once more but received the first of several visions from God. Francis was confused and disoriented by this experience. He returned home and attempted to pray in the local chapel to see if God would tell him something and explain the vision. Whilst kneeling before the crucifix in prayer, Francis heard the voice of Jesus saying: ‘Francis, go, repair my house, which, as you see, is falling completely into ruin.’

Typical of Francis he didn’t stop to ask questions or seek the best strategy. He didn’t  consider whether he had heard correctly, or even what Jesus may have actually meant. He took the words at face value and threw himself into the work of repairing the little chapel. His life became immersed in the service of God. Visions continued and so did the challenge for Francis to follow Jesus’ words. He applied himself to the teaching of Jesus and read his words as being directed to him and his life. Francis delighted in giving everything he had to those in need. His father eventually sued Francis because he was giving so much away. In the town square, where the court was held, Francis took his clothes off and returned them, along with anything else he owned, to his father and walked away to follow Jesus.

Over the next six weeks we will explore a prayer that Francis prayed several times each day. It was his own prayer and sought to lead him into a richer fuller life of serving God. Before I speak of this prayer, a word of warning: When we pray such prayers, we ought to be aware that God might just answer it! (’Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it!’).
His prayer is:

Most high, glorious God,
enlighten the darkness of my heart
and give me, Lord,
correct faith, firm hope,
perfect charity,
wisdom and perception,
that I may do what is truly your most holy will.

We will explore this simple and profound prayer over the next 6 weeks. We will be seeking to experience something of the openness to God’s will that led Francis into a life of surrender to the Divine will and a life that was deeply profound.

The first phrase, ‘Most High and Glorious God’, is the focus of our reflection for this week. For the most part the God worshipped by humans begins big but is gradually brought down to our own level. We recreate God in our own image or according to our belief system, our ideology, our politics, our culture, or our lifestyle. God is eventually brought around to our point of view. Even the images we use to help describe God or how God acts in life become rigid ‘facts’ contained within our own personal images or models of God. For example, the masculine god has become almost exclusive in many parts of the church. God (and by extension God’s most prized servants) is male and a ‘father’. Yet we know that God is most certainly not male nor a human father (We can say that God is like a father or a man when trying to describe or understand God’s love. God is also like a mother and has feminine attributes as well). God is not of the same stuff as humanity. God is different because God is the Creator of all. In Aristotle’s words, the ‘Unmoved Mover’; the origin of all that is. God is the source of everything we experience in the universe and therefore outside the created order.

The very size of the universe ought to open our eyes (and minds) to the vastness of God, that God is so much bigger and more mysterious than our minds can contain or comprehend.

Never the less, humans have been very skilled at bringing God down to earth, in domesticating God and containing God within our own thoughts or beliefs.

Francis begins his prayer with the words, ‘Most high and glorious God.’ Ponder those words. Look up and around you at the wonder of the world, the night sky, the diversity of life and the beauty of the created order. It is big, large, huge and very complex. We have understood much but there is always much more to explore and understand. We don’t always comprehend the absolute wonder and miracle that is life, and the vast world beyond us.

Francis loved the world around him and the beauty of flowers, trees, birds and animals. He spoke to them and praised God with them for their beauty and wonder, their complexity and the joy they brought to life.

Francis also knelt before a special cross in the little stone chapel called San Damiano. It was before this image of Jesus that Francis prayed daily. He prayed to the God who was very big, very holy, and very glorious. He never tried to reduce God to his own understanding but allowed God to remain God. He also knew that this profound and holy God, vast and mysterious, came down to earth. God embraced human life in Jesus. As a small baby, humble and poor, God embraced human flesh, with its attendant struggle, pain and joy. God’s essence is love and humility. God bows down to people in loving sacrifice but always remains the holy powerful God who created all things. In this, God comes down in order to lift us up. Francis prayed: ‘Most high and glorious God!’ Why don’t you try it?

Contemplate God who is most high and glorious. This God is bigger than the universe but in loves comes to us in humble, sacrificial service to lift us up into a deeper, richer experience of life.