Oh, My! What sharp teeth you hav! // Ezra Kennedy
St. Francis is Quite the character in many different forms of intrigue. He is a man. . . That can talk to animals, somehow that rings a familiar bell in my childhood memories. The story of St. Francis and wolf especially strikes me, and like Thomas Aquinas points out about scripture having multiple meanings or layers, I am seeing layers in this story.
There is this big wolf running around killing not only animals, as wolves tend to do, but also people. Now the people of the town aren’t too fond of this animal making supper out of their friends so they take up arms and prepare for the hunt. But this wolf his unlike the one’s they’ve hunted before, which is mainly displayed when whoever stood before him in hopes of bringing home its head or skins didn’t make it back because they had a late night date with Death. Francis hearing this feels for them and decides to resolve the issue for them, they warn him of the beast but he assured them that he is protected bu God and no harm will greet him.
Now when he gets to the wolf, it thinks that it’s havinh another meal so it charges, but Francis Draws a cross in the air in front of him and the word is helpless against his Jesus barrier. This is honestly how I pictured it whilst reading.
”Come to me, Brother Wolf. In the name of Christ, I order you not to hurt anyone.” At that moment the wolf lowered its head and lay down at St. Francis’ feet, meek as a lamb.
The Wolf is subdued, and Francis explains that he wants to form a peace treaty between him and the people. He agrees, they shake hands and both walk side by side into the town shocking everyone. Francis gives a beautiful sermon on the “wondrous and fearful love of God, calling them to repent from all their sins.”
In this story I’m seeing parallels to Paul, Jesus’ right hand man, if you will. Paul was a persecuter of Christians, a murderer of men. People lived in fear of this wolf in sheep’s clothing, and although Jesus was not sent down specifically to deal with Paul it was something he’d done along the way. This creature has sharp teeth and a carnal instinct unlike most others, but it was still turned around 360° by the power of God and used for His purpose. Francis brings the wolf back to the town and teaches about the powerful, fearful love of God that can turn anything around in its embrace. The Wolf by his side strengthened his point even further— they’d known what the wold had done and now it stood before them accepting terms of peace. It wasn’t just some random wolf from another town doing things they’ve never seen, they experienced it, so the redemption of the wolf made it even more powerful.
Jesus did the exact same thing. Throughout his time on earth, He Spent time with people from the darkest walks of life, people that did the kind of damage other people would tell campfire stories about. He took a bad thing that everyone witnessed and transformed it before their eyes (In a manner of speaking). Nothing is too broken, too damaged or flawed for God to use it for a purpose that the beginning of a story didn’t seem to forshadow.
Other names I would have liked to use for this blog post, simply for reason:
The Wolf And Me
St. Francis of House Stark of Winterfell
Beauty and the Beast?? No. St. Francis and the Wolf.
St. Francis the other Stark
Brother Wolf
The town that cried wolf, then repented of their sins when the wolf repented of his.
PS. I commented on Joshua’s and Sydney’s posts.
There is this big wolf running around killing not only animals, as wolves tend to do, but also people. Now the people of the town aren’t too fond of this animal making supper out of their friends so they take up arms and prepare for the hunt. But this wolf his unlike the one’s they’ve hunted before, which is mainly displayed when whoever stood before him in hopes of bringing home its head or skins didn’t make it back because they had a late night date with Death. Francis hearing this feels for them and decides to resolve the issue for them, they warn him of the beast but he assured them that he is protected bu God and no harm will greet him.
Now when he gets to the wolf, it thinks that it’s havinh another meal so it charges, but Francis Draws a cross in the air in front of him and the word is helpless against his Jesus barrier. This is honestly how I pictured it whilst reading.
”Come to me, Brother Wolf. In the name of Christ, I order you not to hurt anyone.” At that moment the wolf lowered its head and lay down at St. Francis’ feet, meek as a lamb.
The Wolf is subdued, and Francis explains that he wants to form a peace treaty between him and the people. He agrees, they shake hands and both walk side by side into the town shocking everyone. Francis gives a beautiful sermon on the “wondrous and fearful love of God, calling them to repent from all their sins.”
In this story I’m seeing parallels to Paul, Jesus’ right hand man, if you will. Paul was a persecuter of Christians, a murderer of men. People lived in fear of this wolf in sheep’s clothing, and although Jesus was not sent down specifically to deal with Paul it was something he’d done along the way. This creature has sharp teeth and a carnal instinct unlike most others, but it was still turned around 360° by the power of God and used for His purpose. Francis brings the wolf back to the town and teaches about the powerful, fearful love of God that can turn anything around in its embrace. The Wolf by his side strengthened his point even further— they’d known what the wold had done and now it stood before them accepting terms of peace. It wasn’t just some random wolf from another town doing things they’ve never seen, they experienced it, so the redemption of the wolf made it even more powerful.
Jesus did the exact same thing. Throughout his time on earth, He Spent time with people from the darkest walks of life, people that did the kind of damage other people would tell campfire stories about. He took a bad thing that everyone witnessed and transformed it before their eyes (In a manner of speaking). Nothing is too broken, too damaged or flawed for God to use it for a purpose that the beginning of a story didn’t seem to forshadow.
Other names I would have liked to use for this blog post, simply for reason:
The Wolf And Me
St. Francis of House Stark of Winterfell
Beauty and the Beast?? No. St. Francis and the Wolf.
St. Francis the other Stark
Brother Wolf
The town that cried wolf, then repented of their sins when the wolf repented of his.
PS. I commented on Joshua’s and Sydney’s posts.
Comments
Post a Comment