St. Francis and the Eucharist

By Father Bobby Barbato, OFM Cap.

Editor’s Note: The following reflection on the Eucharist is taken from the writings of St. Francis of Assisi by Father Robert Barbato, O.F.M. Cap., rector of the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi in San Francisco. This is one of many Eucharistic reflections that will be published by Catholic San Francisco magazine as part of the U.S. Catholic Church’s Eucharistic Revival (eucharisticrevival.org) that began on June 19, 2022, on the feast of Corpus Christi, and continues through Pentecost 2025.

St. Francis of Assisi is known for his radical following of Jesus Christ. He did not do this alone, but as a part of the Church. Central to his Catholic faith was his belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist. He did not write many things, but in his writings the theme of the Eucharist is very strong.

“Let everyone be struck with fear, let the whole world tremble, and let the heavens exult when Christ, the Son of the living God, is present on the altar in the hands of a priest!” (Letter to the Whole Order, 26, “Francis of Assisi: Early Documents,” Regis Armstrong, J.A. Wayne Hellman and William Short, editors, New City Press, New York, 1999, vol. 1, 118)

St. Francis marveled that Jesus Christ would give us His Real Presence in the Eucharist. What amazed him all the more was the materials Jesus chose for this sacrament. We know that Jesus could have chosen anything to become His Real Presence among us. It might have been diamonds or gold or a dark cloud with thunder and lightning. Jesus chose very deliberately how He would give Himself to His Church sacramentally. Francis of Assisi reflected deeply on this mystery. He knew how Jesus chose to be present in the Blessed Sacrament was not only to be admired, but also a way to guide us in our own lives as His followers.

That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would choose to use any material thing to give us His sacramental presence was for Francis, as for all Christians throughout the ages, an amazing thing, an act of generosity that can never be fully comprehended. It keeps before our eyes what St. Paul tells us about the Incarnation itself: “Though He was in the form of God, Jesus did not cling to Godliness but emptied Himself, becoming a slave.” (Phil 2) This, Francis knew, was the great act of God bending down to us, what he called “the humility of God.” What does Jesus tell us about Himself (and us) by this continuing mystery of divine humility we find in the Eucharist?

The elements that Jesus chose are very common things, the stuff of everyday life, food and drink. These are not spectacular things, but they are essential to everyone in the world. No one can live without food and drink. In this way, Jesus reveals to us in the sacrament how much we need to have Him as part of our everyday lives, how essential He is to our growth.

Jesus wants to nourish us, body and soul; He wants us to communicate with Him, not only for an hour on Sundays, but every moment of our lives. Just as we need to eat and drink constantly to maintain our bodily life, we find Jesus giving us the means for our spirits to grow each time we approach Him in the Eucharist.

This is why St. Francis made the Eucharist a central part of his life, even to daily Mass, and why he invited his followers to do the same. “Contrite and having confessed … let them receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with great humility and respect, remembering what the Lord says: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.” (Earlier Rule, XX.5, “Francis of Assisi: Early Documents,” vol. 1, 78)

In the Eucharist, Jesus Christ gives Himself to us under sacramental signs that does not remain merely external. We don’t just admire food and drink; for them to do us any good, we have to take them in. Jesus gives Himself to us, then, under sacramental signs not just to be admired from the outside, but as something we take into ourselves. As many saints have reminded us, however, that when we take in the Body and Blood of Jesus, something marvelous happens. With regular food and drink, what we take in becomes part of our own bodies. When we receive the blessed sacrament, however, we become the very Body of Christ we consume. This is why St. Francis always approached Communion with both reverence and awe, but also great confidence in the love of God.

Another aspect of the sacrament of the Eucharist that so amazed St. Francis is that Jesus Christ gives us Himself in a form that is very vulnerable. Francis asked for the Eucharistic elements to be handled reverently, but he knew from experience that this was not always the case. He had seen priests and others who had treated this sacrament very casually, without due care and devotion. He of course urged them to realize the great responsibility they had toward the Eucharist. At the same time, however, Francis could only marvel that Jesus would continue to give Himself in such a manner and let Himself be vulnerable, as when He had let Himself be crucified for the sake of the world.

Francis of Assisi realized too that it was not enough just to marvel at the action of God in the Eucharist, to be untouched by the humility of God shown us in this sacrament. Every time Jesus gives Himself to us in this sacrament, it is a call to imitate the generosity and love of God poured out. As he told his followers:

“Brothers and sisters, behold the humility of God and pour out yourselves before Him! Humble yourselves that you may be exalted by Him! Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves, so that He who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally!” (Letter to the Whole Order, 28-29, “Francis of Assisi: Early Documents,” vol. 1, 118)

Father Bobby Barbato, OFM Cap. is the rector of the National Shrine of St. Francis.