The source and summit of our lives
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. I would like to reflect on three themes from the writings of Francis of Assisi concerning the body and blood of Christ.
I see nothing bodily… (Testament):
“In this world, I see nothing corporally of the most high Son of God except for His most holy body and blood. I want these holy mysteries to be honored and venerated above all things.”1
These were St. Francis’ own words, written in the very last days of his life, when he wrote his Testament to the friars to remind them of what was essential to his life and theirs. His love for the Eucharist, the most holy body and blood of Christ, flowed from his experience of conversion. Francis had heard the voice of Jesus speak to him from the crucifix in the church of San Damiano and had experienced the touch of Christ when he embraced a leper in the forest outside of Assisi.
These were the very powerful ways that Francis came to know the real presence of God through tangible means, through his bodily senses. This led him to a deep appreciation of the very concrete way Jesus continued His presence in the midst of the Church and the world, especially in the sacrament of His body and blood.
In Francis’ time there were many groups who wanted to follow the Gospels in a radical way. Such groups often became very “spiritual,” in other words, dualistic. They rejected everything material as the root of evil. Because of this, they eventually rejected the sacraments of the Church because these involved the use of material things like water, oil and other elements. They came to think of the Eucharist as a completely spiritual reality and therefore rejected the notion that the material elements of bread and wine really became the body and blood of Christ.
St. Francis could not agree with this idea. If he was going to follow Jesus Christ, he had to trust in the Savior’s words. Jesus had plainly said, “This is my body.…this is the cup of my blood.” Jesus used real bread and wine, material things, and the hands of the priest to share His presence with His followers. Because of this, in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Francis experienced the love of Jesus not only for his soul but for his body. He accepted this sacrament as the way Jesus gave us to connect to Him both in spirit and in body.
Francis knew that the way we treat this wonderful sacrament reflects our respect and veneration for the presence of God in our world, including in all God’s creatures. When Francis looked with faith upon the Blessed Sacrament and tasted the sweetness of the Lord in Holy Communion, it was this that gave him strength to look for the presence of God in the world around him. It was the Eucharist that gave Francis the grace to find Christ in his brothers and sisters, especially the poor and those in need. It is no coincidence that from his earliest days, Francis found Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and also in the lepers, whose bodily needs he served with great care and compassion.
We today once more are called to honor and revere the Eucharist as the source and summit of our lives. Our love of the Lord in the sacrament of His body and blood is not meant to lead us away from the world, but to look for God’s presence in our everyday lives and our interactions with God’s creation. St. Bonaventure, an early follower of St. Francis and a holy theologian, tells us that Jesus Christ is the center of creation, the pattern for the whole universe. When we encounter Jesus under the very physical signs of bread and wine, transformed by the Spirit into His real body and blood, we encounter the very center of creation, the Word made flesh who dwells among us still.
It was this faith that helped Francis of Assisi become a model for all Christians who take Jesus’ words and deeds in the Gospel seriously.
Father Bobby Barbato, OFM Cap. is the rector of the National Shrine of St. Francis in San Francisco.
- “Francis of Assisi: Early Documents,” Regis Armstrong, J.A. Wayne Hellman and William Short, editors, New City Press, New York, 1999, vol. 1, 125 ↩︎