Today's Gospel offers us a special picture. John, fixing his gaze on Jesus passing by, exclaims: "Behold the Lamb of God!" (v.36).
The theme of the Lamb is recurring in the liturgy of this Christmas season: highlighting the profound link between Incarnation and Redemption.
Francis of Assisi, who described himself as 'simple and idiot', actually understood the above-mentioned link. In fact, every situation or figure that reminded him, almost as an allegory, of the Servant of God who became the Lamb of the Father for all humanity, led him to stop, to make that event his own.
This truth made him vibrate inwardly and so profoundly that it changed every path in his day, every decision that was less important to him.
The Franciscan Sources, an early work, informs us of evocative and emblematic episodes.
We learn that: "Once crossing the March of Ancona, after preaching in the same city, and heading towards Osimo, in the company of Brother Paul [...] he met a shepherd in the countryside, who was grazing his flock of rams and goats. In the middle of the flock was a single sheep, quietly and humbly grazing on the grass. As soon as he saw it, Francis stopped, and as if he had had a grip on his heart, full of compassion he said to his brother:
"Do you see that lonely and meek sheep among the goats? Our Lord Jesus Christ, surrounded and hunted down by the Pharisees and Synodites, must have looked just like that humble creature. Therefore I beseech thee, my son, for love of Him, be thou also full of compassion, let us buy her and take her away from these goats and goatherds".
Brother Paul felt moved by the moving piety of the blessed father; but possessing nothing but the two rough tunics with which they were clothed, they did not know how to make the purchase; and behold, a merchant came along and offered them the necessary price. And they, thanking God, proceeded on their journey to Osimo, taking the sheepskin with them. When they arrived in Osimo, they went to the bishop of the city, who received them with great reverence.
However, he could not conceal his surprise at seeing before him that little sheep that Francis was pulling with so much affection. However, as soon as the servant of the Lord had told him a long parable about the sheep, the bishop, all composed before the purity and simplicity of heart of the servant of God, thanked the Lord.
The next day, having resumed his journey, Francis was thinking of the best way to arrange the sheep, and at the suggestion of the brother who accompanied him, he entrusted it to the cloistered nuns of St Severinus, who accepted the gift of the sheep with great joy as a gift from heaven, took loving care of it for a long time, and then with its wool wove a tunic which they sent to Francis while he held a chapter at the Portiuncula.
The Saint received it with devotion and joyfully clasped the cassock to his heart and kissed it, inviting everyone to rejoice with him" (FF 456).
Proper feria of 4 January (Jn 1:35-42)
