Today's Gospel highlights the hardness of heart of the Pharisees who were ready to accuse Jesus for healing a paralysed hand.
For them, observance comes before the person. And that is terrifying!
Francis, the Little One of Assisi, on the other hand, in the footsteps of Christ, put human health, both physical and inner, at the centre.
For him, the brother (or sister) to be healed came before all criteria.
Announcing salvation and implementing it was the first reason that governs the universe, and for this he was ready for anything.
In the Sources we find life stories that draw attention to Francis' compassion for those waiting to be healed.
"A little girl from Gubbio with shrunken hands had already lost the use of all her limbs for a year. The nurse, confident that she would be cured, took her to the tomb of St Francis, bringing with her a wax figure the size of the child*.
After eight days of waiting, the miracle comes true: the little infirm girl recovers the use of her limbs, so that she is deemed fit for her former chores" (FF 549).
"A woman from the town of Gubbio had both her hands shrunken and dry, so that she could not use them at all. As soon as the Saint made the sign of the cross to her in the name of the Lord, she was so perfectly healed that she immediately returned home and began to prepare food with her own hands, as Simon's mother-in-law once did, in the service of Francis and the poor" (FF 1217).
But the Saint, as mentioned above, was struck by the hardness of heart shown by some Romans, before the preaching of the Word.
In the Testimonies following the death of Francis
"But the Roman people [...] covered him with contempt, to such an extent that they not only did not want to listen to him, but also deserted his sermons. And for many days they continued to mock his preaching. Then Francis rebuked them for the hardness of their hearts, saying:
"I greatly pity you for your misery, because not only do you hold me, the Lord's servant, in contempt, but in me you bring shame on that Redeemer whose good news I proclaim to you [...].
I will go and proclaim Christ to the brute animals and to the birds of the air; they will hear these words of salvation and will obey God with all their hearts" (FF 2288).
* It was a fairly widespread devotional form in the Middle Ages, that of offering, as an ex voto, to obtain a grace, figures of wax, bread, metal, of the same weight or size as the supplicant.
Wednesday 2nd wk. in O.T. (Mk 3,1-6)
