The few verses of chapter nine of Luke, taken up in today's liturgy, shed light on Herod's dilemma concerning Jesus:
«John, I have had him beheaded; now who is he of whom I hear such things?» (Lk 9:9).
And he wanted to see him!
In the Franciscan Sources we find passages that reveal how
people did not stop questioning the Poverello.
After his conversion, Francis of Assisi was clothed by God with singular charisms that he held in the humility of hiddenness.
But the wonders the Lord performed through the Poverello spoke for him.
His simple life in the footsteps of Christ aroused amazement and bewilderment. People did not cease to wonder about his person and what he accomplished.
The Sources enlighten:
"Even the sick who ate the bread touched by the man of God quickly obtained healing by divine intervention" (FF 1220).
"Since the herald of Christ was famous for these and many other prodigies, people paid attention to his words, as if an Angel of the Lord were speaking.
Indeed, the prerogative of the lofty virtues, the spirit of prophecy, the thaumaturgical power, the mission to preach coming from Heaven, the obedience of creatures deprived of reason, the sudden conversions of hearts brought about by hearing his word, the knowledge infused by the Holy Spirit and superior to human doctrine, the authorisation to preach granted by the Supreme Pontiff by divine revelation, as well as the Rule, which defines the form of preaching, confirmed by the Vicar of Christ himself and, finally, the signs of the Supreme King impressed like a seal in his body, are like ten testimonies for the whole world and confirm without a shadow of doubt that Francis, the herald of Christ, is worthy of veneration for the mission he received, authentic in the doctrine he taught, admirable for his holiness and that, therefore, he preached the Gospel of Christ as a true envoy of God" (FF 1221).
Even today, all this raises questions: «Who, then, is he?».
The Sources add: "that Wisdom which is nobler than all motion and penetrates everywhere by its purity, communicates itself to holy souls and forms God's friends and prophets" (FF 1202).
Thursday of the 25th wk. in O.T. (Lk 9,7-9)
