The Epiphany of the Lord offers evangelical expressions of extraordinary beauty. On the lips of the Magi we find a phrase that belongs to us, as worshippers of the Child of Bethlehem: "We saw his star appear and we came to adore him" (Mt 2:2).
In Francis of Assisi the breadth, the height and the depth of the Mystery of the Manifestation of the Son of God has singular connotations not to be overlooked.
We need only think of some passages from the Sources that record the extent of this.
"The Saint willingly stayed in the hermitage of Greccio, both because he saw it as rich in poverty and because from a secluded cell, built on the prominent rock, he could devote himself more freely to the contemplation of heavenly things.
It was precisely this place, where some time before he had celebrated the Christmas of the Child of Bethlehem, making himself a child with the Child" (FF 621).
Again: 'He could not think back without weeping how much penury the poor Virgin had found herself in [...].
Once, while he was sitting at lunch, a friar reminded him of the poverty of the Blessed Virgin and the destitution of Christ her Son. Immediately he got up from the table, burst into sobs of sorrow [...].
That is why he called poverty a royal virtue, because it shone with such splendour in the King and Queen" (FF 788).
The Star that guides Francis to the grotto to adore the Son of God is Poverty. This shines in the penury of Bethlehem and moves him to tears.
To the Child-God the Little One of Assisi offered the gold of his love for the poor, the fire of his continual contemplation of the Mystery and the myrrh of the many sufferings received in custody from the Gift of the Father, unrolled for us on earth.
His closeness to the people was such that he wore a very poor cassock, which resembled the rough tunic of the poor.
All his friar sons were also close to the people, and all this made him a Worshipper par excellence of the bare Deity, only clothed in flesh; a figure close to the needs of man.
"One day a poor man asked him for alms, and he, having nothing to hand, unbuttoned a flap of his cassock and gave it to the poor man.
Other times, for the same purpose, he even took off his trousers.
Such was the tender compassion he felt for the poor and such was the affection that drove him to follow in the footsteps of the poor Christ" (FF 677).
And of this making a gift of himself to the King in the poor he tried, with great care, to inform his brothers.
One episode attests to this:
"He was certainly good-hearted by nature, but he became doubly so through the charity that was given to him from on high [...] Whatever the need and whatever need he saw in others [...] he referred them to Christ.
Thus in all the poor he recognised the Son of the poor Madonna and bore naked in his heart the One whom she had carried naked in her arms' (FF 670).
She worshipped in her heart the Child who had become a Gift for humanity, and she sought His likeness in those who most closely displayed His features. So much so that once, meeting a poor man and observing his extreme nakedness, she said to the friar who accompanied her:
"I have chosen poverty for my wealth and my woman: but here it shines most brightly in this one.
Knowest thou not that it is known throughout the world that we are the poor for Christ's sake?
But this poor man convinces us that this is not so" (FF 671).
Following the star of the holy evangelical poverty of which Francis was in love, he came to the grotto of the Manifestation, where all are called to adore the Son of God.
He tasted Beauty made flesh by another road, far from the not so few 'Herods' sons of deception.
"The man of God stood before the manger, filled with pity, sprinkled with tears, overflowing with joy" (FF 1186).
«We saw his star rising and came to worship him» ( Mt 2:2)
Epiphany of the Lord (Mt 2:1-12)
