Friday, March 23, 2012

THE PATH OF DESCENT

Isn’t it wonderful news, brothers and sisters, that we come to God not by our perfection, but by our imperfection? That gives all of us an equal chance, and utterly levels the human playing field. No pretending is necessary.

 Deep within each of us lives both a leper and a wolf; in Franciscan imagery, Francis embraced the leper on the road, and called it his conversion; and Francis tamed the wolf in Gubbio in his later years. The stories did happen historically, but first of all they were revealed in his soul.

It is on the inside of us that lepers and wolves first live. If we haven’t been able to kiss many lepers, if we haven’t been able to tame many wolves, it’s probably because we haven’t first of all made friends with our own leprosy and the ferocious wolf within all of us. It is always there in some form, waiting to be tamed and forgiven.

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