All marveled at the
gracious words that came from His mouth.
Luke 4: 22
More than twenty centuries after our Lord's memorable sermon in the
synagogue of Nazareth, believers still marvel at the
gracious
words which come from the mouth of our Savior. We marvel too at the
grateful
words which sprang forth so naturally
from the lips of Jesus:
I
give you thanks, O Father! Father, I thank You!
When God revealed Himself in the flesh, He did so with a
graciousness and gratitude which amaze and inspire.
From the
graciousness and the
gratitude of the
Lord, we also find the flowering of His gentleness.
Jesus was such a gentleman!
an old priest once exclaimed. A close reading of the Gospels
confirms Father's enthusiastic insight which had become for him a
standard of life. Although our Lord could be firm, and even stern
when needed, an abiding gentleness marked His
words, actions, teaching and responses. The frightened and the
little ones knew they were safe with Him. The sick and the sinful
sought Him, certain that they would not be turned away. In every
circumstance, the Word Incarnate verified what God had revealed of
Himself to Moses and what the psalmist had celebrated for centuries:
Merciful and gracious is the
Lord, slow to anger and abounding in kindness.... As a father is
gentle with his children, so is the Lord with those who revere Him.
Psalm 103
The
graciousness,
gratitude and gentleness
of Jesus are likewise manifested in His unfailing generosity. The
Gospels depict our Lord's earthly pilgrimage as an unbounded
willingness to give of His time, His energy, His love, His mercy and
even His very life. He emptied
Himself is St. Paul's succinct description of the generosity of
Jesus who, for our salvation, took the form of a slave and became
obedient even to death on the Cross.
Phil. 2:8
All of this was not lost on St. Francis of Assisi. Once he knew that
he was called to observe the holy Gospel, the Little Poor Man was
eager to sing the new song of his life in Christ in the spiritual
"key of G." God's
grace lifted Francis' natural courtesy and chivalry to the realm of
Jesus' graciousness and
gentleness.
People were attracted by the gracious words of the
merchant's son. They were impressed by the unfailing
gentleness of him who not long before had set out to wage
great wars and become a great knight.
In singing his life in the "key
of G," St. Francis quickly discovered that
gracious words and gentle manners freed him for generous service of
God and neighbor. The future saint of Assisi, even in his father's
cloth shop, had never been a man of "half measures." Touched by
divine grace, a generosity like that of Jesus marked every aspect of
Francis' life — his prayer, his penance, his missionary zeal, his
love for his brothers, his devoted service to the poor. And because
he never counted anything but his blessings, Francis quickly became
a man of unceasing gratitude.
He thanked God for
being God; he thanked God for giving him a crust of bread to eat and
a stream of water from which to drink. As Francis' life's song rose
to an ever higher pitch, he even thanked God for the trials and
pains that united him to Christ Crucified.
The Lord invites us also to sing a new song with our lives. Why not begin in the "key of G," and discover how graciousness and gratitude, gentleness and generosity can become a permanent hymn of praise to our God and of hope to His people?