27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B, 2024

Published: October 5, 2024

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor preached the following homily at Little Portion Hermitage in Berryville on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024.

Bishop Taylor

Every year we celebrate Mass on the weekend closest to the feast of St. Francis, your patron, for this gathering of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity.

Vows are made, anniversaries are celebrated, and time is spent praising the Lord in the spirit of childlike simplicity called for by Jesus at the end of today’s Gospel.

There are many stories of St. Francis’ childlike simplicity. In one famous story, he preached to hundreds of birds, reminding them to thank God for their wonderful clothes, for their independence and for God's care. We are told that the birds felt so safe with him that they didn’t fly off when he walked among them, only flying off at the end of his homily when he said they could leave.

St. Francis was also a man of action. If there was a simple, direct way to do something, no matter how impossible it seemed, Francis would take it. So, for instance, when Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went right to the top. He went straight to Rome to see to see the pope.

You can imagine what the pope thought when this undoubtedly smelly beggar approached him. Pope Innocent III’s life was not characterized by childlike simplicity.

St. Francis resembled Jesus in a number of ways. Both were seemingly unimportant men who wandered around small, remote villages preaching to whomever would listen. They didn’t have worldly power and yet they changed the world. They did this through their example of living simply and showing their joy to the world.

And isn’t that the spirit that you try to cultivate as Brothers and Sisters of Charity? We know that when people see the beautify of a life united to God, they are immediately attracted to it. St. Francis never expected his little band of brothers to be of any significance, and yet today, 800 years later, the Franciscan spirit continues to animate religious communities throughout the world, including right here in northern Arkansas.

I imagine in every one of your hearts there is a desire to make the world a better place. The witness of St. Francis is that the way to do it is through a life of childlike simplicity. To give up the disordered pursuit of the four pernicious “ps” — the pursuit of power, possessions, pleasure and prestige. Cultivate childlike simplicity beginning with yourself, which will slowly begin to influence those in your sphere of influence.

In the last part of today’s Gospel, (I’m going to skip over the part about divorce for now.) in the last part of today’s Gospel regarding children Jesus says “the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”

The Gospel is preached most effectively, not by special programs we sponsor, but rather one on one, by the catching force of people living their faith with childlike simplicity often within a family, maybe only gradually or a workplace or neighborhood. St. Francis said his method was as follows: “Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you find yourself doing the impossible.”