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| Francesco of Assisi |
In 1219 St. Francis of Assisi
sailed on a boat towards Cairo
to preach the Gospel to the Muslims. He
knew he was walking in to a war zone between Crusaders from Europe
and Arabs defending land they had taken in conquest centuries before, but to
him it didn’t matter. He decided
beforehand that if he was able preach or if he was made a martyr, the trip
would be a great success. When he
arrived he found that both sides were at a stalemate and so exhausted that they
had agreed to a one-month truce. Taking
advantage of this opportunity, Francis crossed battle lines into the camp of
Sultan al-Kamil of Egypt
and stayed several days trying to present the truth of Christ to all who would
listen. There is no record of the Sultan
being converted, but he appreciated the genuine spiritual concern Francis had
and the bravery he showed in coming and rather than make him a captive, he sent
out of the war zone to the safety of the Holy Land. Francis had always wanted to go there but his
attempts had always been thwarted. Now
he was being escorted there by the Sultan’s guard. Before Francis returned home he was able to
visit the site of our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem
and it made a deep impression on him.
The following year he was home in Italy and he decided to do
something special for the Christmas Mass.
On the altar of the church he placed a manger filled with straw and
brought in an ox and a donkey and other animals that the worshippers could see
and sense first hand what it might have been like the night that Jesus was
born. This practice became popular
throughout Europe in the ensuing years and
soon every church began putting up nativity scenes which eventually were
mass-produced in small scale for use in home celebrations of Christmas. As you look at your nativity this Christmas,
I hope you’ll remember that its inspiration was the result of an aspiration: to
“go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation (Mk.16:15).”
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