Homily for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time - Whose Vineyard Is This? Stop Living Like You Own It

We pulled out his statue and have him here before us.

And we've been celebrating the creation, the month of creation, season of creation.

Every year we celebrate that to recognize St. Francis' commitment to creation and a call for us to care for creation.

But this year is special.

Last night would have been St. Francis' 800-year anniversary of his death.

That would have been celebrated on the 3rd of October.

And what they celebrate is the passage of him.

And just to recap the story about St. Francis, he was the son of a wealthy merchant, clothes merchant.

But he had a conversion.

And he presented himself to the bishop and gave everything away, literally, even his clothes.

So he was standing naked before the bishop and disowning his father's wealth and saying, I want to serve the Lord.

I want to rebuild the church.

And he committed his life by loving everyone and everything.

In particular, he had a relationship with creation.

When he lay down to die 800 years ago, he insisted that he be laid naked on the earth, and he welcomed with joy sister death because he saw everything as a brother and sister.

He looked at the sun and saw it as his brother, the moon as his sister, and mother earth as his sister, and the leper.

as a brother, the poor as a brother in need.

In fact, he traveled to see the Sultan in the middle of a war.

He was welcomed by the Sultan as a brother in God and broke international lines and indeed peace was forged because of Saint Francis.

This month, for the first time in 800 years, relics of St. Francis and Clare will come to San Francisco and here in St. Clare, the two cities, the city that bears his name and the county that bears her name here in America.

And it comes with the same message of unity and peace, to have a care for the creation and for one another.

What's extraordinary is it comes at a time when we so desperately here need that message.

So some 800 years later, his relics are still preaching the same message of unity and peace.

We pulled out his statue and have him here before us.

And we've been celebrating the creation, the month of creation, season of creation.

Every year we celebrate that to recognize St. Francis' commitment to creation and a call for us to care for creation.

But this year is special.

Last night would have been St. Francis' 800-year anniversary of his death.

That would have been celebrated on the 3rd of October.

And what they celebrate is the passage of him.

And just to recap the story about St. Francis, he was the son of a wealthy merchant, clothes merchant.

But he had a conversion.

And he presented himself to the bishop and gave everything away, literally, even his clothes.

So he was standing naked before the bishop and disowning his father's wealth and saying, I want to serve the Lord.

I want to rebuild the church.

And he committed his life by loving everyone and everything.

In particular, he had a relationship with creation.

When he lay down to die 800 years ago, he insisted that he be laid naked on the earth, and he welcomed with joy sister death because he saw everything as a brother and sister.

He looked at the sun and saw it as his brother, the moon as his sister, and mother earth as his sister, and the leper.

as a brother, the poor as a brother in need.

In fact, he traveled to see the Sultan in the middle of a war.

He was welcomed by the Sultan as a brother in God and broke international lines and indeed peace was forged because of Saint Francis.

This month, for the first time in 800 years, relics of St. Francis and Clare will come to San Francisco and here in St. Clare, the two cities, the city that bears his name and the county that bears her name here in America.

And it comes with the same message of unity and peace, to have a care for the creation and for one another.

What's extraordinary is it comes at a time when we so desperately here need that message.

So some 800 years later, his relics are still preaching the same message of unity and peace.