St Bonaventure in Legenda Minor XIII, 1-4 described this event:
"Two years before his death, Francis, faithful servant of Christ, was led by divine providence to a high mountain called La Verna, where he could be alone. ....
The fervour of his seraphic longing raised Francis up to God and in an ecstasy of compassion made him like Christ who allowed himself to be crucified in the excess of his love. Then one morning about the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, while he was praying on the mountainside, Francis saw a seraph with six fiery wings coming down from the highest point in the heavens. The vision descended swiftly and came to rest in the air near him. Then he saw the image of a man crucified in the midst of the wings, with his hands and feet outstretched and nailed to a cross..... He (Francis) was overjoyed at the way Christ regarded him so graciously under the appearance of the seraph, but the fact that he was nailed to a cross pierced his soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow.
As the vision disappeared, it left his heart ablaze with eagerness and impressed upon his body a miraculous likeness. There and then, the marks jof the nails began to appear in his hands and feet, just as he had seen them in the vision of the man nailed to a cross....
True love of Christ had now transformed his lover into his image...."
Today is the Franciscan family celebrates the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis even though it will be replaced by the Sunday celebration in churches today.
However we view this moment in Francis' life - as a supernatural event or psychological, I don't think it matters. God works through the human. It can be discounted that the event was some sort of hysteria, given the overall psychological and spiritual make up of Francis he was no unrestrained hysteric.
This feast reminds me that "We become what we contemplate". Francis' whole life was spent in reaching beyond himself - from master of the revels, to dreams of rising above his merchant class to knighthood. After his conversion this reaching beyond was always the following of Christ "poor and crucified"; "the Lord of Glory who became our brother". His whole life was spent if growing and deepening his love for "Friar Jesus", and that love implied imitation. Francis wanted to imitate as closely as possible in his own age, the self-giving, the actions and the love of Jesus, and this imitation was very practical, to be lived practically and tangibly at every moment and in all things.
It is therefore not surprising that this singleness of life direction, call it "purity of heart" or "the one thing necessary" should manifest itself in him physically. For Francis, the God-Human Jesus crucified showed the extent of God's love so it is no surprise that this moment was the yard-stick for all love. Living this singleness of direction was not a once and for all thing, Francis, like all of us made mistakes, gained new insights - it was a lifetime, lived day by day of conversion of heart and mind and deed drawn by love.
So, Francis truly became what he contemplated. This is the way of humans. Our heart's deepest desiring will always be manifest in our bodies, our deeds, our thoughts - manifest in who we are. For example, I think of my parents who, after fifty years of marriage unconsciously developed similar speech patterns and mannerisms but at the same time did not infringe the individuality. However at a deeper level, there was often the unguarded look of love that was mirrored in each of their faces.
So we see in faces and deeds the manifestation of the heart and its longings. Whether it be from a heart filled with greed, fear, uncertainty or a heart filled with compassion, forgiveness love. Whether a heart of greed or a heart of love, it is the work of a lifetime because all of us are in some way or another broken people in need of healing. The milieu in which we live, the events of life, the choices and responses we make all support a heart's direction. There is never a moment that God is not loving and inviting us, but sometimes our life situation makes it too difficult to know this. We are given to each other to be the face of God. This is one reason why Francis wanted so passionately to imitate his beloved Jesus - not only to return love for love, but to be that face of love - he grieved that "Love is not loved".
So, on this feast I look again at my own heart's direction; renew the singleness of purpose that will draw together all the disparate threads of my life to see them in the light of the "one thing necessary".
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