Quick Summary:

Above the lower altar in the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi, is a fresco by Giotto di Bondone depicting the wedding between St. Francis and Lady Poverty. Bondone portrays that moment when Francis slips a ring onto her outstretched finger. The eyes in Lady Poverty’s gaunt face gaze intently—even intensely—at Francis, as if to say, ARE YOU SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO?—while Francis returns her gaze with calm equanimity, his answer an unqualified YES. The fresco captures that moment when, as Richard Rohr puts it, Francis changed sides, moving away from the affluent lifestyle that was his birthright through his merchant father Pietro Bernardone dei Moriconi, into an embrace of voluntary poverty.

In the aftermath of the most divisive Supreme Court nomination process in a generation, and in the midst of an election cycle in which battle lines are dug deep and wide, we all could use a good dose of St. Francis calling us back to center; pointing us to the Christ who calls us to conversion and promises rest for all this struggling, burdened world.