In December of 1223, St. Francis of Assisi gave the world a gift. He and some of the first brothers were staying at a hermitage in the Rieti Valley, near the town of Greccio. Francis had always been moved by the obvious poverty of the birth of Jesus and so he wanted to show his brothers, and those who lived in this poor region, a vivid picture of the birth of Jesus. This was also a time when wealthy people could travel to the Holy Land to see Bethlehem and Jerusalem. But he knew poor people did not have that option and they never would.
Francis asked some farmers and other poor people in the Rieti Valley to help him re-enact the birth of the “Poor Christ.” And so, in a shallow cave, a woman acting as Mary, a local man portraying Joseph, an infant as Jesus, local poor people dressed as shepherds, they all took their places and stood, sat, knelt on the ground around a manger, the small crib that normally held hay for cows. In the manger, they placed the infant. Mary and Joseph knelt nearby.
When people in the area heard this would happen, they also came to the valley. They saw the cave, lit with candles and lanterns. They saw some of the brothers and they knew something marvelous was happening. Many people showed up on that cold, silent night in 1223. Then, as the story is told, the place was silent and still when the cave blazed with light. Francis beamed, delighted at the beautiful experience he was able to give to these poor people. These were people who could not read the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus. They could not gravel to see paintings of the Bethlehem birth. But here, in their own valley, they created something more powerful than anything the art of the wealthy could create. They created a living nativity, an image that captured the true nature of that birth more than a thousand years ago. They created a scene that showed the divine choice: that the Child of God would be born in poverty, in peril. Francis knew this truth about the Poor Christ. But most Christians could not see it. Here, in this small place near Greccio, Francis, as he so often did, revealed the deepest truth about Jesus of Nazareth: that poverty and powerlessness mark his way, his life.
It’s still a difficult message for people who call themselves Christians. But for those who know “the religion of Jesus,” as Martin Luther King used to say, quoting Howard Thurman, the poverty of Jesus is nothing to be embarrassed about. It is something to be imitated. It is a call to build a world in which no one is born into, or lives in poverty and peril. We have yet to learn and act upon this crucial message. Francis knew this. He showed us this 800 years ago this year.
Joseph Ross 