Canticle of the Creatures Part III Canticle of the Creatures

Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures the first poem written in the vernacular in Italian literature a religious song composed of thirty-three stanzas the first ten verses highlighting Francis’ relationship with the Cosmos (nine verses inspired by the book of Daniel 3:52-90, Psalm 148 and the so called, death passages in Revelation 2:11 and 20:6). the final verses calling the bishop and the podestà of Assisi to become reconciled with one another, and recognizing that death is in fact his “sister”

The Canticle is, in effect, ‘the final expression, the final synthesis, of Francis’s thought in the area of relationships between humanity, creation, and the Creator’.

Francis was suffering from a disease of the eyes and was practically blind He wished to take leave of the Poor Clares in San Damiano before going to have his eyes cauterized in Rieti. He stayed in a tiny cell, tormented by mice, with the shutters drawn due to a lack of tolerance to light. In pain, alone, marginalized, no longer the General Minister of the Order - seeing most of what he held dear rejected by many of his brothers – unable to pray or sleep and facing near despair, he implored God for help.

His prayer was answered: ‘be glad and rejoice in your illnesses and troubles, because as of now, you are as secure as if you were already in my kingdom.’ The next morning he told his companions that he felt obliged to thank God for such a wonderful grace. He wished to compose a new Praises of the Lord for His creatures.

“These creatures minister to our needs every day; without them we could not live; and through them the human race greatly offends the Creator...” Then after a moment’s reflection he intoned the Canticle of the Creatures: ‘Most High all powerful, good Lord…’.

Structure of the Canticle The tone of the Canticle (V.1) is set by Francis affirming that praise is due to God alone.

This is followed by what is referred to as the Cosmic section (Vs 2-9) in which Francis calls for praises from the firmament, that is, the sun, moon and stars;

and from the elements: wind water fire earth

He alludes to the mystery of Jesus Christ by using the metaphor of “Brother Sun.”

For each of the elements, Francis uses four adjectives to describe them, for example, Sister Water is useful, humble, precious and chaste.

In the second part Francis recognizes that humanity can give praise to God by forgiving their enemies, bearing sickness and meeting “Sister Death” with courage (Vs 10-13).

In fact, verse 10 was added on for the specific purpose of the reconciliation of the bishop and mayor of Assisi.

The Canticle is “appreciative” and “ecological” – an interpretation that emphasises not only creation’s usefulness but also her intrinsic value. Its originality springs from the fact that it was written ‘to inspire people and teach them how to think of creation with gratitude, appreciation and respect’. For Francis ‘all that exists co-exists’: an awareness of interdependency and kinship among all God’s creatures

The great novelty of the Canticle is the use of the terms “brother” and “sister” to refer to creatures. This shows Francis’s special relationship towards creatures, one of ‘loving closeness and sincere individual appreciation’ For Francis, men and women are brothers and sisters to one another, a fraternal relationship that is extended to all creatures. The Latin word frater (brother) occurs 306 times in Francis’s writings, even more often than Deus (“God”) which occures 258 times. Francis is unique in that he uses the term frater to refer to his relationship with the whole earth community. The titles “brother”, “sister” or “mother" do not imply any pantheistic view of creation, but rather an affection for and a deep affinity with creatures.

Even though Francis does not mention animals or plants in the Canticle, we know from other sources that he considered them to be his brothers and sisters too. He greets a cricket encouraging her to: ‘sing, my Sister Cricket.’ He would ask the brother who took care of the garden to leave a space for wild plants so that in the proper season they would produce “Brother Flowers”.

Francis saw Christ at the heart of all of reality because he had already discovered Christ within. ‘Francis came to realize that it is Christ who sanctifies creation and transforms it into the sacrament of God. The intimate link between creation and incarnation revealed to Francis that the whole of creation is the place of encounter with God.’

All creatures were his brothers and sisters because they emerged from the same source, from God. His world vision was God-centred. Francis understood that his purpose in life was to praise God and in the canticle he shows that all of humanity can praise God through His creatures.

Francis understood that there was much interdependency between creation, humanity and God. Ever since he stood naked in the square of Assisi and handed back his clothes, publicly entrusting himself to his Heavenly Father, awareness of his relationship with others grew, including the most lowly of creatures.

Humanity depends on creatures for their existence, such as fire and water and especially “Sister Mother Earth”. Perhaps this is the reason why Francis on many occasions encourages his brothers to submit to other creatures.