What is the most remarkable thing about Francis' life?
There aren't many remarkable things about Francis' life. But there is one: the Christ.
It was Christ who changed him from the top to bottom, inside out. There are not many others where you see such a complete transformation as you see in him.
There were other rich ones too who opted for a poor life. There were other youth too who gave up worldly desires and walked the path of asceticism. There were others too who started monastic communities; who loved the nature; who were apostles of peace.
But him! He was a little different. He gave up wealth and became poor; he became one among them. His transformation was not merely external. He abandoned all categories of the wealthy, that of capitalism and feudalism - without any exception. Moreover, he welcomed the poor (how many are their manifestations!) with the utmost respect and admiration.
As a result, not only his looks but also his feelings changed. As a result, his experiences also turned upside down.
Some people do disguises. Some go for plastic surgery to change their physical appearances. Like the fox that got tanned in the indigo and was declared king of the forest, those who have took on disguises will one day get to haul in an unguarded moment. Even those who had recourse to physical alterations through plastic surgery, will one day reveal their real being. However, for someone who saw the real countenance hidden behind the veil, as though the veil got lifted by a wind, can not hesitate for long.
He writes about this experience in his Testament: "for when I was in sin, it seemed too bitter for me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led me among them, and I showed mercy to them. And when I left them, what had seemed bitter to me was turned into sweetness of soul and body."
When he was in Varanasi, Adi Shankara saw a 'Chandala' -an untouchable from the lowest caste- accompanied by four dogs, coming opposite to him on the narrow way. Shankara the monk asked the Chandala to move. The Chandala asked him back, "Move what? The body or the soul?" That was totally unexpected. Shankara realized himself, and immediately recognized the One behind the Chandala -Lord Siva himself.
There is a seemingly similar story about Francis too. As a young man, Francis was disgusted at the sight of lepers. While riding on his horseback along a certain road in the city, a beggar who was a leper came towards him. Francis almost turned his horse to go back. Suddenly, he must have felt ashamed of himself, as a Christian or as a human being. The young man got off his horse. Having gathered strength, he pushed himself to the leper. The stench of the rotting body would have fainted him. Yet, with a fierce determination to overcome himself, he embraced and kissed the leper!
For a split second, in a glimpse he must have realized that the eyes that gazed him from within the body of this leper weren't that of a leper, but were of Christ Himself. That was where he got transformed completely.
How could someone who had a glimpse with his own eyes that Christ was the one walking disguised as lepers, the poor, and the beggars, not change drastically?!
