Matthew 6:26

Our Sisters The Birds

Behold the birds of the heaven. Matthew 6:26.

You have heard how St. Francis of Assisi left his home and his friends and all his possessions and set out to be a missionary. Today I want to tell you something of his love for all God's creatures and especially for the birds.

St. Francis loved everything God had made. He loved water and fire and light. He could never bear to have a candle extinguished or a lamp put out. He loved the flowers and the beasts and the birds, and he called them his little brothers and sisters. In the convent garden there must always be a place for his “brothers the flowers” as well as for the vegetables and herbs. If he saw an earthworm lying twisting about in the middle of the road he would lift it and carry it to the side lest it should be crushed. In winter he put honey into the beehives for the bees to feed on. He cared for the young robins, he built nests for the turtle-doves, and the birds trusted him so completely that they would come and settle on his hands and head.

Every creature, every work of creation was to St. Francis like the word of God. He held all created things as holy, and reverenced them accordingly. The rocks and cliffs spoke to him of God's everlasting strength and power; the flowers and birds revealed the Heavenly Father's beauty and purity and tenderness. He felt God's presence everywhere among His creatures.

But it is especially of St. Francis' love for the birds that I wish to speak today, and I want to tell you two quaint old legends about the monk and the birds.

One day, it is said, St. Francis and another Brother came to a place called Alviano to preach, and stopped in the market-place. It was evening and the swallows were circling to and fro among the walls and turrets, and darting with glad little cries in and out of their nests under the eaves.

The two Friars, as was their custom, sang their evening hymn of praise, and the people stood round silent and expectant. The swallows alone refused to keep silence. Lower and lower they circled over the market-place, and their twittering and cries increased until they drowned every other sound. At last St. Francis looked up and gently addressed them. “My sister swallows,” he said, “it seems to me that the time has come when I should have a chance to speak; now you have said enough! Hear therefore God's word and keep still and quiet while I preach!” Immediately the birds were silent, and they made no sound so long as Francis preached.

The other legend tells how St. Francis once preached a sermon to the birds. One day the monk saw in a field near the roadside some trees; and on the trees as well as on the ground beneath them was a great multitude of birds such as had never been seen in that region.

When St. Francis saw the birds he told his followers that he was going to preach to his feathered brothers.

He walked into the field and went to the place where they were. As soon as he began to preach, all the little birds that were on the trees fluttered down and sat round him listening. And St. Francis told them that they should always be grateful to God and praise and love Him because He had given them the power to fly, and food, and clothing, and shelter. Then all the little birds began to open their beaks and to beat their wings and to bow their heads reverently to earth. And they sang a song of praise to show St. Francis that his words had pleased them greatly.

Boys and girls, these old legends come to us covered with the dust of ages, and oddly twisted and turned by the fingers of superstition, But at the heart of most legends there is a grand and simple truth.

And I think the story of St. Francis' life and the quaint tales that are related of him carry some grand truths with them.

They tell us of God who puts His heart of love into each thing He creates. They teach us to reverence the creatures He has so wonderfully made, and to treat them always with love and kindness. Above all, they teach us to reverence and praise Him who is so marvelous in all His works and who has given us so richly all things to enjoy.