Saint Francis and the wolf of Gubbio, from San Sepolcro Altarpiece (Sassetta, 1437-1444)
There is an interesting fact about wolves. Their collective howl cements them together as a pack.
The pbs.org website states this:
“The center of a wolf’s universe is its pack, and howling is the glue that keeps the pack together. Some have speculated that howling strengthens the social bonds between packmates; the pack that howls together, stays together.”
The idea that wolves actually “howl at the moon” comes from the fact that their howling is most active at dusk, between about 7pm to midnight.
This brings me to a profound reflection. How could it be that a pack of wolves howling at the moon actually inspires one to prayer?! And, what could St. Francis of Assisi calming the wolf of Gubbio have to do with it? Stay with me…
There is a memory I have from about a year ago which fills my heart with joy. It was a moment of true freedom with Christ. Yes, it was at dusk. A bright fire gave a warm glow, like a Paschal candle. It had been only less than a week before when a holy priest had heard the General Confession of my entire life. I hadn’t known then that, because of that Confession, I ‘d be jumping on a plane in Richmond, Virginia and flying over 1000 miles to Tulsa, Oklahoma in the matter of just a couple days. It was all so surreal and frightening and wonderful all at once. It was in Oklahoma, on the holy ground of Clear Creek Monastery, where I howled at the moon.
I howled because, like the wolf of Gubbio which St. Francis had tamed with the Sign of the Cross, I suddenly found myself in a pack of friends who howled with me. We had, like the wolf, also been “tamed” with the Sign of the Cross, by turning away from sin and the loneliness of shame and trauma, and instead, turning towards the healing and the peace which only Christ can give.
The story goes that the wolf had become a great enemy of the town of Gubbio by his vicious attacks of the animals and even of the people! The poor man of Assisi, however, made the Sign of the Cross and ordered the wolf to stop his attacks in the Name of God.
Understanding the root of the problem, the Saint said: “…thou shalt no longer suffer hunger as it is hunger which has made thee do so much evil…”.
How much sin takes place due to a hunger for love… due to a lack of trust in the Goodness of God?
In the case of Francis and the wolf, incredibly, the beast listened, becoming docile at the promise of St. Francis that if he would cease threatening the town, then the people would feed him. Those who witnessed this exchange between the wolf, who placed his paw on St. Francis’ hand in agreement, proclaimed it a miracle.
St. Francis, who lived the Gospel so radically, said this to the wolf, which, in Scripture, is not usually seen in a positive light, and indeed, this particular wolf had truly terrorized the town of Gubbio:
“Brother wolf, thou hast done much evil in this land, destroying and killing the creatures of God without his permission; yea, not animals only hast thou destroyed, but thou hast even dared to devour men, made after the image of God; for which thing thou art worthy of being hanged like a robber and a murderer. All men cry out against thee, the dogs pursue thee, and all the inhabitants of this city are thy enemies; but I will make peace between them and thee, O brother wolf, if so be thou no more offend them, and they shall forgive thee all thy past offences, and neither men nor dogs shall pursue thee any more.”
Further, the good Saint used this opportunity to preach to the people of Gubbio, saying:
“How much we ought to dread the jaws of hell, if the jaws of so small an animal as a wolf can make a whole city tremble through fear?”
Many of those who witnessed the Miracle went on to experience conversion to the Faith.
And so, the town of Gubbio and the wolf became friends that day… they became a “pack” and the bargain was kept. The testimony of history is this… Excavations of Gubbio in 1872 actually uncovered the skeleton of a large wolf which had been buried with honor to remember the holiness of Francis and the power of God. The Church of St. Francis of the Peace had been built over the site of the wolf’s grave.
The wolf had been wild, untamed, and stuck in the wilderness akin to a desert devoid of life and outside the community, beyond the village walls.
The wilderness I had ventured to on that journey to Oklahoma was the desert of my own soul. I was set to discover the wonders therein. The desert does seem to be void of life and it’s extremes are not for the faint of heart. Yet, the Lord said we are to be wary of being lukewarm. So it was that I had to step into the scalding day. So it was that I allowed myself to be enveloped by the chill of the night. It was via the sunlit paths and the dark valleys that roses bloomed in the desert of my soul. Along the way, a pack was formed. And at the right time, with our hearts blazing along with the campfire, we howled indeed. And then we sang to the moon, hymns to Our Lady on our lips. She is “fair as the moon, bright as the sun” as the Legion of Mary’s daily antiphon proclaims.
She is like the moon in that she only reflects the light of the Son, for:
“… the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” ~ Rev 21:23
Since she always points to her Son, she exhorts us in Holy Scripture:
“Do whatever He tells you.” ~ John 2:5
She calls us into the battle for souls and those who have enlisted themselves into her army are like a pack of wolves. Their howls are the fervent prayers which cement them together. But, their weapon is neither sharp teeth nor claws. It is the Holy Rosary which is the Gospel on beads. When I pray those beads, usually in the evening, I think of those friends in my “pack”, and how we “howl at the moon” together once more, every time we join spiritually, in the Mystical Body of Christ. “For where there are two or three gathered in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.” ~ Matthew 18:20
St. Francis of Assisi lived and prayed this Gospel in a radical way.
Jesus was truly his best friend.
Whenever someone mentions the term “best friend”, even just in passing, I admit that my mind stumbles a bit over the whole concept. In the way the world looks at it, I suppose a “best friend” is someone who has been there with a person for a long time, through “thick and thin”.
I have never really had a “best friend”, per se. I was never really in one place for too long as I grew up, so forming friendships, much less a “best” friendship, was rather difficult. Some may believe this is a sorrow.
However, I see it as a certain kind of freedom; even a joy. Because, it forced me to really examine the issue at hand. And, had I not had a need to examine the idea, I may have taken it all for granted. I may have become desensitized and unaware of the lonely people in this world. There are many. I have felt their pain.
How can these contemplations lead a person, then, to joy?
It must begin with He Who is Joy personified. It must begin with Christ.
Jesus proclaimed: “No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you”. ~ John 15:15
Indeed, we need not be servants or slaves of sin, nor of trauma. The wolf didn’t need to be a slave to hunger, thereby causing so much evil. The creature, like we in the Confessional which is also called the Tribunal of Mercy, simply must humble himself before Almighty God, and allow Him to call us “friends”.
After all, who did St. Francis consider as his “best friend”? Was it his faithful companion, Illuminato? Was it the Wolf of Gubbio? Was it the leper he embraced? Perhaps it was, as the good saint proclaimed in his famous Canticle:
“Sister Moon and the stars; in the heavens you have made them, precious and beautiful”.
This is what I teach my children, in regards to friendship, “best” or otherwise. Basically, we need to know that it is actually Jesus Who is our “best friend”. All other friends which He then gives us throughout life is His gift to us, but only insofar as those friends help us to come even closer to Him.
So, in the case of St Francis of Assisi, all those I mentioned were friends who helped him to come closer to Our Lord.
Perhaps, though, the one who came closest to “best” friend was the leper.
I tell people that I married my best friend. But, that is true only in that it is my husband whom the Lord gave me to share in my “best friendship” with Christ. At the altar, we exchanged Sacramental vows, ” ’til death do us part”, and so, we became one in Him.
Was it not a kind of espousal in Christ which occurred when St. Francis embraced the leper? He literally embraced suffering, just as Jesus embraced His Cross.
Or, maybe, then, it is Sister Death who claims the coveted prize of “best friendship” with the poor man of Assisi.
Of this, he writes:
“Be praised, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whose embrace no living person can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin! Happy those she finds doing your most holy will. The second death can do no harm to them”.
In fact, all the “friends” (aka Sisters and Brothers) which he writes of in his famous Canticle of the Sun, are all introduced with the words, “Be praised, my Lord…”. They all point to Jesus.
When St. Francis embraced the leper, he essentially was also embracing Sister Death. Loving radically is what brought him to his own cross, and thus, to His ultimate Best Friend, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he tamed the Wolf of Gubbio, he probably could have added to his “Canticle” something like this: Be praised, my Lord, for Brother Wolf, Your creature, who proclaims Your glory with song in howls to Sister Moon.
The Good Lord gave me many friends in Oklahoma. We know each other’s struggles and heartaches and deepest pains. But, that night, we howled at the moon together, gathered around the Fire that neither consumes nor harms, but only ignites souls in the Love of God.
That night, we joined in song, for the Lord is Goodness itself and His Mercy endures forever! We sang songs about His holy Mother, the Mystical Moon who reflects the Light of her glorious Son.
And, even now, more than a year later, whenever we pray the Rosary, wherever we are, we can remember we are part of an even wider “pack” of those who love God and wish to be His best friends, as we contemplate His life, death, and Resurrection through the eyes and Immaculate Heart of His mother, who loves Him and serves Him the best of all.
Remember that quote at the beginning, from PBS.org, about how “the pack that howls together, stays together”?
Well, here’s another quote, from Venerable Father Patrick Peyton, C.S.C.: “the family that prays together stays together”.
If howling, for wolves, is “the glue that holds a pack together” then how much more bonding is prayer for families and for friends, especially within the context of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ?
And, Our Lord proclaims :
Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love. 10If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. 12This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. ~ John 15: 9-12
Never again will they hunger and thirst, never again know scorching heat. ~Revelation 7:16
The Lord is your guard and your shade;
at your right side he stands.
By day the sun shall not smite you
nor the moon in the night. ~ from Psalm 121
So, friends, let us pray always, without ceasing, for and with one another. For, to pray is to abide in God and His Joy.
Let’s, indeed, “howl at the moon”.
To do so will bring about that eternal Kingdom which is described by the Prophet Isaiah:
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf and the lion, and the sheep shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them.
Amen, Alleluia!
+JMJ+
~a desert pilgrim~
Desert Pilgrim Feet 