(This is the conclusion of A Franciscan’s Way of the Cross. The entire article is available on our Resources page and by clicking here.)
Receiving Grace...
…4: As a Polish American Franciscan, I imagine Friar Ignatius parachuted into France with Hail Mary’s on his lips. The love of Mary, under the Polish title of Our Lady of Czestochowa, who bears a scar on her face, surely strengthened the resolve of the Friar-Chaplain of the 82nd Airborne. Having fallen from the sky, he relied upon that love of a scared mother to help him to get up and continue along his path of ministry, under the harshest of conditions.
…5: With overwhelming tasks set out before him, a father and son became Friar Ignatius’ Simon of Cyrene as they assisted him by offering information and advice, that he might better perform his duties. Their opening the door to the Americans put them in the path of the Friar-Chaplain, as he walked up his own Calvary hill.
Giving Grace...
…6: With tenderness of heart, Friar Ignatius not only ministered to the wounded in the field hospital, but also went searching for the lost. In those fields of France, he prayed for the dead while covering their faces and then tenderly carried the wounded to safety.
…8: Like the women who would weep for Jesus as he lay in the tomb, for three days the local residents wept for Friar Ignatius. They were so heartened by what he did to ensure their safety, that his story was passed down from generation to generation. Since the end of the war, a local cult of venerable love for the Friar-Chaplain continues to grow.
It is a good thing when from time to time, we reflect upon the lives of those great witnesses who offered themselves, in the spirit of the Gospel, for the protection of the common good and the securing of basic human rights. Like them, we too are called to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). The Lord’s invitation to follow Him echoed in the hearts and minds of Saint Francis who stumbled atop Mount Alverna, and Friar Ignatius who fell in the street of Gueutteville. May this invitation to discipleship also echo in our minds and hearts as we seek for strength and resolve to pick up our own crosses to follow Jesus, all the while repeating with Francis & Ignatius: 4, 5, 6, 8.
– friar Michael Lasky OFM Conv.
