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Chapter Four
JESUS THE WINGED SERAPHa
18The holy man Francis, beloved of God, had already, in his holy way of living, portrayed the life of Jesus the Redeemer, which the world had consigned to oblivion, and had set it out in his evangelical Rule, as we shall show further on, so that it should be truly evident to all the world that what he was illustrating, both in the Rule and in the life he led, was the life of Jesus the Savior himself. Jesus in his exceeding goodness and mercy knew what the evangelical Rule of Francis and the perfect transformation he had brought about would have to endure from a future generation's persecutions, unfortunate expositions, and infringements. He would leave no one in doubt that the perpetrators were the progeny of a dead system, being opponents of a crucified Jesus. Within a short time after the Rule's institution, He would furnish with the seal of His high priesthood both the life of Francis and the established Rule, through a miracle unheard of in previous ages, by imprinting on the flesh of the blessed Francis the likeness of the wounds of His own most sacred passion. Christ's standard-bearer was Francis as he carried these on his sacred body for two years. Defying nature, he lived on with his side opened; blood flowed from it; a memorial of the blood of the living God, shed for us. Breathtaking are these signs; they call for maximum veneration of the Saint and love of the exceedingly good Jesus. They make for an unshakable confidence in those contemplating the following of Jesus.
They are reminders of God;
they are evidence of the sanctity of the man;
they are indications of what we are to be.
For by this sublime imprinting,
Jesus, in His exceeding goodness, demonstrated:
- Arbor V, chap. 4: 434-443: a long meditation on the most marvelous of the signs of Francis's assimilation to Christ, spiritually and physically, namely, the privilege of the stigmata. In this chapter Casale, while keeping his eye on LMj XIII and its epilogue on the Miracles I, gives himself free rein as mystical theologian.