Brandon Paziuk, OFM

I was walking in the Edmonton River valley this week and was struck by the stunning display of Autumn colours. Fall seems to have come quickly this year, with something of a quiet splendour. Trees surrender their leaves, just as the grass beneath them surrenders its access to sunlight and is covered by the compost from above. Autumn is a gentle teacher of change and self-emptying. St. Francis embodied this same pattern.

Born into privilege and wealth, Francis stripped himself bare of all possessions, reputation, and power. He surrendered all that was worldly so that he could embrace a life of radical poverty. The tree does not try to possess the leaves, and its losing of them sets the stage for future growth in the Spring. Francis named the elements of nature as his brothers and sisters, seeing them not as resources to be possessed and used, but as signs of God’s Love. Birth and death, sowing and reaping, growth and decay; these things all follow a rhythm, a great cosmic dance between the Creator and His creatures. At the heart of this dance lies the mystery of kenosis (Christ’s self-emptying).

St. Paul tells us in Philippians that Christ “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” This divine humility is not about loss, rather it is about Christ surrendering himself to make space for Love. When we follow Francis by imitating Jesus, we are called to practice kenosis, to loosen our grip on control, pride, and ego. These things serve their purpose in their appropriate place and season, but as Fall sets in, let us not fight with nature like some tree clinging to its dead leaves. As Advent approaches, let us shed all that separates us from the living reality of God, so that like Mary, we too can say yes when the angel of the Lord comes.

Br. Brandon Paziuk, OFM is a simply professed Friar, residing in Edmonton. He is a student, writer and practices centering prayer.