Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Transitus

Transitus

Last updated on: October 3, 2019 at 7:47 pm by Mary Pezzulo

Transitus 2019-10-03T19:47:09-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“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.”

Autumn begins, officially, in September. But here in the ugly neighborhood of LaBelle, in the derelict steel mill town of Steubenville, in the place where the Rust Belt collides with Northern Appalachia, in a country they tell me is tearing apart, on a planet that they say is burning to death– here, the Autumn weather comes about the end of the first week of October.

Tonight is the night the weather changes: the last day of agonizing heat predicted this week, this month, this year. When I awoke this morning, there was sun pouring through the cracks in the blinds; then it clouded over, and now the day is dying and the heat with it.

When I went for a walk, the air was hot, but the breeze blowing over me was cool.

The heat will continue to die all night, and in the morning it will be cold.

When Saint Francis was dying, on the third night of October, that is tonight, he asked to be laid on the ground. He asked his followers to read from the Gospel according to John, and they read:

Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.”

Have I washed anybody’s feet this year?

In all the days since the last time it was October, have I taken off my outer garment and put on a towel? Have I even once gotten down on hands and knees and decreased so that others might increase? Have I made myself dirty and disreputable, taking the form of a slave, in the service of another, as the Gospel demands of me?

When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of you all; I know whom I have chosen; it is that the scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I tell you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me.”

Have I received Him, and the One Who sent Him?

I walked down the alleys, where the wild mint and lemon balm is still fragrant and lush, choking the walkway. The sycamores towering above them are already asleep for the year. The Rose of Sharon is drying out, but you can still find blossoms from place to place. The crabapples are green but faded, and I saw the first red leaves here and there. The asters are vibrant, and will be for a little longer. By the time the asters die, the trees will have all gone gold and scarlet. It will seem as if LaBelle is on fire.

When the fire consumes the whole world, what will become of us?

When Saint Francis was dying, he intoned a maskil of David, the psalm David composed while hiding in a cave, afraid for his life. Francis was not afraid for his life, but still he prayed:

I cry with my voice to the Lord,
    with my voice I make supplication to the Lord,
I pour out my complaint before him,
    I tell my trouble before him.
When my spirit is faint,
    thou knowest my way!

In the path where I walk
    they have hidden a trap for me.
I look to the right and watch,
    but there is none who takes notice of me;
no refuge remains to me,
    no man cares for me.

I cry to thee, O Lord;
    I say, Thou art my refuge,
    my portion in the land of the living.
Give heed to my cry;
    for I am brought very low!

Deliver me from my persecutors;
    for they are too strong for me!
Bring me out of prison,
    that I may give thanks to thy name!
The righteous will surround me;
    for thou wilt deal bountifully with me.

I walked under a dogwood tree that had already turned, the leaves and berries both. It was just the color of a ruby; the name of that color is pigeon’s blood.

The pigeons will stay in LaBelle all winter. The cardinals in their pigeon’s blood plumage will stay all winter, and when we see them perched on a winter tree we’ll be taken by surprise. The starlings that murmurate in dead trees by the hundred will stay. The fat brown sparrows will stay. Other birds are moving south, and soon they will be gone.

The came when LaBelle was green, and now that it’s dry, they are going away.

They say that birds came to sing to Saint Francis as he died.

There are statues of Saint Francis all over LaBelle: bird baths and feeders cast in the shape of the poor man who talked to animals; the saintly madman who once stripped naked in front of the bishop; the beggar who called the sun his brother; the spoiled, wealthy son of a rich man, who embraced a leper and went off to rebuild a Church that was crumbling.

She is crumbling again, today.

She is always alive, always new, always dying, always crumbling, always rising again.

I walked through the loud, crumbling leaves of a sycamore, and admired the bark that peels off naturally in big sheets, until the tree itself looks like a leper.

When Saint Francis was dying, he told his brothers, “I have done what is mine to do. May Christ now teach you what is yours to do.”

He asked to be laid naked on the ground.

And when it was time to transition from life to immortal life, he said, “Welcome, my sister, Death.”

This was the last hot day. Tomorrow morning, it will be cold.

Death is terrible, but not in the way that you think.

(image via wikimedia commons)

Steel Magnificat runs almost entirely on tips. To tip the author, visit our donate page.

Interpretation of Scripture

Meditation

prayer

Public face of Catholicism

Previous Post

October 3, 2019

Forty Years of Baby Choice: A Timeline

Next Post

October 3, 2019 My Proposed Solution to the Abby Johnson Rumpus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was told to prophesy to the mountains and valleys of Israel?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hosea Daniel Ezekiel Micah