Seeing Differently is a book I have been taking my time over. As one of the authors, Simon Cocksedge, moves you through the various tales of St Francis talking with worms or wolves, sheep or grasshoppers you begin to grasp the great depths of conflict in being compassionate to animals. It’s the kind of conflict we all encounter.
Close to twenty five years ago I gave up meat other than fish. To my steak eating red meat lover friends I’m a vegetarian. To my vegetarian and vegan friends I’m a half-hearted foot-in-two-camps kind of chap. My wife and I have been as true to our decision as we can. Yet we wear leather shoes and when our efforts to dissuade our grandchildren fail we pay for the odd chicken nugget at a drive through.
Francis was full of compassion for all of creation including the animal kingdom. He even used language which included calling a sheep brother. He sang a song naming a cricket, ‘Sister cricket.’ So it might surprise us to learn that whilst he was a master abstainer from everything when fasting he occasionally ate meat.
I think it was that Francis looked around him with eyes that saw all of creation just as worthy of God’s love as he was, which inspired his ability to see animals as brothers or sisters. Yet he occasionally ate meat – it’s a conflict.
I’m ok with his occasional meat dish because his consumption was so minimal. I’m ok with it because it tells me that even the most compassionate and sensitive patron Saint of animals and the environment was an idealist who didn’t quite touch the ideal.
You know we might not give up stuff completely – use no plastic, cycle everywhere, sit in the dark at night or become a vegan. Yet we can be more idealistic, looking at all of creation as worthy as we are of being loved and cared for.
Rob Wykes 