Brother Son, Sister Moon
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[edit] Blurb
Francesco Bernardone (Graham Faulkner) comes back home to Assisi in 1200 A.D. nervously exhausted by the wars. His well-to-do parents are quick to assure the townspeople that he is not a coward. The young man languishes in bed with nightmares of battle while his loving mother pampers him. His father, a brutish merchant obsessed with success, cannot understand his son's malady.
One day, Francesco alights from his bed at the chirping of a small bird. He follows a ray of sunshine to the balcony and then walks across the roof to fetch the bird. It is the beginning of his awakening to a new life. He spends days in the lush fields near Assisi. Claire (Judi Bowker), a pretty young neighbor, tells him that the villagers think he's berserk — after all, he loves flowers, chases butterflies, and sings like a bird. When he went off to war, he was judged sane and bright.[1]
[edit] View from Nowhere
[edit] Other Views from Nowhere
On The Wing of Spiritual Birds by O.H.
These are the words to title song from movie of St. Francis life, Brother Sun, Sister Moon, and then a description of the scene in the Marketplace where Francis gives away all he "possesses" and awakens to his Freedom!.
"Brother Sun, Sister Moon, I seldom see you, Seldom hear your tune. Pre-occupied, in selfish misery.
Brother Wind and Sister Air Open my eyes to visions pure and fair. That I may see the Beauty around me.
I am God's creature, in Him I am part. I feel His love, Awakening my heart.
Brother Sun and Sister Moon I now do see you, I can hear your tune. So much in love, with all that I survey."
This song comes right after Francis has had his awakening, after which he goes to the top floor of his house, and jubilantly throws all his father's silks and brocades (his father is a rich cloth merchant, burly, greedy, easy to anger), out into the streets below, telling the hoopin' and hollerin' crowd that has gathered, to "throw it all away. It is of no use."
His outraged father drags him through the streets by the neck - Francis still smiling, crying out to the crowd, "look at my poor father - what good has all his riches done him?" to the Bishop for punishment.
The scene in the large village square finds the Bishop standing on the stairs, the crowd below on either side, and Francis and his father (his mother is there, too) in the center, before the Bishop.
The Bishop asks who is causing all this fuss, and Francis answers:
F: Yes, it's me. My soul is in your hands.
Bishop: What? Are you trying to cause trouble? Is that what you're trying to do? Is this some damned plot to rob the church of its authority?
Father: That's nothing compared to what he's done to me, Your Grace. God only knows, I brought him up, I've clothed him. I've only given him the best. Ask anyone! They'll tell you! He's never wanted for anything in his life from the day he was born!
But today, he threw all my belongings out of the window, and he even opened my strongbox! (crowd gasps, father begins to cry) and.(garbled words)....threw out on the street. Years of hard work and self-sacrifice just tossed away.
Bishop to Francis: Then, what is your answer to these accusations? Surely you are sufficiently intelligent to understand that Holy Mother Church must punish those who subvert the established order. A man such as you is a menace to society. He's either criminal or..
Francis: someone seeking the light - someone in darkness. I was in darkness, but Brother Son illuminated my soul. And now, I can see so clearly - just as you did the day you chose the sacred vestments you are wearing now.
Bishop: (now softened): Are you seeking...Holy Orders?
Francis: Me? no. I am not worthy.
B: Then - what do you want?
Francis; I want to be - to be happy! I want to live like the birds in the sky. I want to experience the freedom and the purity that they experience. The rest is of no use to me.
No use, believe me. If the purpose of life is this loveless toil we fill our days with, then it's not for me. There must be something better! There has to be! Man is - man is a spirit! He has a soul! And today, that is what I want to recapture - my soul.
(Francis begins to take off his clothes.)
I want to live! I want to live in the fields, stride over hills, climb trees, swim rivers. I want to feel the firm grasp of the earth beneath my feet, without shoes, without possessions, without those shadows we call our servants.
I want to be a beggar! Christ was a beggar, his holy apostles were beggars, I want to be as free as they are!
Father: But, Your Grace, even beggars show respect for their fathers.
Francis: I'm not your son any more.
Father: Wha...?
Francis: What is born of the flesh is flesh. What is born of the spirit, is spirit. I now am born again.
(Francis takes off rest of clothes, puts them in his arms and walks to his weeping father. The mother stands in shock. Francis hands the clothes to his father.)
Francis: Father, I give you back everything that belongs to you: your clothes, your possessions - your name, too.
(Francis, with shining countenance, turns from parents and addresses crowd, addresses himself. Claire is watching from window, smiling.)
Francis: There are no more fathers. There are no more sons. And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or fathers, or mothers, or children, or fields - for the sake of our heavenly Father will receive a hundred times more in the life to come.
(Bishop shouts: Cover him up! and gives his large brocade cape to an attendant who drapes it over Francis's shoulders. Francis laughs softly, takes off the cape and puts it around a beggar.
Francis turns from crowd and walks slowly, naked in body, richly clothed in God's light, down the path to the city's gate. With face illumined with tears of joy, and arms outstretched, he stands silhouetted against the immense blue sky.
Now, i watch this movie with a detached interest and mellowed heart pull, but when i was in my early fifties, this movie was a great inspiration to me - I played it again and again, each time a new determination growing within me. One day it all came together: my lease was up, my last child had just moved out, the funds for my job were terminated, and i knew what i wanted to "do" without a doubt. In a quick week, i sold all my "possessions" except for what i stuffed in the back seat of my Ford SW - leaving room to sleep, and took off, with $124 in my purse, i knew not where.
But, inspired by St. Francis, i knew that i was done - finally! with raising five children on my own, running a business, saving the children of the county, being 'Wonder Woman" - it was all finished!
And I lived in the fields, on the mountain tops, by the ocean, in and out of ashrams, monasteries, temples,wherever the Dharma wind blew me - for seven years, the most beautiful years of my life! To not know where i was going to sleep that night, what i would eat, where the morning's light would find me, was a fantastic freedom that, at that time in my life, was needed, perhaps as a healing, perhaps as a calling, it doesn't matter, i just knew it was the only choice, and i shall be forever grateful.
Many fond memories arose when hearing that song that Judi - who else? mentioned, thanks, dearest. Admittedly, although each moment is now without planning and few thoughts of past or future passes through feeble brain, i am sometimes aware that old woman's soul is waiting for her return to the wandering life, to the envionrment in which it feels most at home.
It does not matter, though. ,^)) Really! Nothing matters any more. The mountains, the ocean, the wind, the Freedom! - are here, now, at garbage pile, tending garden, dancing with grandchildren, reading nds posts ,^)), God's freedom is none other than old gypsy's breath.
Thanks for listening, if you got this far.
love to all, oh p.s. ohmygoodness! Just as i finished this, i saw a movement in the fig tree that brushes against my front window, and it was a cardinal! (during wandering days, i always considered cardinal spiritual bird who came with "signs" - especially from St. Francis! and Meher Baba). In all five years i have been here, a cardinal never came to that tree while i was here to see. He did not leave, but came as close to window as he could, just behind the Kwan Yin statue on table before window, cocking his head from side to side, so close as if to peck the window to come in. Don't you love it when stuff like that happens? hoho..and lol...
He just flew away.
Hmm....ok, tears of joy come to my eyes, because i just remembered! that i am on the way to ER ,^)). (was catching up on e-mail before i left...hoho). Ain't it all grand! each piece falls in place. And all we have to do is to watch it. As Kafka says, "And it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."[2]
