St. Serra's Sermons During a Famine in Spain

Old Mission Santa Barbara statue of St. Francis receiving the stigmata. Photo by Gregg Garrison

 Four sermons are delivered by St. Serra in Mallorca, Spain in the middle of a devastating famine. Ten thousand people died in St. Serra’s hometown from famine and plague in 1744. Serra’s four sermons from this time of suffering reflect on Psalm 34: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

As of March 28, the 2020 global death toll is rapidly approaching 30,000 deaths from the Coronavirus, equaling the 1744 loss in life in St. Serra’s lifetime.

These sermons — then and now — are inspired by great suffering and speak compassionately to people in the midst of a plague. In these sermons, St. Serra speaks to us of the earthly and divine rungs of the ladder that lead to God. Equal parts of suffering, healing and pardoning lead to “the eternal weight of glory and risen life.”

The first rung of the ladder: God is gentle in the sufferings He sends us. Secondly, God is a healer. From the second rung of suffering, we are healed by our trials as we turn to God’s mercy. The third rung is God’s pardoning our transgressions and sins. The fourth and final rung is “the eternal weight of glory and risen life.”

Suffering is the crack in our souls that allows the divine light of healing, pardoning and mercy of God’s love and redemption. The central image Fr. Joe left in my heart is when I now see the crucifix — I do not see Christ’s suffering — rather, I feel Christ’s love that sacrifices for us so we may see the light and comprehend the natural cycle of suffering, healing, pardoning and eternal glory.

As the 2017 Wildfires threatened us and created great losses of life and suffering, from the smoke and ashes our communities were bound together by the tragedies and made better for it by the love and compassion the fires forged in us. Three years ago the very hills and forests that threatened our homes and families are radiant in verdant grasses, trees and teeming with rebirth. Always and at all times, to see the world with God’s wisdom, we must take a longer view that endures our current sufferings for something greater, something divine.

No one wishes for a plague, wildfire or for Christ’s suffering on the cross. Yet, in these times of great darkness's and despair, the crucified Christ is the icon of God’s eternal love for us and the miracle that turns water into wine and suffering into love and death into eternal life. Suffering without faith is unmitigated pain. Suffering with faith is a miracle as it transforms us from ashes in our Lenten journeys to Franciscan apostles of Christ. Dirt becomes light as we turn from transitory suffering and are reborn by faith, our suffering, too, is transformed in to joy through the eternal Love of God.

 Gregg Garrison, Minister OFS

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