Saint Francis of Assisi died, and an angel who escorted him to the gate of heaven told him, “Quick, quick! Just follow me whatever you have!” So St. Francis followed the angel only with his religious habit which was nothing but rags.
Now, a bishop near the town of Assisi died on the same day St. Francis died. The angel also told the bishop to follow him with whatever he had now. So the bishop followed him with his miter, crozier, purple cassock, facia, alb, cincture, chasuble, and, in one bag, a gold chalice and a platinum ciborium, a gold paten, and in the other bag, a lots of jewels and gold coins.
Now, the angel brought the two to the gate of heaven. As one of the gospel passage goes, the gate of heaven was so narrow and low. And, as one expects, there was Saint Peter in front of the gate and said, “Good works, gentlemen! Welcome to heaven. Now Jesus is waiting for you on the other side of the gate. Hurry up and get in!” Saint Francis who was wearing the old and worn out habit took it off right away, and enter the gate without any clothing, but without much difficulty since he was very thin.
Now, the bishop, with all his apparels and baggages, could not pass the gate. With his miter and crozier, he was too tall; his baggages were too big to go through the gate. So he gave up these, but still his apparels were too cumbersome to pass through the gate. He had to take them off one by one until he was left without any clothing. Alas, now, he realized that his belly was too big to pass the gate through. St. Peter looked at him and said, “Brother, I guess you should lose some weight. Go to the corner and start working out.” When he went to the corner, he met many of his senior bishops. They were all doing sit-ups. One of them said, “Jesus was right. Many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
Tags: camel, eye of a needle, homily, matthew 19, st. francis and a rich bishop, year ii week 20
