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April 2
Francis of Paola, Henry Budd, and Hans Christian Anderson
David Barnhart
April 02, 2025
Sunset in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia, 2006. Own photo.
Today is the feast day of Francis of Paola, who died on this day in 1507. Francis took after his namesake, Francis of Assisi, in his love of animals, and spent his life as a vegan. He founded the Order of Minims, which was intended to be the humblest of monastic orders.
Today is also the feast day, in the Anglican Church of Canada, of Henry Budd, a Cree nation Anglican priest, who died in 1875. He translated the Bible into Cree and was the first First Nations person to be ordained as a priest.
Today is the birthday of Hans Christian Anderson, in 1805, who collected folk and fairy tales, ostensibly for children, but which had a major impact on adults as well. Along with Charles Dickens, he represented a turn in Western literature which began to take the lived experiences of children more seriously.
On this day in 2020, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases reached one million. Instead of learning from our country’s mistakes in handling the pandemic, our leaders seem hell-bent on repeating them.
Reflection:
This is Hans Christian Anderson’s story, “The Difference”:
"Poor wretched outcasts," said the apple branch. "I suppose you can't help being as common as you are, and having such a vulgar name! It's the same with plants as with men-there must be a difference."
"A difference?" repeated the sunbeam, as it kissed the apple branch; but it kissed the golden "devil's milk pails," too. And all the other sunbeams did the same, kissing all the flowers equally, poor as well as rich.
The apple branch had never thought about our Lord's infinite love for everything that lives and moves in Him, had never thought how much that it is good and beautiful can lie hidden but still not be forgotten; and that, too, was human.
But the sunbeam, the ray of light, knew better. "You don't see very clearly; you are not very farsighted.
This story was likely inspired by Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus points out that God sends sun and rain on the wicked and the good alike. Divine love, Anderson understood, is impartial.
Prayer: God in whom there is no partiality, help us know, experience, and give truly unconditional love. Amen.