Today I would like to talk about a poor man from Assisi who lived in the Middle Ages. Many know him as Saint Francis. Most of us know that he tried to help the poor and gave away his wealth. However, I would like to focus on the eschatological aspect of his concept of reality. Well, in fact, his behaviour seen at times as so dedicated to the poor did not only include such people. Moreover, it did not only include such people. It is well known that he preached to fish or addressed animals in a personal form, e.g. Brother Wolf. Should it not then be noted that, in the metaphysical dimension, he was basically unifying all living beings and was in fact putting animals and humans on an equal footing. No one can deny that animals, in this case fish, cannot be the recipients of a sermon. The equation of animal and human apparently has much deeper roots than some might think. Today we are more inclined to shed a tear when we see a suffering kitten than when we see thousands of suffering human beings. We do not care about the human fate, because what difference does it make whether it is human or animal? Many say that animals have an even better nature.
Similarly, Francis' love of nature may be said to have been the foundation of today's ecology, where roads are closed because it is more important whether ants will be able to make their annual journey than people who will not be able to get to work or to go shopping.
