Fish Tales

I saw a tweet this morning reminding us that today is the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua, a Franciscan who preached to the fish. "Many soles were saved" was the accompanying pun.   As someone who admires St. Francis and his legacy of honouring creation, along with any legends of Christians and nature, so matter how whimsical, I had to check this out. Here is a description:   In the area near Padua, there was once a group of heretics who criticised and ridiculed his preaching; the Saint went to the edge of a river, looked in the distance, and said to the heretics so that everyone would hear: "From the moment in which you proved yourselves to be unworthy of the Word of the Lord, look, I turn to the fish, to further confound your disbelief". And filled with the Lord's spirit, he began to preach to the fish, elaborating on their gifts given by God: how God had created them, how He was responsible for the purity of the water and how much freedom He had given them, and how they were able to eat without working. The fish began to gather together to listen to this speech, lifting their heads above the water and looking at him attentively, with their mouths open. As long as it pleased the Saint to talk to them, they stayed there listening attentively, as if they could reason. Nor did their leave their place, until they had received his blessing.   Do I believe this story? Well, it depends on what you mean by believe. Did it literally occur. Probably not, at least not the rapt congregation of fish part. Do I believe that often in the annals of the Christian church holiness was associated with reciprocal reverence between humans and creatures? Yes.   We see the images of Francis preaching to the birds and read of Celtic saints who are friends with the residents of forests and lakes. We could do with a little more of that reverence in a time when supposed Christian leaders ignore care for God's good Earth with a one-trick-pony (well, maybe without the pony) message of personal salvation. I don't believe that "only humans may apply" when it comes to God's grace.   Comments?