The Tau cross (T) of St. Francis of Assisi is a curious religious symbol in a highly regimented religious tradition.  While the traditional Latin cross (✝) has a more balanced presentation of the horizontal (—) and vertical (│) elements of our salvation, the Tau cross seems eager to say something more about how exactly we are saved.  It’s as if the horizontal dimension—the grand drama of our human experience, including all of our emotions, desires, and daily struggles—is being taken to the limit of the vertical dimension—our spiritual capacity for transcendence.  Instead of holding our humanity in tension with the demands of a life of discipleship, as the traditional cross suggests, Francis appears to be inviting us to boldly set our sights on heaven precisely through our humanity, as the horizontal beam ascends upward.  It is there, at the point of convergence of our humanity with the transcendent, that the mind of Christ finds eternal expression.  On this eight hundredth anniversary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, the moment when his own inner Tau was fully manifested, let’s find creative ways to challenge our sense of religious faith.  We shall discover that when we, with dear Francis, allow our lives to be taken to the limit, the mind of Christ is destined to emerge and make us whole (Phil 2:5-8).  Ave Crux, Spes Unica.