Today is the feast day of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, but
better known to most people as Padre Pio. However, since it falls on a Sunday we don't officially celebrate it since Sunday always takes precedence. But I would like to share with you a few thoughts about Padre Pio which also tie in with today's Gospel.
Padre Pio only died in 1968, the year
before I was born, which fairly puts him in perspective. He was
a Capuchin Franciscan who lived in an obscure monastery in the East
of Italy. If you have doubts about the reality of the spiritual
world, read a book on his life. For fifty years of his life he
had the stigmata, or wounds of Christ in his hands and feet and side, which bled
continually. They were examined by doctors several times but they couldn’t
explain them. He also had the gift of being able to read
people’s hearts in confession, which meant that if someone made a
simple confession keeping some things back he would be able to remind
them about what they needed to confess. Many of the Holy Souls are said to have come to him asking him for prayers. But perhaps
what was most striking for people who saw him was that he suffered
the passion of Christ every time he celebrated the mass. You
can still get DVDs of him celebrating the mass and it is quite
something to watch. He was forbidden from preaching, because
the Vatican were suspicious of the mystical gifts that he had, but he
didn’t need to because just watching him celebrate the mass was
enough. Thousands of people came to be present as he celebrated
the mass. During his life he was one of the most photographed
people in the world.
Why were people drawn to
this priest who lived in an obscure village in Italy? It had to
be more than just because he had these strange experiences and
gifts. The reason why people were drawn to him, is the same
reason why people were drawn to people like Mother Teresa, a poor
wrinkled old woman, or to John Paul II and many others. It is
because people experienced God through them in an extraordinary way.
God is attractive and that’s why people who are close to God, or
holy, are attractive. People want to be close to them, because
we are instinctively drawn to God’s presence. Holiness
(being close to God) is often confused with piety (showing great devotion to
holy things, or certain prayers), but the two are not the same. People who are pious are not
necessarily holy and people who are holy are not necessarily pious.
Padre Pio could apparently be quite gruff, but people were drawn to
him all the same.
I remember reading a story
about one woman who went to Pietrelcina to go to him for confession.
She had to wait several days to be heard, because there were so many
people going to him at that time. When she finally went to
confession and confessed, he just closed the little door on her
without saying anything. She was furious and went back in a
rage to the house where she was staying. The owner of the house
told her not to worry, but just to think for a few days and then go
back. As she began to calm down and reflect on what she had
said, she realised that she had been quite insincere and had really
only been going out of curiosity. She then went back a few days
later, made a more sincere confession and she said that he
couldn’t have been kinder. He obviously recognised that she
was insincere the first time and this apparent rejection that she
experienced was really what she needed. It shocked her into
reality.
One of the sayings that is
often associated with Padre Pio is this: ‘Pray, hope and don’t
worry.’ It is so simple and yet so wise. Often the
advice that holy people like Padre Pio gave was so simple and I think
that is the key to growing in faith. We cannot figure it out,
and we will get ourselves in knots if we try, because what we believe
in is totally beyond our understanding.
In the Old Testament there
is the story of Naaman the leper who came from Damascus and went to
the prophet Elisha in Israel to be healed. Elisha told him to
go and bathe in the Jordan seven times. When he heard this he
was furious because he thought that was so stupid. He said,
‘Aren’t the waters in my own country better than here?’
But then his servants pushed him and said, ‘If the prophet had told
you to do something really difficult wouldn’t you have done it?
So why not do this, even though it seems so simple?’ (See 2
kings 5). So eventually he gave in and went to the river and he
was healed. God often leads us in ways that are so simple.
In the Gospel the Lord
presents us with an interesting model. When the disciples are
arguing about who is the greatest, he presents them with a child.
What’s so special about a child? Perhaps two things in
particular: trust and simplicity. Children show total trust,
and children keep things simple, often in a very disarming way, as
you know. The more we respond to this draw that God plants
inside of us, the more we begin to realise that it is very simple.
And people tell me, ‘Oh but father it is not so simple, it is
really very complicated.’ No it’s not. We make it
complicated. If God has given us a way to follow him it must be
possible for everyone without exception. And if it is possible
for everyone without exception, then it must be very simple.
That is why several times, the Lord presented the disciples with the
model of a child. ‘Unless you become like little children you
cannot enter the kingdom of God.’ He is saying, ‘Trust me,
your God, as a child trusts its parents.’ The path is a
simple one.
No comments:
Post a Comment