Sept 23rd, 2012 Dominica
XXV Per Annum, Anno B
“Let us beset the just one,
for he is obnoxious to us…let us see whether his words be true; …let us put the
just one to the test.”
These words from the book
of Wisdom have been repeated by countless numbers of the faithful from the time
it was written before Christ and throughout the Christian era. There is
something irresistible that draws us toward holy people, but there can also be
something that stirs up within us suspicion and envy. How can this man or this
woman be so good? Is it a deception? This was the case among the pharisees and
scribes as they encountered the very Son of God, Jesus Christ, standing before
them in his sacred humanity. His holiness was just too much for them to bear.
He was too perfect. There was surely something deceitful going on! Of course,
we know the truth about Jesus. He was God and He was the perfection of
holiness; the perfection of humanity.
We also know that He came
so that we could aspire to that holiness, with His help. When we are in a state
of grace, we have the gifts of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us so that we
can imitate Him. Each of us is called to be a saint. But aspiring to sainthood,
we place ourselves under the scrutiny of others who will question our holiness.
And we find ourselves questioning others saying, “Let us put the just one to
the test…if he be the son of God, God will defend him.”
Within the living memory of
many today, there is a man who drew both suspicion and devotion from the
highest tiers of the Church. In the year 2006, Pope Benedict XVI made available
to scholars and the faithful the Secret Vatican Archives of the Holy Office for
the years 1922-1939 (cf. Castelli. Padre Pio Under Investigation, 4). Among the
archives emerged a file begun in 1921 which detailed the inquisition of a
Capuchin priest known as Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Why was this priest being
investigated? Because the Holy Office had received reports that he was faking
the stigmata. The stigmata refers to the wounds of Christ which Padre Pio had
reportedly received, piercing his skin through the hands, feet and side.
Now, let’s go back to the
year 1918 when the story begins. World War I is raging. Pope Benedict XV had
called this war “the suicide of Europe” urging all Christians to pray for an
end to the war (cf. Wikipedia). In response, a young Capuchin priest named
Padre Pio offered himself to God as a victim that the war might be ended.
Within the span of about a week, Padre Pio had an experience while hearing
confessions which he later described: a celestial person appeared and hurled a
flaming spear into his soul. In his own words, “Since that day, I am mortally
wounded. It feels as if there is a wound in the center of my being that is
always open and it causes constant pain” (Preziuso, The Life of Padre Pio,
103).
A month later, in
September, Padre Pio celebrated the Mass and afterwards, he was praying in
thanksgiving. He later wrote about what happened next:
“I
was alone. . . after celebrating Mass, when I was overtaken by a repose similar
to a sweet sleep. All my external and internal senses and all the faculties of
my soul were in an indescribable quiet. During this time there was absolute
silence around me and within me. There then followed a great peace and
abandonment to total privation of everything. . . This all happened in an
instant.
While
all this was happening, I saw in front of me a mysterious person, similar to
the one I had seen on August 5, except that now his hands and feet and side
were dripping blood. His countenance terrified me. I don’t know how to tell you
how I felt at that instant. I felt that I was dying, and I would have died had
the Lord not intervened and sustained my heart, which felt as if it would burst
forth from my chest. The countenance of the mysterious figure disappeared and I
noticed that my hands and feet and side were pierced and oozing blood”
(Preziuso 106).
When it was discovered what
had happened, the saint was humiliated by the attention that everyone paid to
him over this. But he was at peace that he could offer this suffering up to God
united to the suffering of Jesus Christ on the Cross. He had been prepared for
this by Jesus who had spoken to him in prayer several years before. Jesus had
said to him:
Do
not be afraid; I will make you suffer, but I will also give you strength. I
desire that your soul, by a daily and hidden martyrdom, should be purified and
tested. Do not be surprised if I permit the devil to tempt you, the world to
disgust you, persons dearest to you to afflict you, because nothing can prevail
against those who mourn beneath the cross for love of me and whom I exert
myself to protect [(Epistolario, I, 339)
Preziuso 139].
Shortly after this
happened, word got out and people began flocking to see Padre Pio. Word even
reached the Vatican. In response, Fr. Agostino Gemelli, OFM, visited the
convent of San Giovanni Rotondo where Padre Pio lived. Gemelli was a disinguished
scholar who doubted the authenticity of the stigmata (cf. Castelli 5). He
immediately wrote a personal letter to the Holy Office in Rome declaring it
“the fruit of suggestion” (5). Thus began the formal inquisition.
In June of 1931, a letter
arrived from Rome restricting the priestly faculties of Padre Pio. He was no
longer allowed to celebrate Mass publicly nor to preach nor hear confessions.
News quickly spread and the people protested outside the convent. Padre Pio
accepted this decision and offered it up. After all, it was God’s work, not
his. God could accomplish far more, if He chose, by his humiliations and
suffering than by his priestly ministry. Pope Pius XI came to his rescue and
released him from these restrictions in 1934. From that time crowds began to
flock to San Giovanni Rotondo to go to Confession to Padre Pio. He would sit in
the confessional for hours upon end. He could read people’s souls, even
recognizing sins that they withheld from him. But he did not judge them. He
wished them to be set free. He loved them and so he became known for not giving
absolution if they were there for the wrong reasons. Those who came to him
insincerely, to test him, to mock him, or just to visit a celebrity priest,
were sent away.
But he warned other priests
not to copy him in this practice. He said: “You cannot do what I do!” (Preziuso
151). “All those who experienced the bitterness of being sent away without
absolution, eventually, through the prayers of Padre Pio, were moved to true
remorse. They were not at peace! They lived in a state of constant, unbearable
agitation which ended only when, after a radical change of life and a total
conversion, they turned to the heavenly Father with sincere repentance. Then
their laments of sorrow turned into shouts of joy” (151). And Jesus would
sweetly say, “Ego te absolvo” through the ministry of His priest. Meanwhile
many people were experiencing miracles of healing and conversion. But the
investigation of Padre Pio continued throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.
It was even discovered that one of the friars had placed a bug in various
places to record the private conversations of Padre Pio.
In 1962, Cardinal Karol
Wojtyla wrote a letter to Padre Pio asking him to intercede and pray for a 40
year old woman in Krakow who was suffering greatly from cancer. Wojtyla had met
the priest many years before while a seminarian in Rome. Padre Pio read the
letter and said: “To this I cannot say no” (206). Ten days later, another
letter arrived from the future Pope John Paul II. The letter read that as the
woman was about to undergo surgery, her cancer “was suddenly cured” (206).
Cardinal Wojtyla thanked Padre Pio for the favor.
September 20th, 1968 marked
the fiftieth year of his receiving the stigmata. These wounds had soaked innumerable
bandages with his blood for 50 years. The wounds of Christ which he carried had
been examined time and again by skeptical doctors and scientists, humiliating
him and scoffing at him. Two days later on September 22nd, he celebrated a sung
Mass at 5 o’clock in the morning. The church was packed with 740 prayer groups.
At the consecration, someone noticed that his hands were smooth and clear.
There was no visible stigmata. After the Ite Missa Est was intoned,
Padre Pio collapsed. That night, he made his last confession in anticipation of
his death. He died very early in the morning on September 23rd, 1968, repeating
the words, “Jesus, Mary, Jesus, Mary.”
When they examined his dead
body, there were no marks, no scars, no trace that there had ever been a
stigmata. His skin was smooth and elastic. Those who examined his body
concluded that, among other things, this healing was a sign of the
Resurrection, when the body will be restored to its perfection after death. He
had suffered for Jesus Christ in life. His wounds were no longer needed after
death. His body remains incorrupt to this day. Padre Pio was canonized a saint
by Pope John Paul II in 2002. Padre Pio did not seek greatness. He sought to be
the last and the servant of all. In this, God exalted him and defended him and
took him to Himself.
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