When it comes to today’s Saint and Feast Day, it would be easy to speak for hours and scratch the surface. St. Padre Pio was famous not because he was a brilliant theologian or popular orator but precisely because he suffered in humility and grace. When he would say Mass, he would often get lost in mystical visions resulting in long pauses. A Mass then took him sometimes as long as three hours to complete. He once said: “I wish I could celebrate it like other priests, I just can’t.” He is also one of the few Saints blessed with bearing the wounds of Christ, the stigmata, in his earthly flesh.
Instead of going into his life or trying to formulate a summary of what he taught and did, I want to offer a few quick quotes. Think of them as tips from Saint Padre Pio today as we go through our way of the cross, on the road to our calvary.
“The most beautiful act of faith is the one made in darkness, in sacrifice, and with extreme effort.”
Many people think of worship as something about them. They want to be entertained. The music needs to make them move and vibe, and they want to homily to be something that engages them. However, worship isn’t about us. It’s about Him, about Jesus Christ. Faith is an interior act, a choice, not a feeling.
“Happiness is only found in heaven.”
There is a distinct difference between joy and happiness. We should not expect to be perfectly happy in this life. But joy, joy is rooted in hope. Even in the difficulties of this life, we can find joy in knowing that there is hope to live forever in perfect happiness in the presence of God.
“My Jesus, love is what sustains me.”
Often, we seem to focus on our needs in today’s society. Make sure you’re eating right! Exercise. Take time for yourself. “Learn to love yourself.” These things will help us live better, but they aren’t the example Padre Pio gave us. It’s been said he ate so few calories that no one understood how he could function as he did.
Many days he was only consuming 300-400 calories. Padre Pio spent his entire day listening to confessions as people flocked from around the world to see him. Sleeping only a few hours and taking not a single day to himself, he became the Saint that we admire. Not in taking care of himself, but in sacrificing himself for others.
Padre Pio was a man who embraced the cross. He was a man of prayer and suffering, a man of service, with extreme love and devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ and our Blessed Mother.
“The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain.”
The scriptures tell us that Jesus on the cross set aside the advantages of divinity; he “emptied himself, taking on the form of slave.” God Himself gave us an example of humility so profound that the omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient deity became one of us and experienced pain and suffering. Saint Padre Pio reminds us that that is our path as well. Our true humility lies in discipline and self-sacrifice, that to become a Saint, we must set aside our wants and desires and instead serve Christ. The stigmata remind us that Christ is changing us, molding us, shaping us through the Sacraments. So rest in comfort when you struggle against temptation; know that it’s when you stop being tempted that you’ve given up on becoming who you were meant to be.
Because the greatest struggle of our lives is against our flesh, and being a Christian means we must pick up our cross and seek to have our sinful nature crucified. So continue to fight the good fight, and let this final quote sink in because it’s what we are here to do today. We are here to pray, to speak to God, to receive Him in the Sacred Host. As we prepare to receive Him, may the words of Padre Pio help us:
“Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart. You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips, but with your heart. In fact on certain occasions you should only speak to Him with your heart.”
A reflection on the readings for the Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina: September 23, 2021.