Daily Gospel Reflection

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September 23, 2023

Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina - Priest
Lk 8:4-15
Listen to the Audio Version

When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another
journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
“A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he called out,
“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”

Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
“Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables
so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.

“This is the meaning of the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance.”

Reflection

Luísa Andrade ’28, Ph.D.
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“Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.” What a powerful line! I often think of knowledge as what manifests the hidden and illuminates the mysterious. Could the gospel invert that idea?

Could there be a knowledge of what is incomprehensible in human terms? Perhaps this gospel is telling us that, to enter the kingdom, we do not need to uncover mysteries but rather to cover ourselves in them—to hide ourselves in them as a seed hides itself in the dark soil. It reminds me of a story of Servant of God Chiara Petrillo.

After losing two children to malformations in the womb, Chiara had a third, healthy baby. This time, however, Chiara discovered she had an aggressive form of cancer and wouldn’t live much longer. Two unrelated infant malformations, tongue cancer in an otherwise healthy 26-year-old woman, and all this only a few years after getting married to the love of her life! Chiara would comment laughing that it was so absurd, so irrational, that it could only be God. She would also say that she “quit understanding” and that this surrender was precisely what allowed her to recognize this time of trial as a time of God’s visitation.

How does all this relate to the gospel passage? The unfruitful seeds stay within the path, rocks, and thorns; they never enter the dark soil. What if this is because entering the darker, mysterious places of the human experience makes us afraid? To be granted access to the mysteries of the kingdom of God is to go deeper than an earthly way of thinking. It means to share a secret with God. It means that come what may, we enter into the mysterious beauty of our Father’s care.

Let us do like Chiara, escaping life’s temptations, anxieties, and pleasures by “quitting our way of understanding” and entering the greatest mystery of joy.

Prayer

Rev. Thomas O'Hara, C.S.C.

Lord, you explained the meaning of the parable so the disciples could understand more fully. This day some things may happen that we do not fully understand. But as did the disciples, let us trust you and put our faith in you. Open our hearts and minds so that we, even with our lack of complete understanding, know you are guiding us and leading us this day. We pray this to you our God, forever and ever. Amen.

Saint of the Day

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, commonly known as Padre Pio, was a Franciscan friar who lived during the first half of the 20th century. He received the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus’ crucifixion, and manifested other supernatural signs of holiness during his life.

Padre Pio was born in 1887 in Pietrelcina, a small town in southern Italy, and baptized with the name Francesco. His parents were deeply religious—they led the family to daily Mass, prayed the rosary every night, and fasted from meat three times a week in honor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Although his parents couldn’t read, they memorized Scripture faithfully and told stories from the Bible to their children.

Francesco was immersed in a world of faith—he dedicated himself to Jesus at the age of 5 and reportedly related to Jesus, Mary, and his guardian angel as close friends. When he was 10, he met a Franciscan friar who was traveling the countryside asking for donations and he told his parents that he wanted to do the same with his life.

They took him to a nearby Franciscan community to see if the friars would accept him. The friars said that Francesco was suited for religious life, but needed more education than his sporadic attendance at the local public school had given him. His father traveled to New York several times to find better work in order to pay for a tutor for his son.

When he was fifteen, Francesco entered the community and adopted the name Pius—or Pio, in Italian—in honor of St. Pius V, the patron saint of Pietrelcina. He began studying for the priesthood and was ordained in 1910.

In 1917, he was briefly drafted to serve in World War I but was discharged due to ill health. Throughout his life, Pio would continue to suffer from various illnesses.

Upon his arrival in the community, Pio reported seeing visions of Jesus, Mary, and angels. After offering Mass one day in 1918, Pio received a vision of Jesus. As the apparition ended, the wounds of the crucifixion appeared on Pio's hands, feet, and side. The blood that seeped from these wounds smelled sweet and fragrant, like the perfume of flowers, and the wounds never became infected. Despite the examination of several doctors, the phenomena were medically inexplicable. The stigmata would remain on Pio's body for the rest of his life.

Pio dreaded the attention the stigmata brought him, and he often wore bandages or mittens over his hands to cover up the wounds. Nevertheless, Christian faithful continually sought him out. Pio demonstrated other signs of great power and holiness—he was known to bilocate, that is, to be seen in two places simultaneously; he could read people’s hearts upon the first encounter, and his prayer was known to heal the sick. As a young archbishop in Poland, the future Pope John Paul II once wrote to Padre Pio to ask for his prayers for a woman with terminal throat cancer. Within weeks, the woman was fully healed.

These signs brought Pio an abundance of attention, and church officials struggled with managing the endless flow of pilgrims. The Vatican needed to be sure that the miracles surrounding Pio were authentic and wanted to reduce potentially dangerous publicity, so they forbade Padre Pio from offering Mass in public. They considered moving him to a different Franciscan community, but, upon hearing the news, the pious locals threatened to riot. Officials decided to let Pio remain where he was, as there were, regardless, few friaries available that were more remote than his.

By 1933, the officials made up their minds in his favor, and the Vatican began to promote Pio’s ministry. His day was filled with hearing confessions for more than twelve hours at a time. Pilgrims spent the night outside in line, waiting for the chance to confess to him and receive his advice. One of his famous mottos was, “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.”

Padre Pio received visitors in person and also corresponded with souls all over the world. After celebrating Mass and attending to correspondence, sometimes Pio only had a few hours to sleep every night. Around the time of World War II, Pio announced a plan to build a hospital near the Franciscan community, and his hospital was completed after the war.

In the 1960s, Padre Pio’s health began to deteriorate. On the fiftieth anniversary of receiving the stigmata, he fell ill and passed away a few days later, on this date in 1968. When his body was examined after death, the stigmata had disappeared.

Saint Pius of Pietrelcina—Padre Pio—you bore the wounds of Jesus’ crucifixion on your body—pray for us!