Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
San Giovanni Rotondo (Agenzia Fides) – Sunday 21 June the Holy Father Benedict XVI made a pastoral visit to San Giovanni Rotondo. At 10am he arrived at the shrine of Santa Maria delle Grazie and, after being welcomed by the civil and religious authorities, he stopped for a moment of adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament, paid a brief visit to the cell where Padre Pio da Pietrelcina died, and to crypt of the Shrine to venerate the earthly remains of the holy Friar. At 10.45am in front of the church of San Pio da Pietrelcina, the Holy Father presided a Eucharistic Concelebration. At the beginning of his homily, speaking of the life and the holiness of Padre Pio da Pietrelcina, Benedict XVI recalled that the Eucharist, “was the mystery which constituted the centre of his entire existence: the origin of his vocation, the power of his witness, the consecration of his sacrifice ”.
Commenting the Mass readings, the Gospel of the calmed tempest, a short passage of the Book of Job, and Psalm 106/107, the Holy Father said “in the Bible the sea is considered as a threatening element, chaotic, potentially destructive, which only God, the Creator, can command, govern and silence. There is however another force - a positive force - which moves the world and can transform and renew created beings: the force of the ‘love of Christ, - as St Paul calls it in the Second Letter to the Corinthians - : therefore not an essentially cosmic force, but instead divine, transcendent force…the solemn act of calming the stormy sea is clearly a sign of Christ's Lordship over negative powers and leads us to think of his divinity ”. The faith of the disciples is still weak, “it is still growing; it is a mixture of fear and confidence; whereas Jesus' trusting abandonment to the Father is total and pure. This explains why he sleeps during the storm, completely safe in the arms of God” the Pope explained, but he also underlined “there will come a time when Jesus will experience fear and anguish: when his hour arrives, he will feel upon himself the weight of the sins of humanity, like a great wave about to overwhelm, him… But even then Jesus does not doubt the power of God the Father or his closeness, even though he experiences to the full the abyss between hatred and love, between mistruth and truth, between sin and grace ”.
Benedict XVI went on to recall that one of the Saints “who lived this experience of Jesus intensely and personally” was Padre Pio da Pietrelcina. “The stigmata, which marked him in the body, united him intimately with the Crucified and Risen Lord. A true follower of Saint Francis of Assisi, like the Poverello, he made his own the experience of St Paul, as he describes it in his Letters: ‘I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ who lives in me’ (Gal 2,20); or: ‘so death is at work in us, life in you (2 Cor 4,12). This does not mean alienation, loss of personality: God never destroys what is human, instead he transform it with his Spirit and turns it to serve his plan for salvation. Padre Pio keeps his natural gifts, and even his temperament, but he offers everything to God who uses it freely to prolong the work of Christ: announcing the Gospel forgiving sins and healing the sick in body and spirit ”. The Pontiff went on to recall that Padre Pio, like Jesus, fought a radical battle “not against earthly enemies but against the spirit of evil”, using as protection "God's armour", "the shield of the faith" and "the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God " (Eph 6,11.16.17).
Addressing the Capuchin Friars Minor, members of Padre Pio prayer groups and the faithful of San Giovanni Rotondo, Benedict XVI said: “you are heirs of Padre Pio and the legacy he left you is holiness … Padre Pio drew people to the path of holiness with his own testimony, indicating as an example the ‘track’ which leads to holiness: prayer and charity. Prayer first of all. Like all great men of God, Padre Pio had become himself a prayer, in soul and body. His days were a lived Rosary, a continual meditation and assimilation of the mysteries of Christ in spiritual union with the Blessed Virgin Mary … From prayer, as from a living source, there flowed charity. The love he carried in his heart and transmitted to others was filled with tenderness, always attentive to the real situations of individual persons and of families”. His special concern for the sick and the suffering inspire his project for a great work to "alleviate suffering", and the Pope underlined that the Institute cannot be understood if it is separated from its inspiring force, evangelical charity animated with prayer.
“ My dear friends, today Padre Pio calls our attention to all this, –Benedict XVI concluded -. The danger of activism and secularisation is ever present; therefore my visit also intends to confirm your fidelity to the mission inherited from your beloved Padre. Many of you, men and women religious, lay men and women, are so occupied with thousands requests for service to pilgrims, or the sick at the hospital, as to risk neglecting the most necessary thing: to listen to Christ in order to do the will of God. When you feel this danger near, look to Padre Pio: look at his example, his suffering; invoke his intercession, that he may obtain from the Lord for you the light and the strength you need to carry on his mission imbued with love for God and fraternal charity ”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/6/2009; righe 62, parole 943)
