Feast of St. Padre Pio
Monday 25th Week, Year I
Baltimore Basilica Trust
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption
September 23, 2024
Dear friends,
Someone once said that the saints are the living interpretation of Scripture, and today’s feast – St. Padre Pio – is an exception instance of that adage. Let’s review his life. He was born in Southern Italy in 1887 and professed as a Capuchin friar. Ordained at the age of 22, he was kind and prayerful. In his 8th year as a priest, praying before a crucifix, he received the stigmata, that is, the wounds of Christ were made visible on his body. Padre Pio heard confessions by the hour, healed many by his touch, and opened a hospital that still serves some 60,000 people per year. To this day, some 400,000 people participate in prayer groups he started. Did he bi-locate and read souls clairvoyantly? Many say so!
How, then, does St. Padre Pio interpret today’s Scripture readings? When Proverbs says, “Refuse no one a good . . . when it is in your power to do it for him” – do we not think of the countless hours Padre Pio spent in the confessional?
When Proverbs says, “When dealing with the arrogant, [the Lord] is stern, but to the humble, he shows kindness” – do we not think of this humble friar who patiently bore many trials, some from within his Order and some from the wider Church? No one who really knew Padre Pio doubted that he lived every moment in the embrace of the Lord’s loving kindness.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us not to conceal the light but to put it on a lampstand where it gives light to all. The light, the love, the mercy of Christ shone through Padre Pio, most especially through the stigmata, the wounds of the Passion through which the glory of the Savior’s self-giving love emanates. In the holiness of this humble friar, the love of God was made visible.
Padre Pio had a warm and loving devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here in the heart of Mary’s Basilica, let us ask for the grace to be ourselves living interpretations of the Scriptures we read and proclaim.