by bro Francesco Dileo, OFM Cap.
‘In the history of salvation, whenever the Lord steps into a person’s home and life, something new takes place. An ordinary man or woman may be called to lead (as with Moses), a barren woman may conceive (as with Sarah), the dead may be restored to life (as with Lazarus); in short, history itself can take a completely different turn… Such moments usually arise at the edge of despair: a people long enslaved and exhausted, a couple without hope to conceive, enemies who oppress with no escape. This is to make it clear that salvation comes from God alone. And it is also to reveal that God acts freely, asking nothing in return. He chooses a people, a family, a person precisely because of their poverty, their need of salvation—because He loves them.’ With these words, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, reflected on the biblical readings for Sunday, 20 July, the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Three weeks later, on 10 August, building on his earlier message and drawing on his background as a biblical theologian—added: ‘This is how God works. He loves and chooses humankind not because of merit or special qualities, but simply because it pleases Him to do so. God loves freely. The Father has given us His Kingdom; He has entrusted it to our littleness.’ He then observed that ‘the Kingdom comes to us through an experience of emptiness, of something missing, almost like a wound. That emptiness, that longing, carves out a space in our hearts for expectation and desire—the most precious treasures of life. They open us to something beyond ourselves; they open us to encounter, to prayer, to friendship.’ And—one might add—ultimately, to hope.
Cardinal Pizzaballa—himself a Franciscan friar—would have liked to speak on 23 September and to direct them not only to Padre Pio’s many devotees but also to believers everywhere, and above all to the people of the Holy Land—so often left yearning for peace amid an unrelenting cycle of conflict, suffering and loss.
Unfortunately, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem rightly hailed as a witness of peace and hope, just a few days before the event, had to decline the invitation to come to San Giovanni Rotondo, to preside at the solemn Eucharistic Concelebration at 11 a.m., on the day when the Church gives thanks for the gift of St Pio of Pietrelcina.
Therefore, reflecting on the words spoken by one who lives out his vocation as a successor of the Apostles in the very land where Christ founded His Church, let us take to heart the words of the holy Capuchin himself, written long ago on 20 June 1915, yet still strikingly fresh and relevant today:
‘Let us always trust in God […] and may our lively faith and the comfort of Christian hope assist us in this. We must pray continually, moreover, that peace may soon smile on the nations. We should turn our thoughts to heaven, our true homeland, of which our earthly country is but a dim image, and make every effort with the divine assistance to preserve at all times, amidst happy or sad events, the cheerful calm that becomes the true followers of the fair Nazarene’ (Letters I, p. 666).