September 23 2020 (Ember Day) - St. Padre Pio - Mystical Phenomena (Padre Pio Academy EF Mass)

I like to wish you all a very happy feast day of the patron of your school, St. Padre Pio. I have to be honest, I do not know why, in fact, your school is under the patronage of St. Pio, and you all have probably studied his life, and know that he did have a truly remarkable life filled with many amazing mystical phenomena.

He could bilocate, that is, he could appear at two places at once, hundreds of miles apart, in order to deliver a message, or a word of comfort or challenge to someone. He could heal people like Our Lord, in the Gospels. Laying his hands on the sick, they would be immediately healed. He could even heal with his prayers. He would get a letter, and pray for that person, and they would be healed, even if they were on the other side of the globe.

Padre Pio, like St. John Vianney, often heard confessions for ten or twelve hours a day. He could read the hearts of the penitents, knowing their sins before they confessed them, or if they had forgotten a particular sin, or was too ashamed to confess a particular sin. Sometimes when he absolved the sins of a great sinner, he would experience great agony, the pains of Jesus’ crucifixion very deeply, a reminder that we are only able to be absolved because of what Jesus suffered for us.

And of course, Padre Pio had the mystical stigmata, the wounds of the Lord’s crucifixion in his hands. And he suffered greatly from them. When asked if the stigmata were painful, Padre Pio replied, "Do you think that the Lord gave them to me for a decoration?"

Why did God give Padre Pio these strange and marvelous mystical phenomena? One reason was for Padre Pio’s own sanctification. God chose him to bear a share of the cross in a unique way, to merit grace for his own soul and the souls of others.

This is certainly a reminder that every Christian is to embrace the suffering given to him from God, as a share in the cross of Jesus for the salvation of the world.

Also, those amazing mystical phenemona—the bilocation, reading of hearts, and miraculous healing—are a reminder of the amazing things God can do in our lives when we love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. The Lord Jesus even said that not only would we do the miraculous works he did in his ministry, but even other things, greater things, he said. We need to be open to God doing amazing things through us, by surrendering to God and uniting our lives with God to the best of our ability.

Thirdly, Padre Pio’s mystical phenomena are to help the world know that God is real and that God loves us and invites us to a share in his own life through faith and communion with His Son.

And really, that’s the mission of Padre Pio Academy isn’t it? To form disciples to share in the sufferings and mission of Christ, to help you young people to love God with your whole hearts, so that you can help the world know that God is real and calls humanity to believe in His Son.

In the old liturgical calendar today is an Ember Day. One of the special days of penance that occur four times a year around the changing of the seasons. Ember days are penitential in character: the priest wears penitential purple, the gloria is omitted, there is an extra scripture reading, which are all a little longer than a normal ferial day, there was no alleluia. We are kneeling for a little longer throughout the mass. What a fitting day to share with Padre Pio. For on this ember day we get to engage that activity that made him holy, a little extra penance, a little extra prayer.

Growth in holiness, making God’s goodness and love known to the world involves real effort. To quote Padre Pio himself, "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 flowering in Padre Pio’s soul which blossomed into such tremendous holiness, came because he willingly accepted those sufferings which came from God, he turned away from all selfishness, and embraced God’s Divine Will. May we do the same, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

Homily: Sept 23 2016 - Padre Pio - Mystical Phenomena & Humility

Padre Pio is certainly recognized for the incredible phenomena associated with him…the holy stigmata, he bore the marks of Jesus’ crucifixion on his hands for 50 years, the fact that he could read people’s souls, people would come to him in confession, and he would know their sins before they confessed them; he was capable of bilocating—on several instances he appeared in the United States while he was also still in Italy.

When Pope Paul VI visited Padre Pio’s tomb about five months after he died, he said the greatness of Padre Pio is not in these extraordinary mystical phenomena. The greatness of Padre Pio was in the fact that he was a humble friar, who humbly celebrated Mass, heard confessions from dawn to dusk; he was a man of suffering and prayer.

It would take him 3 hours to celebrate the Mass, as he was so mentally and spiritually engaged in these sacred mysteries. When Mass would begin at 4:30am, people would line up outside just to celebrate Mass with him. And he didn’t even preach, he simply celebrated Mass with ineffable humility. Padre Pio is said to have experienced very deeply the events of Calvary as he celebrated, and through his humble celebration, he would bring the fruits of the cross to the people. So great was his participation in the cross, that he literally shared Christ’s wounds.

He was, as Paul VI said, a man of suffering and a man of prayer. When asked if the wounds of his holy stigmata caused him suffering, he said, “well, the Lord didn’t give them to me for decoration.” But he also suffered the calumnies of those who were jealous of his relationship with the Lord. In their jealousy, some of his superiors placed unjust disciplines upon him, which he bore, humbly and quietly.

I believe like Padre Pio we are called to more devoutly enter into the Mass, to prepare our hearts for Mass, to truly lift up our hearts to heaven during the celebration of the Mass, to unite ourselves the suffering Christ during the Mass, to put the Mass truly as the source and summit of everything we do, and thank God deeply for the graces we receive from the Mass.

Also, as Padre Pio was so deeply devoted to the Sacrament of Confession, he heard confession often for 12 hours a day, we do well to invite those who have fallen away from Confession to return. Not only those who have fallen away from the Church, but there are many who receive Holy Communion sacrilegiously, coming to Communion though they are guilty of serious sins. So many who struggle with habitual venial sins would find great advancement in the spiritual life from more frequent confession.

We also do well to learn from him how to bear wrongs patiently and without complaint. There is also great spiritual growth to be had if when we just learned to stop complaining about little things and talking about the small wrongs done to us by others—family members or strangers.