Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest
I’m not much of a gardener. I often forget to water the plants and don’t really like doing yard work. However, a few months ago, I got a spider plant, which started out small but now is fairly large. It seems to be thriving even though the most I do for it is put it by the window. How and why? I recall that when this plant got too big for its small jar, I repotted it in a larger jar with nutrient-rich soil. While it struggled a bit initially, it grew beyond my expectations. Likewise, today’s Gospel about the parable of the sower calls us to grow by cultivating rich soil for our faith. Jesus challenges us to examine our lives to see what type of soil our faith grows in. Is it rich, rocky, or on a path? What is our life based on? What in our lives do we see, listen to, read, and take in that helps or doesn’t help us cultivate this soil? In a sense, the soil in which the seed of faith grows impacts our ability to be disciples of Jesus.
The first reading gives us insight as to what the seed in rich soil means. St. Paul wrote, “I charge you before God… to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (1 Tim 6:14). What is this commandment? Before this passage, he encouraged Timothy to dedicate himself to God, to “pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness,” (1 Tim 6: 11) and to not depend on money and wealth since “the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains,” (1 Tim 6:10). I recall that Jesus said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these,” (Mark 12: 30-31). Therefore, having our seed of faith fall on rich soil and bear fruit is to live by these two commandments and to root ourselves in Jesus and not wealth and the other riches of this world. How do you live that out in your life?
Today is the memorial of St. Pius of Pietrelcina, better known as Padre Pio. He had stigmata and, for most of his life, had poor health. However, he wasn’t deterred from living a life dedicated to God. He viewed his suffering as a form of prayer and this suffering allowed him to see Jesus in people who were also sick and suffering. So much so that he helped open a hospital called Home for the Relief of Suffering (Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza). How can we be inspired by his example to view our own sufferings in this way? The seed was planted in rich soil, which led Padre Pio to live a life dependent on God and full of compassion for others.
May you hear “the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance,” (Luke 8:15).
-Sr. Emily Sandoval, FMI