Dear Friends of Padre Pio,
Peace and goodwill to each of you!
If God exists and if he is all-powerful, personal, and if he loves us, why do we
have to suffer so much? We know that theologians explain that evil is the result of
the bad use of good things, especially the bad use of our freewill. Moreover, we are
limited by our material and temporal nature in many instances and death induces
us to suffer the fear of the unknown and the termination of our personal world. But
why does God permit all this? What can be the greater good that could justify the
daily tragedies that so often afflict and unwittingly involve us?
Our human redemption through the Incarnation of God in Jesus of Nazareth is
fundamental in answering this interrogation. The faithfulness of Jesus to his Father
and to the inherent good in us demonstrates the full valor of our human capacity to
love. His unconditional loving rectifies and heals the infidelities that constitute our
sins.
Padre Pio understands that fidelity is the key that gives meaning to freely
endure our sufferings. He also recognizes that suffering is often a necessary
stimulus to provoke a testimony on our part either of our fidelity to God and
neighbor or to a pride-induced despair. Therefore, Padre Pio encourages his
spiritual daughter, Raffaelina Cerase, to be faithful to God despite her sufferings.
His advice to her in found in his letter to her dated August 4, 1915. Padre Pio
comments:
Remember the goodness with which the Lord has treated you up
to the present. He will continue his work of perfecting you which will
be to your advantage. He will continue to pour out upon you to the full
not only the oil of his gladdening mercy but the oil of his virtue which
will strengthen you and make you successful in the combat. We all
know well that wrestlers rub oil on their limbs to make them more
agile, more supple and more robust.
Carry on tranquilly, for the divine mercy will not be lacking and
much less will it be lacking in your case if you show docility beneath
the Lord’s divine action. Ah, Raffaelina, don’t be stingy with this
heavenly physician. For pity’s sake, don’t keep him waiting any longer.
To you, too, he is saying: Give me your heart”, my daughter, so that I
may pour my oil into it. For pity’s sake, let the invitation of such a
tender father not be wasted. Open the door of your heart to him with
trustful abandonment. Don’t hold up the precious stream of his oil as
it is poured upon you, lest you have to go in search of this oil of his
mercy at the hour of death like the foolish virgins of the Gospel, for
you will then find nobody willing to give it to you. Yes, during life
always remain united with Jesus in the olive-grove as he suffers his
agony. By sharing thus in the anointing of this grace and the comfort
of his strength you will find yourself after death among the same olive
trees to share in the joy of his Ascension and his glory.
The reflection continues: Implicit in Padre Pio’s advice to Raffaelina is that
suffering is a necessary means in our redemption. Suffering in itself is an evil, but
when endured consciously and freely for the benefit of another, suffering becomes
an expression of a transforming oblative love that heals and engenders life. This
oblative love is the love that Jesus has for us and when we connect to his love for
us by trying sincerely and firmly to reciprocate this faithfulness, we become
progressively united to him. This loving faithfulness endeavors to be authenticated
in every circumstance even in the ultimate instance of martyrdom. It is precisely in
situations of powerlessness that exceed our natural human capacity that this
faithfulness opens us to the loving ever-present mercy of God, but for this mercy to
enter into us and transform us it must have a space created by a conscious and
free abandonment to his merciful love.
Brothers and sisters, let us always be faithful to the loving mercy of Jesus in
every situation, cost what it may, with the certainty that this act of faithfulness and
abandonment will be our entrance into the beginning of Eternal Life.
Your brother in Christ Jesus,
Fray Guillermo Trauba, Capuchin
