September 2024
Dear Friends of Padre Pio,
Peace to each of you!
From time-to-time strange things happen to us that we cannot explain. Unfamiliar territory makes us feel uncomfortable and we look to our previous experiences to put to rest this new unknown. For instance, this noise at night, is it a robber trying to break into my house or is it just that pesky cat walking over the roof and eves? Thus, we try to fit a new experience into an old category and although this strategy may give us a certain amount of peace for a time, it robs us of the opportunity to be transformed by this new stimulus. In an effort to be in control of our surroundings we risk inventing our own reality. The result can be a rigid frame of mind and slavery to our fears.
God is the ultimate mystery, and we usually fear God more than love him. An encounter with the infinite mystery of God is not some little thing. We come away transformed and ripped away from our accustomed areas of comfort. Being near to God makes us uncomfortable, especially at first and so we flee from his presence believing that to be with him is to be introduced to a life-long suffering. This defensive posture can deprive us of being transformed by the mystery of God’s love. Little do we realize that this consequent suffering is a suffering of healing and will be freely consented to by us, knowing that it is caused by an interior transformation in which the gains undoubtedly outweigh the losses. This transformation is due to an encounter with the mystery of his merciful love. But if we wish to be transformed into his likeness, we must be sincere in our intention, pure of heart, and faithful to him according to our ability in every circumstance.
Padre Pio, 24 years old and recently ordained, had some strange experiences that caused him fear and made him uncomfortable. Not knowing how to interpret these experiences, he prudently sought the advice of his spiritual director Padre Benedicto de San Marco in Lamis for his discernment. This petition was embarrassing for the young priest, but with a combination humility and courage he wrote the following commentary of this experience to Padre Benedicto in his letter to him dated September 8, 1911. Padre Pio comments:
Yesterday evening something happened to me which I can neither explain nor understand. In the center of the palms of my hands a red patch appeared around the size of a cent and accompanied by acute pain. The pain was much more acute in the left hand, and it still persists. I also feel some pain in the soles of my feet.
This phenomenon has been repeated several times for almost a year now, but for some time past it had not occurred. Do not be disturbed by the fact that this is the first time I have mentioned it, for I was invariably overcome by abominable shame. If you only knew what it cost me to tell you about it now! I have lots of things to tell you but find no words to express myself. I can only say that when I am close to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament my heart throbs so violently that it seems to me at times that it must burst out of my chest.
Sometimes at the altar my whole body burns in an indescribable manner. my face in particular seems to go on fire. I have no idea, dear Father, what these signs mean.
The reflection continues: Padre Pio was experiencing the first indications of the stigmata of Jesus which were to become visible in his body some seven years later. As with Padre Pio, it seems that each of us has an impetus of love put within us from the beginning by our Father loving us. This seed of love is meant to grow in a particular way and flower, presenting the glory of God in the world. Human nature seems to need a stimulus, an interaction, to activate and start the growing process of our human development. For the body and other material things it seems that this stimulus is also material such as the food we ingest. In a similar way, spiritual growth needs a spiritual stimulus. Our spirit does not increase in a material sense but rather is transformed. This transformation comes from a spiritual stimulus or food, (remember that Jesus presents himself to us as Bread that gives us real, eternal Life). This spiritual stimulus, although dependent on knowing, is distinct from understanding. Even though our understanding has grown immensely through the ages, our moral development, which proceeds from our decisions, and which are acts of the will, does not show notable advances. We are just as violent and cruel to one another as we were thousands of years ago. The necessary spiritual stimulus to transform our spirit seems rather to be an encounter with love, which has its ultimate origin in God. God is love, as Saint John says. In fact, the first two commandments speak of the necessity of loving, first of God with our whole being, and secondly toward our neighbor even if he be our enemy.
Docility before the mystery of God purifies our heart so that our intentions are sincere and firm toward God. This enables us to see his countenance more clearly. This exchange of loving glances transforms us and makes us more transparent in such a way that the initial seed of love within us begins to manifest itself through our uniqueness as persons. The Holy Spirit is able to act in us with more freedom and we spontaneously begin to give testimony to the glory of God in our everyday living. It is this mysterious love and its impetuosity that stimulates and invigorates the soul and transforms it progressively into divine loving. Given that we are humans and not angels, this transformation is through our loving faithfulness to Jesus, Christ incarnate. The Church calls this transformation sanctification or divinization.
The Church meticulously conserves the mystery of God precisely for its power to transform us. The sacraments and solemnities of the liturgical calendar present us with the mystery of God under various aspects. Our docility before these mysteries permits us to enter through these “portals” to a transformation though the action of the Holy Spirit. Just as Padre Pio was docile before the mystery of God and was transformed into an impressionable likeness of Jesus, we also unite ourselves to him, to Saint Francis of Assisi and with all the saints in forming one Body in Christ on our way to the Father.
Your brother in Christ Jesus,
Fray Guillermo Trauba, Capuchin
