Passion Empowers
Homily on Wednesday, 25th Week in OT; Memorial of St Padre Pio, 23 Sept 2026, DBPH Chapel, Talamban
The passage we have just heard (Lk 9:1-6) presents Jesus sending the twelve apostles for an OJT, a kind of On the Job Training program. If you would recall, last Sunday’s Gospel was about Jesus’ parable of the landowner who kept going out from sunrise to sunset to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. Today, we see that parable becoming a reality in his public ministry.
Jesus, at a certain point of his public ministry, realized the enormous work that needed to be done – to preach the Good News, to heal the sick and the afflicted, to call and gather people and bring them back to the Kingdom of the Father. And so, fully aware that he was God’s beloved Son endowed with the same power of the almighty Father, he chose to share with the Twelve his incredible power. These men have been staying with him for several months already and have witnessed the wonderful deeds he had been doing. It was time for them to be immersed in the field of his apostolic work and to apply what they have learned from their master.
Therefore, Jesus sent the Twelve to the nearby towns and villages with a mission to preach the good news of God’s reign and to do wonders among God’s chosen people. Consequently, the Twelve went forth following the Lord’s instructions, preaching and performing miracles. And as they travelled light, they soon realized that all they needed for the mission to be fruitful was a heart filled with the love of God, burning with passion for his Kingdom.
Today we see the power of the same Gospel so much alive and at work in Padre Pio, an Italian priest belonging to the Order of the Friars Minor Capuchin. Born in 1887 to a very Catholic family, he soon grew up serving at the altar in church, with a growing desire to devote his entire life to God. And so at 15, after being inspired by the homily of a Capuchin Friar, he left his home and entered the Capuchin friary as a novice.
Despite many trials and obstacles, he persevered in his vocation and soon got ordained a priest. He exercised his priestly ministry with a heart, burning with zeal for souls and passionate love for God. Unexpectedly at a young age of 31, he received the Lord’s stigmata, thus making him participate really in Christ’s passion, while simultaneously serving the sick, the needy, as well as the penitent sinners.
Later on in 1956, by God’s providence, he had a big hospital built for the poor in a town called San Giovani Rotondo. He died in 1968 at age 81, after having suffered the pain of the stigmata on his hands, his feet, and his side for 50 years. He was canonized a saint by Pope St John Paul II in 2002. Next year will be the Silver Jubilee of his canonization.
Like the Twelve apostles, may we too learn to travel light, bringing only a heart filled with the overwhelming love of God. May we be like St Padre Pio in our pastoral zeal, so that those who meet us may experience the God’s healing grace through us. GiGsss!
