how god sees things - 25th week tuesday 2014

The book of Proverbs where our first reading today is taken from, is part of a group of books in the bible we call Wisdom Literature.  It is grouped under this heading because it teaches wisdom, it teaches the truth and most especially it inculcates a way of life.  Despites its name the book of proverbs is not entirely proverbs or short statements.  There are also stories, parables and poetry. The book of proverbs provides practical wisdom which we can practice every day but it is different from the mere worldly wisdom because it has a moral and a spiritual content.  The wise man, the man imbued by wisdom is one who always views life with a spirit of reverence to God while the fool, the opposite of the wise is a person who has no religious sensibilities, one who does not consider God in his life behaving as if there is no God.   The Book of Proverbs considers the fool as a person who does not have God in his thoughts.  So we find in our readings a contrast between a wise man and a foolish man, the wise and the fool.

Let us look into them.  One of the proverbs in our first reading says, All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes, but it is the LORD who proves hearts.  We can always claim we are right, sakto kita for example in the way we treated a person who made a mistake, sakto kita in the decision which we made.  Pero dianay ka, sin-o ang ginbasehan mo nga sakto ka, ang imo lang bala panghunahuna kag balatyagon ukon ang panghunahuna sang Dios.  The bottom line of this proverb then is sin-o ang imo basehan sang imo decisions, who and what is the basis of your decisions, of your actions and reaction.  The proverb tells us that the wise person has recourse on God because it is God who determines what is right.  It should not be how I see things.  It should always be how God sees things.

Today we celebrate the memorial of St. Padre Pio.  And since this mass is for the seminary I would like to examine Padre Pio’s vocation to the priesthood.  Why and how did Padre Pio became a priest?

First it is the environment in his family and in his town.  Pietrelcina, the town where Padre Pio was born is a religious town, with so many religious festivities which Francesco was an enthusiastic participant.  And the members of the Forgione family were religious.  Priests do not become priests alone, saints do not become saints alone.  There is always a family, a town, an environment that supports it and makes it grow.  Like a seed, it needs good soil, a soil with the necessary nutrients.

And second, the priesthood of Fr. Pio was not without sacrifice from parents.  His father had to go to America to become an "OFW" in order that he can find good work so that he can afford the cost of education for the young Francesco.  It must have been difficult growing up with your father so far away.  And it must have been also difficult for his father as an OFW so far from his family.  But that was the sacrifice they have to make and it was willing and wholeheartedly embraced.  And Francesco appreciated that, studying harder all the more conscious of this sacrifice.  You see he went there to America not for a house, not for a great education for the children but for the priesthood of Francesco nga ang ROI, ang return of investment pigado – pari na, Capuchin Franciscan  pa.  That is shy sacrifice has always been the hallmark of Padre Pio.  He embraced poverty living a simple life and he received a stigmata to participate more closely in the sufferings of Jesus. 

Let us learn from the life Padre Pio and his Family as we learn from the book of proverbs that God is always central to life, God is always part, an important part of any equation.