Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On October 12, XXVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided the Mass held at Saint Peter’s Basilica, in which he canonized four Saints: Italian priest Gaetano Errico (1791-1860), founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the Swiss religious Mother Maria Bernarda Bütler (1848-1924), the Indian religious Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception (Anna Muttathupadathu) (1910-1946), of the Poor Clares, and the lay woman Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán (1832-1869), from Ecuador.
“In baptism they received the wedding garment of divine grace. They kept it pure or purified it and made it bright in the course of their lives through the sacraments. Now they are joining in the heavenly wedding feast. The feast of the Eucharist, to which the Lord invites us every day and in which we must partake with the wedding garment of his grace, is the anticipation of that crowning feast in heaven. If it happens that this wedding garment is sullied or torn by sin, God's goodness does not reject us or leave us to our fate, but offers us the possibility, through the sacrament of reconciliation, of restoring the integrity of that wedding garment that is required for the feast.” Taking up the Biblical image of the wedding banquet, “covenant of love between God and his people,” theme of the Liturgy of the Word of the day, the Pope reflected on the fact that “parable of the wedding feast, brings us to reflect on the human response... But man must respond to God's generosity with free acceptance. This is precisely the generous path that was followed by those whom we are venerating today as saints.”
Then, Benedict XVI gave a brief spiritual reflection on the lives of each one of the new Saints. Father Gaetano Errico “entered among the group of other extraordinary priests who tirelessly made the confessional a place to dispense God's mercy, helping men to rediscover themselves, to fight against sin and make progress in the spiritual life. The street and the confessional were the two particular places of Gaetano Errico's pastoral work.”
Mother Maria Bernarda, although she preferred contemplative life, went to America as a missionary. She “deeply understood that the banquet the Lord has prepared for all peoples is represented in a very particular way in the Eucharist,” the Pope said. “This was the source and pillar of the spirituality of this new saint, as well as the missionary drive that led her to leave her homeland of Switzerland and open herself to other evangelizing horizons in Ecuador and Colombia.”
Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception had to face extreme physical and spiritual sufferings. “This exceptional woman, who today is offered to the people of India as their first canonized saint, was convinced that her cross was the very means of reaching the heavenly banquet prepared for her by the Father... May we imitate her in shouldering our own crosses so as to join her one day in paradise.”
The young lay woman Narcisa de Jesús Martillo Morán, born in Ecuador, “shows us a path to Christian perfection accessible to all faithful. Despite the abundant and extraordinary graces she received, her life developed in great simplicity, dedicated to her work as a seamstress and her apostolate as a catechist. In her passionate love for Jesus... she offers us an inviting testimony and a polished example of a life totally dedicated to God and neighbor.”
The Holy Father concluded his homily with this exhortation: “let us thank the Lord for the gift of sanctity, that today shines in the Church with singular beauty. Jesus invites us all to follow him, like these saints, on the way of the cross, to inherit the eternal life that he, dying, made a gift to us. May their examples encourage us, their teachings orient and comfort us, their intercession sustain us in our daily toil, so that we too may one day share with them and all the saints the joy of the eternal feast in the heavenly Jerusalem.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 13/10/2008)
