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Speaking Saturday at Mass in San Giovanni Rotondo, where Padre Pio ministered, Pope Francis lamented that many settle with “liking” the great saints on Facebook, but don’t go on to imitate them.
“True wisdom does not lie in having great qualities and true strength is not in power,” Francis said from the Church of St. Pio. “Those who show themselves to be strong and those who respond to evil with evil are not wise. The only wise and invincible weapon is charity inspired by faith, because it has the power to disarm the forces of evil.”
He said that St. Pio fought evil throughout his life “and fought it wisely, like the Lord: with humility, with obedience, with the cross, offering pain for love.”
“And everyone admired him; but few do likewise,” the Holy Father observed.
He said that many speak well of the saint, but asked how many take the step of imitating him?
“Many are willing to put a ‘like’ on the page of the great saints, but who does as they do? Because the Christian life is not a ‘like,'” he said, “it is a ‘gift’ …. Life is perfumed when it is offered as a gift; it becomes insipid when it is kept for oneself.”
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Read the full homily here.
And today we celebrate...