Mortality, Suffering, and Padre Pio (Part 2)
Suffering is generally viewed as a bad thing. Why would anyone want to experience pain, loss, grief, humiliation, failure, or any of the various other things that cause suffering? Unless this suffering had some meaning and purpose. With suffering as a part of every human life this side of heaven, what if we could find a way to approach suffering as something to be used for our betterment and the betterment of the world rather than something to tear us down and make life worse. For an example of this, we return to the story of Padre Pio introduced in the last post.
Besides all the strange and miraculous gifts that Padre Pio possessed, perhaps the most intense and important gift was his receipt of the stigmata. What are stigmata you might ask? These are a physical manifestation on a person’s body of the same death wounds that Jesus experienced on the Cross. More specifically, the stigmata typically comprise nail holes in the hands and feet, and a spear laceration in the side. They are not imaginary or psychological, but rather real painful bleeding physical wounds that mysteriously appear on the person who experiences them as if the wounds were personally inflicted on them. In the Christian tradition, the stigmata connect the bearer in the most intimate way to the suffering of Jesus on the Cross. Why this happens, no one really knows. Stigmata are rare phenomena, having occurred in only a few hundred people in recorded history, with the most well-known recipient being St. Francis of Assisi.
Padre Pio experienced the stigmata for 50 years of his life, and they were examined by numerous physicians and authorities over several decades without clear explanation as to a cause. Witnesses described the wounds as giving off a floral scent, never healing but also never becoming infected. Given the spectacle that this caused, the church actually initially placed strict restrictions on Padre Pio to decrease his public visibility. Eventually, once the legitimacy of these stigmata was accepted, Padre Pio was allowed to resume his public ministry, wearing gloves to try to cover these wounds. Many modern photos show the blood seeping through these gloves. Imagine the intense pain experienced by 5 non-healing bleeding wounds over half a century of life, every step or grasp or movement a stabbing reminder. Imagine the embarrassment and humiliation of feeling like a spectacle to the crowds who wanted to observe these wounds, especially for a quiet humble monk. Imagine the despair of being repeatedly investigated, and questioned, and doubted, and ultimately being shut away from the public by authorities to prevent further unwanted attention and commotion.
This kind of physical and psychological suffering would have broken most of us. But not Padre Pio. He found a way, like many of the greatest saints who have graced the earth, to turn his suffering into an outward expression of love for others. Having been frail and sickly since childhood, even before the stigmata, Padre Pio had personal experience with modern medicine and noted that the care he received during a hospital stay focused its ministrations only on his physical suffering. He aimed to develop a place of healing that was something more, something that could provide both physical and spiritual healing for patients. Among his many supernatural gifts, Padre Pio had the personal gift of healing, and he spent his life relieving the suffering of others. But more importantly and sustainably, he had a vision to achieve this in a grander way beyond himself. What could a quiet monk in rural Italy possibly do to accomplish this? In 1956, he founded a hospital called the “House for the Relief of Suffering.” Over the subsequent decades, it has grown into a massive scientific research hospital, now housing 1200 patient beds, 30 medical and surgical wards, 50 clinical specialties, and over 4300 diagnostic and therapeutic services. There is even a newly proposed U.S. medical school called the “St. Padre Pio Institute for the Relief of Suffering” in Kansas that was announced earlier this month to be founded in collaboration with Padre Pio’s House for the Relief of Suffering.
What ultimately is the lesson from Padre Pio? He viewed his own suffering as a way to join or share in the suffering of Jesus for the redemption of the world. Not only in the tangible material way of directly healing people and establishing a hospital to help others in the healing ministry. But also in the spiritual way, through what the Christian tradition calls “redemptive suffering.” Redemptive suffering enacts its effect through a spiritual physics (to use Bishop Robert Barron’s term) that we cannot understand but can believe in with the eyes of faith. My suffering and yours, born well in a spirit of humble service and sacrifice to one’s fellow man, can change the world in ways we will never see or know. Even for those of different religious or secular beliefs, allowing suffering to transform one’s life for the benefit of others, rather than letting suffering lead to bitterness or despair, is a worthy goal. Our suffering can provide us with an empathy that otherwise would have remained hidden from us, an empathy that allows us to reach out to others and say “I know your pain. I am with you. Let me accompany you. Do not be afraid.”
Padre Pio said “A good heart is always strong, it suffers, but with tears it is consoled by sacrificing itself for its neighbor and for God.” We can all heed these wise words and find some comfort in knowing that our suffering need not be in vain, need not be wasted, if only we open our hearts to let our suffering help us heal the world. When Padre Pio died in 1968, over 100,000 people attended his funeral in the small town of San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. The shrine that has grown around his monastery, church, burial, and hospital is a pilgrimage site for many millions of people every year. Upon his death, the stigmata miraculously disappeared from Padre Pio’s body, leaving no trace of scarring.
