Man of Constant Sorrow

Praising God for the lives of Padre Pio and Father Pius

09/23/2017

1 Timothy 6:13-16 Beloved: I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession, to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ that the blessed and only ruler will make manifest at the proper time, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.

            Today, Fr. Pius, our associate pastor, will celebrate his 40th anniversary as a priest. Today is also the feast day of St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, simply known as “Padre Pio,” and that’s what I like to call Fr. Pius, “Padre Pio.” That’s how you say Fr. Pius in Italian.  So, today, we will celebrate two “Padre Pio’s,” and their lives bear a remarkable resemblance to each other, in that both their lives are marked by sorrow and suffering.

               St. Padre Pio was a Franciscan friar who lived between 1887 and 1968. Photographs and holy cards show his hands covered with a bandage because he received the “stigmata.” Those are the wounds of Christ, the nail-marks in his hands. Doctors examined Padre Pio’s hands and verified that it was truly inexplicable wounds that bled but never got infected. Pope Paul VI, in 1971, made this astute observation about Padre Pio, saying: “What fame he had. How many followers from around the world. Why? Was it because he was a philosopher, a scholar, or because he had means at his disposal? No, it was because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from morning till night, and was a marked representative of the stigmata of Our Lord. He was truly a man of prayer and suffering.” Not bad praise from the pope! In other words, the surest sign that God loves you is not in leading a painless and pleasure-filled life, but by being drawn close to the Cross of Christ, to be a “man of constant sorrow.”

            Our own Padre Pio, Fr. Pius, was born in 1945 and will turn 72 next year, and he, too, is no stranger to suffering. He was born in Nigeria and educated by the Subiaco Benedictines from the Arkansas River Valley, who had a mission school in Nigeria. Fr. Pius did not originally want to become a priest. But because of the brutality and bloodshed of the Nigerian Civil War, from 1967 to 1970, in which he fought but was not hurt, he chose the path to priesthood. For 20 years, Fr. Pius worked in Nigeria, was sent to Spain to study and earn a doctorate in canon law, and master speaking Spanish as well as English. In 1997, Fr. Pius came to Arkansas at the invitation of Abbot Raphael DeSalvo, of Subiaco Abbey, and he has served in numerous parishes in the diocese. He became “incardinated” into the diocese, which means he is now a priest of the Diocese of Little Rock, just like I am.

          I know it can be a little hard to understand Fr. Pius’ accent. But try to look at things from his point of view. How hard would it be for any of us to go to Nigeria, learn to speak their language of Igbu, eat their food every day, live in their homes (without air conditioning), walk their streets (because not everyone has cars), wear their clothes, watch their movies, listen to their music, try to catch their jokes. And all that knowing that you knew more than you could communicate in their language because you have a doctorate in canon law. Our Padre Pio does not have the stigmata, but he’s no stranger to suffering, he is a “man of constant sorrow,” a man, I believe, whom God loves deeply not because God has given him a painless and pleasure-filled life, but because he draws him close to the Cross of Christ.

            I hope this doesn’t sound irreverent, but I want to conclude with the lyrics of the song by the Soggy Bottom Boys, the song called “Man of Constant Sorrow.” Listen to the lyrics of this song, and think of our two Padre Pio’s:

I am a man of constant sorrow,

I've seen trouble all my day

I bid farewell to old Kentucky,

The place where I was born and raised

(The place where he was born and raised)

For six long years I've been in trouble,

No pleasures here on earth I found

For in this world I'm bound to ramble,

I have no friends to help me now

(He has no friends to help him now)

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger

My face, you'll never see no more

But there is one promise that is given

I'll meet you on God's golden shore

(He'll meet you on God's golden shore).

And on God’s golden shore, St. Padre Pio will no longer have the stigmata, and Fr. Pius will speak better English than the Queen of England.

Praised be Jesus Christ!