Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Optional Memorial of Saint Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr
The Lord loves us. He seeks to emphasize this again and again through the messages He inspires in the prophet Hosea in the midst of heartbreak in the prophet’s family. Saint Maria Goretti knew this love, even in the midst of great suffering after losing her father at the age of nine. She was determined to know and to love more and more this God who loved her so much. In spite of the difficulty of taking care of younger siblings while her mother was working in the fields, Maria still made time to walk the long roads to the neighboring village for catechism lessons to prepare for first Holy Communion.
God spoke to Saint Maria’s heart. Jesus cared for her in the midst of her suffering as He did for the woman and the girl we hear of in the Gospel today. Because this love of God was so clear and present to Maria, when Alessandro Serenelli tried to sexually assault her, she had the strength to resist him by word and by deed even to the point of suffering multiple knife wounds. Because of the love of God, Maria could even say as she was dying of these wounds in the hospital: “Yes, for the love of Jesus, I forgive him, and I want him to come with me to heaven.”
This love of God continued working through the meek and powerful prayers of Maria Goretti after her death, helping her suffering family to heal and her murderer to repent. When she was canonized, her mother and Alessandro reconciled and gave witness to the power of Saint Maria Goretti’s prayers by praying beside one another at the canonization Mass in Saint Peter’s. Today we pray that this steadfast love of God, which consoled and strengthened Maria Goretti in the midst of great emotional and physical suffering, may strengthen us in the midst of our trials, so that we too may rejoice in the triumph brought about by that meek divine love. Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us!