Mt. 16:21-27
One of the modern saints who inspired me most is St. Gianna Berretta Molla. She was born on 4th October 1922 in Italy she grew up in a traditional Christian family as the tenth of thirteen children. Later on, she chose the medical field as her profession, to offer her service to the needy. Despite her busy schedule, she always found time to work in charitable Christian organizations such as Vincent De Paul Society, Catholic action, etc. so that she could offer herself to the service of the less privileged. She married Pietro Molla in September 1955 at the age of thirty-three. She gave birth to the three children. During her fourth pregnancy time, she experienced severe pain. While examining her doctors and diagnosed the fibroid tumor in her uterus. Since it was malign, she was asked of immediate intervention. The doctors gave her three options. The first option was to save her child and kill the baby in the womb and no more children in the future. The second option was abortion; kill her child and possibility for more children in the future and the final option was carrying on with the pregnancy and tries to save the child and mother though the operation could harm the fetus and Gianna’s life itself would be at stake.
Despite all the risks, Gianna opts for the third choice. She wanted to save the life of her unborn child and always kept close to her heart the teachings of the church concerning the dignity of the unborn child. She reminded her surgeon just before the operation: “I trust in God, yes; but now it is up to me to fulfill my duty as a mother. I renew to the Lord the offer of my life. I am ready for everything, to save my baby.” With God’s grace, both mother and the child survived the medical intervention and carried on the gestation period. 21st April 1962 she gave birth to Gianna Emmanuela but a few days later Gianna died due to post-pregnancy complications at the age of 39. The church recognized her selfless-love and self-sacrifice for her child and declared her a saint on 16th May 2004.
Today’s gospel passage we see Jesus presents the wisdom of the cross to his disciples. He reveals to them his paschal mystery: his passion, crucifixion, death, and the resurrection on the third day. However, they could not digest this revelation about his death. According to them, no one has established a kingdom by dying for the other. Therefore, Peter intervenes and tries to convince him about the foolishness of his path. Anyhow, the response of Jesus was quite strong. He calls Peter and says: ‘get behind me Satan.’ If we analyze the entire passage, before this we see Jesus praises Peter for his courageous confession of the identity of Jesus.
Jesus tries to make them understand that his mission of establishing the kingdom of God on earth is through the means of cross and not by the sword. The world could never understand the mystery of the cross. Carrying one’s cross and following Jesus is considered by the world as foolishness because of the humble acceptance of one’s suffering and hardships for the sake of the other. Here one needs to lose everything, even one’s own life to gain everything. When the world tries to amass things, the follower of Jesus should have a spirit of renunciation that provides the needs of the other. It does not mean we need to run away from the world instead of caring matters concerned with one’s own spiritual life.
The wisdom of the cross helps us to keep ourselves focused in this regard. The Christian way of living is not a sorrowful life. We are called to rejoice in the Lord without complaining about our difficulties or daily crosses because our hope is in Christ, he has gone before us with his cross. We have a saviour who understands all our struggles and frustrations in our journey. The inspiring witness of St. Gianna teaches this wisdom of the cross. Her selfless love and self-renunciation gave life to her child. She could have saved her life but she accepted her cross and sacrifices her life for the sake of her unborn child just like Christ sacrificed his priceless life for the sake of us that we may live. Therefore, let us continue our joyful witness even in this pandemic times that we are never alone Christ is there on our side.