21 August 2018
Memorial of St. Pius X, Pope
Partaking of the understanding which Wisdom offers to those who feast in her dwelling involves coming to one of the paramount types of knowledge: knowledge of self. The prophet Ezekiel declares the great lack of this knowledge on the part of the Prince of Tyre who declares, “I am a god.” (Ez 28:2) The prince makes such a claim because of the vast amount of wealth he has accrued through the exercise of a keen understanding of trade. Such wealth gives him the resources not only to provide for his needs, but also to live quite lavishly. The prince begins to think that he himself is the ultimate source of all he has, not seeing that the Lord, who allows him to possess this wealth for a time, is the true source of the wit by which he acquired such possessions.
When He exclaims, “It will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 19:23) Jesus warns against that pride to which our possessions tempt us. Indeed, when we accumulate resources of any sort and do not consider that they are gifts from the Lord to be used for His glory and the aid of our neighbor, then we too begin to think like the prince of Tyre. When my possessions are mine and only for me, I have not entered in heart and mind into the kingdom of heaven in which our generous God supplies our many needs and teaches us to do likewise for others.
Today’s saint, Pope St. Pius X, understood this quite well. Growing up as a young boy he would often walk to school barefoot so as to save his impoverished parents the expense of having to replace worn out shoes. As a young priest he sought to start a small hospital for the medical needs of his poor parishioners and to support it by constant fundraising efforts. Whenever people came to his rectory to ask for alms, he would give them something, even if it meant he would have little food that day or less clothing. Such habits he kept even when he was created a cardinal. So much had he given to charity that when Leo XIII died and then Cardinal Sarto was to go from Venice to Rome for the conclave, he had to seek the aid of a benefactor to purchase a his travel tickets. As we remember this saintly pontiff today, let us ask for that same poverty of spirit which he lived so well and which obtained for him the true wisdom of knowing how much he always depended on God for everything.