Looking like the One we Love

People often adopt the traits and characteristics of those they love. 

• Friends often look, act, and dress alike.
• Couples begin to sound like one another, even finishing each other’s sentences.
• Even pets often look like their owners! 

Padre Pio, whose feast the church celebrates today, is such a person. He modeled his life after the one he loved, after Jesus Christ, so much so that he not only adopted the stigmata, the signs of Christ’s death and resurrection, but also adopted a heart, mind, and soul of Christ. He lived a life committed to acting for and with the people of God. 

Today’s readings provide a guide for how we can model our lives after Christ. 

In the Book of Ezra, the people of Israel rebuild the temple after years of perseverance and dedicate it with great joy. This dedication is not merely a physical restoration but a spiritual restoration that returns to the proper service of God. 

This return to the sacred is celebrated in the psalms, reciting, “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.” Scripture reminds us that it is a joy to be in God’s presence, to be part of a sacred community, to center our lives in the service of God.

This joy of the Gospel is precisely what Jesus calls us to in Luke. It is not enough to merely hear the Word. We must also act according to the Word. If we are to live as “brothers and sisters of Christ,” then we must live joyfully and act accordingly to the wisdom of the Gospels.

When we hear God’s word, the joy of the Gospel, we are called to model our lives after Jesus Christ, after the one we are called to love.

Padre Pio is a saint because he heard God’s words and acted accordingly. 

Like Padre Pio, we are called to do the same: to hear God’s words, to fall in love with Christ, and to model our lives after Him. 

As we hear today’s readings and celebrate the life of Padre Pio, let us ask ourselves:

• How is Christ speaking to me?
• What is it that Christ needs me to hear?
• Where in my life am I hearing God’s word but not acting?

Loving God, may we, like Padre Pio, fall so deeply in love with Christ that we begin to look and act like Christ — in our words, in our actions, and especially in our love for others. And in so doing, may we go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.