Today is July 21, Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time.
We read at today’s Mass, “Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.’ He said to them in reply, ‘An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet'” (Mt 12:39).
The people asked Jesus for a sign, but he pointed them instead to something deeper. True faith does not come from impressive signs or displays. It grows through a heart rooted in charity, trust and steady witness. A heart like Pier Giorgio’s.
Someone once asked me who Pier Giorgio’s favorite saint was. Some have suggested St. Paul, given the saint’s prolific writing and profound understanding of charity.
The path to Christian perfection
While Pier Giorgio never tells us explicitly, I believe St. Catherine of Siena held a special place in his heart. When his sister Luciana graduated from university, Pier Giorgio gave her a book about St. Catherine as a gift, saying Catherine would be a guide for her on the path to Christian perfection.
Even more telling, when Pier Giorgio died, St. Catherine’s “The Dialogue” was on his nightstand. Like Pier Giorgio, Catherine was bold in public life, tender toward the poor and deeply committed to Christ and his Church. It makes sense that Pier Giorgio would find in her both a sister and a model for holiness.
Today, we can take both of their lives as quiet signs — not signs in the sky, but signs in the world, pointing us to Christ through faith and love lived with conviction.
Let us pray,
Show favor, O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
