The readings
today present us with the challenges of our faith and the challenges to our
faith. Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern because he refused to hedge on the
faith. He refused to tell the king what the king wanted to hear. He proclaimed
the truth that God told him to proclaim, even though it cost him severely. In
the Gospel for this Sunday, Jesus speaks about the cost of discipleship. Families
may even be divided over the following of the Lord, but nothing is worth
sacrificing the Life of Jesus within us.
St. Gianna
Berretta Molla understood this so well, and all its implications. Hers was one
of the last canonizations by Blessed John Paul II on May 16, 2004. She is a
modern saint, who died on April 28, 1962. Her husband and children were present
for her canonization.
Gianna Berretta
was a doctor living outside of Milan, Italy. She had a double residency and
practice in pediatrics and obstetrics gynecology. After she finished her
residencies, her desire to reach out to the people influenced her to open a
clinic in a small town in her native Italy. She was not a wealthy doctor; she
never hesitated to give her services free to those who could not afford to pay.
A good doctor works long hours and Gianna was no exception. Pregnant mothers
felt so secure in her care because they knew no matter what time of night they
needed her, she would be there for them.
After becoming a
doctor, Gianna met and became engaged to the man of her dreams, Pietro Molla. Like
all young brides to be was radiant with joy and happiness during the time of
the engagement. She had found a man who agreed with her determination to live
her faith. They were married on September 24, 1955. In November 1956, to her
great joy, she became the mother of Pierluigi, in December 1957 of Mariolina;
in July 1959 of Laura. With simplicity and equilibrium she harmonized the
demands of mother and wife, and continued practice as a doctor all with the
passion that she had for life.
In 1961, Gianna
became pregnant with the Molla’s fourth child. In September, towards the end of
the second month of pregnancy, she was touched by suffering and the mystery of
pain. She had developed a tumor in her uterus. She was given the choice of
having the uterus removed and thus kills the child, or risk surgery that might
save the child but kill her. She knew the risk that her continued pregnancy
brought, but she pleaded with the surgeon to save the life of the child she was
carrying, and entrusted herself to prayer and Providence. The baby’s life was
saved, for which she thanked the Lord. She spent the seven months remaining
until the birth of the child in incomparable strength of spirit and unrelenting
dedication to her tasks as mother and doctor. She worried that the baby in her
womb might be born in pain, and she asked God to prevent that.
A few days
before the child was due, although trusting as always in Providence, she was
ready to give her life in order to save that of her child. She repeated to her
husband: “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose
the child - I insist on it. Save the child.” On the morning of April 21, 1962,
Gianna Emanuela was born. Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of
them, on the morning of April 28, amid repeated exclamations of “Jesus, I love
you. Jesus, I love you,” Gianna Berretta Molla died. She was 39 years old.
Was Gianna
foolish for making the decision to allow her death rather than the death of her
child? Shouldn’t she have considered staying alive for the sake of her other
three children, her husband, and even her medical practice? These arguments
were presented to her by those whom she had respected, doctors, family members,
etc. But their thinking was the thinking of the world. Gianna knew that she
would accomplish nothing in killing a child to keep her own life. The child
that was saved, Gianna Emanuela, followed in her mother’s footsteps and is now a
medical doctor and consulter to the Saint Gianna Berretta Molla Society.
St. Gianna wrote
this prayer: “O Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to
befall me, make me only know Your Will. My most sweet Jesus, infinitely
merciful God, most tender Father of souls, and in a particular way of the most
weak, most miserable, most infirm which You carry with special tenderness between
Your divine arms, I come to You to ask You, through the love and merits of Your
Sacred Heart, the grace to comprehend and to do always Your holy Will, the
grace to confide in You, the grace to rest securely through time and eternity
in Your loving divine arms.”
The cost of
discipleship seldom makes the demand on us that it made on Gianna Molla, but we
are all continually confronted with the choice of standing up for our faith or
joining the world that rejects the Lord. One person is encouraged to tear down
a co-worker with the hope of getting his or her position. Another is mocked for
refusing to participate in an immoral gathering. Movies and the media glorify
sin and belittle those who reject sin. The tempters themselves often claim to
be modern day Christians, but in fact they are promoting the works of evil.
But nothing
outside of us can quell the fire that Jesus lit in our hearts. Only we can put
the fire out by giving in to the pagan world. We cannot do this. We cannot let anything;
any situation put the fire out. We cannot drown it with our own selfishness. So,
we keep our eyes focused on Jesus, and as we run the race of our lives we draw
Him who leads us closer to ourselves. For the fire that he has set is worth
infinitely more than all the so called reasonable demands of the world. St.
Paul wrote: The message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God
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