I want to take you back to June 24, 1950. It is a special day in the Vatican and a huge crowd has gathered in St. Peter Square for a solemn Mass of Canonization. The candidate is Maria Goretti, a twelve year old girl who died as a result of wounds inflicted by a man who tried to attack her and violate her purity. She resisted, and thus suffered mortal wounds at his hands. As she lay dying in the hospital, the future saint voiced her fond request that she would see her attacker in Heaven. She died clutching a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding a Cross to her chest.
It was a remarkable occasion because her mother and four siblings were present at the canonization. But even more remarkable was the fact that her attacker, Allesandro Serenelli, was also among the crowd gathered in the square. He was there to pray and rejoice.
Immediately following the attack, Allesandro was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison. For the first part of his sentence, he was unrepentant. But then came a dream that changed the course of his life. He saw Maria in the dream, clad in white and holding an armful of white lilies, a flower representing purity. She handed them to him and they burned in his hands. He knew in his heart that this was a gesture of forgiveness. From that time forward, Alessandro was a changed man and became a model prisoner. He was so thoroughly touched by this dream that when he was released early from prison because of good behavior, he went straight to Maria’s mother, Assunta, and begged for her forgiveness. Purportedly, she told others, “If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withhold forgiveness?”
In the Gospel today, the risen Lord appears to the Apostles and gives them an incredible gift. He breathes on them and tells them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Jesus imparts the Holy Spirit on the Apostles in a special way so that they might pass on forgiveness to others through His power. Every time I pray the prayer of absolution over a penitent in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I say the words: “God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His son, has reconciled the world to Himself and poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins.” What an incredible gift we have in the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church. I have no doubt that the grace of forgiveness that flowed through St. Maria Goretti as she lay dying was possible because of the grace she herself had undoubtedly already received through Confession. Likewise, I have no doubt that Alessandro ended up seeking the Lord’s forgiveness himself after Maria appeared to him in the dream.
It is incredible to think of these relationships that would seem crazy to the world: the Heavenly friendship between St. Maria and Alessandro during his life on earth, the earthly friendship between Alessandro and Maria’s mother Assunta inspired by Maria’s forgiveness. It is said that Assunta even treated Alessandro like family. This is the outward evidence of the hidden work of the Spirit, bringing union where there was once division.
The Holy Spirit is Someone we all have experienced, whether we know it or not. He has been constantly poured out on the world in hidden ways throughout history, and more dramatically and fully ever since that original day of Pentecost which we heard about in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles today. The Spirit came on that fateful day to strengthen the Church to become a vessel of His work. And we see the Spirit immediately moving the Apostles to preach in boldness where minutes before they had cowered behind locked doors.
I want to encourage us all to think about those relationships and situations in our lives which require unity and reconciliation, because the Holy Spirit has been drawing people into the power of Jesus’ new life since that day of Pentecost. The power of Pentecost is still with the Church today, present in the Sacraments, above all the Eucharist, and in the manifold gifts that the Spirit pours out for the good of the Church, as we heard from St. Paul today.
However, that wind and those flames don’t speak of a passive reception, but an active one. Fire and wind have evident effects; they change whatever they touch. The wind moves, flames enkindle. This is what the Holy Spirit wishes to do in you and me. He wants to touch us, transform us, move us from separation to unity, from sin to new life, from addiction to freedom, from despair to supernatural hope. He wants to draw us together with each other, just as He did by giving the gift of tongues to the Apostles on Pentecost so that people from all different parts of the world might hear and understand the Good News preached that day. He wants to loosen your tongue to speak the truth of Jesus to people in your life, so that they too may experience the grace, healing and unity of the Holy Spirit. And just as Jesus breathed the Spirit onto the Apostles in the upper room giving them the power to forgive sins through Him, so too that power rests on priests today to be shared with you in Confession and to open up your heart to forgive others as you have been forgiven. The great unity that the Spirit brought between St. Maria Goretti, her mother and Alessandro isn’t unique to them. That can be the reality in your most broken relationships through His power.
In a letter that was part of his will, Alessandro wrote: “Little Maria was really my light, my protectress; with her help, I behaved well during the 27 years of prison and tried to live honestly when I was again accepted among the members of society. The Brothers of St. Francis, Capuchins from the Marche, welcomed me with angelic charity into their monastery as a brother, not as a servant. I have been living with their community for 24 years, and now I am serenely waiting to witness the vision of God, to hug my loved ones again, and to be next to my Guardian Angel and her dear mother, Assunta.”
Come Holy Spirit, give us the conversion we need to be your instruments of unity and reconciliation in the world! St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!
+ Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray. O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise
and ever rejoice in his consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen. +