I have come to call sinners and not the righteous, says the Lord.
At the end of this gospel passage we have just read, which brought to salvation, as
it were, and to the apostleship, the apostle Matthew, who was regarded as a sinner because
he was a tax collector, which was one of the lowest positions according to the Jews at
that time, one of the worst because they would levy far more taxes than was just.
And with his call, St. Matthew repented, promised to pay back even more than what justice required.
And as a result, saved his soul and became one of the apostles and evangelists.
We must take to heart what our Lord says at the end, I have come to call sinners and not
the righteous.
And look at this.
We must get ourselves very careful in where do we stand.
At what level are we?
Are we of those righteous?
Are we of the sinners?
Now today we celebrate the memorial of St. Maria Goretti, whose life was one of heroism
in the practice of virtues and would in fact live those words of our Lord.
She brought back to salvation one such sinner.
No less than the very one.
The very one who killed her.
She was one, she was the oldest of six children to a very poor family from a city in northern
Italy, a town in the mountains of northern Italy called Coronado.
And her father wanted to make more of a living for the family.
He had heard that he could get work employment from farmers down near Rome and so he picked
up the family and moved down to Rome.
Near Rome actually.
The farmer said, well, he found one such farmer in the city of Rome, said, well, I have a
farm just to the south of Rome in a place called Nettuno along the Mediterranean Sea
there, along the west coast of Italy.
You can work down on that farm down there for me.
So he took him over.
And he put him to work and they found a small house to live on, live in, a very small house.
They lived in the upper floor of that house.
I've had the opportunity to visit that house myself, personally, and see the spot where
St Maria was martyred.
And to pray before her remains in a nearby town, the next over town, in the shrine to
Our Lady of Grace.
All right.
I'm going to leave you.
I know we're going to talk about, defeat and the terrible things that we've been seeing,
In any case, they began work on that farm in Netuno,
but it was not satisfactory to the farmer,
so he brought in another who happened to be a widow,
was very embittered, and had become a drunkard.
It was not easy to work with.
In fact, he began taking over.
And he brought with him his young 19-year-old son,
who was addicted to pornography, no less.
And they had to live together in that one little house
that only had four rooms.
I should say has only four rooms in that upper floor,
because it's still there.
One can still visit it.
In any case, when Maria was now 12 years old,
had just received her first communion,
Alessandro, the son of Serenelli,
now took a fancy to Maria
and, of course, sought her in impure ways.
But Maria, who was very simple, yet very, very devout,
and very, very prayerful,
sought in every way to resist her.
By now, she'd also lost her father.
So, of course, their life was very, very difficult.
She was left with her mother
to help take care of their own children.
She was left with her mother to help take care of their own children.
She was left with her mother to help take care of their own children.
She was left with her mother to help take care of their own family
as they mined the farm
and, as I said, lived a very difficult life.
In any case, now, here she was being accosted by Alessandro
in impure ways, and she continually resisted,
not only to protect her own virginity,
her own purity, which she did,
but also because she knew and understood
if Alessandro would keep approaching her that way,
he would lose his soul as well.
And when finally, in the heat of the summer,
on the July day, it was actually July 4th when he stabbed her.
She lingered two days after her stabbing.
Right after the main meal,
which, if you understand European customs,
they eat in the middle of the day.
It was still in the heat of the summer.
The rest of the family had gone out to work in the farm.
And Alessandro was up.
Well, he said,
I'll come out a little bit later.
He went off to his room to rest a little.
Maria was left to tend to the youngest child, Teresa,
who was sleeping in a basket outside.
She was no more than two years old.
She was just a young baby.
She was sleeping in a basket outside the wall.
There was only one door to the house there
on the top of the stairway.
Well, when the baby woke up,
Maria went to tend to the baby.
Alessandro came out and attacked her.
Stabbed her at least 14 times.
With an ice pick.
But Maria was crying out.
She didn't cry out for her own protection.
She was crying out,
Stop.
You will go to hell.
She was even more interested in Alessandro's soul.
She, of course, resisted in every way
so that she would not sully her purity.
But she was even more interested in Alessandro's soul.
And when she was asked,
as she lingered in bed in the hospital,
she said,
after Alessandro, of course, had been arrested,
was now in prison,
she asked,
she was asked,
Do you forgive your murderer?
And she said,
Yes, I forgive him.
I want him to be happy with me in heaven.
That was what was on her mind.
That happiness, not only for herself,
which evidently she understood she had already won,
but his happiness in heaven as well.
And it seems she made sure of it.
It is said she appeared to him while he was in prison,
still hardened in his mind,
still denying everything.
She appeared to him and presented him with white lilies,
pure white lilies.
That is, she appeared to him in a dream
and presented him with these lilies.
And he was converted, confessed everything,
and not long after was released on good behavior
and lived the life of a recluse and a penitent.
For the rest of his life.
Not only that, but his mother would also respond,
her mother rather, when he went to her.
It was one of the first things he did.
He went straight away to her mother
and asked her,
Would she forgive him?
And she immediately forgave him.
How could I not forgive you if my own daughter forgave you?
And she embraced him as if she were his own mother.
In any case,
he lived the life of a recluse and a penitent.
He lived the life of a penitent from thereon
as an oblique to the Capuchins
and a recluse.
He led a very penitential life for the rest of his life.
And thus he too saved his soul.
But there is the heroism
that we so much need today
in a world that is filled with so many sins,
so much evil,
so much
so much
so much
so much
so much
lust,
sensuality,
and the whole lot of it.
How much we need that kind of heroism.
How much our youth need the example that the Church gives us today
in St. Maria Goretti.
That heroism
in living the virtues,
the holy life,
in spite of all the difficulties,
never wavering,
never complaining,
even to the point of giving her life,
shedding her blood
in order to
be able to
maintain
pure,
maintain her purity,
and over and above that
to save the soul
of her aggressor.
And to be willing,
willing,
not only willing to forgive him,
but seek his happiness in heaven
and not only her own.
That is the kind of heroism
that we really need today.
Starting with ourselves.
That we may be
become
among those righteous
who are called by the Lord
to the happiness of paradise.
And not save only our own souls
by the herosity of our own
practice of the virtues,
but the souls of all others.
That all of us
can be happy
together
in heaven.
Praise be Jesus in the air.
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Alleluia!
Alleluia!