“Lift yourself up to Him, who has lowered Himself for you.”
Saint Gemma Galgani
The Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Gemma Galgani on April 11. A prayerful union with the passion of Christ was evident in Saint Gemma from childhood. After her mother died, Gemma took on a motherly role for her seven brothers and sisters. Saint Gemma then turned down two marriage proposals in order to pursue a life consumed by conversation with God, her first love. At age 21, Gemma's remarkable devotion to Our Lord's Passion became "more" than "just" a devotion; she received the stigmata and there marks of the Passion of Christ on her body would exude pain and blood from Thursday evening to Friday or Saturday. As her health declined, the stigmata became less frequent but Gemma's love for the Lord continued on. Saint Gemma died after a most painful Holy Week in the year 1903, on Holy Saturday.
Canonized only 37 years after her death, Saint Gemma is the patroness of students, pharmacists, those suffering back injury or headaches, paratroopers and parachutists. Most importantly, Saint Gemma is a friend to us all. She suffered, too. By imitating her we can change our lives by lifting up our sufferings to Christ.
Gemma advises us to “lift ourselves up to Him, who has lowered Himself for us.” He lowered Himself to us first. Jesus comes to us. He dwells in and among us. He comes to us in the Eucharist and in one another. We would be left alone in meaningless pain if He didn’t come to show us the worth in our own raw experience of life on earth. We have no one to lift up our meager offerings to if we don’t recognize Him here, now.
We can lift up every part of us – everything that makes ourselves and makes up our days. Practically, it may be as simple as saying “this too, Lord” or mentally placing a struggle or experience in our hands and opening them up, releasing it back to God. We can do this with our hearts, with our special intentions, with grief, joy, or any facet of our human experience. It is all a gift to us, and gifts are meant to be given. Let us lift up these gifts, back to the Father.
If we participate in this salvific motion, we are able to participate in Jesus’ plan for us. He came to us so that we could come to Him.
Saint Gemma Galgani, pray for us.