🗓️13 NovSt. Didacus, Confessor

✝️Saint Didacus of Alcalá (d. 1463) was a humble Spanish Franciscan lay brother whose life luminously exemplified the ideal of poverty and service. Although illiterate, his spiritual wisdom and heroic charity made him a beacon of holiness. Initially, he lived as a hermit but later joined the Order of Friars Minor. He served as a missionary in the Canary Islands, where he worked tirelessly for the conversion of souls. During the jubilee of 1450 in Rome, a devastating epidemic struck the city; Didacus dedicated himself with tireless selflessness to the care of the sick at the convent of Ara Coeli, performing miraculous healings and demonstrating an unwavering trust in Divine Providence. His life was marked by numerous miracles, such as the famous episode of the roses, in which the bread he was secretly carrying to the poor turned into flowers when he was questioned by his superior. He lived the Gospel radically, finding in Christ the only treasure his heart desired.

📜Epistle (I Cor 4:9-14)

Brethren: We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are honorable, but we are despised. Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode. And we labor, working with our own hands. We are reviled, and we bless; we are persecuted, and we suffer it. We are blasphemed, and we entreat. We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all even until now. I write not these things to confound you; but I admonish you as my dearest children in Christ Jesus our Lord.

📖Gospel (Lk 12:32-34)

At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom. Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

🤔Reflections

💎Today's Gospel is a direct invitation to spiritual freedom, a call for the "little flock" to shift its center of security from earthly possessions to the promise of the Kingdom. Christ proposes not a simple act of philanthropy, but a total reorientation of the heart. The instruction "Sell what you possess and give alms" is the external manifestation of an internal conversion: the discovery that true treasure cannot be stored in barns or in bags that grow old, but resides in communion with God. St. Didacus of Alcalá embodied this truth in a sublime way. As a Franciscan, his life was an eloquent testimony that voluntary renunciation of material goods is not a loss, but an immeasurable gain. By emptying his hands of possessions, he filled them with charity, serving the sick and the poor with a generosity that can only spring from a heart whose sole treasure is God.

☦️St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians reveals the paradox of the Christian life, which is the practical result of following the Gospel's counsel. Those who seek treasure in heaven are often seen by the world as "fools," "weak," and "despised." To be a "spectacle to the world" means to live according to a logic that the world does not understand: the logic of the Cross. While the world seeks its own honor, strength, and wisdom, the apostle, and with him every faithful Christian, embraces weakness, persecution, and being treated as "refuse" for the love of Christ. St. Augustine, meditating on the centrality of the heart, teaches that our actions follow our affections. "Where you have placed your treasure, there will your heart be fixed. If you have buried it in the earth, your heart will go down to the earth; if you have stored it in heaven, your heart will be in heaven" (St. Augustine, Sermon on the Mount). The life of St. Didacus and the description by St. Paul are, therefore, the image of hearts firmly anchored in heaven, indifferent to the judgments and values of the earth.

🔑The promise "it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom" is the key to the entire liturgy of the day. It is not a future reward for a present sacrifice, but a free gift that is already offered to us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that "poverty of heart" is the beatitude that makes us capable of receiving this Kingdom (CCC 2544). By detaching ourselves, we make room for God to reign in us. St. Didacus did not care for the sick to "buy" his way into heaven; he did so because the Kingdom of God, which is love and mercy, already dwelt in his heart. His life, seen in the light of the Epistle, becomes a living prophecy: true strength lies in the weakness assumed for Christ, true wisdom is found in the "foolishness" of the Cross, and the greatest treasure is to belong to the "little flock" to whom the Father is pleased to give everything: Himself.

🛰️See English version of the critical articles here.