Sitting up above Cortona is a well preserved 13th century church and adjacent convent. The view of the Valley and lake below is breathtaking. Inside upon the alter is a full length glass coffin with the darkened but still uncorrupted body of st Margret. This is the last day of our family holiday in Cortona and I am taking my hour of prayer and solitude here. It is also the solemnity of the sacred heart of Jesus. His words echoing in my mind: “I can do nothing on my own”, “I only do what I see the Father doing”, “I and the Father are one”, “Not my will but yours be done”. His heart was one of total surrender. Does my heart burn for the same things as Christ? For the good of the other, the care of his children.
St. Margaret was swept up in the love of a local man she could not marry and so became his mistress. She was a public sinner and an outcast of this town. But later she found her true Love, and lived a life of service to the poor and the sick in imitation of Christ. The love that burns in the sacred heart of Christ is the same self-emptying love that was alive in St. Margaret. Perhaps her body was so completely given, submitted and surrendered to Christ and the service of others that God chose to supernaturally preserve. A paradoxical sign that what is completely surrendered and given away is what lasts for ever.
There is no life left in her body as I gaze upon the alter, just a sign. The “saints” give there body away in love so completely in life that it remains a possession of the Church forever. “This is my body given for you”
June 23, 2017