TRUE LOVE

Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, Martyr
Jn 12:24-26

She was only twelve years old when she died. She was only fourteen years old when she became pregnant. Obviously, I am not referring to the same girl.

The first, who died when she was only twelve years old, was Maria Goretti. She was born to a poor family. She never went to school and never learned to read or write. At age twelve, not long before her death, she received her First Holy Communion. She died at the hands of Alessandro Serenelli, a lad of eighteen, who tried to force himself on her. She refused the advances of Alessandro, saying that she would rather die than submit to him. “No, God does not wish it. It is a sin. You would go to hell for it,” told Alessandro before he stabbed her blindly with a long dagger. She died about twenty-four hours after the attack, with words of forgiveness on her lips for Alessandro.

The second, who became pregnant when she was only fourteen years old, was a girl who barely finished High School. She grew up in the city and enjoyed the benefit of a Catholic education. When asked why she was pregnant at fourteen years old, all she could say was, “I love the man whose child I bear.”

Which of the two really knew love?