This is how we preach: we seek not to please human beings but rather God who is a tester of our hearts. St. Pius X (d. 1914) whose memory the Church honors today was born near Venice to a humble family. He was noted for his continuous service to the Church and to all souls, first as a priest, later as bishop and Patriarch Archbishop of Venice, and finally as Roman Pontiff. He strongly defended the purity of Catholic doctrine against modern-age heresies (Modernism) and was instrumental in extending the practice of frequent communion. He is patron of sick pilgrims.
Whereas it is true that serving the Church as a pope is a challenging responsibility in any given era/period, it is also true that those who undertook this responsibility in the modern era were faced with an unprecedented challenge: defending the Church from the onslaught of intellectual awakening that characterized the modern age. It was an uphill task to defend the teachings of the Church against minds that were “awakening” to the realization that they could question anything and everything, including the existence of God. Having been entrusted with the responsibility of being the chief defender of the Church, St. Pius X did not disappoint. Perhaps he drew his courage from the words of St. Paul that we hear in today’s First Reading: the conviction that the Gospel should not be preached to please human beings. Together with St. Paul, Pius X was aware that he/she who has been entrusted with the task of preaching the Gospel should strive to please the one from whom the task is received: God. Pope St. Pius X would have become popular and a celebrity among the “awoken minds” had he decided to bow to the pressure of modernism. But he didn’t do that. He remained faithful to the task of tending to the needs of the sheep whom the Lord had put under his care (Gospel Reading).