Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 1, 2019
At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.
For Jesus himself testified
that a prophet has no honor in his native place.
When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,
since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;
for they themselves had gone to the feast.
Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,
where he had made the water wine.
Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.
When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
he went to him and asked him to come down
and heal his son, who was near death.
Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
While the man was on his way back,
his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.
He asked them when he began to recover.
They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.
Reflection
As a teacher, it was easy to think that Jesus’ statement that “a prophet has no honor in his native place” was about me. As in: “a teacher might not be heeded today in class, but one day someone will appreciate the great things he has to say”.
Lent is an ideal time for humble reflection, so I will admit I am not the prophet in the following story. In my first year of teaching down in Mobile, Alabama, I was far from my native place. While there, I encountered many prophets I did not properly appreciate at the time. One who stands out the most is Ms. B.
In our first parent-teacher conference, I explained to Ms. B everything I thought she didn’t understand about her sixth-grade son’s misbehavior in my class and about the math work he struggled to complete at home.
Ms. B explained that when her son was in elementary school, his third-grade teacher told him that he would become “another statistic” and never amount to anything. Through tears she told me about how she had had to sit her 8-year-old son down and explain to him that he was born with two strikes against him—he was black and male in America. She was grateful for my high expectations for her son. But her words demanded that I change my lens of understanding.
We can easily forget that God speaks to us through our neighbors, through the seemingly ordinary members of our community. It shouldn’t have been Ms. B’s job to teach me, but it certainly was my job to learn from her.
This Lent, let us honor the humble and under-appreciated prophets more native than us to the places we’ve had the privilege of calling home.
Prayer
Lord, hear those who call out for healing of body, mind, and spirit. May we unite with the sufferings of our brothers and sisters as they call out for your healing. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Macarius' legacy is one of working miracles and standing for truth even in the face of torture.
Macarius was born in the ninth century in Constantinople, originally named Christopher. He took the name Macarius when he became a monk.
Eventually, he was selected as abbot of his monastery and became well-known for healing miracles, which is how he earned his title: St. Macarius the Wonder-Worker. Crowds would flock to the monastery to seek cures.
Macarius opposed the emperor’s orders to suppress icons in one of the great iconoclasm controversies. The controversy over icons was a dispute that arose when some misinterpreted the Second Commandment, which forbids the worship of images. The Church has consistently insisted upon the orthodoxy of icons and other religious imagery as a consequence of the Incarnation: Jesus proved that God redeems all of creation, and that all of creation can help mediate God’s presence to us. Icons and religious imagery point our hearts and minds to God and remind us of holy figures, they are not themselves objects of veneration.
Macarius was imprisoned and tortured for defending the use of icons. When the emperor died, the successor released him from prison and tried to win him over. He rejected the new emperor as well and was exiled. He died during this banishment.
The relics of St. Macarius rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus, and this prayer is attributed to him:
“To you, O Master, who loves all humanity, I hasten on rising from sleep. By your mercy, I go out to do your work and I make my prayer to you. Help me at all times and in all things. Deliver me from every evil thing of this world and from pursuit by the devil. Save me and bring me to your eternal kingdom, for you are my creator, and you inspire all good thoughts in me. In you is all my hope and to you, I give glory, now and forever.”
The icon of Saint Macarius featured today shows him standing next to a cherub.
St. Macarius, who suffered torture and exile for your defense of religious images—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Macarius is in the public domain. Last accessed February 17, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
