Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 1, 2020
Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
“I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”
They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are indeed doing what your father does.”
They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”
In today’s Gospel we are asked to face stubbornness in our hearts. As creatures debilitated by sin, we tend to cling to the stem of a wilted daisy while God offers us a rose garden in full bloom.
Jesus opens his conversation with the Jews in today’s Gospel with an invitation to true freedom and they resist. Like them, when we close our hearts to the truth of God, we are pretending our own ideas and judgment are better for us. We cling to our own freedom, which in reality is the very shackle that holds us back from the joy we find in God alone.
The secular understanding of freedom today sets us on a search that only leads us in circles. In today’s culture, freedom is doing what we want, when we want, for whatever reason we want, as long as we are not hurting anyone. This false sense of freedom draws us into selfishness because it invites us to cast away the truth for which God made us: to love God and our neighbor. Loving someone is so much more than simply not hurting them.
Recently I learned the term amplexus verbi, Latin for “embracing the Word.” God gave us free will and if we use it to hold tight to the Word, instead of choosing sin, we will experience the true freedom Jesus is speaking about here. We are called to loosen the grip on our self-embrace and cling instead to our Father who loves us.
Pray with me today, and let us ask God to help us release our death grip on that wilted daisy, so that we may be free to wander the rose garden perfumed with God’s glory.
Prayer
Jesus, you promised that the truth would set us free. Draw us into the mystery of your love for us, a love that frees us from the lies that keep us bound in sin and self-deception. May we embrace the new life that comes from Baptism and live in the freedom of the children of God. 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.
