Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 14, 2021
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
This gospel passage asks us to consider if we prefer darkness to light. How do we respond?
It seems like we should be able to say quite easily that we prefer the light. Who wants to remain in darkness? None of us would say that we prefer wickedness to goodness, or ignorance to knowledge, or falsehood to truth. And yet we do remain in darkness in many parts of our lives. The reason is sin.
I can often be tempted to normalize experiences of sin in my life, experiences big and small from various personal sins to larger social/structural sins that I participate in yet cannot fully understand. We all have our little faults, right? There’s nothing I can do to fix society or change the world, right?
This gospel passage is calling us to always turn away from the darkness of sin and toward the light of truth. This can seem difficult because truth is a very abstract concept. But the Good News is that truth is not abstract for us. Truth became a person. Jesus Christ is the truth and the light.
This gospel passage reminded me of a quote from C.S. Lewis that helps me understand sin and God’s love for us: “But the great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.”
God’s answer to our sinfulness is love. And the fullness of that love is God’s only-begotten Son.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, we have done many things that we are ashamed of, things that we would prefer be kept hidden. Yet we also need to remember that no sin is greater than your love for us. So please grant us the courage to stop hiding and come out into the light of your forgiveness and mercy. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Though he was just a poor shepherd boy, St. Bénézet was responsible for a huge public work—the building of a massive bridge.
Bénézet grew up in southeastern France in the middle ages watching his mother’s sheep. He was thoughtful and pious, and seems to have reflected upon the dangers faced by those who wanted to cross the Rhône river.
One day, during a solar eclipse, Bénézet heard a voice that told him to build a bridge over the river at Avignon, a place where the current flowed strong and rapid.
At the time, the building and care of bridges was considered a magnificent public work, and the wealthy often provided for bridges in their wills. Bénézet was an uneducated, poor boy, but he obeyed the voice he had heard.
He traveled to Avignon and addressed the bishop in that city to tell him of his mission. The bishop did not take him seriously, of course, and legend has it that the boy miraculously carried a huge stone himself to begin the foundation.
Soon Bénézet gathered much attention because of miracles attributed to him: blind people could see, disabled people walked, deaf people could hear again. The bishop and civil authorities granted him power to oversee the construction of the bridge, which began in 1177.
Bénézet supervised construction for seven years before he died—by that time the bulk of the difficult work had been accomplished. A chapel was built into the bridge itself and Bénézet’s body was buried there. It lay there for some 500 years until a flood washed part of the bridge away. His tomb was recovered and it was discovered that his body had not decayed; it was moved to a monastery for veneration. What remains today of the Pont Saint-Bénézet is shown here; it is still a pilgrimage site.
In 1189, the Order of Bridge Brothers was established as a society of wealthy sponsors who provided for the construction and maintenance of bridges, and they adopted St. Bénézet as their patron. He remains the patron saint of those who build bridges, and also of bachelors.
St. Bénézet, you were the poor shepherd boy who followed a call to build a massive bridge—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Bénézet is available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. Last accessed February 21, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
