Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 16, 2019
Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,
was reclining at Jesus’ side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him,
“Master, who is it?”
Jesus answered,
“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.
So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him,
“Buy what we need for the feast,”
or to give something to the poor.
So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.
When he had left, Jesus said,
“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.
My children, I will be with you only a little while longer.
You will look for me, and as I told the Jews,
‘Where I go you cannot come,’ so now I say it to you.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Master, where are you going?”
Jesus answered him,
“Where I am going, you cannot follow me now,
though you will follow later.”
Peter said to him,
“Master, why can I not follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.”
Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me?
Amen, amen, I say to you, the cock will not crow
before you deny me three times.”
Jesus, our Lord, knows the weakness in all human beings. We may stray from the path of the goodness because of money, poor understanding or fear. But God always forgives us our trespasses, out of his immutable love.
I come from an atheist country, in which it is politically incorrect to be a Christian. As a visiting graduate student of Christian studies, I had learned a lot about Christianity before, but I did not recognize the Lord personally until visiting the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame’s campus. Shortly afterward, thanks to Campus Ministry, I went through the Catechumenate and became a full Catholic Christian last year at Easter.
Jesus says to his apostles today, “Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, though you will follow later.” Because of the great love between God and His people, we become true Catholics when we honor the Lord in this world. When we follow Jesus, even when we don’t always know where he is going, we can recognize him personally.
I love being Catholic. The Christian faith teaches me how to do good and avoid evil, to be an honest person and spread the Gospel to other people bravely, so as to testify to the goodness of our Lord to them, personally.
During this Holy week, lay down our weaknesses and our lives at the feet of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Mother of Sorrows, pray for your children during this week when we remember the loss of your son. Comforter of the Afflicted, console all of us who mourn, who find ourselves caught in the flames of unforgiven anger, in the dark clouds of despair, and in the pain of loss. As we keep watch with you at the foot of Christ’s cross this week, fill us with your faith in the sure promise of Resurrection.
Notre Dame, Our Mother, pray for us.
Saint of the Day
The story of Bernadette and the visions of Mary that she received in Lourdes is well-known. Notre Dame’s own Grotto replicates the Lourdes grotto on a one-seventh scale and is a center of prayer on campus.
Bernadette’s own story, however, is more obscure. She was the oldest of six children born to a poor miller and his wife. The family business did not thrive, and the family lived in poverty. Bernadette had to work instead of going to school, and was hired out as a servant for two years when she was 12. At the time of the visions, the family was living in the basement of a worn-down building in town. On top of her poverty, Bernadette suffered from asthma and was never consistently healthy. People did not think her to be bright.
The apparitions gathered an extreme amount of attention to Bernadette. Anti-clerical French authorities tried to scare her into retracting her account because of the crowds of pilgrims who gathered at the cave where Mary, Our Lady of Lourdes, appeared to her. She was questioned and cross-examined and interviewed unceasingly.
In addition, the pilgrims who came to Lourdes sought her out looking for the miraculous. They tried to cut pieces from her dress and they asked her to bless things. Many tried to give her money, but she and her family refused so as to not appear to be profiting from the apparition.
After a few years, Bernadette went to a convent of nuns who cared for the sick and the poor. She was both, so they took her in as a member of their community. They taught her to read and write, though she was often mistreated by her superiors.
When the church was built that Mary had asked for, Bernadette excused herself from the celebration of its consecration. She was always humble and very simple—she compared herself to a broom, saying, “Our Lady used me. They have put me back in my corner. I am happy there.”
She continued to suffer from asthma and other illnesses, and died in the convent at the age of 35 in 1879. She is depicted in a statue at the Grotto on campus, as well as in a stained glass window in the Howard Hall chapel. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus.
St. Bernadette, you received visions of Mary at Lourdes and lived a simple life of humility—pray for us!