Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 16, 2020
The disciples of Jesus told what had happened along the way, and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of the bread.
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
We are reminded in this passage from Luke that Jesus trusted in God’s plan for him. This plan had been prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures and was ultimately fulfilled on the cross, but the disciples couldn’t see it at first. Initially after his death, they were filled with confusion, until Jesus returned to visit them and they reflected back on the events of his passion and resurrection.
God has a plan for each of us too, but often we also do not understand it at first. That plan may, at times, be perceived as a crooked path tangled with life’s daily stresses. When we are overwhelmed by these pressures, or by the deeper suffering of illness or death, it is human nature to turn inward and even wonder, “Where is God in all of this?”
The wounded Christ also experienced abandonment, separation, and even physical suffering. He reassures us that we are not alone in this suffering, and he brings us with him beyond it to the resurrection. It is in the risen Christ and his return from the dead that reveals God’s incarnate love for us. The Lord is walking in our midst—always there to comfort and renew us if only we can see his pierced hands, side, and feet.
I am inspired by those whose faith is so strong that they are able to put their lives in God’s hands. We had an administrator at our school who courageously fought cancer for nearly 19 years. While small in stature, she had a big influence over thousands of students and peers in the way she lived her life—at peace with God and committed to living each day to the fullest. She truly embodied St. Paul’s message: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
What will we say when Jesus asks us, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?” Will we allow him to lead us beyond our fears? Will we trust that he is with us?
Prayer
In your appearances after the resurrection, Lord Jesus, you greeted your disciples with peace and showed them that your body, once dead in the tomb, was alive again. They became witnesses of your death and resurrection and preached your name to the ends of the earth, beginning from Jerusalem. Many centuries later, help us to know your life deep within us that we, too, might witness to you by all we do and say, and carry your good news to all we meet. You live and reign forever and ever. Amen.
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!