Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
April 3, 2022
The sisters of Lazarus sent word to Jesus, saying,
“Master, the one you love is ill.”
When Jesus heard this he said,
“This illness is not to end in death,
but is for the glory of God,
that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
So when he heard that he was ill,
he remained for two days in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to his disciples,
“Let us go back to Judea.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus
had already been in the tomb for four days.
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
He became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said,
“Where have you laid him?”
They said to him, “Sir, come and see.”
And Jesus wept.
So the Jews said, “See how he loved him.”
But some of them said,
“Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man
have done something so that this man would not have died?”
So Jesus, perturbed again, came to the tomb.
It was a cave, and a stone lay across it.
Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, said to him,
“Lord, by now there will be a stench;
he has been dead for four days.”
Jesus said to her,
“Did I not tell you that if you believe
you will see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
And Jesus raised his eyes and said,
“Father, I thank you for hearing me.
I know that you always hear me;
but because of the crowd here I have said this,
that they may believe that you sent me.”
And when he had said this,
He cried out in a loud voice,
“Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out,
tied hand and foot with burial bands,
and his face was wrapped in a cloth.
So Jesus said to them,
“Untie him and let him go.”
Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary
and seen what he had done began to believe in him.
My beautiful 94-year-old grandmother, Dorothy, passed away in January, and one of the memories of her that vividly lingers with me is the story of how she met my grandfather.
She met the great love of her life, Bill, at an officers’ tea during World War II. Grandmother once took me to the exact spot in the ballroom on Coronado Island where she had first looked into the eyes of her handsome Navy fighter pilot.
Even while I envisioned Dorothy and Bill reuniting again in heaven, my heart submerged into grief. The words from today’s gospel, “but Mary sat at home,” resonated with my sadness then, for mourning has a way of elongating time and sequestering one in darkened surroundings. I would lay in my bed with tear-filled eyes as I recalled Grandmother’s indomitable spirit.
I eventually ventured out of my home into the Boston winter. A gentleman asking for money caught my eye. As I picked up a coffee, I quickly purchased a gift card for him. Returning into the arctic blast, I took a step towards him, and we looked into each others’ eyes.
I was immediately enveloped by love and gratitude. “God bless you!” he exclaimed. “My name is Joshua. What is your name?”
“My name is Anne-Marie.”
“Anne-Marie! What a beautiful name! What does that remind me of? Oh, the Virgin Mary!”
“Yes, exactly! My parents named me after the Virgin Mary and her mother, Anne. Two great women.”
I offered him the gift card.
“I love you! I appreciate you!”
I winked back tears. “I love you, and I appreciate you too!”
Unlike Martha, I had not heard that Jesus was coming to me that day, but grief sometimes has a way of making space for grace and of opening our eyes to the mysteries that lie beyond visible realities. Will you leave your home and meet Jesus today?
Prayer
The sting of death is as sharp as it is crushing. We weep with Martha and Mary at the death of our loved ones, upon hearing of the horrors of war and of senseless violence. Through our tears we also profess with Martha, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” Jesus, fill us with the hope that allowed Martha to make this powerful statement of faith. In you is our life and we believe in you, so that even if we die, we will live. Amen.
Saint of the Day

In 303, Emperor Diocletian outlawed the possession of sacred Scripture. Three Christian sisters living in Thessalonica at the time—Agape, Chionia, and Irene—concealed the several volumes of Scripture that they owned.
Later, the three were arrested for refusing to eat food sacrificed to Roman gods. When they were taken, their house was searched and the Scriptures discovered. Agape and Chionia were martyred first, and when Irene was commanded to deny her faith, she, too, was condemned to die. She was exposed in a house of prostitution first, but when she remained untouched, she was killed. It is thought that she was killed with arrows, which she shows in this illustration.
The relics of St. Irene rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus.
St. Irene, who, with your sisters, gave your life for love of Scripture—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Irene is an illustration by Notre Dame alumnus Matthew Alderman '06, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of his art. Used here with permission.