Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 4, 2019
Jesus said to the Jews:
“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf,
and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept human testimony,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.
But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you,
because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.
“I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I came in the name of my Father,
but you do not accept me;
yet if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:
the one who will accuse you is Moses,
in whom you have placed your hope.
For if you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?”
When I struggle with faith, excuses come easily. It’s our disenchanted secular culture, isn’t it? Is that darn scientific materialism to blame? If only I lived in a different time, I tell myself, it would be easier to believe there’s a God who can love.
Our Gospel today tells me this is wishful thinking. The Jews spoke with Christ face-to-face, but like me, they struggled to believe that the Son of God walked among them. In a way, this is reassuring: I am definitely not alone. We all face doubt.
But doubt will not do. Christ chastises the Jews for their hard-headed unbelief. They won’t accept the abundant testimonies to Christ’s divine nature. All those miracles of healing Christ performed? They show us the Father is working directly through him. Christ’s baptism and transfiguration reveal God’s words: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased!” Then there is Scripture, which the Jews listening to Jesus knew well, and which points to Christ as its fulfillment.
The people did not see the works, hear the voice, or believe the word. They put their hope in mere humans like Moses, and they probably made excuses, like me. Eyes blind to the evidence, their hearts were likewise closed off from God’s love. What about my eyes, my heart?
With the eyes of faith: evidence of God’s salvific love is everywhere. The Jews of today’s Gospel had Moses and John the Baptist, but we also have the entire “cloud of witnesses” that is the communion of saints! Christ asks us to open our hearts and trust, to trust the testimony of these witnesses, as we would trust a true friend. And in moments of doubt, we can always call upon our closest friend, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Prayer
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the healing power of your Son was made manifest through signs and wonders during his earthly ministry. Open our eyes to the ways of grace at work among us in these Lenten days. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Isidore of Seville was Spain’s greatest teacher, and is named a doctor of the Church.
He was born to a noble Spanish family in 560 AD and had two brothers and a sister who also became saints and took important leadership roles in the Church. Educated by his brother, Isidore discovered a love of learning that he transmitted everywhere he went. He helped his brother, who was a bishop, and later succeeded him as archbishop of Seville, where he served for 37 years.
As archbishop, he called for a seminary in every diocese and established a comprehensive educational system. In time, as Europe fell into the Middle Ages, Spain remained a center of learning and culture thanks to his vision to unite religion and learning. Under his leadership, schools in Spain taught liberal arts, medicine, law, Hebrew, and Greek. He even mandated teaching the works of Aristotle, which would not emerge in other areas of Europe for hundreds of years.
Isidore helped to govern the Church in Spain by calling councils. He rejected dictatorial decisions, and the representative councils he used for major decisions were a forerunner to the European parliamentary system.
His own learning was immense—he is known as the “schoolmaster of the Middle Ages.” He wrote an encyclopedia that was referenced for 1,000 years and produced works on astronomy, geography, world history, biographies, law, theology, and histories of various peoples.
Isidore lived to nearly 80 years old, and his piety and devotions increased the older he became. In his last months, his house was swarmed with poor people who knew they could receive help from him. One of the last things he did was to give everything he had to the poor.
St. Isidore was declared a doctor of the Church, a title given to 37 saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their words or example. Because of the universality of his knowledge, he is a patron saint of computers and the Internet, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Notre Dame's campus.
St. Isidore of Seville, your learning made Spain a beacon of light during the Middle Ages—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Isidore of Seville is in the public domain. Last accessed February 17, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
