Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 4, 2022
Jesus spoke to them again, saying,
“I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life.”
So the Pharisees said to him,
“You testify on your own behalf,
so your testimony cannot be verified.”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Even if I do testify on my own behalf, my testimony can be verified,
because I know where I came from and where I am going.
But you do not know where I come from or where I am going.
You judge by appearances, but I do not judge anyone.
And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid,
because I am not alone,
but it is I and the Father who sent me.
Even in your law it is written
that the testimony of two men can be verified.
I testify on my behalf and so does the Father who sent me.”
So they said to him, “Where is your father?”
Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father.
If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
He spoke these words
while teaching in the treasury in the temple area.
But no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
Ten years ago, my daughter died in utero at four months. It was wrenching. A couple of days after she was delivered, my wife and I stood in our drafty apartment bedroom with our suitcases around us.
Wracked with grief, my wife pleaded for us to go downstairs to begin the ten-hour drive with our two-year-old to her parents’ house, but I stood still with a bottle of orange oil in my hand, looking at a wardrobe. It was at least 80 years old, the humidity was low in winter, and it would crack if I didn’t oil it before we left. I explained all of this very calmly to her. Stricken, she looked at me uncomprehendingly.
Jesus can testify on his behalf because he knows where he is from and where he is going; he has come forth from the eternal self-gift by which Father, Son, and Spirit exist. Knowing his Father, he fully knows himself, and so his testimony is simply a communication of himself—an extension of this gift into the world.
On that day, I knew where I was from, but my daughter’s death had hidden from me where I was going. I was to have been a father again, but my baby was gone, and all I could see at that moment was the wardrobe.
Nine years later, as we prayed together on the anniversary, my wife realized, “You needed to care for something.” I had never thought of this, but now I knew how a wardrobe could have seemed more important than my wife’s desperation. It was fragile, but, unlike my daughter, it could be healed by my simple efforts.
I needed to grieve; I needed to be healed, but I hadn’t seen it. I hadn’t asked the Lord. When we are inexplicable, Christ can show us where we are from and where we are going. Becoming aware of our hidden wounds through him, our grief can become a natural release, our words a truer self-communication—the testimony of two.
Prayer
Father, your beloved Son Jesus was anointed in the Spirit and brought your healing love to our world. We pray that Christ, the light of the world, will sustain us always in faith, hope and love.
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.
