Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 4, 2025
Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.
But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.
Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
“Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
“You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.
When I was younger, my grandma Mimi would use an Italian insult when I was too stubborn and wouldn’t listen: “Capatosta,” literally “hard-headed.” Regrettably, I am as stubborn today as I’ve always been, and praying with the Gospel of John, particularly this passage, aptly reminds me of how fixed I am in my ways. Even with my firm conviction of faith, it’s hard to convince myself that I wouldn’t too be among the people who were incredulous with what Jesus was saying.
Too often, we are like the inhabitants of Jerusalem in this passage. This man preaches in their temples, walks on their roads, and eats with their neighbors. How in the world could he be the Messiah? They even admit that “when Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from.”
The crux of this confusion lies in a habit that the inhabitants and I often fall into. We are stubborn and believe that we know how God operates. The reality is that we don’t. God acts and loves in ways that are beyond our understanding. We fall into habits of prediction instead of truly allowing God to send people into our lives, most prominently Jesus, to transform our hearts into vessels of love.
If I’ve shed any of my hard-headedness after all these years, I could ingest another bit of wisdom that my Mimi often reminded me of: “We plan, God laughs.” May the Lord help us to see Christ for who he is, guiding us today and every day to witness the people and things God has blessed us with in our lives. Allow us to receive the love of Jesus not by expecting the places where he might be present but by accepting and loving the places where he is present.
Prayer
Jesus, Son of God the most high, you live in intimate union with the Father and you invite us to share in your life. May the fruits of our own baptism be more evident than ever these Lenten days, that we may celebrate Easter with unrestrained rejoicing. You live and reign with the Father and the Spirit, one God forever and ever. 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.
