Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 19, 2019
A young man approached Jesus and said,
“Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”
He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good?
There is only One who is good.
If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He asked him, “Which ones?”
And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
honor your father and your mother;
and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
The young man said to him,
“All of these I have observed. What do I still lack?”
Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad,
for he had many possessions.
“What do I still lack?”
What a deeply spiritual question! And from a man who, just a few moments later, will walk away from Jesus feeling sad because he is unable to accept how Jesus replies to his question.
When the man in today’s Gospel is told he needs to follow the commandments and love his neighbor as himself in order to gain eternal life, he could pat himself on the back and go on his way with reassurance from none other than the Son of God that he is doing what he ought to gain what he seeks. However, he presses Jesus further because something does not feel right within him.
The man is disheartened to hear Jesus tell him to come and follow only after he has given all that he has to the poor. Disheartened because he at once knows the truth of Jesus’ words and his unwillingness to make the sacrifice that is asked of him. His attachment to his earthly possessions is greater than his desire to seek eternal life.
Let us all have the strength to ask what we are lacking and what attachments we must give up so that we can be truly free to follow Jesus on the path to the kingdom of heaven. And then let us have the courage to hear the answer and to respond by letting go of those attachments – whether physical, like the wealth of the young man, or something less tangible, like pride or self-pity – as we pursue our relationship with God.
Prayer
Father in heaven, we give you thanks for the many blessings you bestow upon us. Like the rich man we too can struggle with our attachment to the treasures of this life. As we strive to live in ever greater conformity to your Son, help us to free ourselves from worldly possessions. Then, free from those attachments, make us ready for that day when he will return in glory to reign with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. John Eudes captured the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary by honoring them in the liturgy. Thanks to this saint, Holy Cross priests have as their patron Jesus’ Sacred Heart, and Notre Dame has a Basilica dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
In fact, even though John was canonized a saint after the Basilica was constructed, he is depicted there in a stained glass window leading people in devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
John’s parents were farmers in the Normandy region of France, and were childless until they went to a nearby shrine to Mary. Nine months later, in 1601, John was born, and five more children arrived after him.
John was educated at a Jesuit school, and he went on to seek ordination. He was a very good preacher, and gained the admiration of his superiors by his excellent conduct. He spent his early priesthood at an oratory—a special church (not a parish) set aside for prayer and Mass. When plague broke out in Normandy, John volunteered to return to his region to serve the sick there. He spent two months ministering to the sick and dying.
He returned to the oratory and lived there until the plague reached that area. Again, he went out into the city to tend to the sick and dying. To prevent his brother priests from becoming infected from him, he did not live in the rectory—he lived in a large cask or barrel in a field; nuns from a nearby convent brought him food.
He went on to become a distinguished preacher, and would travel the countryside offering missions to parishes to reinvigorate the faithful. He was widely known as the best preacher people had ever heard.
During his travels, he came to see that the priests needed as much reform as the faithful, so he concentrated his efforts on seminary training. He established several seminaries that were dedicated to producing zealous and well-trained parish priests.
John’s spirituality focused on the love of Jesus and Mary, symbolized in their sacred hearts. He began a feast day for people to honor the heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus; these feast days spread quickly and were taken up around the Church. While John was not the first to be devoted to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he was the first to capture this devotion in the liturgy, which gave the Church a way to participate and spread it.
He died after giving a parish mission in his old age that left him sick and weak—he preached outdoors, in the winter, every day for nine weeks, and never recovered. He died on this date in 1680.
“Our wish, our object, our chief occupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desires, and his disposition live and reign there,” St. John wrote. “All our religious efforts should be directed to this end. It is the work that God has given us to do unceasingly.”
St. John Eudes, you helped people form their hearts in the shape of Jesus’ Sacred Heart—pray for us!