Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
August 8, 2020
A man came up to Jesus, knelt down before him, and said,
“Lord, have pity on my son, who is a lunatic and suffers severely;
often he falls into fire, and often into water.
I brought him to your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
Jesus said in reply,
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?
How long will I endure you?
Bring the boy here to me.”
Jesus rebuked him and the demon came out of him,
and from that hour the boy was cured.
Then the disciples approached Jesus in private and said,
“Why could we not drive it out?”
He said to them, “Because of your little faith.
Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you will say to this mountain,
‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.
Nothing will be impossible for you.”
“Move!” I said to the mountain, but it did not. “Be healed!” I prayed for my patient, but no miracle occurred. And yet, a different time, I prayed, “Heal my patient, let her survive her illness!” and she recovered. Even when we try to have faith, it is hard to know how God will answer our prayers.
“Lord! Heal me from pancreatic cancer!” I once prayed. Fourteen years ago, my doctor told me I needed major surgery to remove a tumor from my pancreas. With God’s grace and a multitude of prayers from loved ones, the surgery went well. I attribute the success of the surgery, to God as a miracle. My faith in God has increased over the years, and I believe that God can do anything. But I also know that not everything I want and ask for is given to me or to my loved ones. Sometimes, God tests our faith and perseverance as we struggle to accept that God answers our prayers in his own way, in his own time.
We don’t always get what we ask for, not because of our lack of faith, but because it may not be in accord with God’s will. Even Jesus’ plea to his Father was not granted when he prayed: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done.” I realize that we all have our crosses to carry and that God gives them to us for our greater good. I also know that the most important miraculous healing happens in the confessional, and spiritual healing (the forgiveness of our sins), is far more important than any physical healing. For nothing shall be impossible for God.
Prayer
Merciful God, may we see the face of your Son in those who suffer. We remember that he died and rose again that all might find salvation through him. Help us to live in union with him and with one another. We ask this in his name. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Dominic is one of the brightest saints the faith has produced, and he changed the Church with his dedication to embodying holiness so as to authentically proclaim the truth.
Dominic was born in 1170 in Castile, Spain, and went to university to study to become a priest. After his ordination, he took a trip with his bishop through France where they met proponents of a heretical form of Christianity that was growing in popularity among the people. Believers in this heresy proposed two principles in the world—one good, one evil—and they believed that all physical matter was evil. Therefore, they rejected things of the body—they ate very little and had strict disciplines, which won the admiration of many people.
Dominic and his bishop began to counter this heresy through their preaching, but they had little credibility among the faithful because priests of the time lived a life of luxury and comforts. The strict lives of the heretics seemed heroic to the people.
Dominic’s answer was to establish an order of priests who would travel and preach against this heresy, living a simple life of prayer and intellectual study. The ideal for this community, the Order of Preachers, Dominic said, was “to pass on the fruits of contemplation” and to “speak only of God and with God.” Today, the Dominicans are present in 86 countries around the world.
While she was pregnant, Dominic’s mother had a vision that her son would light the world on fire like a hound running wild with a torch in its mouth.
The vision of Dominic’s mother came to fruition in the way he combined prayer and work. Prayer, Dominic knew, changes us, and thus, changes how we do our work. Our work, then, becomes an outflowing of our prayer, even when it seemingly has nothing to do with spiritual matters. When we live a life rooted in prayer, our actions communicate God’s presence in places used to cold and darkness. Prayer transforms us into a hound running wild with a torch in its mouth—we set the world on fire
St. Dominic’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and he is also depicted there in stained glass. One window shows him receiving the rosary from Mary—he is known to have spread the devotional prayer through his preaching. He is often depicted with a star above his head because at his baptism his mother saw a star shining from his chest. Thus, he is the patron saint of astonomers.
St. Dominic, who set the world on fire with prayer—pray for us!