Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
August 9, 2021
As Jesus and his disciples were gathering in Galilee,
Jesus said to them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men,
and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.”
And they were overwhelmed with grief.
When they came to Capernaum,
the collectors of the temple tax approached Peter and said,
“Does not your teacher pay the temple tax?”
“Yes,” he said.
When he came into the house, before he had time to speak,
Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon?
From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax?
From their subjects or from foreigners?”
When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him,
“Then the subjects are exempt.
But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook,
and take the first fish that comes up.
Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax.
Give that to them for me and for you.”
Approximately every 56 minutes during my four years of Catholic high school, I heard the words “Let us remember we are in the holy presence of God.” Every teacher began prayer using this formula, and sometimes our prayer was simply a moment of silence in God’s presence.
In the gospel today, Peter seems to be floundering. He and the other disciples are overwhelmed with grief as Jesus predicts his death and resurrection. Confronted by the authorities, Peter has to speak for Jesus, perhaps hedging the truth because he knows they have not paid the temple tax. Then Peter is sent by Jesus on the strangest fishing trip: finding their tax payment in the mouth of a fish.
As a first-time high school teacher, I empathize with Peter: I feel overwhelmed, searching for the right answers, trying to explain myself, and fishing for the unexpected and miraculous. Teaching high school itself is beautiful, terrifying, and mysterious—as are the teenagers I will be entrusted to teach. Like Peter, I feel myself swept along a current of strange miracles happening around me.
When we feel swept along by our work, we should remind ourselves that we are always in the holy presence of God. Jesus, Rabbouni, the Teacher, has sent us as his church to recognize, learn, and practice the miracle of God’s presence in, as Gaudium et Spes puts it, “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties” of the world. Thankfully, we are not sent alone. The communion of saints and the Holy Spirit accompany us so that we might pray (as I concluded every prayer in high school) “Live, Jesus, in our hearts—forever!”
Prayer
God of love and life, you were handed over to men to be tortured and killed, but death was not the end. You rose on the third day. We know that throughout our lives there are times of resurrection but also times of grief. Help each of us, our families, and those we love to never forget the promise of your resurrection. We ask that you continue to send us saintly women and men who are witnesses of your rising so that we may be inspired to grow into the saints that you are calling us to be. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Edith Stein was a brilliant philosopher who came to the Catholic faith through her intellectual pursuit of the truth.
She was born to a large Jewish family in Poland in 1891, and was an extraordinary student. She earned her doctorate in philosophy at the age of 25, and it was the witness of some of her friends that initially invited her to consider the Christian faith. She saw the strength of their faith, and began studying the Catholic tradition. She converted, and later became a Carmelite nun and taught in European universities as a member of the intellectual elite.
Her order relocated her to a convent in Holland because of her Jewish heritage, but she was eventually hunted down by the Nazis and was killed in a gas chamber in Auschwitz in 1942.
St. Edith Stein is the patron saint of Europe. Her story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Edith Stein, who searched for truth in philosophy and found Catholicism before being killed by Nazis—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Edith Stein is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.