Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 11, 2024
Jesus said to the crowds:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
This past spring semester, my son, a 2024 graduate of Our Lady’s University, invited my wife and me to follow along with Fr. Kevin Grove’s Theology class that he was taking on St. Augustine’s Confessions. It was his Christmas 2023 gift to us.
He bought us both a copy of the book. Each week, we would read a chapter, and our son would record his own five-minute summary of Fr. Kevin’s class and send it to us. It was such a wonderful experience for my wife and me to share in our son’s education and to learn more about this Doctor of the Church from his autobiography. A key line in the Confessions is, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches us that we will find rest for ourselves if we take his yoke upon us and learn from him. I think of this as surrendering to God’s will for our lives. To know God’s will, we need to learn from him by spending time with him in order to develop a close, personal relationship with him.
Studying the lives of saints that are in our midst and those that have gone before us, like St. Augustine, can be a great help in providing an example for us to follow. In recent years, when I feel tired, anxious, and worried, I have found myself reciting over and over again the refrain from the surrender novena: “O Jesus, I surrender myself to you; take care of everything!” When I do this, I usually find that God gradually takes away much of my burden. What a beautiful yoke to contemplate during this season of preparation and longing.
Prayer
Merciful God, hear your people who cry out to you in their sorrow and need. Console those burdened by trials and suffering. May we find our consolation and peace in Jesus your Son. We ask this in his name. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Daniel the Stylite is a famous monastic figure who is honored by both Eastern and Western Christian churches.
Daniel was born around 409 in the north of what is now modern-day Iraq. Daniel entered a nearby monastery at the age of twelve and lived in this same monastery until he was thirty-eight. During a voyage that Daniel made with his abbot to Antioch, he passed by the pillar where the famous St. Simeon the Stylite lived.
A stylite was a monk who offered his life by forsaking the world quite literally by forsaking earth and climbing on top of a pillar where he would live for the rest of his life.
With his abbot, Daniel visited many convents and holy sites. Daniel finally retired in 451 A.D. into the ruins of a pagan temple and established his own pillar north of Constantinople.
Daniel had not consulted the owner of the land where he placed his pillar. Thus, the land’s rightful owner appealed to both the emperor and patriarch to dislodge Daniel. Neither budged to displace the Stylite, thus practically coining the phrase: ask forgiveness, not permission.
In fact, the patriarch Gennadius, instead of ousting Daniel, ordained him as a priest, administering the Eucharist to Daniel and receiving the Eucharist from the newly ordained priest by the means of a ladder.
Daniel lived on the pillar for thirty-three years. Due to continuous standing, his feet were reportedly covered with sores, cuts, and ulcers, and the winds of Thrace sometimes completely stripped him of his scanty monastic clothing. Despite having no parlor, Daniel received many impressive visitors, among them the emperors Leo I and Zeno. Even from the top of his pillar, he engaged in theological debate and took a strong stance against Monophysitism.
Daniel quickly became a pious tourist attraction for the people. From his pillar, Daniel celebrated the Eucharist, preached sermons, dispensed spiritual advice, and cured the sick who were brought up to him. Daniel finally died at the ripe old age of eighty-four in the year 493.
St. Daniel the Stylite, who lived with evangelical poverty, simplicity, and boldness—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Daniel the Stylite is in the public domain. Last accessed November 1, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
