Daily Gospel Reflection
Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.
December 15, 2023
Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare this generation?
It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance,
we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said,
‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by her works.”
Many Jews at the time of Jesus looked forward to the coming kingdom of God. Yet many rejected both John the Baptist’s preaching and Jesus’ message. Jesus compares them in today’s gospel to children who don’t know what they want: always complaining and never happy because it just isn’t good enough.
Folks rejected John’s call to repentance because he was too severe. They rejected Jesus’ call to reform because he was too tolerant, spending too much time with people from the wrong side of the tracks. We all want God to come into our lives and to be a part of them. However,
we don’t want our relationship with God to make us change the way we think, or change the way we talk, or change the way we treat others.
But God says in today’s reading from the prophet Isaiah: “I teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.” God will not be a real part of our lives unless we embrace God on God’s terms, not on our own.
With war raging in the Middle East and in Ukraine, with so many people in our nation recovering from floods, earthquakes, and wildfires, and with so many refugees trying to find a safe and secure environment to raise their families—this Christmas is going to be a very tough time for many people. But the Advent and Christmas seasons teach us how much we depend on one another and how much we need to share our joys and sorrows. While the poor may need the well-off to survive, the affluent need the poor to get to heaven.
It may not be the Christmas we were hoping for or the Christmas we had planned, but neither was that first Christmas—the one Joseph and the Virgin Mary experienced. Come, Lord Jesus! We need you more than ever.
Prayer
Help us, Lord Jesus, to sing to the flute of your word and mourn to your dirge over the sin that interferes with us hearing, understanding, and being transformed by that word. Break those chains of mind and will that we use to excuse ourselves from responding to you. In your name, Lord, we make this prayer. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli was an Italian woman in a struggling marriage until the death of her husband freed her to dedicate all of her resources to serving those most in need in her community.
She was born in 1587 in Genoa to a family of nobles. Though she felt a calling to dedicate her life to prayer and service in a religious community, she was given in marriage to a well-known and wealthy young man, Gaspare.
The couple had two daughters, but Gaspare’s attention was divided by pursuits of pleasure. Living harshly shortened his life, and Virginia found herself a widow by the time she was 20. Her father tried to arrange a second marriage, but she refused and made a vow of chastity.
While she remained obedient to her father in other matters, and never disregarded the care of her own children, she began to share her available time and resources with those in need. She felt called to serve God through the poor, and dedicated half of her wealth to those who lacked what they needed for a dignified life.
When her daughters had grown and accepted marriages, Virginia turned her full attention to helping orphans, the elderly, and the sick. War, epidemics, and famine all brought many suffering people to her doorstep. She began to go a step further, traveling to disreputable areas of the city to seek out those in danger, especially women.
An empty convent stood near the town, and she was given permission to rent it to care for children who were orphaned and suffering from a plague and famine. Other women came to join her in service. Within three years, some 300 were receiving care there, and the center was recognized as a hospital. She organized the women who came to help her into a community, and spent the rest of her life supporting their work to serve God through the poor.
Nobles and government officials called upon her to help mediate differences, and she gathered people to find ways to fight systems of inequality in the region. Despite all of these engagements, she never lost sight of the poor—she always had time and assistance to offer them, and continued to seek them out. She died on this date in 1651, and was canonized by Pope. St. John Paul II in 2003.
St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli, you served God through the poor, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Virginia Centurione Bracelli is in the public domain. Last accessed November 21, 2024 on Wikimedia Commons.
