Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 15, 2024
The crowds asked John the Baptist,
“What should we do?”
He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them,
“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him,
“And what is it that we should do?”
He told them,
“Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.
Waiting is not a practice normally mastered by toddlers, but recently, my almost 2-year-old daughter has learned a little bit about being “filled with expectation.” She has just started to grasp the idea of exciting events that will happen soon, and my wife and I get to witness her being filled with expectation in the moment itself.
Whether it’s learning about a bubble bath coming up soon in her nightly routine or a visit with Grandma and Grandpa happening later, she will let out a cheer—both in excitement for the thing itself and for a new understanding of what’s to come.
I imagine John the Baptist kindles both of these elements in the crowd with his preaching. He awakens their excitement for the long-awaited Messiah and provides them with a new understanding of Christ—”He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” For the crowd in this gospel, this truth fills their cups, and with eagerness, they ask, “What should we do?” John responds with his main message—he calls them to channel their expectation into conversion, readying themselves for Christ.
Today, on Gaudete Sunday, I give thanks for my daughter’s example of joyful anticipation. Let us pray that we are filled with expectation for Christ and that it spurs us on in our preparations to receive Christ in our hearts this Christmas.
Prayer
God of our hope, on this third Sunday of Advent, we light the pink candle of joy, for the dawn of our salvation is near at hand! Anoint our hearts with your glad tidings of the coming of our Savior, that we might—with Notre Dame Our Mother—proclaim the greatness of the Lord. For our Lord comes to dwell with us, to set us free from all that would dare to quench the Spirit, and to announce again a year of favor from the Lord. In joyous hope, we make our prayer in Christ our Savior. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Maria Crocifissa di Rosa was the founder of the religious order the Handmaids of Charity and a woman whose deep devotion to Christ Crucified inspired her order of sisters. Maria was born as Paola Francesca di Rosa to an affluent family of Brescia, Italy on November 6, 1813.
Although her family was wealthy, they were not exempt from hardship. Paola’s mother died when Paola was only eleven, imprinting on the young Paola the knowledge that the cross was a part of each Christian’s life.
Paola was educated by the Visitation Sisters in her youth, but left school in her teenage years and began to assist her father in running his household and estates. By the age of nineteen, Paola had taken over her father’s spinning mill, and befriended the many young women who worked there, and had to live far from their homes in the country to work at the mill during the week. Paola’s work at the mill earned Paola her father’s deep respect and esteem for his strong, competent daughter.
In 1836, when Paola was in her early twenties, a cholera epidemic broke out in Brescia. Paola transformed herself into a nurse, caring for women and children afflicted by the disease. She became a well-known and well-loved figure at the hospital in Brescia.
Paola left the mill and made caring for women her full-time occupation. She directed a home and school for orphaned girls and a home for women who were deaf and mute.
In 1840, Paola founded the community, The Pious Union, that eventually became the religious congregation, Handmaids of Charity when it was approved by Pope Pius IX in 1850. She took the name Maria Crocifissa di Rosa, as a sign of the importance of the cross in the Christian life. Maria’s own spirituality and her order are sprung from her deep understanding that all Christian life is modeled off of Christ’s cross. And love for Christ Crucified and the desire to ease his sufferings led Maria and her companions to care for the poor and suffering in hospitals, and the wounded on the battlefields of Northern Italy.
Maria Crocifissa’s guiding motto for her order was: “Charity without limits for the sick who represent Jesus Christ.” The Handmaids of Charity’s charism to this day echoes this founding sentiment. They seek to bring hope to those who are sick or dying, through their faith in Christ, which manifests itself in their works of charity. All they do is for, with, and in Christ.
Maria Crocifissa died in Brescia on December 15, 1855, at the age of forty-two. She was canonized just under one hundred years later by Pope Pius XII in 1954. Her order of sisters, the Handmaidens of Charity, continues to serve the poor and suffering in Italy and throughout the world.
St. Maria Crocifissa di Rosa, burning with love for the suffering Christ present in the poor—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Maria Crocifissa di Rosa is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed November 1, 2024.