Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 16, 2022
Jesus said to the Jews:
“You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept testimony from a human being,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
John was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.”
John the Baptist was “a burning and shining lamp,” nonetheless, his works only prepared for the more extraordinary ministry of Jesus. Jesus brings something new and more powerful into the world, allowing him to promise later in this gospel: “[W]hoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.” (Jn 14:12)
Today we see these “greater ones” in the lives of the saints. From Francis Xavier’s impressive feats of evangelization to the extraordinary wonders of Francis of Assisi or Padre Pio, and perhaps most poignantly in the selfless service of saints like Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
In our time, Jesus desires that the lives and teachings of the saints give testimony to him because he works through them and restores all things to himself. For this reason, the church canonizes these individuals as worthy models of the Christian life in all their times and circumstances.
This life of sanctity is not the exclusive vocation of those memorialized in the church’s calendar. The Second Vatican Council reminds us that “all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity.” (Lumen Gentium par. 40)
Our challenge today is to avoid any discouragement that tells us that holiness is only for the chosen few and not for us. The common thread among the saints is allowing Jesus to transform their lives.
In the words of the Baptist: “he must increase; I must decrease” (Jn 3:30). The greatness of the saints always begins there.
Prayer
Merciful God, as these days of Advent draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, prepare our hearts to receive the gift of your Son, who is our light and our salvation. Grant us your peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Blessed Mary of the Angels was a mystic nun from the 18th century whose life was marked by a number of supernatural experiences.
She is a distant cousin of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, and was named Maria Fontanella when she was born in Turin in 1661. As a child, she was drawn to the religious life. At one point, she made a plan with a brother to run away and live in the desert. She began to receive visions in her dynamic prayer life.
At the age of 12, she entered a community of Cistercian nuns, but when her father died soon after, she returned home to help her mother. Still, she felt called to religious life, and at the age of 16 she joined a community of Carmelites in Turin and took the name Mary of the Angels.
She found life in a community of religious sisters to be difficult—she was very homesick and did not get along well with her novice-master—but she persevered. After seven years in the convent, she began to experience desolation in her prayer life—she was even attacked by demonic manifestations. She had a very capable spiritual director who helped her through this period, however, and after several years, she began to find peace and enter into even deeper levels of prayer.
Eventually, she was chosen to lead aspects of the community, and to become prioress of the convent. She established a new house for the community in another city, and wanted to move there, but the people of Turin would not hear of it. They valued her wisdom and would regularly consult her for advice.
She had a deep devotion to St. Joseph, and dedicated the city of Turin to him after his intercession helped save the city from being destroyed in a war with the French. She is depicted in this stained glass window asking St. Joseph for help.
One of the gifts of her faithfulness was a distinct odor that accompanied her in the last 20 years of her life. People described it as a scent of sanctity—it came from her body and spread to things she touched. The scent was a permanent condition after 1702, and was even difficult to remove from things that she had contacted. Her spiritual director, who later became archbishop, described it as a scent “neither natural nor artificial, nor like flowers or aromatic drugs or any mixture of perfumes, but only to be called an odor of sanctity.” Some of her relics still retain this scent today.
Blessed Mary of the Angels died on this date in 1717. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and she is depicted there in these stained glass windows. The foundry that created the stained glass windows of the Basilica was located in a former Carmelite convent in Le Mans, France—in the window shown here, the artists who adorned the Basilica pay homage to the community that gave the world holy people such as Blessed Mary of the Angels.
Blessed Mary of the Angels, you literally smelled like holiness and spread that scent to things you touched, pray for us!