Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 5, 2023
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said,
“I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows who the Son is except the Father,
and who the Father is except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”
Turning to the disciples in private he said,
“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
For I say to you,
many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.”
Today the Gospel of St. Luke presents us with a hymn of thanksgiving for the success of the seventy-two disciples, whose appointment and mission had been made known in the preceding verses. Jesus is thanking the Father for allowing his will to be made manifest in the revelation given to the “childlike” rather than the “wise and learned.”
I have been teaching high school theology for nearly 23 years this fall. In my grace-filled ministry, I have learned the truth found in today’s gospel. I started in the classroom with a lot of knowledge of exegesis, liturgical law, and praxis. Over time, I learned that, like the supposed “wise and learned” that Jesus refers to, I was spending too much time on the facts, details, and letter of the law.
My students have taught me the wisdom of the childlike. Teenagers have a way of getting to the heart of the matter without too much fuss. I have become a better man and teacher by learning from the Spirit of our God, speaking through the simple yet profound understanding of the faith of my students. Both on retreat and in the classroom, my students have taught me that the will of the Father is not bogged down in the details but in the lived example of faith in action.
Our faith is rooted in relationships with our God and with each other. I always like to say that at the end of my time here on earth, I pray that our heavenly Father will have mercy on me, not because of what I know or don’t know, but rather in great part due to the humble prayers of my students.
Prayer
Good and loving God, give us the gift of childlike wonder this Advent season. Open our eyes to see the awesome truth that lies at the heart of each and every day: that you have shown us the Father and have allowed us to hear the eternal Word. Fill us with hope. We ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen.
Saint of the Day

St. Galgano is the source of a real-life sword in the stone story.
He was born in Tuscany in 1148 and grew up to become a knight. He lived the rowdy life of a soldier, fighting and filling his senses with pleasures of the flesh.
One night, when he was 20 years old, he was visited by Michael the Archangel, who showed him a vision of the Lord flanked by the disciples on a nearby mountain. When he woke the next day and mounted his horse, it refused to go anywhere except to the nearby mountain that had appeared in Galgano’s dream. So he went there.
Accounts differ as to what happened next. In one version of his story, he was overcome with reverence and wanted to pray. Finding no cross to center his attention, he thrust his sword into the ground, where it fused with rock and formed a cross in its hilt.
In another version of his story, a voice called out to Galgano, urging him to give up his life of dissolution. Galgano replied that it was easier to split stone with a sword, and thrust his weapon into a rock to prove his point, expecting it to snap in half. To his shock, it entered the rock to its hilt, as though he were cutting butter, and became one with the stone.
In either case, the event resulted in Galgano taking up the prayerful and simple life of a hermit on that mountain top, and he became a sought-after voice of wisdom and spiritual insight. When he died in 1181 at the age of 33, a number of bishops and abbots attended his funeral, and he was canonized a saint just four years later. An abbey was built on the hilltop and around his sword.
St. Galgano’s sword remains on the mountain top today in Tuscany, surrounded by the ruins of the abbey that was built there. Recent studies have validated that the sword is not a modern fake—it is of a simple design that would have been common in the 12th century. Radar analysis shows a cavity beneath the sword, which may hold the saint’s body.
The story of King Arthur and Excalibur became popular in the decades after St. Galgano’s canonization, so some think that this saint's sword might have been the inspiration for that legend, though the influences are hard to trace. St. Galgano is depicted in today's featured image by Luigi Gregori, who was artist in residence at Notre Dame from 1874-1891, in an illustration that belongs to the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art on campus.
St. Galgano, you dedicated your life to the Lord in a dramatic conversion that involved a sword in a stone—pray for us!
Image Credit: Luigi Gregori (Italian, 1819-1896), Saint Galgano, n.d., black chalk on wove paper. Raclin Murphy Museum of Art: Gift of the Artist, AA2009.056.367.)