Daily Gospel Reflection
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December 5, 2024
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
A verse from today’s gospel—Matthew 7:21—was perhaps the most compelling verse calling me back to the church. I grew up in a Christian family. I knew my Bible relatively well. I went to church, but sadly, my faith only went so deep.
When I got older, I started to recognize my shallowness. On one occasion I will never forget, I flipped open my Bible to Matthew chapter seven, and it shook me. I knew enough Scripture to know that I wasn’t doing the Father’s will. Evidence? I even resented Sunday church because it took me away from Sunday football. I faced a dilemma: If I believe in Scripture, then I am not doing nearly enough, and if I don’t, then I am just wasting my time?
After some honest soul-searching, I concluded that God was real, and now I try to live accordingly. At the same time, today’s challenge is still relevant. If I claim that I believe in God, what am I doing daily? Have I been angry with a brother, looked at someone with lust, lied? Am I being perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect?
It would be easy to let myself become discouraged reading this verse if I only looked despairingly at my sins. But Jesus promises that “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them” is “set solidly on rock.” This is our consolation. I have chosen to put my faith in the rock of salvation, so what have I to fear?
I pray that we will never forget the lesson of today’s gospel — to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. But I also pray that we will never lose hope in Jesus, our rock.
Prayer
Ever-loving Father, you established your Church upon the rock of Peter to be a refuge for sinners and a fortress of strength for all who call upon you. Continue to stretch forth your hand and protect all men and women who place their lives in your divine care, especially those in serious danger of physical or spiritual harm. We ask this through your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. 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.)