Daily Gospel Reflection

Join the Notre Dame family of faith. Receive God’s Word and a unique reflection in your inbox each day.

December 9, 2023

Saturday of the First Week of Advent
Mt 9:35-10:1;5-8
Listen to the Audio Version

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”

Then he summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse lepers, drive out demons.
Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Reflection

Chris Mulholland, C.S.C. '19
Share a Comment

Blessed Basil Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross, consecrated the priests of Holy Cross to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the shepherd of souls. He tells us that the heart of Jesus and the image of the Good Shepherd are intimately connected. Jesus’ heart is a shepherd’s heart. His shepherding of the lost sheep of the house of Israel is a spiritual extension of his compassionate heart.

In this gospel, Jesus acts only after he feels compassion for the crowds. Notice the specific sequence of events: First, he sees the groups. Then, he allows himself to be moved by them. Then, he asks his disciples to pray for guidance from God, the “master of the harvest.” Only after this does he summon the twelve to participate in his ministry. So, the sequence goes: see, feel, prayerfully listen, and then act.

When I encounter people who are lost or troubled in any way, it can be all too easy to try to fix things for them. I jump immediately to problem-solving mode, skipping the intermediate steps of compassionate listening and prayerful discernment. I might think I have just what they need, but if I haven’t drawn close enough to feel their suffering, I will never know the heart of the Good Shepherd. Moreover, without listening attentively to God’s guidance with them, I risk missing the deeper movement underlying their distress.

Our world today remains troubled, and so many feel themselves abandoned. Jesus calls us to preach the Good News of the kingdom to them. He shows us that, if we are to do so as his disciples, we must first listen, feel, and pray for guidance before we act.

Prayer

Members of the Holy Cross Novitiate

Eternal God, you reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to those who put their faith in your promise of salvation. As we await the coming of your Son in glory, raise up men and women to bring your message of hope to a waiting world. Instill in them an unshakable trust in your divine providence and a zeal for ministry that will inspire your people to a deeper confidence in your saving power. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Saint of the Day

St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

Canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, Juan Diego, the Aztec American Indian who received the visions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was the first indigenous American to be canonized a saint.

Juan Diego was born in 1474 in an area that is now part of Mexico City, Mexico. His indigenous name was Cuauhtlatoatzin, which means “talking eagle.” Juan was most likely from a peasant family and worked as a weaver, farmer, and laborer. When Franciscan missionaries arrived in the area in 1524, Juan and his wife, Maria, were among the first to be baptized, even though Juan was already 50 years old by that time.

On December 9, 1531, Juan woke up before dawn to begin the 15-mile walk to attend daily Mass at the Franciscan mission, as he usually did. As he passed Tepeyac Hill, Juan heard music and a voice calling him in his native language. Curious and excited, Juan climbed the hill and saw there a radiant lady, Mary, whose clothes were shining and glimmering. She asked Juan to go to the bishop and tell him that she wished for a shrine to be built on that site.

Juan did as he was told, but the bishop was skeptical and asked for time to think about it. On his way home, Juan saw the Lady once again and suggested that she might do better to pick someone else because he was “a man of no importance.” The Lady insisted that she wanted Juan's particular help, and the next day Juan returned to the bishop to repeat her request.

The bishop asked for a sign to prove that the vision was authentic, and Juan returned to the hill and told the Lady, who responded that she would provide one the next day.

On December 11, Juan’s uncle fell sick, and Juan was busy at home caring for him. Juan's wife, Maria, had died two years earlier, and his uncle was his dearest and closest relative. The next day, his uncle’s condition worsened and the distraught Juan Diego left to find a priest to hear his uncle’s confession to prepare him for death. Juan was embarrassed that he had not fulfilled the Lady’s wishes, so he took a different route around Tepeyac to avoid seeing her, but Mary appeared to him on his detour and gently reprimanded him for not turning to her—“Am I not here? I, who am your mother?” she said.

The Lady assured Juan that his uncle was healthy, that she was watching over him. She instructed Juan to climb Tepeyac once again and collect the roses he saw in bloom at the top of the hill. Juan obeyed and picked from the unusual, out-of-season abundance of beautiful roses he found. Juan took the roses to the Lady in his tilma, that is, his cloak, and she rearranged them before sending him to the bishop.

When Juan arrived at the bishop's palace, he opened up his tilma, to show him the amazing sign of the roses in winter. But, when Juan opened up his tilma and the flowers tumbled out, an image of the Lady appeared, painted in vibrant colors on his tilma. The bishop knelt before the image, in awe, recognizing the Lady as an image of Mary, the Mother of God. Immediately, the bishop began to enact Mary's request to build a shrine on Tepeyac.

Juan was granted permission to live the rest of his life as a hermit in a small hut attached to the church built on Tepeyac, and he spent his days in prayer and service to the pilgrims who came to the shrine. Juan died in 1548 and was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

One miracle that was listed in Juan Diego's cause for canonization occurred during the beatification celebration for Juan Diego in 1990. A twenty-year-old drug addict attempted suicide by throwing himself head-first from an apartment balcony onto a patch of concrete thirty feet below. The man severely injured his brain and spinal column and went into a coma.

The man’s mother saw her son jump, and invoked Juan Diego’s help to save him. Three days later, the man awoke from his coma—and only a week later he was discharged from the hospital because he had recovered.

The feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe falls later this week, on December 12. The shrine that Juan Deigo helped make a reality receives over twenty million pilgrims every year—people come from all over the world to view the image of Mary that still shines from the fabric of Juan Diego's tilma.

St. Juan Diego, the simple and humble man whose faith founded the great shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe—pray for us!