Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 10, 2019
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
New beginnings, transitions, and moving into a new freedom to fully become the people that God intends us to be are themes which resonate through today’s reading. This Gospel contains the call to salvation—to radical transformation. The Gospel calls us to receive a new name, to sanctify our lives, to embrace those among us, and to bear abundant fruit through loving action.
We often associate leaving everything behind with loss—forsaking prosperity, comforts, and friendships. Yet Jesus calls us to leave everything behind—including the attachments, wounds, painful reminders of unhappy memories, bad habits and destructive relationships—to follow him into the light, to follow him in doing the Father’s will. The disciples were able to do this; we are invited to take the same journey.
Life is dynamic, full of constant change. Today’s passage reminds us that we face transition points in our lives: changes in schools, jobs, locations, and relationships. These moments require we acknowledge the necessity of change. When we work through grief, make a clean break, let go and forgive, we can move on to embrace the future. By making healthy adaptations while learning from the past, living in the present and moving towards the future we can creatively develop the new opportunities that the Lord presents to us. Although there may future “bumps in the road,” we can be confident that the Lord will provide.
Jesus calls us on an even more profound level than this. He invites us beyond simply the tangible growth of the here-and-now into his infinite love—into that unfathomable immensity from whence all good things come.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, you have given us all that is good. You constantly call us to put out into the deep in service to you and to one another. Give us the courage to listen to your commands, and to be fearless in our baptismal call to holiness. Help us to find ways to serve rather than to be served, even if those ways may be small or unseen by others. May we be faithful in our vocations to do your will rather than our own, and make you known, loved, and served. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Scholastica was the twin sister of the great St. Benedict of Nursia, whose monastic community not only created Western monasticism as we know it but served as the bedrock of the new Western Christendom that rose after the fall of the Roman Empire. Benedict and Scholastica are two deeply inspiring saints and siblings.
Benedict and Scholastica were born around the year 480 AD, just four years after the final sack of Rome in 476 by Odoacer. They were born in Nursia, a town in the beautiful Umbria region of Italy (where Assisi is also located). Scholastica consecrated herself to God as a young girl. When her brother Benedict moved to Monte Cassino to lead the monastery there, Scholastica moved to the same region of Italy and founded a convent for women about five miles away. We know that St. Benedict was head of both monks and nuns, so it seems that Scholastica was abbess of her community, but took spiritual and practical direction from her brother. Their Benedictine orders are still thriving all over the world today.
Once a year, Benedict and Scholastica would visit one another. Since Scholastica was not allowed to enter her brother’s monastery, they would meet at a nearby house. The two siblings spent their time in prayer and conversation.
The years passed, Scholastica and Benedict grew older, and one year (543), it became clear to Scholastica that the next visit would be their last. After passing the whole day together, Benedict and Scholastica sat down to dinner. Scholastica begged her brother to stay with her throughout the evening and until the next day, so they could continue their discussions of God, of love, of heaven.
Benedict was unwilling to break his famous rule, which has gone on to shape the history of monasticism, in order to stay a night away from his monastery. Scholastica saw that she would not be able to convince him to stay. So she placed her head upon his hands, which were folded at the table, and implored God to move his heart that she might spend more time with her beloved brother.
Suddenly, a great storm arose with violent lightning and thunder, and Benedict could not leave. “What have you done, sister?!” he exclaimed.
“I asked you a favor, and you refused it,” she said. “I asked it of God, and God has granted it. Go off, now, leave me and return to your monastery, if you can.”
They spent the night talking, and Benedict returned to his monastery the next morning. Three days later Scholastica died. Scholastica's biographer, St. Gregory the Great, Benedictine monk and later Pope, recorded this story in his Life of Benedict and noted of Scholastica's prayer: "she who had the greater love had the greater power."
Benedict had a vision that Scholastica had died, and he retrieved her body and buried it in a tomb that he prepared himself.
Scholastica is a patron saint of religious sisters and of those seeking protection against violent storms. The bodies of Benedict and Scholastica were moved from Monte Cassino to Le Mans, France, in the seventh century. Scholastica remains a patron of that city, which was home to Blessed Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
Relics from St. Scholastica rest in the reliquary chapel on campus, and her story and image (pictured here today) are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Scholastica, twin sister to St. Benedict and patron saint of Benedictine sisters—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sts. Scholastica and Benedict is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.