Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 10, 2025
After making the crossing to the other side of the sea,
Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret
and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country
and began to bring in the sick on mats
to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered,
they laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak;
and as many as touched it were healed.
Like a determined shadow, I would trail behind my father through the tiled hospital corridors, his white coat dragging behind me as my five-year-old legs struggled to keep pace with his longer stride. During his daily hospital rounds, he would ceremoniously adorn me with his white coat and stethoscope—an instrument comically oversized for my small frame — and usher me into a hospital room. There, with all the gravitas a young child could muster, I would proudly declare myself to the patient as “Dr. Mason” as my father would watch with gentle amusement.
I would not realize for many years how these innocent performances offered a brief respite to souls in their final chapters. Many of us know the weight of hospice all too well—those countless hours beside hospital beds, where the rhythmic pulse of monitors kept time with whispered prayers and loving hands clasped tightly to those preparing for their final journey. For some reading these words now, this scene might even be a present reality.
Just as the people of Gennesaret recognized Jesus and brought their sick to him with unwavering faith, each hospital room holds sacred space for Christ’s healing presence. Those patients who brightened at my makeshift medical visits weren’t simply indulging in a child’s game but rather witnessing a divine spark, a reminder that even in life’s darkest corridors, Christ’s healing power radiates through the simplest acts of joy.
This truth calls us to approach our moments of ministry with the child-like wonder of the presence of Christ’s healing power within us. Today, as we hold our loved ones in prayer, let us remember that Christ’s healing power flows through each of us. Whether sitting vigil in hospital rooms or offering comfort from afar, we become vessels of his ministry, carrying forward that same healing presence that walked the shores of Gennesaret. Through every gentle word, every moment of presence, and every act of compassion, we embody his healing work in the world.
Prayer
Jesus the Christ, when the people of Gennesaret saw you, they recognized your healing power and the love and power of your teaching. Wherever you enter our lives, help us to recognize you and to be open and responsive to the healing and the Gospel message you offer us. Give us the grace to be instruments of your healing and grace in the lives of others. 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.