Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 16, 2025
Jesus came down with the Twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with a great crowd of his disciples
and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”
To be hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced because of our faith is not an experience we naturally welcome. I struggle with expressing unpopular opinions and doing things that alienate me from others, and yet, this is exactly what Jesus praises in today’s gospel. Ultimately, this comes from the fact that we are not meant for this world but are called to the heavenly kingdom.
One of the first times this fully struck me was in my first-year theology class with Fr. Kevin Grove. Early on, we read an essay called “The Message in the Bottle” by Walker Percy, in which Percy uses the metaphor of a castaway on an island to explain how we often search for fulfillment in many areas of our lives through money, sex, power, etc., but always end up longing for something more. To Percy, “news from across the sea”—the Good News—is the only thing that can satiate this desire for more. As I read this, I realized that the longing written in my heart for something besides what this world offers had finally been verbalized.
Just because this longing exists doesn’t make it easy to follow, though. As Jesus says, those who are faithful to him and live as his disciples must embrace countercultural values. When we live this way, we may face criticism or even outright hostility, but we must realize that doing so not only aligns us with the prophets and saints who came before us but also with Jesus himself.
As hard as it is, I pray that all of us may embrace Christ’s teaching and remember the words of Pope Benedict XVI: “The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”
Prayer
Loving God, Jesus formed his message around your will and your kingdom of today’s Gospel. May the poor, hungry, weeping, abused, and suffering from hate be held in compassion today. May all believers move beyond their fears and want to be servants of love to those you honor as your beloved. We ask this through Jesus, our brother and Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Today we honor a group of martyrs in the early Church who demonstrate the power of fearless witness of faith to inspire courage in others.
In the year 309, when the Roman empire was persecuting Christians, a group of faithful Egyptians traveled to Cilicia (in modern-day Turkey) to visit Christians who had been condemned to work in mines there because of their faith. On their return journey, they were stopped by guards in Caesarea. They willingly declared their status as Christians and the purpose of their trip.
They were immediately arrested, hung on the rack, and examined. The judge asked for their names and they offered names they had taken at their baptism: Elias, Jeremy, Isaiah, Samuel, Daniel, and Pamphilus. When they asked about their homeland, Elias answered that they were from the heavenly Jerusalem. The judge ordered them tortured and beheaded.
A young servant of Pamphilus named Porphyry requested that the new martyrs be buried, but the governor arrested him and, discovering that he was a Christian, had him tortured as well. Porphyry was martyred by being burned in a bonfire.
A man named Seleucus witnessed the burning of Porphyry and lauded the courage of the young man, who did not cry out during his beating or martyrdom. Soldiers nearby heard his comments and arrested him, and he, too, was beheaded.
It is easy to see the ripples of courage that spread through the community of faithful from the faithfulness of a few Christians imprisoned in a far-off mine. Their constancy and hope in suffering inspired others who faced death—it gave Elias and his friends the courage to cling to their faith no matter what. May it be so with us today.
Relics of Sts. Pamphilus, Jeremy, Samuel, Daniel, and Porphyry all rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus.
St. Elias and his friends, you adopted the courage you saw in other martyrs who preferred death to renouncing faith, pray for us!